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...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 29-31
Art: Industrial man has made a mess of things, and while there are industrial ways to get some of it cleaned up, we have to leave it to the artists to find beauty even in our most careless factory effusions. Opening today at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County in Lake Worth is Re-purposed/Re-Seen, an exhibit of, well, stuff that has been recycled and reworked into objects … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 23-24
Music: Soon, the season will be upon us and there will be almost too many things to cover in the music world. At this time of year, you can find smaller, intimate shows if you know where to look, such as the Boca Steinway Gallery this afternoon. Pianist Asiya Korepanova, a strong and interesting player, returns to the gallery for a concert of music from her native Russia, … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 16-17
Film: Writer-director John Michael McDonagh gives us a present called Calvary, the second installment in a projected trilogy after the considerably lighter The Guard of a few years ago. Both star the impeccable Brendan Gleeson, seen here as the priest of a small, destitute Irish village. He is having trouble herding his flock, a challenge that is intensified by his own crisis … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 9-10
Film: You may remember Swedish director Jan Troell, who made two linked Oscar-nominated films, The Emigrants and The New Land, in the early ’70s. Now 83, he has crafted a stunning, downbeat, history-based film, The Last Sentence, but since the story it relates is Swedish history, it is likely to be unfamiliar to most American viewers. It focuses on a crusading newspaper … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 2-6
Dance: One of the nice things about today’s technology is that so many arts groups are using film to present insider looks at the worlds they inhabit, often with major stars giving people a glimpse into their lives. So it is with Sara Mearns, a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet who is renowned for her work as Odette/Odile in the great Tchaikovsky ballet Swan Lake. … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 18-20
Theater: The second shoe of Palm Beach Dramaworks’ summer concert series drops this weekend with The Most Happy Fella, Frank Loesser’s quasi-operative romantic musical about a middle-aged Italian vineyard owner who falls for a San Francisco waitress. Loesser authorized the two-keyboard arrangements that the concert will employ, for a score that includes such arias as “My Heart … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks, July 12-13
Theater: What does a theater company do when it loses its prime asset? To find out, head to Jupiter’s Carlin Park this weekend and next to see a Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival production of Much Ado About Nothing, dedicated to its co-founder, longtime artistic director and leading man, Kevin Crawford, who died suddenly at the end of 2013. Crawford had edited the text in … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 4-7
Theater: This is the final weekend for the 19th annual Summer Shorts Festival by City Theatre, at the company’s home in the Carnival Studio Theater of Miami’s Arsht Center. Whittled down to a more manageable 10 plays of 10-15 minutes duration each, that does not leave much room for error. Still, it wouldn’t be Summer Shorts if the production did not include a few … [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...]