A one-woman, one-act play with the prosaic title of 13 Things About Ed Carpolotti? It doesn’t sound like very promising source material for a musical, but see for yourself what an amusing, emotionally moving show it turned into, this weekend at Florida Atlantic University’s Theatre Lab in its Making Musicals program. Composer-lyricist-adaptor Barry Kleinbort was commissioned … [Read more...]
At home in the Southwest: Boca Museum show gets there beautifully
A mountain can be round and painted in warm, earthy tones or triangular, in dark blues and greens, or malleable, sporting a rosy fleshy hue or stiff in teal and gray. The unexplored isolated region of Santa Fe turned out to be many different things to a group of artists looking for new inspiration away from the city lights. Southwestern Allure: The Art of the Santa Fe Art … [Read more...]
Douglas masterful, RNO too plush at Kravis
Not so long ago, when the Russian National Orchestra was the house band at the Festival of the Arts Boca, one of the most notable things about the ensemble was its sheer muscle: Big orchestras tend to be plush and expansive, but this one had the striking force of an uncoiled snake. The young Vasily Petrenko was at the helm of the RNO this past Thursday in the second of two … [Read more...]
Hot water bottles at the theater: How Britain coped in wartime
The current exhibition at the Norton Museum of Art, Keep Calm and Carry On: World War II and the British Home Front, is a paean to two kinds of British spirit: Fighting and forward thinking. Despite the many hardships of war, the political and cultural leadership of the country found ways to “muddle through’’ by setting up new ministries to cope and plan a vision for the … [Read more...]
Music roundup: Weiss offers rare, worthy toccatas; Zukerman leads splendid RPO
It isn’t every pianist who’s going to encore with a Keith Jarrett improv from the early 1980s, but Orion Weiss has the kind of omnivorous approach to music that makes such things possible, and enjoyable to boot. In his recital appearance Wednesday afternoon at the Duncan Theatre’s Stage West, the 30-year-old pianist from suburban Cleveland gave his appreciative audience not … [Read more...]
Camaraderie keeps PB Chamber Music Festival going, 20 summers on
It all began at Chuck and Harold’s. On a long-ago day at the popular Palm Beach restaurant, bassoonist Michael Ellert noticed something right away about Michael Forte, a clarinetist and fellow New Yorker who had just moved to Florida, and with whom he was playing as part of a trio. “I looked at Michael and I said, ‘Man, you and I must have learned how to play out of tune the … [Read more...]
‘Wild Things,’ you make my heart — shrug
For a story set largely inside a young boy’s imagination, Where the Wild Things Are does a remarkable job of planting the viewer in the boy’s head. Using unhinged, handheld camerawork and an inordinate number of point-of-view shots, director Spike Jonze presents a compelling prologue of a boy with a loving home who nonetheless seeks solace in isolation, donning a wolf costume … [Read more...]