By Dale King Festival of the Arts Boca 2014 has been relegated to the history books. But organizers are happy with the memories. The festival’s website is filled with comments about the 10-day event that marked its eighth annual incarnation this year, taking place in Boca Raton’s Mizner Park Amphitheater and at the Cultural Arts Center. Perhaps the most striking website … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Full Monty,’ ‘Fighting Over Beverley,’ ‘Rags,’ and ‘Sister Act’
In 1968, Broadway was aghast (and titillated) when a tribe of hippies went naked in Hair. Thirty-two years later, a handful of unemployed steel workers strip down to nothing onstage in The Full Monty and it is practically family entertainment. OK, I guess it depends on the family, but if you have a taste for untoned, scrawny, fat or aging bodies, then The Wick Theatre has the … [Read more...]
With ‘Old Times,’ Dramaworks takes on the puzzle of Pinter
Seven years ago, director J. Barry Lewis introduced Palm Beach Dramaworks’ up-for-any-challenge audience to the enigmatic work of Harold Pinter with a production of Betrayal. While some theatergoers were taken aback by its reverse chronology, that play was relatively straightforward compared to the next Pinter shoe to drop. Opening this Friday and continuing through March 2, … [Read more...]
A remarkable night with a young trio
Brilliance comes in threes, it appears. Tuesday night at Mar-a-Lago, in the second concert of the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, three young men — Doori Na, violin; Joseph Lee, cello; and Sean Kennard, piano — thrilled the many concert attendees with their music-making. And indeed, their musicianship was remarkable. Coming together as individuals of astonishing skill … [Read more...]
Odd-couple quest for lost son becomes radiant human-interest story
Philomena opens with a poop joke, but it’s an erudite poop joke. Steve Coogan is hearing medical results from his doctor, and he’s told his stool sample is “outstanding,” which Coogan’s character takes as a compliment, until the doc clarifies that Coogan hasn’t provided the sample yet. So you see, it’s not scatological humor so much as phonic humor, playing off an amusing … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Fear Up Harsh,’ ‘The Timekeepers,’ ‘White Christmas’
Zoetic Stage is justifiably proud of its resident actors, the only true repertory company in South Florida. But even more important to the group’s success are its resident playwrights, notably Christopher Demos-Brown, whose works range from political drama (When the Sun Shone Brighter) to family comedy (Captiva) to his latest, Fear Up Harsh, a mournful tale of the aftermath of … [Read more...]
Drew Tucker: Arts Garage’s master of music and education
Drew Tucker may wear more different hats than anyone else involved in the Palm Beach County arts scene. The Boynton Beach resident, who turns 33 on Aug. 21, is director of education and outreach for both his own Tucker Academy for the Arts and the Delray Beach-based Arts Garage. He's also a drummer and percussionist, on everything from mallet instruments like the vibraphone, … [Read more...]
The View From Home 49: Bad guys, Westerns, and a violent mess
Warner Home Video has waited near Father’s Day to market and release two exceptional new Blu-ray collections of gangster cinema, old and (comparatively) new. If these are the kind of gifts the studio has prepared for dads, I’d happily take a Father’s Day every month. The Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics ($44.98) features four titles from the ’30s and ’40s, when Warners … [Read more...]
Sundays: Standing in the corner with Kafka
By Myles Ludwig I’m not surprised that Franz Kafka woke up one morning and imagined he was some kind of giant beetle. He needed someone to talk to. A writer’s life is a lonely life, particularly a writer who makes fiction or poetry. There you are with a world in your head, struggling with near impossibility of describing it perfectly, not only to yourself, but to someone … [Read more...]
Good Dvorak, Beethoven end Boca Symphonia season
The Boca Raton Symphonia closed its 2012-13 season Sunday with a too-little-heard major concerto and a genial reading of a major symphony, securing a solid planetary foothold amid the constellation of local chamber orchestras that appeared in the wake of the Florida Philharmonic’s Big Bang. Let by guest conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos, who directed the group last month at … [Read more...]