The state of all things is pretty much still looking gray and uncertain, which makes the list of shows and exhibits you are about to read possibly the only piece of good and colorful news you hear in a while. By the time you are done reading this, I predict, there will be several shows competing for your attention. My advice? Write them down. The artists and creations hitting … [Read more...]
Film heroes, villains share high sense of style at Norton show
In an ideal world, bad guys are easily identifiable and, thus, avoidable. Their crimes are not carried out with a pen but with heavy swords or devastating superpowers. And right before they get their way, a hero sporting flashy colors saves the day. In that ideal world, evil and good share one thing: they are both stylish. This is the world the Norton Museum of Art has … [Read more...]
‘Carnage’ shows parents behaving badly, but still getting laughs
Like her earlier Tony Award-winning comedy Art, playwright Yasmina Reza again explores adults behaving childishly in God of Carnage, which took Broadway by storm in 2009 and looks likely to meet a similarly appreciative audience at Boca Raton’s Caldwell Theatre. After all, there is a universal joy in watching others try to maintain civility and failing miserably. As with her … [Read more...]
Second ‘Cosi’ cast shows off voices of great promise
This refined, delicate, good-looking production of Mozart’s Così fan Tutte, with swaths of brilliantly lit open spaces, marble statues and lovely costumes, harks back to productions at the Salzburg Festival in 1982 -- even down to the same sunshade beach umbrella. There’s nothing wrong with that: Imitation is the finest form of flattery, after all. It shows the careful … [Read more...]
Spalding shows she’s a rising force in jazz
No one who attended Saturday night's show at the Duncan Theatre by the rising young jazz bassist and composer Esperanza Spalding could have any doubt about her talent. The Portland, Ore., native is a striking presence on the stage, slim and tallish, with a mountain of very cool hair that she had to tie up and get out of her eyes after the first couple songs with her backing … [Read more...]
New chamber music group shows heart, nerve in Boca debut
Starting a chamber music collective isn’t necessarily the easiest thing in the world to do, but in their debut concert Saturday at the Steinway Gallery in Boca Raton, the members of Vivre Musicale showed they have a good sense of what it will take for long-term success. Founded by tenor Jorge Toro and clarinetist Berginald Rash, this five-member iteration of the group offered … [Read more...]
Lennon ‘bed-in’ exhibit shows Beatle’s timelessness
Imagine. John Lennon would have turned 69 on Oct. 9. Would he still be writing songs? Would he again curl up with Yoko Ono, nude, for a retrospective of the Two Virgins album cover? Would he still live in Palm Beach? Would The Beatles have put aside their differences and staged a worldwide farewell tour? Maybe the Nobel Peace Prize? With four hollow-point bullets in the … [Read more...]
Carbonell Awards in jeopardy
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008 The topic on the minds of most of the South Florida theater community at the moment, that has heated flurries of e-mails zapping back and forth through cyberspace, is the proposed suspension and likely subsequent demise of the controversial Carbonell Awards. Without consulting with or giving advance notice to the army of volunteer nominators and … [Read more...]