“Act boldly and unforeseen forces will come to my aid,” says Carol Durbin, relating some words that were favorites of Martin L. Marcus, her partner of thirteen years. Marcus, who passed away last month after a long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), certainly took that expression to heart. Thoroughbred…
Appreciating beer is an art, as is pairing it with the proper foods — and we don’t mean peanuts or pizza. Tasting involves more than just the tongue, claims Patrick Jones, head brewer at Miami’s Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant. He is one who’ll share his enthusiasm for the beverage during…
In some ways schlock is similar to pornography: You may not be able to define it, but you know it when you see it, and there’s a lot of it to be seen on South Florida stages this season. The Coconut Grove Playhouse seems particularly interested in schlock musicals. Earlier…
Compiled in the cold light of day, the sum of Chuck Barris’s contributions to American culture are the top 40 ditty “Palisades Park,” which he wrote in 1962, and his discovery, a few years later, that many people are willing to make complete fools of themselves in front of a…
It all begins with the word. “I believe I may have a first sentence,” murmurs Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) to her husband, Leonard (Stephen Dillane), commencing labor on the author’s fourth novel, Mrs. Dalloway. The year is 1921, but skillfully intercut segments illustrate that the book’s heady emotional content will…
Small-town stud Tully (Anson Mount) works the family farm with his younger brother Earl (Glenn Fitzgerald) and their inexpressive, unsmiling widower Dad (Bob Burrus) in Tully. The sudden possibility that they might lose the farm opens up a trove of disturbing family secrets, challenging Tully’s heretofore shallow nature. Hilary Birmingham…
“There’s no other dog like a dachshund,” says the first line of the “Dachs Song,” penned in 1991 by Paul de Vries and Murray Weinstock and available on CD via www.dachsong.com. Devoted owners of wiener dogs all over the world must agree. In 1991 one of them, Adrian Milton, founded…
“I feel most honest and sincere when drawing on paper,” artist Pedro Vizcaino confesses in the slim catalogue accompanying the exhibition “Drawing Conclusions,” which opened last week on the second floor of the Buena Vista Building in Miami’s newest hipster hangout, the Design District. “Drawings are a process by which…
While filmgoers hungrily await this year’s Miami International Film Festival feast, there are several tasty cinematic hors d’oeuvres now being offered at the Cosford Cinema. George Capewell, the Cosford’s programmer, has scored a number of Miami premieres that should keep art cinema lovers happy in advance of the festivals yet…
Everyone has remembrances of flings past, especially that once-in-a-lifetime first time. Playwright Richard Nelson’s take on that oft-told subject is Madame Melville, an intriguing wisp of a tale now playing at the New Theatre in Coral Gables. In it, Nelson depicts the coming of age of an awkward American fifteen-year-old…
Standing inside Cesar Trasobares’s exhibit “Social Fabric: Old Pillows and Recent Money Works” at FIU’s main library feels like being swallowed by a cannibalistic capitalist ecosystem. There’s paper money, mostly one-dollar bills, some scribbled with stories, promises, and exhortations; some painted over; some defaced or stamped with terms such as…
Paul Morse (Jason Lee) has this terrible problem. He’s all set to marry the take-charge, raven-haired beauty Karen (Selma Blair, thanklessly playing second fiddle as usual), but late in the game finds himself also falling for her free-spirited blond cousin, Becky (Julia Stiles). Gee, what’s a guy to do? It’s…
Music industry insiders and audiophiles may be the only people who have heard of Tom Dowd, despite his work engineering and producing countless classic albums for five decades, and a 2002 Grammy Award. Miami-based director Mark Moormann spent the last seven years filming a documentary, Tom Dowd and the Language…
Succulent treats perfectly ripe from the tree. Exotic flavors and textures: silky like pudding, so sweet and juicy that wearing a bib while eating is a must. Yes, a brief talk with tropical fruit enthusiasts is enough to tempt the taste buds. Sufficiently aroused appetites might enjoy this weekend’s Redland…
Intricate, outrageous plots; clever wordplay; catchy songs performed quickly. Hearing the work of opera composers William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan (the British duo who collaborated from 1871 to 1896 and put the “light” in light opera) sung in English is enough to give the average listener a splitting headache. Imagine…
“Nothing is inevitable,” goes the old saying, “except death and taxes.” In Park Your Car In Harvard Yard, playwright Israel Horovitz begs to differ, or at least, amend: Add “regret” to that short list. In the freezing gloom of a New England winter, an imperious old man, Jacob Brackish, shuffles…
As far as he can remember, he always wanted to be an actor. To him, being an actor was better than being president of the United States. Even before he first wandered into the high school auditorium for an after-school audition, he wanted to be one of them. It was…
There have been other films dealing with the Jewish ghettos during the Nazi occupation of Poland — some very good — but The Pianist, the latest feature from Roman Polanski, may be the best. Of course it starts out with a huge advantage: The 69-year-old Polanski is probably the only…
There are myriad stories to tell in Miami. Two-bit fraud schemes, big-time drug smugglers, and quirky tales of immigrants in America add fodder to a screenwriter or director’s imagination. The city is, after all, a funky and cinematically appealing world to set a movie in. Add to that television shows…
Although a Spanish-language version of playwright Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece Waiting for Godot helped inaugurate Little Havana’s new Latin Quarter Cultural Center, Tony Wagner, artistic director and owner, waited for no one when it came to creating a truly multipurpose arts venue. With a shoestring budget, some grant money, and the…
Your fifteen minutes of fame are about to begin. Lights up. You’re on. This is not a dress rehearsal. Marching onstage, blood thumping in your eardrums, throat dry, palms clammy, you find your light, take a breath, shape your lips to carry the first sounds of your performance. “To be…
Sometimes a good idea for a play doesn’t spin out into good theater. One such conundrum is Bach at Leipzig, a well-produced but dramatically inert talkfest now on colorful display at Florida Stage. Itamar Moses’s new play, a Florida premiere, has to do with a historical event in 1722, when…
