Hollywood’s view on the U.S. intelligence organizations’ “enhanced interrogation techniques” that have been violating Geneva conventions since 9-11 is pretty clear. Rendition, Taxi to the Dark Side, Standard Operating Procedure -- these features and documentaries all take the correct liberal position on the issue: that torture is shameful and ineffective, a moral blight on this … [Read more...]
Maltz’s ‘Music Man’ adds dance to Hill’s catalog of pizzazz
The Music Man, Meredith Willson’s valentine to America, small-town Midwest division, circa 1912, has captivated audiences since the 1956-57 Broadway season when it dominated the Tony Awards and beat out West Side Story. Known for Willson’s syncopated rhythms and trip-hammer lyrics, the show has never been considered a strong dance show. But, says choreographer Shea Sullivan … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Into the Woods’ and ‘Master Harold’
Most fairy tales see the world in extremes of good and evil or right and wrong. But leave it to Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, in their musical constructed from intertwined fables, Into the Woods, to consider the ambiguity in these stories, asking us to look at matters from the witch’s viewpoint or the much-maligned giant’s perspective. Is it that adult take on stories … [Read more...]
The Broadway season in review, and Hap’s Tony predictions
Recession? What recession? If the economy was in the doldrums this year, Broadway sure didn’t know about it. For the commercial theater season in New York that ended May 29, Broadway shows drew $1.08 billion in ticket sales, up 5.9 percent from last season to post record-breaking grosses. Of course ticket prices also set record highs, reaching a top of $140 for -- you … [Read more...]
Sarasota Opera season highlighted by brilliant ‘Crucible’
Sarasota Opera’s season in February and March each year has three weekends to suit the traveling operagoer. This year’s offerings were Don Giovanni, The Crucible, La Bohème and I Lombardi. I wasn’t able to attend La Bohème, but here are summaries of the rest of the Sarasota season: The Crucible A sprightly 93-year-old Robert Ward came to Sarasota to hear the … [Read more...]
This year, Oscars have 10 best pictures worthy of the category
Going into today’s release of Academy Awards nominations, it looked like a two-horse race between The Social Network and The King’s Speech -- both superior pictures -- and nothing about the announcements from Hollywood changes that. Both movies, of course, made it into the field of 10 for Best Picture and they will also be competing head-on for Best Director (David Fincher … [Read more...]
Colossal Verdi ‘Requiem’ at PB Opera proves hugely enjoyable
Even if you hear it by playing a YouTube video through the tinny speakers built into your laptop, Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem makes an overwhelming impression. So much more overwhelming was it, then, to see the massive chorus and orchestra lined up on stage Sunday afternoon at the Kravis Center for a full-on performance of what many experts continue to think of as … [Read more...]
Pianist Graffman offers left-hand music at Lynn
Sitting down at the Steinway on the stage of the Wold Center, Gary Graffman demonstrates how he tests pianos for the Curtis Institute, which has asked its former director to help choose a new batch of 20 for the Philadelphia arts school. Graffman’s test piece is a slow solo passage from the middle of second movement of the Brahms Second Concerto. And he is playing it with two … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 24-28
Music: Things might be a little soggy out there thanks to Tropical Storm Bonnie, but as of this writing, the Vans Warped Tour, 2010 edition, is set to hit the Cruzan Amphitheatre on Saturday for a day of bands and extreme sports. The skateboard company Vans, which launched this festival in 1995, welcomes 72 bands to this year’s tour, one of them being West Palm’s own Hey … [Read more...]
Soldiers of ‘Untold War’ bear awful moral burden alone
Most civilians are unaware of the physical and psychic horrors endured by soldiers, according to this timely new book by Nancy Sherman, a professor at Georgetown University. Sherman says up front that The Untold War “is not a political tract for or against a war.” Rather, it is about “the inner battles … the moral weight of war that individual soldiers carry on their shoulders … [Read more...]