Mark Kirschenberg tries sound effects for the Arts Radio Network Theatre Project. (Photo by Amy Pasquantonio) Long before television ruled the airwaves, radio was king, including theater broadcasts complete with the aural authenticity of live sound effects. And since everything old is new again, radio theater lives again, thanks to public station WLRN and Arts Radio Network … [Read more...]
MNM’s sublime ‘Side by Side’ adds to summer of Sondheim
It has now been seven years since a new Stephen Sondheim show (Road Show) has opened in New York and 21 years since one premiered on Broadway (Passion). So fans of the challenging, resolutely unconventional composer-lyricist have had to settle for the frequent revivals of his past musicals and the occasional retrospective revue of his work. In South Florida, theater companies … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 4-7
Theater: This is the final weekend for the 19th annual Summer Shorts Festival by City Theatre, at the company’s home in the Carnival Studio Theater of Miami’s Arsht Center. Whittled down to a more manageable 10 plays of 10-15 minutes duration each, that does not leave much room for error. Still, it wouldn’t be Summer Shorts if the production did not include a few … [Read more...]
County artists make summer richer at Cultural Council show
Those of us who thought the summer was a dead time for exhibits and good only for surfing shows have at least one reason to revise this opinion: the County Contemporary All Media Juried Show. Unveiled by the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County in June, this modest but inclusive exhibit features a total of 44 works by 36 Palm Beach County professional artists. One of them … [Read more...]
Sundays: The cries and whispers of summer
By Myles Ludwig As we drift inexorably and aimlessly into the dog days of summer and the annual oppression of August begins to weigh upon us, I have to admit I’m glad not to wake up to the sound of the thundering hooves of the apocalypse again. It’s time for a rest. Outrage is behind us; we can barely work up a smirk about Weiner and Spitzer, a hot political pastrami … [Read more...]
The winter season in film: Cooler months offer likely Oscar candidates
Sorry, fans of superheroes and special effects, the summer is over and Hollywood is ready to bring out its A-list (for “Adult”) fare. This is the season for films of substance, even if Tom Cruise is back with his fourth Mission: Impossible flick, director David Fincher is trying to remake a Swedish film noir into a domestic blockbuster and Martin Scorsese tries his hand at … [Read more...]
Chamber fest’s Schoenberg falls short of transfiguration
As one of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival’s performers rightly said in her remarks from the stage, the name of Arnold Schoenberg is “box office poison” for a lot of people, but that really shouldn’t apply to his early string sextet, Verklärte Nacht. This important, beautiful work was one of the major events of the programs in the first weekend of concerts presented in … [Read more...]
Summer Shorts No. 16 is leaner, shorter, and funnier than ever
There was every reason to be worried about this year’s Summer Shorts, the 16th annual collection of stage vignettes that has become a much-anticipated seasonal fixture in South Florida. The number of 5-to-20-minute scenes had been reduced to only seven, in a single program instead of the usual two. The company of performers had shriveled to a mere five -- about half as many as … [Read more...]
‘Private Lives’ a witty, refreshing summer tonic
Caroline Strong and Wynn Harmon in Private Lives. Perhaps as important as romance to a successful relationship is a well-matched pair of witty bickerers. And maybe that is as good a definition of love as you could hope to find. At least that is the philosophy of Noel Coward in his 1930 classic comedy, Private Lives, now receiving a robust, satisfying production at Palm Beach … [Read more...]