The Crest Theatre will present A Chorus Line and is offering free dance workshops for community cast members.
Photo provided
By Thom Smith
So much for slow summers. But then full timers know that South Florida is not just a great place to visit, it’s a great place to live … all year. From Lake Worth to Boca, the joint continues to jump. And as it heats up, there are plenty of opportunities to cool down with hot films, live music and stage shows.
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Its food is more than enough, but for years the ultra-hip Dada in Delray has regaled guests with poets and pundits. Now it shows open-air double features every Sunday. A little bit of everything from silent classics to blockbusters. Anyone for Potemkin and Sink the Bismarck!?
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More movies, new and classics, are offered Wednesdays at 4 and 7:30 p.m. across the street at the Crest Theatre in the Delray Beach Center for the Arts. This month’s lineup includes The Godfather, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Blazing Saddles, Nebraska and Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains the Same.
Of course, the Crest doesn’t just show movies. A Chorus Line will play Dec. 5-14 directed and choreographed by Kimberly Dawn Smith. A member of the original Broadway cast, she’s one of a few professionals anointed by the show’s creator, Michael Bennett, to mount the show, including a run in Fort Lauderdale in 1987.
Auditions for the non-Equity production were held in April, but some roles have not yet been cast. So on July 13, 14, 20, 21, 27 and 28, Smith will conduct free dance workshops to allow those already cast to get “dance ready” and those wishing to be cast to get “audition ready.” Contact MNMprods@gmail.com.
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If you like award-winning films from around the globe and like to watch them on a big screen, and I don’t mean 50-inch, check out Shelly Isaacs’ Cafe Cinematheque at Movies of Delray or Movies of Lake Worth. Since Isaacs doesn’t announce the titles until three days before screening, advance planning is difficult, but movie buffs who remember the art theaters in the days before multiplexes shouldn’t mind. Check it out at www.moviesofdelray.com.
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Did you know FAU has a movie house? You won’t find X-Men or Superman at the Living Room Theaters, but you can see Mike Myers’ Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, or a two-parter of Shakespeare’s Henry IV. Add a European-style cafe and a lounge, panini instead of popcorn, microbrews instead of giant colas, gelato instead of Cracker Jack. Plus every Sunday morning at 10, veteran TV producer and Emmy nominee Larry Ferber, who ran the Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival, hosts advance screenings for Living Room’s Movie Club. (FAU.livingroomtheaters.com)
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Speaking of festivals, the first Boca Black Film Festival comes to the Boca Marriott, July 17-19. Picking up where the defunct Miami Black Film Fest left off, “Boca Black” is the creation of writer and filmmaker Lizabeth Martin. Since she’s a professor at Palm Beach State College, she’s also created a fast-track prep school for aspiring movie makers, with seminars on such topics as copyright protection, acting basics and product placement. (www.bocablackfilm.org)
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Nothing academic, however, about Swedefest Palm Beach. Nothing to do with Bergmann or Max Von Sydow, either — it’s the ultimate in bad. “Swedes” are three-minute, no-budget remakes of Hollywood films that will be screened at the Borland Center at Midtown in Palm Beach Gardens on Aug. 2. Tickets are $8 in advance, $9 at the door. A limited number of VIP tickets come with special seating and a VIP lanyard. (swedefestpalmbeach.com)
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Delray Square Cinema, at the northeast corner of Military Trail and Atlantic, was one of two multiplexes in town where the projectors went dark this year. But the well-traveled Gary Waldman and Jamison Troutman saw the light. In February, “Cinema” became “Performing Arts Center,” opening with Sounds of Simon, their tried-and-true musical based on Paul Simon’s songs. Now they’re back with another musical with New York underpinnings, The Life. A bit saltier than Simon, this chronicle of Times Square in the ’70s and ’80s plays at least through July 27.
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The titles for the first two productions of the 2014-15 season for the Delray Beach Playhouse’s Studio Theatre certainly pique local interest: Lunch at Costco and Condo Mania. One involves gossip over a 12-roll pack of paper towels and the other examines unexpected events between water aerobics and mahjong at La Vida Boca-Delray. The first main-stage production (Oct. 11-26) will be a bit edgier … Wait Until Dark. (delraybeachplayhouse.com)
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Up in Manalapan, Plaza Theatre will be filled with town sounds — Wonderful Town, On the Town, West Side Story — with Bernstein on Broadway (July 10-27), while around the corner at its new cabaret, John Lariviere will perform the songs of Johnny Mercer (July 12, 14, 19 and 21 at 7:30, and July 13 and 20 at 5).
Due to popular demand …
Across the bridge and I-95, the School Board has magnetized Boynton Beach High School with an arts program for 300 students who want to pursue intense instruction in dance, music and theater. The board hopes the program will provide an opportunity for South County students who passed auditions for Dreyfoos School of the Arts but missed out in the lottery for available desks.
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No need for FAU performing arts students to leave campus in search of summer gigs: They have Festival Rep, a performance series that highlights the school’s stellar theater and music programs.
August: Osage County, a play by Tracy Letts before it became a movie, continues through July 26 at the Studio One Theatre while Bonnie & Clyde, a musical drama that played Broadway in late 2011, runs July 5-27 in the University Theatre. Also at the UT: 352 Keys: Piano Gala Extravaganza! Aug. 1 and big band concerts by the FAU Swing Era Jazz Band, Aug. 2 and 3. (www.fauevents.com)
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Peripatetic pop/folk/rocker Rod MacDonald has headed north for the summer, but not before finishing two new albums. Later That Night, 16 solo songs recorded in legendary Woodstock, was released May 1, followed by Big Tent with Bob Dylan cover band Big Brass Bed — 12 rock covers, including six Dylan songs and three by Rod.
Rod returns in mid-August. He’ll play The Living Room in Boynton on the 15th, and in October, he’ll resume his lectures/concerts at FAU’s Lifelong Learning Center.
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Latin percusssionist Tito Puente Jr. headlines at the Arts Garage for two shows, July 18-19. Photo provided
At ArtsGarage, Ring of Fire, The Johnny Cash Musical, runs through July 17 and on nights when Cash doesn’t walk the line, catch the likes of jazz guitarist Nate Najar (July 5), Jazzrats (July 17), Tito Puente Jr. (July 18, 19), fusion guitarists Aaron Lebos (July 25) and Diego Figueiredo with Rose Max (July 26), jazz pianist Gianni Luciano Bianchini (July 31) and more of the same into the fall. (artsgarage.org)
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Boca’s Town Center may have lost Legal Seafood, but on June 9 it picked up Shrimp House, the third in a chain run by Brazil-based Vivenda do Camarao. The grand opening attracted 200 guests including Boca Mayor Susan Haynie and Brazil’s consul general to Miami, Helio Ramos. Vivenda President Carlo Barbieri hopes to be in 30 Florida malls by the end of 2015.
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The folks who run The Backyard in Boynton Beach refuse to be deterred by a tragedy last year that stunned regulars at the open-air bar and nightspot. Owner Jimmy Hall has some big moves in store for properties he owns along North Federal.
“We want to bring business to a city that has the potential and the drive to be another Delray or Boca,” Backyard GM Matt King said. A beauty salon and a dog groomer have already moved in. Coming soon: The Hangar, a steakhouse that resembles an old airplane hangar.
The March 2013 incident finally has seen some resolution. Brothers Vakhtang and Alexandre Magradze were seen offering to buy drinks for two women customers and became abusive when they were refused. When another customer, Ryan Gill, tried to assist the women, Vakhtang Magradze allegedly stabbed him repeatedly. He also allegedly stabbed two employees and attacked a responding police officer. Gill died at Bethesda Hospital.
The brothers, citizens of the Republic of Georgia, were arrested. Alexandre was charged with disorderly conduct and posted bond. Vakhtang was jailed on a second-degree murder charge. Trial was set for last September, then postponed as competency tests were ordered.
Finally on May 9, based on reports from two court-appointed psychiatrists, Judge Joseph Marx ruled that Vakhtang was not competent to stand trial. Marx committed him to the Treasure Coast Forensic Treatment Center in Indiantown, which houses and treats individuals with psychological and competency problems. The center, incidentally, is run by the controversial for-profit GEO Group in Boca Raton.
Magradze’s status will be reviewed in November.
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From bummer to beautiful. Robert Thompson just wanted some dinner with some fellow vets at the Old Key Lime House in Lantana. But an assistant manager, who didn’t differentiate between gang colors and Thompson’s “Legion Riders” vest, was curt: Take it off or leave, house rules.
The 20-year Navy vet protested, was rebuffed and finally removed the vest and ate. But later he took his case to Facebook and within hours, sympathizers had posted a “Protest Key Lime House in Lantana, FL” page and were organizing drive-by protests at the popular restaurant. The restaurant’s management quickly offered an apology … and much more. Old Key Lime House and cycle-riding attorney Gabriel Cabrera each donated $500 to Heroes Entering Life’s Opportunities Foundation and to Military Heroes Support Foundation. A date hasn’t been set, but Old Key Lime House will host a special event and donate $5 to vet support groups for each attending veteran and supporter.
Restaurant manager Katherine Kenyon used the “teachable moment” to educate staffers and review the house rules: The “no colors” sign is gone; all guests are welcome as long as they behave. As for that assistant manager: he was suspended… without pay.
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Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Newsmax, the West Palm Beach-based conservative rival to Fox News, has taken over 50,000 square feet of the 750@Park building in the Boca Park of Commerce to house its cable TV operations. As the fall campaign picks up steam and candidates seek good press and endorsements, traffic is certain to pick up from Boca Airport to the new digs. And it’s possible, after leaving the airport, to make the trip with only right turns.
Thom Smith is a freelance writer. Contact him at thomsmith@ymail.com.
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