Obviously, I’m slipping, failing, negligent, remiss, slipshod, slapdash and haphazard; I failed to write about In the Heights which has been running at Coral Gables’ Miracle.
Moreover, I also neglected to cover Fela at the Arsht. These are two shows I was lucky and wise enough to catch in NYC a few years ago, but I have egg on my face. With appreciation to March Madness and the mighty UM Hurricanes, I have committed egregious turnovers. I must respond and recover.
As luck would have it, I am delighted that I am not too late to mention jazz giant Diana Krall who is coming to the Arsht Center on April 2 as part of the Live at the Knight series, nor crazy dance god Savion Glover who will grace the stage on April 6. But this column is dedicated to something perhaps more mundane: The weekly Wednesday 8 p.m. SoundScape Cinema Series @ExoStage on the Beach at the New World Center at 17th Street and Washington Avenue.
A small aside here: Miami has a way of naming things in the most dreadfully cumbersome ways doesn’t it? The Miami Art Museum becoming the PAMM — Perez Art Museum Miami — lots of tension in the Art World about this don’t you know? By the way, you will be able to get to PAMM by driving, I suppose, from sections of the Ronald Reagan Turnpike, the Don Facundo Bacardi Maso Way, Jose Ferrer Street and Jorge Mas Canosa Boulevard, all sections which cross or touch Biscayne Boulevard.
If you have lived in Miami, have a massive ego and have either money, friends or power, there is a chance that something — a road, a school, a museum — is named after you or a cousin.
With this detour in mind, officially, the SoundScape Cinema series is an Arts in the Parks program presented by the City of Miami Beach. The free SoundScape Cinema Series is presented generously by the Marilyn and Edward Gadinsky Charitable Foundation. Naming rights! What’s in a name? A Dolphins Stadium by any other name would still smell as badly. Don’t get me started on sports stadiums! Okay, back to the story.
For the past year or so, the SoundScape on Miami Beach has been screening all sorts of fine outdoor fare with an eye toward the masses both young and old. For example, The Avengers began this year’s series, followed by The Devil Wears Prada, Academy Award winner The Artist, and then The Hunger Games. Mel Brooks’ 1974 Young Frankenstein was shown on Halloween and Singin’ in the Rain two weeks later. You just missed Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but right after you read this, on March 27 My Fair Lady screens and the following day is Mr. Lee’s The Life of Pi. At the end of April, Titanic will play heralding, I suppose, the beginning of the rainy season.
Mind you, SoundScape is no ordinary theatrical experience. It is outdoors on the expansive New World Symphony’s lawn not far from the beach, across the way from the Fillmore, the old Jackie Gleason Theater, and everything is free. The screen is massive, the sound is great and you can bring a bottle of Malbec to drink with your Orville Redenbacher while you lay back on a blanket or a lawn chair.
Carl Rachelson is a teacher at Palmer Trinity School and a regular contributor to the Pinecrest Tribune. He may be contacted by addressing email to crachelson@palmertrinity.org
