Robin Wright as Mary Surratt in The Conspirator.Film: Sure, he won an Oscar 30 years ago for making Ordinary People, but Robert Redford remains an underrated director. To see how he can bring history alive, involving and even a little instructive, check out The Conspirator, his take on the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, as seen through the conspiracy trial of Mary Surratt. The luminous Robin Wright plays the boarding house proprietor accused of colluding with the men who brought down the president, and James McAvoy is impressive as Frederick Aiken, the novice lawyer assigned to defend her before an unsympathetic military tribunal. Chances are you know the story of John Wilkes Booth, but this film nimbly gives us “the rest of the story.” And if you squint, you can see the contemporary issue of public-versus-military justice in the case of current Guantanamo detainees. Opening today in area theaters. – Hap Erstein
Matt Loehr and the Pink Ladies in Crazy for You, at the Maltz.Theater: Tickets are scarce, but well worth scrounging to catch this weekend’s final performances of Crazy for You at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre. The Maltz has made some inroads with new work this season, but its strength is with large, production number-heavy, established shows like last season’s La Cage aux Folles of this Gershwin “jukebox” musical from 1992. Both have been directed here by Mark Martino, who focuses on the character work beneath the razzle-dazzle and on working well with imaginative choreographers, like the endlessly inventive Shea Sullivan. Together with star Matt Loehr as song-and-dance-man wannabe Bobby Child, they forge a production which sets a new standard at this dynamic north county company. Continuing through Sunday. Call (561) 575-2223 for tickets. – H. Erstein
The Holy Family with Two Angels (16th century, Italian), from Vatican Splendors.
For those of you who have not seen it yet, these are the last two weeks that Vatican Splendors: A Journey Through Faith and Art will be shown at Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale. The last day is officially April 24. In case you are wondering, it is more art than sermon.
And by that I mean the exhibit features plenty of paintings, striking papal portraits, angels, Madonnas and mysterious artifacts. Walking through the show you will see a transition from the flat rigid figures of the Byzantine style to the more realistic and relaxed figures of the Renaissance period. The show is not a masked attempt from the Church to rescue and convert lost incredulous sheep. But that is precisely what one sort of wishes the museum had done. Instead, the show never gets serious enough.
Even for nonbelievers and curious ones, it feels too light. It takes a turn from somewhat serious to too commercial: beginning with objects relating to St. Peter’s tomb and ending with a gift shop. The video presentation welcoming visitors may remind you of being in a Disney park waiting for your turn to ride the attraction.
Pietà (1499), by Michelangelo Buonarotti, cast made in 1975 from a 1930 original.
The museum took itself too seriously and neglected to give some of that seriousness to the actual exhibit. But if seeing means believing, then everyone who attends this show should walk out feeling pretty reinforced spiritually. Besides, it does not hurt to look at objects that have never before been shown outside the Vatican. The most dramatic in that category is San Sebastian Attended by Irene, a painting dating from the 17th century depicting the moribund saint whose wounds are lit by candlelight.
But I know what you are thinking. What about the Pieta? Yes, a life-size representation of Michelangelo’s most famous creation is here too, in place of the real deal. Tickets are $20; $17 for seniors and $13 for children ages 6-12. The museum is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and until 8 p.m. on Thursday. Call 1-877-282-8422 or visit www.ticketmaster.com. – Gretel Sarmiento
Jeremy Denk.Music: Down south this weekend, the wonderful American pianist Jeremy Denk continues his championing of the work of Charles Ives with a performance Sunday night at the University of Miami’s Gusman Hall as part of the Sunday Afternoons of Music series, now in its 30th year. Denk will play the first of Ives’ sonatas, a big work from 1909 that does the usual Ives quoting (Bringing in the Sheaves) but also evokes Debussy-style pianism and ragtime in a tonal texture replete with tone clusters and huge, knotty chords that give the piece a real sense of grandeur. Denk then follows that with the complete Goldberg Variations of J.S. Bach, for a feat of pianistic bravado that you’re unlikely to see repeated too often. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. can’t-miss recital are $35. Call 305-271-7150 or visit www.sundaymusicals.org. – G. Stepanich
Eduardo Aladrén.Also this week, the Chameleon chamber music series wraps its ninth season with music for tenor, cello and piano. Spanish tenor Eduardo Aladrén will sing Berlioz’s La Captive, Bernstein’s Dream With Me, a set of four songs by the Danish composer Joseph Glaeser (1835-1891), a song (Rheinfahrt) by Georg Goltermann (1824-1898), two songs by Richard Strauss (Morgen and Zueignung) and a world premiere of a song called El Beso, by the Spanish composer Javier Jacinto. Series founder Iris van Eck, a cellist, will play Beethoven’s Judas Maccabeus Variations, the Schumann Fantasy Pieces (Op. 73) and the Chopin Grand Duo Concertant (B. 70), based on themes from Meyerbeer’s opera Robert le Diable. The pianist is the fine Serbian-born Misha Dacic, and the concert is set for 3 p.m. Sunday at the Josephine Leiser Opera Center in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Tickets are $35. Call 954-761-3455 or visit www.chameleonmusicians.org. – G. Stepanich
Yuri Bashmet.Next Thursday afternoon, at the Knight Concert Hall in Miami’s Arsht Center, violist Yuri Bashmet and pianist Evgeny Kissin collaborate on three great works for viola: The Arpeggione Sonata of Schubert, Brahms’ Viola (Clarinet) Sonata No. 2 (in E-flat, Op. 120, No. 2), and the valedictory Viola Sonata of Dmitri Shostakovich, which the composer finished only a month before he died. This will be a meeting of two gigantic talents, and the audience is bound to be filled with people who want to see one or the other. It’s a can’t-miss recital, and a great way to end the Arsht’s classical season. The concert is set for 8 p.m. Sunday in the Knight Hall. Tickets are $50-$125. Call 305-949-6722 or visit www.arshtcenter.org. – G. Stepanich