Theater: “Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you,” says Emily Webb in one of the more famous speeches from Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play Our Town. While current taste might find it too sentimental, Wilder’s play has never gone out of fashion, and it remains a classic of the American stage. Its story of nothing simpler than days in the life of a fictional New … [Read more...]
2014-15 arts preview: The season in theater
This will be another season of theater companies on the move, as a couple of Palm Beach County troupes invade Broward. Slow Burn expands to the Broward Center with a separate slate of shows from its productions in West Boca. Also helping to fill the Broward theater vacuum is Outré Theatre Co., which moves permanently in mid-season from Boca Raton to various black box spaces at … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Sept. 12-14
Music: The British have a great classical music tradition, but their jazz chops are just as strong. The latest example is chanteuse Polly Gibbons, who makes her American debut tonight at the Arts Garage before continuing on to New York and Boston. She’s got one of those husky, dark singing voices that wraps nicely around a standard like “After Hours,” and it’s worth noting … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: A radiant ‘Most Happy Fella’; provocative ‘The Whale’
Fifty-eight years ago, having already achieved success in Hollywood and on Broadway, composer-lyricist Frank Loesser immersed himself in a passion project, a quasi-operatic musical about an unlikely romance between an aged, immigrant grape farmer and a lovelorn young waitress. Its heart-on-its-sleeve emotionality and soaring arias were hardly what “the tired businessman” — the … [Read more...]
Community theater: ‘Legally Blonde’ bubbly at LW Playhouse
By Dale King Summer theater offerings are often a mixed bag, with top-notch productions generally saved for the return of Florida’s seasonal visitors. Not so with Lake Worth Playhouse. The play selectors there have chosen a delightful and surprisingly entertaining show, Legally Blonde, the Musical, which plays through July 27 at its downtown venue. Don’t go running like … [Read more...]
Appreciation: Elaine Stritch (1925-2014)
Outspoken and ascerbic, with a singing voice that was commanding yet gravelly, Elaine Stritch, 89, had a show business career that spanned seven decades. Alcoholic and diabetic, a lethal combination, she came close to death on several occasions, but died on Thursday out of the spotlight in her home state of Michigan, where she went for a retirement that few who knew her … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 27-29
Art: Kyoko Hazama is a contemporary Japanese artist who specializes in creating sculptures from washi paper, and she brings to her delicate art a wonderful sense of whimsy. From a Quiet Place, an exhibit of her tiny sculptures at the Morikami Museum running through Aug. 31, features many small scenes involving a winsome-looking Japanese girl in the company of extraordinary … [Read more...]
Community theater: Broward Stage Door’s ‘Hello, Muddah’ deserves more laughs
By Dale King For a fleeting couple of years in the early 1960s, Allan Sherman was at the top of his game in the field of creating song parodies. His 1962 album, My Son the Folk Singer, became the fastest-selling LP recording up to that time, and put Sherman on the fast track to fame. He would record seven more albums, each falling a little or a lot short of the previous. … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 6-8
Film: Filmed in exquisite, though bleak black-and-white by Polish writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski, Ida is a curious hybrid of Holocaust tale, road trip movie and odd couple drama. The title teenage character is a nun-in-training who is ordered to meet her only living relative, a distant aunt named Wanda, before she can take her vows. So Ida treks to meet Wanda and from her … [Read more...]
Community theater: Fine ensemble delivers powerful ‘Doubt’ at Delray Playhouse
By Dale King Delray Beach Playhouse wraps up its 67th season with a presentation of Doubt, the taut, bare-knuckle drama that rivets audience members for the duration of its 90-minute, one-act story ripped from contemporary headlines. It runs through Sunday. Penned by John Patrick Shanley, Doubt examines the tense interplay between a tough, iron-willed nun who strongly … [Read more...]