Ayana Mathis was stunned when Oprah Winfrey called recently to say that she had selected Mathis’s debut work of fiction, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, as her next book club selection. Mathis’s well-crafted first novel tells the story of Hattie Shepherd, a teenager who leaves Georgia in 1923 and heads north to Philadelphia in search of a better life. Hattie and her lazy, … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2012-13: Loss of JAMS hurts, but jazz season looks strong
The biggest news regarding the 2012-2013 South Florida jazz concert season may also be the most unfortunate. The 13-year-old, West Palm Beach-based Jazz Arts Music Society (JAMS), which presented a series of annual concerts at the Himmel Theater at CityPlace in West Palm Beach that were fixtures within these previews, decided in late July to suspend the series until further … [Read more...]
‘Magnificat’ strong and sturdy as Master Chorale hymns holidays
In its concert this past weekend of J.S. Bach and holiday music, the Master Chorale of South Florida both continued in its traditions and explored a newer path that may pay bigger dividends for the group in the future. In its first appearance under its new director, Karen Kennedy, the chorale offered up a seasonal program that began with J.S. Bach’s Magnificat (BWV 243), … [Read more...]
Strong debut by young thespian makes ‘Secret Garden’ worth cultivating
More interested in spiritual rebirth than the usual romance that fuels musicals, with a score more attuned to British folk melodies than Tin Pan Alley hits, you can understand why 1991’s underrated The Secret Garden is rarely revived these days. And then there is the casting challenge of its main character, 12-year-old Mary Lennox, the suddenly orphaned tot saddled with … [Read more...]
Broadway season was strong in new plays, weak in musicals
You know the drill by now. Sunday night’s Tony Awards ceremony will do its best to put a happy face on the Broadway season, but in fact, this was the worst year for musicals in a long time. Note the Best Score category, which could only find two musicals to nominate and had to settle for singling out two plays for their incidental music. Of the four shows nominated for Best … [Read more...]