November 2008 Archives

Love Roller Coaster
Only three more chances to see Nerve at Naked Stage

By Mary Damiano

Blind dates, personal ads, cyber hook-ups--the road to romance has evolved over the years. But one thing has stayed the same. Every couple, no matter how they get together, has to take a first step, to get to know one another, warts and all.

That first encounter is the subject of Nerve by Adam Szymkowicz, the comedy now playing at Naked Stage in Miami Shores. The play focuses on a couple on their first date. They've already been to a movie and the play opens as they arrive at a neighborhood bar. It's an innocuous enough situation, but their futures seem to hang in the balance.

Susan (Katherine Amadeo) and Elliot (Antonio Amadeo) appear normal enough at first, but appearances can be deceiving. As they begin to reveal themselves, their quirkiness, insecurities and disappointments bubble to the surface. Each has a unique way of dealing with stress. Susan choreographs dances in her head that illustrate her feelings, while Elliot uses puppets as a sounding board. We see them indulge in these activities in short fantasy sequences.

Over the course of 70 brisk minutes, Susan and Elliot play out an entire relationship, even though it's only a first date. It's accelerated for the sake of the play, but it's not implausible.

To have real-life husband and wife Antonio Amadeo and Katherine Amadeo portraying this sweet but dysfunctional couple is imaginative casting. Their chemistry is apparent even as their characters fight, and lends deeper urgency to the fate of Susan and Elliot's burgeoning relationship. Susan and Elliot are odd but likable; you're torn between wanting them to make it and praying they get as far away from each other as possible.

Antonio's easy-going appearance belies Elliot's obsessive personality, but his jittery body language conveys Elliot's neediness. Katherine's outer beauty hides inner turmoil that surfaces in her fantasy dances.

Antonio Amadeo's detailed set looks as if he transplanted a neighborhood bar right onto the stage of the tiny Pelican Theatre. The design, which includes beer bottles lining the walls and a pool table that serves no other purpose than for the right atmosphere, is so authentic that Nerve has a voyeuristic quality. Theatre seats seem to disappear, and the audience is transformed into bar patrons, privy to the couple's first date antics.

Director John Manzelli brings out the humor in Nerve and some other fun bits to boot. As the audience files in Jason Dewitt performs some lounge-lizard karaoke, setting the mood for the surreal comedy to come.

Nerve illustrates the hopefulness of people who've been hurt before, who keep looking for the one person who will love them and stick by them in spite of the fact that they're clingy or obsessive or just plain weird. Nerve is ultimately an uplifting play, and the Naked Stage production is funny and entertaining.

Nerve runs through Nov. 30 at Naked Stage at the Pelican Theatre on the campus of Barry University, 11300 NE 2nd Avenue in Miami Shores. Showtimes Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Tickets $12-$25. Call 1-866-811-4111or visit www.nakedstage.org.

Aussies is Search of an Oscar
Kidman and Jackman sizzle in new epic

By Mary Damiano

There's a scene in Australia in which the characters played by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman are making camp for the night. Kidman pokes her head out her tent just in time to see Jackman washing up before bedding down. Shirtless, belt undone, Jackman takes a bucket of water and languorously pours it over his head, then stands dripping wet as the water trickles down his bronzed, muscled body. (It's no wonder he was just named People's Sexiest Man Alive.) I predict that DVD sales will be much higher than expected, because so many women and gay men will wear out their Australia DVDs from replaying and freezing that scene over and over again.

That scene is not the only thing to recommend Australia, but it is a moment glorious enough to mention in the first paragraph of a review. Australia is a Big-with-a-capital-B movie in every sense of the word: it's Big-budget; it's a Big, sweeping epic, it's opening during the Big time of year, when other Big Oscar-hopefuls get released; and it's Big in length--nearly three hours. It's a western, it's a romance, it's an adventure. It's a period piece, it's a war movie; it's a history lesson. Australia aims to be all things to all moviegoers.

Does it succeed? Sometimes. Australia is a gorgeous movie with a gorgeous score starring two of the most gorgeous people who've ever lived. It's a throwback to old Hollywood movies of the 1930s and 1940s. It's an Australian Gone with the Wind with a huge helping of Out of Africa.

Kidman plays Lady Sarah Ashley, who comes to Australia to sell a piece of land. Jackman is Drover, the cattle driver who has been hired to pick her up and bring her to her husband. In short order, we discover that hubby is dead, the big bad land baron is out to steal the ranch, and Sarah and Drover must drive the cattle to market so the bad guys won't win. Along the way, Sarah becomes attached to a magical, mesmerizing Aborigine boy, Nullah (Brandon Walters) who provides the voice-over narration. And if you think I've given too much away, that's only the first half of the movie.

And that's Australia's main problem. As much fun as it is to watch, sometimes you wish director Baz Luhrman would have indulged in a little focus, a little editing, a little depth. The love scenes are gorgeous, with Kidman and Jackman's faces filling the entire screen, but their romance is reduced to little more than a montage. A big turning point involving the movie's villain is also reduced to a montage. In many cases, substance is sacrificed for style.

Kidman and Jackman have chemistry to spare, and Australia is the perfect showcase for them. And even with its flaws, it's worth the nearly three hours to disappear into a world where Jackman is shirtless and dripping wet, if only for a moment.

Australia
PG-13
Running Time: 165 minutes
Director: Baz Luhrman. Screenplay: Stuart Beattie, Baz Luhrman, Ronald Harwood, Richard Flanagan. With: Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Brandon Walters, Bryan Brown, David Wenham.

Pop Goes the Museum
Museum holds pop-up book demonstration

Remember the beloved holiday pop-up books of your childhood? Remember how with each turn of the page a world of three-dimensional beauty would fill your eyes with warmth, color and delight?

Share that experience again with your children for free on Saturday, November 29, 2-4 p.m. at the Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale, with renowned pop-up book artist Chuck Fischer. Fischer will be doing an interactive story-telling, a book signing, and show how to make a pop-up holiday gift tag.

Fischer's paintings hang in some of the finest residences in the world. His designs have been reproduced on china for Lenox and home furnishings, including wallpaper and fabrics in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. His pop-up books include Christmas in New York, Christmas Around the World, The White House and Great American Houses and Gardens. He makes his home in both Fort Lauderdale and New York City.

To attend this free event, RSVP to Emily McCrater, 954-670-2854 or emccrater@moafl.org. The Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale is located at 1 East Las Olas Blvd. Fort Lauderdale. For more information, visit www.moafl.org.

Madonna's Filth and Wisdom
Material Girl's directorial debut comes to Cinema Paradiso

By Mary Damiano

Cinema Paradiso has a pair of interesting films on tap to fill your post-Turkey Day weekend.

First up there's Filth and Wisdom, the feature film directorial debut of Madonna. Starring Stephen Graham, Holly Weston, Richard E. Grant, Eugene Hutz, Vicky McClure and Ade, Filth and Wisdom is set in London. It's about about people who take jobs to earn a living while never giving up on their dreams. It focuses on a young Ukranian who dreams of global stardom but makes ends meet as a crossdresser for hire and his flat-mates, a would-be Florence Nightingale working in a drugstore, and a trained ballerina who's makes her living pole dancing (Holly Weston, pictured here).

Let's hope Madonna learned a little something about directing from soon-to-be ex hubby Guy Ritchie.

If that's not your theatrical cup of tea, there's Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes, directed by Peter Rosen. This documentary presents Garrison Keillor as America's foremost humorist as he takes us on a personal tour of his America through observations on his popular radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion".

Both films run November 28-30 at Cinema Paradiso, 503 SE 6 St., downtown Fort Lauderdale. For showtimes, prices, and other information, call 954-525-3456 or visit www.fliff.com.

Enter and Exit Laughing
Sweet musical at New Vista will tickle the funny bone

By Mary Damiano

New Vista Theatre has kicked off their new season with Enter Laughing, a sassy soufflé of a musical full of energy and charm.

Based on Carl Reiner's autobiography, Enter Laughing is set in 1935 and follows young David Kolowitz (Will Larche) as he strives to become an actor. His overprotective parents (Avi Hoffman and Sally Bondi) want him to become a pharmacist, but David is undeterred. He hooks up with a local theatre company, the kind of place where he pays them in order to act, and begins rehearsals for his big debut.

It's a slight plot, and sure, it's a story we've all heard before in countless other movies, musicals and TV shows, so there are no surprises there. But unlike similar pieces, Enter Laughing is devoid of the melodrama and sap that often plague these stories of a starstruck kid being torn between his dream and his family. It's the kind of story colored by memory, so everything ends up a little exaggerated and over the top.

The songs in Enter Laughing, written by Stan Daniels, might not be deep, but they are funny. They're extended jokes with punchlines. They don't move the story along so much as they help to illuminate the characters. Typical subjects are covered--desperate women, Jewish guilt, sex--and the cast does a terrific job wringing the comedy from the lyrics.

New Vista's production is delightful. The cast is clearly having a good time, and it radiates from the stage. As David, Larche is charming and likable, and he carries the show effortlessly. Michael H. Small delivers sweet and funny as David's boss, while Gary Marachek is in all his glory as a scenery-chewing narcissistic actor. Bondi milks the Jewish mother routine for all it's worth. The leads are backed by a capable ensemble that gets their own hilarious moments. All in all, the stage is filled to the brim with its exuberant 14-member cast, plus three musicians who remain on stage throughout the show give the score a rich, full-bodied sound. Enter Laughing isn't his art but it is terrific entertainment.

Enter Laughing runs through December 7 at New Vista Theatre at the West Boca Performing Arts Center, located in the West Boca Community High School, 12811 Glades Rd., Boca Raton. For more information, call 888-284-4633 or visit www.newvistatheatre.com.

Best of Fest Film Gets Encore Screenings
Gospel Hill returns to Cinema Paradiso

Actor/director Giancarlo Esposito (pictured here) will attend the special encore screenings of his new film, Gospel Hill, which won the Best of Fest award at this year's Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF).

The screenings will be held Monday, November 24 and Tuesday, November 25, 8 p.m. at Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale. The sole screening of Gospel Hill during the festival was sold out.

Gospel Hill is a civil rights drama and boasts an all-star ensemble cast: Julia Stiles, Angela Bassett, Danny Glover, Samuel L. Jackson, Adam Baldwin, and Giancarlo Esposito who also directed the film.

Gospel Hill follows the residents of the black neighborhood of Gospel Hill in the town of Julia, South Carolina, who are being forced out of their homes to make way for a multimillion-dollar golf course development. Race relations are strained just as they were 30 years before when Paul Malcolm, a black civil rights activist, was assassinated. Dr. Ron Palmer, an influential black community leader who runs the emergency clinic in Gospel Hill, supports the development and is helping to drive people from the homes they have lived in for generations. Paul Malcolm's son John, who withdrew from the community's fight for civil rights after his father's assassination, is still haunted by the painful memory of the murder. Meanwhile, the town's bigoted ex-sheriff, who was responsible for letting the investigation of Paul's murder dissipate with no one charged, is facing his own mortality. Sarah Malcolm, John's wife, takes it upon herself, with the help of her fellow teacher Rosie Griffith, to battle Dr. Palmer and reveal his profiteering to the whole town, exposing him for the greedy man he has become.

Gospel Hill's characters' lives intertwine to create a gripping, revealing and dramatic tale touching on issues of race, eminent domain, and the power of the human spirit to overcome the pain and hatred of division.

Tickets for Gospel Hill are $9, $7 for students and seniors and $5 for FLIFF members. Cinema Paradiso is located at 503 SE 6 St. in downtown Fort Lauderdale. For more information, call 954-525-3456 or visit www.fliff.com.

Leading the Pack
Michael Tilson Thomas honored as one of America's best leaders

Michael Tilson Thomas, (pictured here) co-founder and artistic director of the New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy, has been named one of America's Best Leaders for 2008 by U.S. News Media Group, publishers of U.S. News & World Report, and Harvard University's Center for Public Leadership (CPL). Tilson Thomas, who also serves as music director of the San Francisco Symphony and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic, was recognized for his leadership in working to guarantee the future of classical music.  In choosing Tilson Thomas and the other winners, the selection committee cited, among other criteria, their ability to set direction, achieve results, and cultivate a culture of growth.

"I am very honored to be recognized in such esteemed company," said Michael Tilson Thomas.  "One of the biggest responsibilities the performing arts have for the future -- a responsibility that we have had no option but to accept and undertake - is to guide the next generation in their understanding of how music works and what it means. Music is for everyone.  The power and emotion of classical music speaks to all of us and is part of our human heritage."

Incidentally, Tilson Thomas isn't the only honoree with a South Florida connection.  Other winners include Miami mayor Manny Diaz and Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezo, who attended Miami Palmetto Senior High.  

The 2008 edition of America's Best Leaders is available online at www.usnews.com/leaders, and the December 1 issue of the magazine will be on newsstands Monday, November 24.  

You Will Believe a Car Can Fly
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is an impressive crowd-pleaser

By Mary Damiano

When I was a little kid, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was one of my favorite movies.  Every time it was on TV I watched it.  I ran around singing the songs.  And I was in awe of the flying car.

That awe was back as I sat in the audience at Broward Center Wednesday night, watching that tricked-out car with a mind of its own take flight.  As it rose and seemed to glide through a starlit sky, it looked like something out of Star Wars when the Millennium Falcon goes at warp speed, and I half-expected to hear a John Williams anthem rise from the orchestra pit.  

The first national tour of the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has launched in Fort Lauderdale, and it's an impressive crowd-pleaser.  In many ways it's an old-fashioned musical, with rousing production numbers and classic songs, but the technical feat of the flying car brings it into the 21st century.  

Still, it's obvious that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has its origins in the late 1960s.  There's a floating and flying car; a country called Vulgaria ruled by an infantile baron and his dominatrix wife; candy that makes music; a heroine with the Bond Girl-esque name  Truly Scrumptious.  Sometimes it feels more like an acid trip than a family musical.  

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is the story of an eccentric single dad, Caractacus Potts, and his two adorable children, who are besotted by a junk car that once won the Grand Prix.  As Potts tries to raise money needed to buy the car, two spies are also after the car, as a birthday present for their spoiled, child-like baron.  Hilarity, music and some terrific dance numbers ensue.  

There are deeper themes at work, including making dreams come true in an increasingly industrialized world.  And for the most part, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is very entertaining, even during the scenes when the car isn't flying.  It's also gorgeous to look at--the lighting and scenic design gives many scenes a 3D look.  The musical's first act bounces along breezily, with terrific numbers like "Me Ol' Bamboo" and "Toots Sweet."  Situations turn dark in the second act, which gets bogged down with a few numbers that do nothing to move the story along.  

But that's quibbling.  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a good time, and is designed to bring out the kid in all of us.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang runs through November 30 at Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale.  www.browardcenter.org.

Welcome to the newest feature of MiamiARTzine.com, our new blog Arts du Jour.  We've started Arts du Jour as a way to cover more of what's happening in the South Florida Arts Scene in a more timely way.  Since MiamiARTzine.com began three years ago, a lot has changed in this community since we began publishing our biweekly e-zine.  Newspapers have cut back on arts coverage and it's much harder for many arts companies and organization to get coverage and reviews.  And as MiamiARTzine.com is a biweekly publication, we could never be as news-oriented or as timely as we would have liked.  That's where Arts du Jour comes in.  This is the spot you'll find theatre, music, dance and art reviews.  You'll also find prompt news about upcoming events, last minute schedule changes as well as breaking news of the arts community.  Arts du Jour will be updated frequently, so readers now have a reason to come to MiamiARTzine.com more often to find out what's going on in South Florida arts. Is it more work?  Sure.  But if it means that MiamiARTzine.com can better cover the arts and better inform our readers, it's all worth it.

Greatest Hits
Mad Cat Mixtape uses music to mesmerize

By Mary Damiano

There are only a few days left to see Mixtape, a collection of short plays and films at Mad Cat Theatre in Miami.  Many of the plays are world premieres by mostly local playwrights, and the pieces are diverse enough that everyone will be able to relate to something over the course of the evening. 

The intoxicating combination of cars and music is central to several plays, including 4th of July, which features a powerful performance by Erin Joy Schmidt as a teen out late riding a in a speeding car.  In the best play of the evening, 3:59 AM by Marco Ramirez, two men try to escape personal problems and up in a spontaneous drag race. 

Lez Be Friends, a funny piece about a couple of guys writing the kind of sitcom they'd like to see, doesn't continue the musical thread, but it's so funny you don't mind too much.

Erik Fabregat (pictured here with Sophie Citarella) shines as a late night DJ, a vulnerable teen who tries to turn a platonic relationship into a romantic one and, in The Wereloaves of Brickell Avenue, doing a dead-on impersonation of rock legend Meatloaf and having the time of his life. 

Joe Kimble also gets some juicy parts, as a husband inexplicably transformed by a show tune in Michael McKeever's excellent Move On or Stephen Sondheim at Studio 54, and then as a milquetoast pencil pusher who has no memory of his inexplicable monthly transformation into a sex-fueled rock and roll god.

Mixtape is designed to mimic a tape and just like every tape, album or CD, there is some filler.  The films don't work and bog down the evening's live momentum.  Adult Head, about fans who recite lyrics at a concert is overly long. 

Music can transform.  Music is an escape.  Music is the soundtrack of our lives. With some streamlining Mixtape could be a greatest hits package, but despite a few missteps, Mixtape is still a thought-provoking evening of entertainment.

Mixtape runs through November 22 the Light Box, 3000 Biscayne Blvd.  For tickets and more information, call 305-576-6377 or visit www.madcattheatre.org.

Letters to America at Miami Contemporary Dance Company
Some good things, some not so good

By Marj O'Neill-Butler

I was looking forward to seeing the opening performance of Letters to America by the Miami Contemporary Dance Company at the Colony Theatre after seeing the work in rehearsal at their studio. The piece was created from letters, or answers culled from the dancers about different aspects of their American experience.  Physically and artistically the dancers are excellent.  Each of the nine is beautiful to watch. Dance offers the viewer a fleeting impression.  Reviewing a concert is a subjective task and it is hard not to pick favorites, but here are mine.

Paul Thrussel has beautiful legs and feet and shows strength and power in his movement.  He has the ability to balance and appear like a piece of living sculpture.  Colleen Farnum, tall and stately, is as lithe and flexible as a cat.  The choreography created for her body is different and quirky.  Kareen Pauld Camargo shows a strength and fierceness in her movement.  Ana Mendez is quick footed and full of energy.  Geo Macia has an elegant strength as he moves.

And then there is Mark Milner, pictured here.  The choreography created for Mark seemed the most related to his letter to America.  The movement seemed to stem from his heart and mind as well as his body.  His letter was very personal and the work created for him was as well.  His dance created a feeling of longing and aching for his heart's desire.

Unfortunately, most of the technical side of the show was poor.  The sound was way too loud, often distorted and would stop abruptly.  The film work of the dancers reading their letters to America was not very professional.  And the voice-over at the top of the show not needed.  The lighting for the concert was interesting.  I liked seeing the dancers move in and out of long strips of lighting on the floor.  Sometimes we were able to see the whole body; sometimes just an extended leg or arm.

This is an exciting, young dance company that deserves to be seen.  And Letters to America will make everyone think about their own place in America, whether as a native born American or as a new American.

Letters to America will be presented for two more performances at the Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road on Miami Beach on Friday and Saturday November 21 and 22 at 8 p.m..  For tickets call the Colony Box Office at 305-674-1040 or TicketMaster.com 305-358-5885.  Tickets are $20 $25 and $35.  Limited student and senior tickets only at the box office. For more information, visit www.MiamiContemporaryDance.net.