Tiny, Halloween, Seattle (1983) by Mary Ellen Mark. Not if, but when you visit the ongoing photography exhibitions at the Norton Museum of Art and the Society of the Four Arts, look for beauty in expected and unexpected places. The subject of the photographs that make up Norton’s Tiny: Streetwise Revisited does not want us to pity her, but it can’t be helped. A teen should … [Read more...]
Arts Garage’s ‘Ring of Fire’ conveys spirit of Cash’s America winningly
This is the summer of commercially unsuccessful musicals revived and reexamined on South Florida stages. There was High Fidelity at Slow Burn Theatre, and now the Johnny Cash revue Ring of Fire at Theatre at Arts Garage in Delray Beach, followed by Frank Wildhorn’s Bonnie and Clyde at Florida Atlantic University. Each show ran headlong into the brick wall of Broadway … [Read more...]
Opera on the Road: An astonishing rarity at Bard Summerscape
Forget Kirov, forget Bolshoi: We may one day have our own Russian opera company in New York state. Bard Summerscape, now in its 10th year delivered a magnificent performance of Sergey Taneyev’s Oresteia, premiered in 1895, which I saw on Aug. 4. The Annandale-on-Hudson festival is fast becoming a rival to Wagner’s Bayreuth as the place to be. Production values are very … [Read more...]
Postcard from New York No. 5: ‘Matilda,’ ‘Kinky Boots’
Wednesday was a real dessert day at the theater ― two musicals, Matilda and Kinky Boots, widely expected to be competing against each other for the top Tony Award. Matilda arrives from London weighed down with Olivier Awards and is the front runner to win over here, but I think it could be a closer race than anticipated. Matilda is based on a Roald Dahl kid’s book about a … [Read more...]
Community theater: Voices stand out in Lake Worth’s ‘Barnum’
By Dale King In his day, master showman Phineas Taylor Barnum could probably have followed you into a revolving door and come out ahead of you. Such was the reputation of the legendary P.T. Barnum, fast-talking wheeler-dealer, circus icon and consummate con man whose life is celebrated in the frantic and festive musical, Barnum, now playing at the Lake Worth Playhouse. The … [Read more...]