By Myles Ludwig The vibe at the Palm Beach Fine Craft Show at the Convention Center last week was low-key and kind of cozy as befitted an unpretentious display of the handmade and personal that felt like a walk through a West Palm version of an Etsy mall. The show and some of the proceeds from sales help support Palm Beach County Children’s Charities benefiting the Center … [Read more...]
Festival of the Arts Boca’s 10th season gets underway
What to see first is the biggest challenge facing those planning to take advantage of the full roster of events at this year’s 10th Festival of the Arts Boca, which opens Friday in Mizner Park and runs through March 16. Conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos will open the festival by conducting the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra from the University of Miami’s Frost School of … [Read more...]
Young Nigerian artist explores dualities in Norton show
5 Umezebi St., New Haven, Enugu (2012) by Njideka Akunyili Crosby. By April W. Klimley It isn’t often that an artist comes along who says something new in an original way. But that’s just what Nigerian-born artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby has done. Her colorful mixed-media artwork makes big statements about the dualities of life, while intriguing the eye with their abstract … [Read more...]
Beyond the pills: A look at mind over the matter of illness
Placebo-controlled medical trials “have been one of the most important developments in medicine, allowing us to determine scientifically which medicines work and which don’t, saving countless lives in the process,” writes Jo Marchant in this compelling new book. Researchers commonly test the efficacy of new drugs by dividing patients into two groups. One group receives … [Read more...]
Pianist Moutouzkine stellar at Symphonia
Alexandre Moutouzkine. (Photo by E. Appel) Sunday afternoon’s concert by The Symphonia Boca Raton had a loose and handmade feel to it, with decent performances by the group of some unusual repertoire, and a standout appearance by a guest soloist. Alexandre Moutouzkine, a Russian-born pianist, was the soloist for two works, the rarely heard Ballade (in F-sharp, Op. 19) of … [Read more...]
Director finds joy in bringing Gordy’s story to stage in ‘Motown’
As even Charles Randolph-Wright concedes, he was hardly the logical choice to direct Motown, the Musical, the tale of how Berry Gordy created the Detroit rhythm-and-blues empire that brought Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and so many other superstars into the international spotlight. A member of the original cast of Dreamgirls — the fictional history of The Supremes — … [Read more...]
The View From Home 75: De Santis’ neorealism, Fonda and Hitch, Wim and Bruno, and Stoppard directs
Silvia Magnano in Bitter Rice. (1949) Bitter Rice: A tragedy on tenterhooks, Giuseppe De Santis’ Bitter Rice (Criterion, $22.99 Blu-ray, $17.99 DVD) is a slippery fusion of docu-naturalism and noir expressionism. And with its first proper Region 1 release now widely available, it should earn its rightful place in the feminist film pantheon. Released in 1949, Bitter Rice is … [Read more...]
‘The Choice’: Shallow, shameless, saccharine Sparks
Ross Katz’s adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ The Choice opens with a bold, un-back-up-able statement: “I’m about to tell you the secret of life,” delivered in voice-over by a mournful man who shows up at a hospital with flowers for his beloved. He shares some vaguely cryptic, archly ponderous dialogue with a doctor, words delivered solely for the audience’s benefit. The brief … [Read more...]
Dramaworks takes on the ‘mountain’ of O’Neill’s ‘Long Day’s Journey’
Even for a theater company like Palm Beach Dramaworks whose mission is exploring the major plays of the American stage, it took them a decade and a half to approach Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, one of the great works of the 20th century. “The organization had to be ready, I had to know for the most part who my cast was going to be,” says producing artistic … [Read more...]