By Dale King The Wick Theatre has jumped into its second season in grand fashion with a pumped-up production of Swing!, a musical tribute to the era of big-name jazz and high-stepping dance. The show, featuring an on-stage, eight-piece live band, runs through mid-November at the venue on North Federal Highway in Boca Raton. Swing! celebrates the music of various artists who … [Read more...]
Postcard from New York, No. 1: ‘The Trip to Bountiful’
I arrived in New York Saturday morning for an eight-day visit, during which I will see 10 or 11 plays and musicals, the most promising productions on Broadway and off, as the season winds to a close. Less than six hours after I took off from West Palm Beach, I was in a fourth row center seat at the Sondheim Theatre for one of the final previews of Horton Foote’s The Trip to … [Read more...]
Story of literacy campaign at its best when children speak
At age 35, John Wood left the world of business, a decision he chronicled in Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. Now he has written a sequel titled Creating Room to Read. One cannot help but admire Wood’s obvious determination to combat illiteracy in underdeveloped nations in Asia and Africa. While vacationing in Nepal in 1998, Wood visited a primary school that had a … [Read more...]
‘Life of Pi’ a ravishing visual achievement
I could have watched the opening montage of Life of Pi for a full three hours and walked away satisfied. Not just satisfied but cleansed, reinvigorated and positively transported, to a paradisical time and place that probably never existed. Shot in 3-D, the movie opens with images of a tropical zoo, where verdant foliage flanks scores of exotic animals as they traipse across … [Read more...]
A disquieting story of a man, and a time, of excess
Taken most literally, Cosmopolis is about a rich guy going to get a haircut. That’s the story. But you can’t take this anti-capitalist, Kafkaesque satire literally … can you? The narrative consists of an asset manager, Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson), driving around Manhattan in a stretch limousine shielded from the sounds of the unwashed masses rioting outside. He sees his … [Read more...]
‘Wild’ a gripping story of self-discovery
Cheryl Strayed grabs the reader on the first page of this absorbing book when she describes an unfortunate incident during her 1995 trek along West Coast mountain ranges. Strayed had removed her hiking boots to rest when suddenly one of the boots slipped over the edge of a cliff. Realizing that the other boot was now worthless, she tossed it off the side of the mountain, … [Read more...]
‘Yoni’ tells hero’s story with little art, much treacle
If you learn one thing from the documentary Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story, it’s that the title character was a poster boy for patriotism. The movie tells you this so many times, in fact, that you can probably enter it for a five-minute portion and walk away with this theme. The eldest brother of Israel’s current prime minister and a top 20 finalist in a 2005 poll of the … [Read more...]
‘Artist’ Cinderella story continues into Oscar nominations
OK, Academy Awards presenters, start practicing pronouncing the name Michel Hazanavicius. Who says there are no surprises anymore in the movie industry? If anyone had predicted a year ago that a black-and-white, virtually silent film without name stars would be released in 2011, earn 10 Oscar nominations including best picture and be the favorite to win, that person would be … [Read more...]
Sarasota Opera season highlighted by brilliant ‘Crucible’
Sarasota Opera’s season in February and March each year has three weekends to suit the traveling operagoer. This year’s offerings were Don Giovanni, The Crucible, La Bohème and I Lombardi. I wasn’t able to attend La Bohème, but here are summaries of the rest of the Sarasota season: The Crucible A sprightly 93-year-old Robert Ward came to Sarasota to hear the … [Read more...]
Zero’s story gives Brochu his finest ‘Hour’
Opportunity rarely knocks twice, but here it is rapping, offering another chance to see the remarkable Jim Brochu as actor-comedian-blacklist-victim Zero Mostel in the one-man show Zero Hour, opening tonight at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre through Oct. 24. Brochu first brought the show to the area in 2008, at the Broward Stage Door in Coral Springs, prior to his triumphant … [Read more...]