Still in Olympics withdrawal? Googling “Sochi, Russia” to think idly about your coverage-watching plans for the winter of 2014? The folks at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre understand. Friday night, the center opened an exhibit of hot-off-the-presses pictures from the just-concluded games by Adam Stoltman, a center instructor and professional photographer who’s covered no … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 17-19
Art: One of the least well-known painters of the Ashcan School was Theresa Bernstein (1890-2002), a Philadelphian who moved 100 years ago to New York with her husband, fellow artist William Meyerowitz. His work is well-known in modernist circles, and Bernstein’s has grown in reputation since her death at 111, and her pictures fit in well with the George Bellows-William Glackens … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 10-12
Film: If there is a better actor working today than Meryl Streep, I cannot imagine who it would be. Sure, she can transform herself with accents and makeup, but take a look at how terrific she is without much of either in Hope Springs, the tale of a long-married housewife who wants to rekindle the romance in her relationship with a cynical tightwad accountant (Tommy Lee Jones). … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 3-5
Film: You can choose this weekend between two Marie Antoinettes, one historical and the other contemporary. Benoît Jacquot’s Farewell, My Queen is period-authentic, depicting Marie’s endgame from the storming of the Bastille to her date with the guillotine. It is an impressive film, but if you are looking for something more contemporary, see The Queen of Versailles, the tale of … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 27-30
Theater: Musicals rarely attract the major money they need for full production these days without developmental workshops and staged readings. This Monday evening or Tuesday afternoon at The Plaza Theatre in Manalapan, a new show called Borscht Belt Bistro (music and lyrics by Ken Mazur) gets a tryout, prior to what playwright Carrol Mendelson hopes will be a production here, … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 21-22
Theater: GableStage and its artistic director Joe Adler have an affinity for the plays of David Mamet, so it was probably inevitable that he would bring to the area the wily wordsmith’s latest Broadway script, Race, which looks at three attorneys, two black and one white, offered a chance to defend a white man charged with a crime against a black woman. As the characters … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 13-15
Theater: As its name implies, Palm Beach Dramaworks usually sticks to plays of dramatic substance, but the company goes lighter in the summertime, usually with a musical. This season it is at least continuing its pre-occupation with classics by reviving The Fantasticks, that off-Broadway Energizer Bunny, which ran for 42 years originally, with its simple, allegorical tale of … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 7-12
Theater: In its 22 years of existence, Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival has already performed the Bard’s Twelfth Night twice, but it is going back to that well again, now that plans to tackle Christopher Fry’s The Lady’s Not For Burning have fallen through. Guest artist director Kevin Crawford was in the previous two production of the comedy about twins separated by a shipwreck, … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 29-July 1
Film: No, it will never be confused for art, or even much of a story line, but if you could use a few laughs these days, you have got to see Seth MacFarlane’s feature film directing debut, Ted. MacFarlane voices the title character, John’s (Mark Wahlberg) foul-mouthed teddy bear, and everything he says is as funny as it is crude. Ted is getting in the way of Wahlberg’s … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 22-24
Music: It’s not too early to get into the holiday spirit for Independence Day. This Sunday, the Klezmer Company Orchestra at Florida Atlantic University mounts a concert of American music (mostly) under the baton of its leader, Aaron Kula. The concert also serves as an advertisement for the Spirit Of America Collection at FAU’s Wimberly Library, which contains 13,000 books, … [Read more...]