Hilarity on the High Seas

“The Pirates!” Skewers the Myths By Skip Sheffield The most entertaining movie out this weekend is an animated feature aimed at a younger audience. “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” is the title, and it blows away anything in Disney’s shallow “Pirates of the Caribbean” series. “The Pirates” has a screenplay by British author Gideon Dafoe, who may or may not be related to famous author who created “Robinson Crusoe.” It’s a cool name regardless, and Defoe has authored four books so far skewering and spoofing the myths and conventions of pirates. The movie is based loosely on the first book, “The Pirates! An Adventure with Scientists,” which explains how Charles Darwin, Queen Victoria and an extinct flightless bird can be worked into the same plot. Educated adults will also discover references to Karl Marx, Napoleon, Jane Austen and Charles Merrick the “Elephant Man.” Clearly this Columbia-Sony Animated collaboration is not a children’s film, though it can be enjoyed as such. Hugh Grant heads a cast of celebrity voices as the Pirate Captain, a vain, bumbling but lovable leader of a motley crew of misfits on the high seas in the year 1837. The Captain has the requisite luxuriant beard. He wields a gleaming cutlass, dines on ham and swigs grog with his mates, but he is not doing so well in the booty department. Amassing the largest amount of booty- treasure to you landlubbers- is key to winning the coveted Pirate of the Year competition the Pirate captain has failed to win in more than 20 years of trying. It’s an overblown extravaganza that is kind of a cross between a Miss America pageant and American Idol. The Captain faces stiff competition from Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven), Peg Leg Hastings (Lenny Henry), Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) and the Elvis-like Pirate King himself (Brian Blessed). A chance encounter with famed Origin of the Species explorer-scientist Charles Darwin leads to a realization the Captain may have something more valuable than silver or gold. Bonus points to those who spot right away what kind of bird the Captain’s loyal, pudgy Polly is. The discovery will take the captain and his crew of stereotypical pirates (none has a proper name) to London and an encounter with Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton) and Darwin’s ingenious, sign-flipping mute monkey BoBo. The plot description is nowhere near as funny as the actual execution. “The Pirates!” is rife with absurd modern references that add to its clever, wacky, smart-aleck appeal. A Not-So-Hot "Five-Year Engagement On the other hand we have the “adult” comedy “Five-Year Engagement,” which is really more juvenile than grown-up. Jason Segal, who also co-wrote the script with director Nicolas Stoller, stars as Tom Solomon, a San Francisco sous chef who yearns to have a restaurant of his own. Emily Blunt is his patient, brainy fiancée, Violet Barnes. The film begins with Tom’s romantic rooftop proposal to Violet with the Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop. From there it goes downhill after Violet enrolls in grad school at the University of Michigan and Tom follows. “Five-Year Engagement” is another raunchy, vulgar Judd Apatow production. If it weren’t for delicate, lovely Emily Blunt, it would have no class at all. Sure, there are some laughs, but they are the crude, snickering kind. The movie goes on far too long. We get it already. Romantic relationships are hard to maintain, especially when partners are on divergent paths. “Monsieur Lazhar” a Melancholy Valentine for Teachers “Monsieur Lazhar” is a heartfelt class act about the joy of teaching, the pain of loss and the difficulties of dislocation. Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag) is a recent Algerian immigrant to French-speaking Montreal. The story begins with a shocking tableau of a teacher’s apparent suicide in her own classroom. The students are traumatized and in a state of shock. The school’s principal is a rigid, politically-correct worrywart. In fact the whole school is rigidly politically-correct and mandatorily feminist. Into this situation comes Monsieur Lazhar, who volunteers his services as substitute teacher when no one else will. Lazhar has a natural knack for teaching and relating to children, but inevitably he will run afoul of school policy and his own difficult situation. “Monsieur Lazhar” has beautiful, moving performances by its juvenile actors and convincing portrayals by the adults. It is a melancholy salute to education in a changing world.

Houdini Lives Again in Miami

Harry Houdini Makes a Limited Appearance in Miami By Skip Sheffield “Death and Harry Houdini” makes the round-trip from Boca Raton to Miami entirely worthwhile, because through May 20, the only place you can see this amazing show is the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. “Houdini” is a play with music, magic, comedy and a great sense of history, written and directed by Nathan Allen of the House Theatre of Chicago. The playwright-director himself introduced “Houdini,” which is a collaborative effort developed over the past ten years. It is a technically complex show, yet the cast and crew in Miami made it look easy; even Houdini’s most famous and dangerous trick, the escape from the “Water Torture Cell” locked under water, upside down. Harry Houdini (1874-1926) was the greatest escape artist of all time, and during the earliest part of the 20th century, the highest-paid performer in vaudeville. There was a lot more to Houdini the man, which the audience learns in the exposition of the play. Houdini, played by award-winning magician Dennis Watkins, was born Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary, the son of a rabbi. The family emigrated to America; first to Wisconsin and later to New York City. Houdini began as a brothers act with younger brother Theodore (Shawn Pfautsch). When a showgirl named Bess (Carolyn Defrin) danced into his life, she became his onstage partner and assistant. There was a great love between Harry and Bess, but there was a third part to a triangle: Harry’s mother Cecilia (Marika Mashburn), whom he adored. In fact you could call Houdini a mama’s boy. Mashburn plays the scowling matriarch to great comic effect. Each of the supporting cast serves as a musician and onstage assistant on the illusions that are performed as part of the show. They include a Ringmaster, played by Johnny Arena, a Death figure who doubles as a rival magician (Kevin Stangler) and two female ensemble members (Abu Ansari and Trista Smith). Houdini was not only one of the greatest magicians who ever lived; he also debunked fraudulent magicians and so-called spiritualists. Yet Houdini was convinced there is an “other side” in which it could be possible to communicate with the dead. A subtheme of the play is the defeat of the inevitability of death. Houdini inevitably did die at the young age of 52 in 1926, but America and the world are richer for his artistry and imagination. My brother Richard and I have a special fondness for Houdini, as our paternal grandfather used to tell us how he saw Houdini perform live when he was a young man, executing his famed escape from chains underwater in the Hudson River. You don’t have to be that kind of special fan, but “Houdini” is wonderful entertainment for anyone who enjoys amazement and surprise. Tickets start at $40. Call 305-949-6722 or go to www.arshtcenter.org.

Biscuit Blues in Boca

A First “Biscuit Fest” at Funky Biscuit Boca Raton


By Skip Sheffield

The blues blossom in downtown Boca this Thursday, April 12 through Saturday, April 14 at the first “Biscuit Fest,” to be held at the Funky Biscuit at Royal Palm Place.
Featured acts are Room Full of Blues with David Shelley & Bluestone Thursday; The Lee Boys with Michael Allman and the Funky Biscuit All-Stars Friday and Jimmy Thackery & the Drivers with Sistah Mary Beth Saturday.
“We’ve been doing well with jazz at the Funky Biscuit,” said manager-partner Al Poliak. “We want to be known as the source for all kinds of popular music in Boca: blues, funk, jazz and jam bands. This will be our biggest show with the biggest names yet. We hope to offer even more variety next year”
Room Full of Blues is one of the longest-running acts in blues music. The group was founded in Rhode Island in 1967 and has played continuously with a changing cast of characters (more than 50 musicians so far) playing driving, horn-based power blues.
Singer Phil Pemberton is one of the newest members of the club, having joined two and a half years ago.
“The band last visited South Florida in 2006, but I have never been there,” Pemberton reveals. “Those are my vocals on the latest album, ‘Hook, Line and Sinker.’ We wanted to get something out quickly, so we mostly did classic covers.”
Room Full of Blues are the very definition of road warriors. They are riding all the way from New England to Boca Raton on their tour bus.
“Our bus is not the newest or the nicest, but I can say I sleep in the same bunk Sugar Blue used to sleep,” jokes Pemberton. “Last year we played the King Biscuit blues festival. Now we are looking forward to the Funky Biscuit.”
The Lee Boys and Jimmy Thackery are personal favorites of Al Poliak.
“The Lee Boys are out of Florida- a really powerful gospel-funk group,” Poliak explains. “Jimmy Thackery is a good friend of mine. We come from the same Maryland-D.C. area. As a guitarist, he rules.”
Tickets are $35 for all three days or $15 advance, $18 at the door for Room Full of Blues and Jimmy Thackery or $12 advance, $15 at the door for the Lee Boys. Call 561-395-2929 or go to www.funkybiscuit.com.

A “Younger Than Springtime” South Pacific

“South Pacific” is one of those evergreen Rodgers and Hammerstein classics that will never go out of style.
The roadshow production at Broward Center through April 22 hits all the right notes, with a perfect balance of comedy, drama and social commentary, but there are a couple of casting quirks.
Uruguayan Marcelo Guzzo has the requisite operatic baritone and regal presence as French expatriate Emile de Becque, but he is considerably younger than some of his illustrious predecessors in the role. The actors I have seen playing the role have all appeared to be in their late 50s to early 60s. Guzzo’s de Becque states at one point he is an “old man” of 44.
That makes him much closer in age to Jennie Sophia’s Ensign Nellie Forbush, who is supposed to be younger by at least 20 years than the haunted French widower.
Sophia was having a little trouble with the consistency of her “hick from the sticks” Arkansas accent but her singing is wonderful.
The two children who play de Becque’s Polynesian children look more African than South Pacific native, which adds a sharper edge to Nellie’s inherent racism, prompting the sarcastic “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught.”
These are minor quibbles actually. Christopher Marriner leads a fine cast of comically lovesick Sea Bees. Shane Donovan has a lovely tenor that accents the yearning of his Lt. Cable for the exquisite Tonkanese girl Liat (Hsin-Yu Liao). Hannah Isabel Bautista really runs away with the comic role of Liat’s crazy mom, Bloody Mary. We really do believe this woman is chewing betel nuts and getting high all the time.
So laugh with “101 Pounds of Fun” and swoon with “Some Enchanted Evening’ and “This Nearly Was Mine.” It is perfectly all right.
Tickets start at $25.25. Call 954-462-0222 or go to www.browardcenter.org.

Parents Take Note of "Bully"

“Bully” a Stern, Emotional Warning About the Dark Side of Childhood

By Skip Sheffield

If you are a parent, “Bully” could be the most important film you see all year.
“Bully” is a documentary film made by award-winning filmmaker Lee Hirsch over the course of a school year in five different locations, focusing on five victims of bullying.
Bullies are nothing new. Facing a bully is considered a rite of passage by many. The biggest problem is that when you are born different or you develop in a less than conventional way you can become a target.
All five of the five subjects are different in different ways. The most obvious example is a kid named Alex, 14, from Iowa. He wears thick glasses and has a flattened nose, receding chin and protruding buck teeth. Alex freely admits the kids call him “Fish Face.” He seems resigned to a life of ridicule and harassment. We learn in the course of the film that Alex was born prematurely after just 26 weeks of gestation. He wasn’t expected to live more than a day.
In a fair and just world people would be understanding and sympathetic to such a challenged, strange-looking boy.
The world is not just or fair, and children can be the cruelest of all.
Alex is one of the stronger ones. Seventeen-year-old Tyler Long of Georgia and 11-year old Ty Field-Smalley of Oklahoma committed suicide out of despair. We see them only in home videos.
Ja’Meya, a 14-year-old Mississippi girl, became so enraged by the constant bullying on her school bus that one day she stole her mother’s pistol and threatened to shoot her tormenters. She was charged with 26 felony accounts.
Kelby is an openly gay 16-year-old girl from gay-unfriendly Oklahoma. Her way of coping is to hang out with outsiders like her.
Director Hirsch was granted amazing access to school rooms, halls and most notoriously, school buses. No one looks forward to a long bus ride. That’s when tempers flare and bullies go about their dirty work. We see kids harassing, hitting and insulting other kids in full view of the bus driver’s rear-view mirror.
Perhaps something has broken down since I had to ride a bus every day from Boca Raton almost to Boynton Beach. If any rough-housing went on, the driver would pull over immediately and threaten the perpetrators with reprisal. In case after case in “Bully” we see teachers, principals and bus drivers turning a blind eye, or minimizing aggressive behavior.
There will always be bullies. This is a sad fact of life. What “Bully’ does is show it has reached a new level of epidemic. My favorite kid in the film was a little guy who said you just have to face a bully, even if you get beat up.
It was a lesson I learned as a wee lad. Bullies are by nature cowards, and they act out of feelings of inferiority. If a child, regardless of age or size can muster the courage to call their bluff, it can work wonders. Meanwhile, this film serves as a warning something is wrong, and we can’t just ignore it.

A Delightful "Delicacy" from France

“Delicacy” a Delightful Bonbon from France

By Skip Sheffield


“Delicacy” is the perfect title for a delicious French bonbon of a romance, starring delectable Audrey Tautou (“Amalie”).
Tautou plays Nathalie, successful Paris business executive madly in love with her husband Francois (Pio Marmai). When Francois dies tragically in a car accident, Nathalie plunges into depression and obsession with work.
Directed by brothers David and Stephane Foenkinos and based on David Foenkinos’ novel.’ “Delicacy” jumps ahead three years with Nathalie still in mourning and disinterested in romance.
Nathalie’s egotistical boss Charles (Bruno Toeschini) thinks he can move in on the attractive young widow so he confidently wines and dines her. There is one problem: he is already married.
Suddenly and impulsively one day in the office, Nathalie plants a big kiss on Markus (French comic star Francois Damiens) a shy co-worker from Sweden. Markus is stunned and confused and Nathalie is a bit embarrassed. Why did she do that? Markus is balding, pudgy and not particularly graceful or attractive. Yet slowly, tentatively they begin a relationship that is bound to lead to romance.
“Delicacy” is a movie for those cockeyed optimists who think anything is possible in love. Tautou has played this role of irresistible gamine before, but she does it so well.
The real achievement is Francois Damiens’ transformation from shy nebbish to virile leading man. “Delicacy’ may be a trifle, but it is oh so tasty.

Nicolas Cage Seeks Vengeance in “Seeking Justice”

The good news about “Seeking Justice” is that it is not the worst film Nicolas Cage has ever made. Cage has toned down his characteristic macho bravado and inserted a vulnerability as Will Gerard, a tweedy New Orleans high school English teacher married to the voluptuous Laura (January Jones).
But one fateful night after a theater rehearsal Laura is accosted, brutally beaten up and raped.
Will is beside himself with rage and sorrow. When a mysterious stranger named Simon (Guy Pearce) appears at the hospital and indicates he can do something about the perpetrator, a serial rapist, Will is intrigued. Unwisely, he is persuaded to have Simon and his shadowy group “take care of” the rapist. All Simon asks is perhaps “a little favor” down the way. What is that favor? Don’t even ask.
Aussie director Roger Donaldson (“The Bank Job”) knows his way around a crime thriller. Guy Pearce utilizes his considerable stage presence to communicate an air of growing menace and foreboding. We just know that Will is getting more than what he bargained for, so we are not surprised when his world begins to deconstruct.
Vengeance films have long been a staple of Hollywood fantasy. For people frustrated buy the legal and penal system, they are a welcome release. I am no fans of such films, but this one is pretty effective. Just don’t take it too seriously.

Whither Haiti

Haiti on a Wing and a Prayer

By Skip Sheffield

Never before had I been on an airline flight in which the pilot said, ‘Do you mind if we have a moment of prayer?’ before takeoff.
Mission Aviation Fellowship is no ordinary airline. It consists of fervent Christians, many of them pilots, whose mission is to take missionaries to places they might not otherwise reach. Michael, our pilot, is also a pastor. He has been in Haiti five years. He is truly on a mission from God.
Haiti is no ordinary country. It is the world’s first and only nation founded by slaves who overthrew their masters. It is the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere, and it has been even more impoverished since a devastating earthquake struck the capitol city of Port-Au-Prince on Jan. 12, 2010.
Seven of us departed for Haiti March 5 on an American Airlines flight to Port-Au-Prince, the nation’s capitol. Our mission was to meet with teachers and students of the Christian School of New Vision in northern Haiti. There was one pastor, Tom Tift, and three laymen from First United Methodist Church of Boca Raton. Going to teach the teachers were three staff members of Toussaint L’Overture School in Delray Beach, including the school’s co-founder, Dr. Dianne Allerdyce.
Signs of the earthquake two years ago are still evident everywhere. Our first stop was Grace Children’s Hospital, which was so badly damaged the main structure was deemed unsafe and is in the process of demolition. As soon as the rubble is removed construction will begin on a new children’s hospital. Meanwhile life goes on in makeshift quarters. The Haitian people are both hardy and resourceful. They are also very patient and used to endless government red tape and delays. It is largely through the generosity of American and Canadian donors that schools, orphanages and clinics are being maintained in Haiti.
Christian School of New Vision was founded in 1995 by Ludner St. Amour, 40, a gregarious, cheerful and devout son of a farmer in the mountainous region of northern Haiti.
The main campus of CSNV is in the small town of La Jeune. The school has three satellite branches in the rural communities of Sylvain, Donne and Hide.
Our first stop was Sylvain, not far from the tiny Pignon air strip. Villagers were pumping water from a well constructed through donations from Boca Raton. The “school” is not much more than a shed with a tin roof. As if by magic children began to materialize and fill the hand-hewn benches. Our task was to identify and photograph students for sponsorship in the USA.
It was a short ride to La Jeune, but in reality no ride in Haiti is short. Outside the cities the roads are not paved and are pocked with huge ruts and wash-outs. Ludner drives a 4-wheel drive Toyota pickup made possible by American donations. There are very few 4-wheel vehicles in rural Haiti. Far more common are little Chinese motorcycles. Rarely is there just one rider. I counted as many as five on one motorcycle.
The campus of CSNV La Jeune is high-grade by local standards, with concrete buildings housing as many as 600 students from the outlying areas. The school has its own well and gravity-fed running water. The buildings are wired for lights and computers, but municipal electric lines have not yet reached the school. A large John Deere generator can power the entire school, but diesel fuel is so expensive Ludner can afford to run the power only two or three hours in the early evening, with lights out at 9:30 p.m.
Twenty-five to 30 orphans live on the CSNV campus. They have been rescued from the tent city slums of Port-Au-Prince. Rescuing orphans is an ongoing effort for Ludner and people like him. Upwards to 1 million Haitians were rendered homeless by the earthquake. Haitians do not trust the police or their own government. The educational and medical work that is going on is largely funded by America church organizations.
“The government is demanding customs charges for donations made in America,” explains Ludner. “We have a container filled with sewing machines still sitting on the dock since December because the government wants $4,000 Haitian dollars to release it.”
Public schools are an iffy prospect in the outback.
“Sometimes children walk to school only to discover there is only one teacher or no teacher at all,” Ludner says. “The public school teachers are very overworked and classes crowded.”
A strict regimen is followed at CSNV. All students wear crisp pale green uniforms. There is an assembly every morning at 7 a.m. The Haitian flag is raised and the national anthem sung. Tardiness is not tolerated.
The task of educating Haitian children seems overwhelming. People have not been taught the simplest rules of health and hygiene. At the clinic we visited in Pignon there were posters encouraging people to wash their hands; part of a national campaign.
Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Since declaring its independence in 1803 the country has been mismanaged by its leaders and mistreated by other nations. Yet there is an undying “joie de vivre” amongst the Haitian people. Parts of northern Haiti are no more advanced than a typical African village, yet the people are happy and hopeful for a better life.
There is a new breed of tourist in Haiti. They are not tourists at all. The waiting room at the Port-Au-Prince was jammed with mission people, many of them college age. Instead of partying for Spring Break, many young people have chosen to volunteer in Haiti.
Haiti will never be like America. It has its own proud history and culture. What Americans can do is lend expertise and material assistance so that Haitians can help themselves. The will is there. With a little help they will find the way.

Note: If anyone is moved to donate, CSNV's American address is LCW-CSNV-Haiti Project,
Powell TN 37849, or call First United Methodist Boca Raton at 561-395-1244.

The Joy of "Working"

Celebrate “Working” at Caldwell Theatre Company

By Skip Sheffield

Is there anything more universal that work?
Other than eating, sleeping and breathing, probably not. Since 99 percent of us must work at something or other, why not celebrate that fact?
That in a nutshell is the musical “Working,” running through April 1 at Caldwell Theatre Company.
“Working” is a robust, energetic show, based on the book by Studs Terkel (1912-2008), a Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago radio and print journalist who spent the best part of his life chronicling the joys, trials and sorrows of the workers of the world.
Stephen Schwartz, composer of “Godspell” and “Wicked,” created “Working” in 1977 with Nina Faso. The Caldwell production is a revamped and updated version of the show that debuted at the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota in 2008.
There are six members in the cast, representing various segments of American society (and one Indian tech guy in Mumbai), under the direction of Clive Cholerton.
The songs are an eclectic lot, composed by Schwartz and a half-dozen other songwriters.
Jim Ballard is a beefy, hairy guy who excels at such manly pursuits as trucker, cop, firefighter and stone mason. Michael Focas, a recent graduate of FAU, plays more white-collar roles. Musical theater veteran Barry Tarallo plays older characters such as wistful “Joe,” but is wonderfully evergreen in the ballad “The Mason” (with Jim Ballad), accompanied by himself on guitar.
If I had to pick a favorite in the female cast it would be Melissa Minyard, simply because she is so lovely, with beautiful soprano to match, so poignant in “Just a Housewife.”
For sheer power, Kareema Khouri wins hands-down with her gospel-infused delivery and such blue-collar heroes as “Cleanin’ Woman.”
Laura Holdos has her moment to shine on “Nobody Tells Me How” about the perils of teaching in an ever deteriorating school system.
“Working” is performed with economy in just 90 minutes, no intermission, backed by a lively onstage trio.
Caldwell Theatre has been a cultural treasure for more than 35 years. It certainly deserves your support; now more than ever before.
Tickets are $27-$50. Call 561-241-7432 or go to www.caldwelltheatre.com.

“Sweet Charity” at Sugar Sand Park

Margot Moreland stars in the Boca Raton Theatre Guild production of the musical “Sweet Charity’ through March 18 in the Willow Theatre of Sugar Sand Park, 300 S. Military trail, Boca Raton. Carbonell award-winning Moreland belts such numbers as “Hey Big Spender” and “If They Could See Me Now,” in a beloved score that won the show a Best Musical Tony Award. Playing her best boyfriend is Jeffrey Bruce, with an all-professional supporting cast. Tickets are just $20 and may be reserved by calling 561-347-3948.

Sixth Festival of the Arts Boca Kicks Off March 7
The sixth annual Festival of the Arts Boca Raton kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 7 with a concert by the world-renowned Spanish tenor, Jose Carreras at Mizner Park Amphitheater. Performing at 7:30 p.m. Thursday will be Alfredo Rodriguez and his trio. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 9 it’s the romantic classic movie “Casablanca” with live accompaniment by the Boca Raton Symphonia orchestra.
Individual tickets are $20-$100 Call 866-571-ARTS or go to www.festivaloftheartsboca.org.