It takes a wise guy from Boston with a disregard for giving a crap to rant about Steve Jobs. “He told other people what to invent,” is comedian Bill Burr’s joke. For Burr, politically correct banter isn’t part of his nature, and it’s what makes him one of the best…
It’s great to be the smartest guy in the room if you’re a president, economist, or engineer. It’s less than great if you’re Baruch Spinoza — the pioneering 17th-century Dutch philosopher, Enlightenment thinker, and pantheistic provocateur behind the seminal tome Ethics.
Commissioned to create a new dance for Miami City Ballet, Justin Peck ran up against a wall — many, in fact. Lucky for him, these loomed among the ones with vibrant colors and suggestive figures that have turned the streets of Wynwood into an open-air art museum, a source of…
It’s not really news that modern dance companies have experienced extraordinary pressures since the 1970s, with seasoned companies closing their doors and celebrated choreographers fleeing for shelter to coveted academic posts. However, New York-based Carolyn Dorfman Dance has defied the trends, remaining independent and producing critically acclaimed, avant-garde modern choreographies…
The first date in Actors’ Playhouse’s First Date is neither a hellish mismatch nor a heavenly connection. It’s rather like most of them—generic questions, nervous laughter, the occasional foot-in-mouth blunder—except for the irrepressible song and dance that erupt from the voices in the characters’ heads. In this musical comedy, which…
For all its complexities and portrayals in pop culture, war is an act that tears and disjoints, fractures, and reshapes those who fight it and those who love them. Basetrack Live explores what happens after the fracture. A theatrical character study, it focuses on the real lives of Marine veteran,…
Miami can’t seem to get enough flamenco. And the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts has been ground zero for satisfying that desire, bringing in numerous international flamenco stars and festivals. Like this year’s eighth annual Flamenco Festival inside the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall. The star…
Irony, along with brevity, can be the soul of wit. But if it’s done poorly, irony is the bailiwick of unimaginative writers who can’t see past the most obvious cognitive dissonance. The psychiatrist who needs a psychiatrist, the professional matchmaker whose love life is a shambles, and the self-help guru…
In the immortal words of Heath Ledger’s Joker, “Why so serious?!” With sea levels rising, epic traffic issues, and rising housing costs, Miamians need some comic relief. Luckily, the South Beach Comedy Festival (SBCF) is coming up, so we’ll have plenty of chances to practice our gleeful guffaws. This year’s…
Georges Bizet’s life was tragic enough for an opera. The composer of the iconic work Carmen died at the young age of 37, well before fame had found him. Even the work for which he’s best known was panned by critics, who were shocked by the low-life characters. A prostitute,…
Organizers Hannah Baumgartner and Diego Salterini — co-founders of Dance Now! Miami — created Miami Open Stage for talented Miami choreographers to showcase their new work. They also intended it as a venue for dance enthusiasts looking for a chance to discover what’s happening on the ground floor, and to…
Named after the group of laborers that mounts plays in the woods in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this Austin-based collective launched in 1995 after its members, then undergrads at the University of Texas, studied the Bard in barns. It was all part of a summer retreat called Shakespeare at…
Forty-eight hours before the curtain rises, director James Danner, assistant director Déa Julien, and production designer Rachel Libeskind take a short break at the Bas Fisher Invitational (BFI). They’ve been at the artist-run space, nestled among culturally disparate downtown locales such as Club Space and Museum Park, since Thursday, making…
If your S.O. would love to spend Valentine’s weekend at the ballet, but to you that sounds like a total bore, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo may be a happy compromise. This all-male, drag version of classic ballet has been charming audiences around the world for almost 40 years,…
A high-intensity drama about spirited Spaniards seems like such a good fit for Miami City Ballet, you’d think company artistic director Lourdes Lopez ran out looking for Carmen. But in a way it was Carmen that came to her. As the centerpiece of MCB’s third program of the season, this…
We’re a country of snap judgments. In the court of public opinion, we render verdicts with the same knee-jerk immediacy that we employ to consume news. It’s all headlines and tweets. We lack the time, inclination, and attention span to go beneath the surface. Twelve Angry Men delves deeper. Reginald…
There’s no better cure for boredom than a group of people breaking out into song and dance. In ordinary life, that would be strange and random — especially since flash mobs are no longer a thing — but in the theater, it’s a sheer marvel. We enjoy the songs that…
Ray Sullivan’s Miami Contemporary Dance Company, one of Miami’s most celebrated and inventive dance ensembles, celebrates its 15th birthday with a premier performance at the Colony Theatre this weekend. Sullivan has entitled the evening “Light.” He offers his audience not only a mediation on light but also portrait of the…
It was the Shepard Fairey murals at Wynwood Walls that first caught Justin Peck’s eye. The choreographer went to Wynood Walls looking for inspiration, and he certainly found it. Fairey’s murals feature prominently in Peck’s latest piece, Heatscape, which will premiere at the Miami City Ballet in March. “[Fairey] works…
In 1992, Disney took a chance on a little story about scrappy newsboys who formed a union and changed the industry. The movie, Newsies, bombed in the theaters. But nearly two decades later, Disney adapted the movie to a live-action musical and began to reap the rewards of their hard…
Tuesday night in Wynwood, interested possible applicants, proud previous winners, and engaged Miamians gathered at Gramps for the Knight Arts Challenge Kickoff event, sponsored by Infraculture. A major funding project of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Knight Arts Challenge awarded $2.29 million to 47 projects last…
Seth Meyers is one funny dude. You don’t need to watch NBC’s Late Night or even have to know his previous work on Saturday Night Live, where he spent 13 years as head writer, to enjoy a night with him. You do, however, need to get a kick out of…
