Sharon Gless in A Round-Heeled Woman.(Photo by George Schiavone)
Theater: Although it is a little lighter than the usual fare at Coral Gables’ GableStage, the cutting edge company has a crowd-pleasing winner in Jane Prowse’s A Round-Heeled Woman, based on the true story of Jane Juska. In her mid-60s, she places an ad soliciting men to have sex with her, adding “If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me.” Of course, she attracts a variety of losers on her way to finding her soulmate, or at least her sex mate. Cagney & Lacey’s Sharon Gless has been developing the role for herself and she inhabits the GableStage stage with confidence, even if she is playing a woman of low esteem. Recently extended a week through Feb. 6. Call (305) 445-1119 for tickets.
Ben Affleck in The Company Men.Film: If you go to the movies to escape the problems of the day, you will want to avoid The Company Men, but you will be missing a first-rate drama about white-collar hot shots who get laid off because of the recession and corporate downsizing. Think of it as Up in the Air, but without the comedy. Director John Wells (The West Wing, ER) makes an impressive feature debut drawing out fine performances from Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper and Kevin Costner. The film centers around a star salesman (Ben Affleck) who got a little too used to the trappings of success. Between The Company Men and The Town, this has been a terrific year for Affleck, whom we are going to have to learn to take seriously. In area theaters beginning Friday.
Gunther Schuller.Music: Gunther Schuller has been one of the most important composers and educators in American music for decades, not least because of his advocacy of Third Stream music, a term he coined to suggest the merger of jazz and classical styles. Schuller appears this weekend with the Boca Raton Symphonia, where he’ll lead the band in his own Concerto da Camera, and conduct the Haydn Cello Concerto in D with the young South Korean-born cellist SuJin Lee as the soloist. Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony also is on the program with the Cosi fan Tutte overture of Mozart and the Divertissement of Jacques Ibert. Then Schuller settles in for a week as the special guest of the New Music Festival at Lynn University, culminating with a concert of his works next Thursday and a performance next Saturday with the Lynn Philharmonia, which will play the winning work from Lynn’s international call for scores. It promises to a bracing week and a great chance to see this legendary musician, now 85, continue to make an impact. The concert takes place at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Roberts Theater on the campus of St. Andrew’s School in Boca Raton. Tickets range from $28.50 to $50. Call 376-3848 or visit www.bocasymphonia.org.
Anthony Roth Costanzo.Opera: Three young singers – countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, soprano Nadine Sierra, and mezzo Irene Roberts – have all made their mark locally in recent years. Costanzo won a second prize in the advanced division at the Palm Beach Opera Grand Finals in 2009 with a moving reading of an aria from Handel’s Tolomeo, and Roberts, a Palm Beach Opera Young Artist, won a second prize in 2010 with her performance of an aria from Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots. Sierra, who hails from Fort Lauderdale, has been a local hero of the operatic arts and might be on the threshold of a major career. All three are starring tonight and Sunday afternoon in the second Palm Beach Opera production of the season, a semi-staged version of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Director Doug Varone, who runs a dance company at New York’s 92nd Street Y, will provide dancers for this performance who will add some visual interest to the concert staging of the rest. It’s a nice opportunity to hear some young, lovely voices in music of purity and cool beauty. The performances are set for 7:30 p.m. today and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Kravis Center. Tickets start at $23. Call 833-7888 or visit www.pbopera.org.