Recent Articles for the St. Petersburg Times

[ Use your browser's back button to return from linked "full text" pages. ]

Theater Review, 24 July 2008

Brothers' battle misses the point

     SARASOTA -- Maybe Florida in late July is not the right time and place to attempt a Sam Shepard play. It's too hot and the soggy air's too heavy to work up the nuanced emotional nitro that makes his characters tick. Or maybe in True West Banyan Theater Company simply bit off more than it could chew. Whatever the case, I believed scarcely a minute of what transpired on stage opening night in the Jane B. Cook Theater.
[ full text ]

Travel, 5 July 2008

For Wine Lovers in Manhattan
Bar Boulud, The Bar Room at The Modern, Morrell Wine Bar and Casa Mono

     NEW YORK CITY -- A good wine bar is a feast for all the senses, combining superior cooking, an exceptional array of fine wines by the glass and the bottle, and warm, expert service in a setting worthy of the food and drink. Manhattan has them in abundance. We've chosen four standouts for their proximity to temples of music, art, pop culture and indie movies.
[ full text ]

Bay Magazine (published by the Times), June 2008

Liquid Assets

     You are about to meet two collectors of fine wines. Their motive is not profit, although that might well come their way. What drives them is the thrill of the chase, the camaraderie of winemakers and other collectors, the pleasure of sharing their treasures with friends.
[ full text ]

Theater Review, 20 May 2008

'Working' is a job well done

      Asolo Repertory Theatre and composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz, with a helping hand from Broadway phenom Lin-Manuel Miranda, gave author Studs Terkel a fine gift when they unwrapped their potent update of Working: A Musical on Friday, the legendary Chicagoan's 96th birthday.
[ full text ]

Theater Preview, 11 May 2008

Asolo Repertory Theatre presents 'Working: A Musical'

      Studs Terkel first thought turning his 1974 oral history Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do into a musical was a crazy idea. Stephen Schwartz, lyricist and composer for Broadway smashes such as Wicked, Pippin and Godspell, disagreed.
[ full text ]

Theater Preview, 16 March 2008

'Producers' star steps into 'Spamalot' role

      It's good to be king, whatever it pays. Or so Mel Brooks told us long ago. But is it true? We put the question to Broadway star Gary Beach, who this week takes the stage at Ruth Eckerd Hall as King Arthur in Monty Python's Spamalot.
[ full text ]

Theater Review, 11 March 2008

To its own self 'Hamlet' is true

      Theatergoers would be hard-pressed to find a livelier, more satisfying Hamlet than the "tragedy by velocity" now at American Stage.
[ full text ]

Theater Preview, 2 March 2008

Hamlet's revenge gets a reboot

      The shirtless young man, alone in his room, broods over his laptop, at once connected and isolated. He is mourning his murdered father and trying to decide whether he believes the murderer is his uncle, who has since married the young man's mother and moved into the family home, usurping his dead father's rightful place.
[ full text ]

Concert Preview, 21 February 2008

Tampa Bay Symphony features celebrated guitarist Parris

      Joachin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez is one of those pieces of music everybody knows, yet hardly anyone can name. The Spanish composer's 1940 masterpiece seems to be everywhere. It has ornamented movie soundtracks. Jazzman Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain echoes it. It's even been heard in television commercials.
[ full text ]

Theater Review, 10 January 2008

This 'Play' is a rollicking good time

      SARASOTA - The Play's The Thing is a tasty little bonbon. It also is a theatrical shaggy dog story and a showcase for actors who enjoy going over the top when the role demands it.
[ full text ]

Theater Review, 6 January 2008

Humans adrift on an ocean of 'Doubt'

      SARASOTA -- The single syllable Doubt not only titles John Patrick Shanley's challenging Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, it also serves as a perfect one-word synopsis.
[ full text ]

Theater Review, 16 December 2007

'Wife' is a constant delight

      SARASOTA -- With the first line of The Constant Wife, even those of us who never knew them long for the days of drawing room wit, lovely manners and conversation as deadly weapon.
[ full text ]

Travel, 2 December 2007

City to the south

     SARASOTA -- Looking for a weekend getaway that combines the pleasure of saltwater cruising with a destination worth the fuel? Then steer a course for Intracoastal Waterway Marker 8A, where you'll find full-service overnight slips for boats from 30 to 200 feet at Marina Jack and, a short walk due east, a marvelous mash-up of international cuisines.
[ full text ]

Art Review, 25 November 2007

Goya's Los Caprichos

     SARASOTA -- With a 1799 first edition of Francisco Goya's 80-engraving series Los Caprichos (variously glossed as The Caprices, The Whims or The Fantasies), the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art has brought a treasure to the area.
[ full text ]

Art Review, 28 October 2007

A photographic memory

     TAMPA -- Always there is the unibrow, as delicate as moth wings or raptor fierce, almost as famous as the Gioconda smile, instantly recognizable as the emblem of the Mexican painter and cult figure enshrined in "Frida Kahlo: Images of an Icon" at the Tampa Museum of Art.
[ full text ]

Art Review (sidebar to review above), 28 October 2007

Images turn everyday life into art

     If your visit with Frida Kahlo in Tampa left you craving just one more image of La Frida, you'll find it in "Poetry of the Commonplace: A Selection of Latin American Photographs" at the Museum of Fine Arts.
[ full text ]

Travel, 9 September 2007

You don't have to wait for the DVD

     NEW YORK -- In Woody Allen's classic Annie Hall, the documentary The Sorrow and The Pity seems always to be playing somewhere in New York, apparently migrating overnight and popping up afresh at another art house every morning. In these days of corporate ownership of the local multiplex, this conceit would only work in Manhattan, where the art house not only lives but thrives.
[ full text ]

Travel, 2 September 2007

Kingdom of the horse

     LEXINGTON, KY -- Keeneland Race Course is as much about friendliness and genuine hospitality as it is about Thoroughbred racing at its best. Its 921 acres of barns, dogwoods, maples, rolling bluegrass pasture and meticulously maintained racing and training ovals are a hymn to horse culture and tradition.
[ full text ]

Restaurant Review, 22 February 2007

Fine dining at the bar

     There should be more to a really good restaurant than impeccable cooking and flawless service. As Mario Batali proved conclusively at Babbo in New York, the modern culinary temple must feature a bar where the mood is relaxed, the service smart and intimate, and the grazing first-rate.
[ full text ]

Restaurant Review, 18 January 2007

Cuisines mingle at island oasis

     TAMPA -- The proprietors of Chateau Prive at St. Bart's Island House lack neither ambition nor confidence.
[ full text ]