By Dale King Ethel Waters died 35 years ago. But the spirit of this bold and opinionated woman, who rose from dire poverty to become one of the greatest and most outspoken African-American singers and actresses of the early to mid-20th century, is unquenchable. Public demand for a retelling of her life story and reprise of her best-known songs prompted the Delray Beach … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks, Feb. 1-3
Art: High fashion is on display at the Boca Museum of Art with Impact: 50 Years of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The exhibition, which was spearheaded by Diane von Furstenberg, is the first museum exhibition to celebrate the artistry of American fashion designers on the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Almost 600 designers have been members of the council … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Hamlet,’ abridged; ‘Rain’; ‘Cat Lady’
We have to acknowledge that audience attention spans have decreased dramatically in recent years, which makes one wonder how Shakespeare’s plays would be different if he were writing for today’s impatient theatergoers. Offering an answer is Miami-born playwright-director (The Brothers Size) Tarell Alvin McCraney, a former writer-in-residence for Great Britain’s Royal … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Holiday shows from Albee to Frankie Valli
Revivals of some Pulitzer Prize-winning plays leave us scratching our heads, wondering what the awards committee saw in the work. At Palm Beach Dramaworks, however, a new production of Edward Albee’s 1966 A Delicate Balance ― the first of his three Pulitzers for drama ― is a convincing argument for this chilling, cerebral tale of unspecified terror, even if it will always be … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Dazzling ‘Music Man’; classic Sommers; charming ‘[title]’
![Theater roundup: Dazzling ‘Music Man’; classic Sommers; charming ‘[title]’](https://palmbeachartspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/MuzhikMan_thumb-100x100.jpg)
Chances are your first impression of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man is not of the dancing. Unless you see the new hyper-kinetic production at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre. It is not that director Mark Martino and choreographer Shea Sullivan ― the Carbonell Award-winning duo that conjured up a tap-happy Crazy for You two seasons back ― have put some conceptual overlay on … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Birds’ compels without avians; ‘Venus’ actress captivates
When Alfred Hitchcock turned Daphne du Maurier’s apocalyptic novella The Birds into a movie in 1963, it became a visually literal thriller of avian menace instead of a character-based psychological tale. Now comes Irish yarn-spinner Conor McPherson (The Seafarer, The Weir) to translate the story to the stage, suggesting that man may have less to fear from feathered creatures … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Nov. 23-25
Dance: The holidays are upon us, and that means so is The Nutcracker. When the Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky finished the score for the ballet in 1891, it was as part of a double-bill with his one-act opera, Iolanta. Tchaikovsky didn’t much like what he’d written, but Tsar Alexander III, who came to a dress rehearsal for the first performance in December 1892, loved it, … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Two Pulitzers, a great play and a dud
Palm Beach Dramaworks prides itself on serving up “theater to think about.” True, there are plenty of heady plays on its schedule this season, but it begins instead with Lanford Wilson’s Talley’s Folly, a charming two-character romance from 1979, more like “theater to sigh over with a constant smile on your face.” It is a mating dance for an unlikely couple ― Matt Friedman, a … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Nov. 10-11
Film: Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner first collaborated in 2005 on Munich, and now they work together again on an even more successful look back, this time on Lincoln, a chronicle of the final months of our 16th president. It is a word-heavy history lesson, but a fascinating one, as Honest Abe juggles the endgame of the Civil War with pushing through a constitutional … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2012-13: Loss of theaters doesn’t slow promising season
The past season saw the second shoe drop in Palm Beach County. Boca Raton’s 37-year-old Caldwell Theatre Company closed its doors, soon after Florida Stage ended its operations, and area theatergoers are still reeling from both abrupt losses. Add Broward County’s now-defunct Promethean Theatre ― or rather subtract it ― and the theatrical landscape is substantially thinner as … [Read more...]