Art: Those of us who have lived in South Florida a long time know the power of the Everglades, a mysterious savanna that can instantly take you away from the life of the built urban environment and even today, provide some sense of raw origins in a state seemingly determined to destroy every last acre of its irreplaceable natural heritage. Photographers have been bewitched by … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 27-29
Music: The Argentine-born violinist Tomás Cotik has had a busy career in South Florida since earning his doctorate at the University of Miami, including sitting second-chair violin in the Delray String Quartet. Among his fields of study is the music of Franz Schubert, and he and pianist Tao Lin have just released a second disc of the composer’s music for violin and piano, … [Read more...]
Weekend picks: March 21-22
Theater: The Maltz Jupiter Theatre, it seems, keeps getting better as the challenges it selects increase. There is perhaps no more difficult a musical for a theater of the Maltz’s size to carry off than Les Misérables, but director Mark Martino makes it look easy. He gives the epic show a cinematic sweep, without resorting to the show’s original turntable staging. Yes, he … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 14-15
Theater: Cole Porter’s 1934 shipboard farce, Anything Goes, contains a score of hits that remain standards of the American Songbook 80 years later. The script — dusted off and freshened up by two contemporary wags, Timothy Crouse and John Weidman — is a string of groan-worthy jokes, but at least it delivers the songs efficiently. Now playing the Kravis Center through Sunday is … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 7-8
Film: Uruguay’s official submission for the foreign-language Oscar this year and an audience favorite at the recent Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival, Mr. Kaplan, has returned for a commercial run at Boca Raton’s Living Room Theaters and other venues in the area. It is that tricky commodity — a dark comedy with a Holocaust theme — but it works, largely because of the assured work … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 20-22
Opera: All eyes will be on the Kravis Center tonight as a new American opera makes its official debut, a milestone in South Florida arts history. Ben Moore’s Enemies, A Love Story, based on a novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, features a young cast and a score rich with the melodic power that has made Moore’s music a favorite recital item for singers such as Deborah Voigt. Set in … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 6-8
Film: One of the usual complaints about the Academy Awards is that the nominated short subjects were rarely available to be seen, making office pools too much of a guessing game. But now, all 10 of them – live action and animated – have been assembled for commercial viewing, this week at the Mos’Art Theatre in Lake Park and the Stonzek Studio in Lake Worth. Of the live action … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 30-Feb. 1
Theater: The musicals of Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel) are usually over the top with bombast and power anthems, but with Bonnie & Clyde, he seems to have learned how to tailor his music to fit the situation and characters. Of course, the story revolves around a pair of lovestruck petty bank robbers who become folk heroes during the Depression, played … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 23-25
Theater: Playwright Lauren Gunderson wrote the redneck comedy Exit, Pursued by a Bear that Theatre at Arts Garage produced a couple of season ago, but try not to hold that against her. She is back with a much smarter script, I and You, about a couple of high school teens who meet over an English class assignment, and as with many formulaic romantic comedies, they banter and … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 16-18
Theater: The Wick Theatre in Boca Raton does not go in for fresh directorial concepts in its musicals like the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, but it has recently taken to injecting Broadway veterans into its productions, like Walter Charles and Lee Roy Reams as nightclub owner Georges and his gay partner and drag queen headliner Albin in La Cage aux Folles. That is reason enough to see … [Read more...]