Lake Worth’s Take Heed Theater Company, a nomadic and sporadic professional performance troupe, has found a permanent home. Now all the company needs is to raise enough money to turn the former storefront church on Belvedere Road in West Palm Beach into a habitable playhouse. “For about twelve years, it was some sort of a church,” says artistic director Dave Hyland, an … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Nov. 1-3
Theater: For more than 25 years, Lou Tyrrell has been producing new work by emerging young playwrights, but I cannot remember him being as excited over a relatively unknown talent like he is about composer-lyricist Daniel Maté. He is so excited that he has devoted two of the slots in The Theatre at Arts Garage’s season to shows by Maté — a song cycle on contemporary … [Read more...]
Whedon’s take on Shakespeare is really something
By its very title, Much Ado About Nothing is immune to criticisms about its triviality. In its central conceit, it’s one of Shakespeare’s silliest comedies, and he must have known it. But its structure of combative, polarized characters gradually coming to love one another has become a romantic comedy archetype for the ages, and its other, opposite storyline, about an … [Read more...]
French take on Woodyesque cinema a tired rom-com
Most movies about pop-cultural obsessives -- those individuals who live vicariously through other people’s art, films and music -- are usually about young-to-middle-aged men untethered from relationships and, in many cases, social decorum: High Fidelity, Diner, Free Enterprise, Cinemania, Watching the Detectives, Play it Again, Sam. These movies were always about men; women … [Read more...]
Young Artists take PBO stage for Britten’s ‘Turn of the Screw’
Opera has a great bounty of composer anniversaries this year, with the 200th birthdays of Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner, and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Britten. Britten had what would today be considered a relatively short life, dying at age 63 in 1976 after several years of heart disease-related decline, perhaps exacerbated by a bout of syphilis. He … [Read more...]
The 2011-12 season in opera: Even in tough times, companies innovate
South Florida’s opera companies are keeping things busy and innovative this coming season even as the economy continues to take its toll on audiences, box office – and even a whole series of matinees. Still, there’s enough intriguing opera ahead to interest fans and casual attendees, and for them to see some bright new talent take some big steps. Here’s what’s happening on … [Read more...]
Take it from Mel: ‘Young Frankenstein’ is a ‘damn good’ show
If he does say so himself, and he does, Mel Brooks considers Young Frankenstein to be the best of the 12 films he has directed. “I’m not saying it’s my funniest, I’m saying it’s my best. In terms of my art, let’s say, as a filmmaker,” he explains by phone from his production offices in Culver City, Calif. “It’s certainly my best work as a filmmaker, because it captures the … [Read more...]
Take our Sondheim quiz – if you dare – and win ‘Into the Woods’ tickets
In honor of Broadway composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday and the opening of the Caldwell Theatre’s staged reading of his Into the Woods this Friday through Sunday, May 21-23, we fiendishly present our Ultimate Sondheim Trivia Test, geared to separate the obsessive fanatics from the casual fans. And the Caldwell has generously donated a pair of tickets to any … [Read more...]
Artists to transform small hotel in annual Showtel exhibition
For the past eight years, a small hotel in West Palm Beach has been transformed for a short time into a home of art installations. It’s called Showtel, and it’s one of the most unusual local events in contemporary art. It begins tonight at Hotel Biba on Belvedere Road and lasts through Saturday night. This event, in which selected artists take over rooms in the hotel and turn … [Read more...]
Caldwell stumbles with unfunny take on Jekyll and Hyde
After a string of recent successes, Boca Raton’s Caldwell Theatre has stumbled badly with its current production, Chemical Imbalance, a spoof of Victorian theater conventions in general and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde specifically. Artistic director Clive Cholerton’s introductory remarks make it clear that there is nothing serious going on in the show and its only reason for … [Read more...]