No Place on Earth" a Survival test

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“No Place on Earth” a Place to Survive

“No Place on Earth” is as serious as “Big Wedding” is silly. This is a true story of surviving the Holocaust in a remote corner of western Ukraine, underground, for a year and a half..

In 1942, when Germany invaded Russia, the Ukraine was part of the USSR. Esther Stermer was a mother determined to survive with her children at any cost. She and fellow Ukrainian Jews discovered the passageway to a large cave, and it was there they hid for a year and a half while war raged above.

The cave was rediscovered by an American spelunker and amateur detective Chris Nicola, who discovered clothes, shoes, pottery and other evidences of human habitation in the vast cave system. Nicola’s investigation uncovered the amazing story of the survival of 38 men, women and children from late 1942 until liberation in March, 1944.

The story is recounted in a memoir titled “We Fight to Survive,” by Esther Stermer.

Nicola and film writer-director Janet Tobias found survivors of the Stermer and Dodyk families in New York and Montreal and offered them the opportunity to revisit the dark refuge they had left 67 years ago.

Tobias recorded remembrances by Saul and Sam Stermer and Sonia and Simia Dodyk. All were children then, but are elderly now. Combined with Nicola’s detective tale and dramatic recreations by actors, the tale of survival is dramatized. “No Place” is literally dark. The interviews are barely lit, perhaps to simulate the darkness of the cave.

“No Place” is not as exciting or heart-wrenching as many Holocaust stories, but it is a remarkable account of the human spirit in a lesson one must never forget.

Talking Dirty and Acting Naughty for Fun & Profit

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Big Stars Get Naughty in “The Big Wedding”

By Skip Sheffield

“The Big Wedding” offers some big-name movie stars the chance to talk dirty, act naughty and get paid well for it.

Diane Keaton and Robert De Niro play a divorced couple who are asked to pretend they are still married at the wedding of their adopted son.

Those of you who are divorced will surely know what a terrible idea this is, but it is the hook cooked up by writer-director Justin Zackham. Zackham is a bright young NYU Film School graduate who wrote the screen play for “The Bucket List.”

Both “The Bucket List’ and “Big Wedding’ deal in black humor, but the latter is more a sex farce.

This is clear at the outset when we see Ellie (Diane Keaton) find the hidden key to a big, beautiful lakefront estate in Connecticut to let herself in unannounced. Though Ellie has been divorced ten years from sculptor Don (Robert De Niro), she still has affection for the guy who cheated on her with her former best friend Bebe (Susan Sarandon).

Ellie picks a particularly embarrassing moment to barge in on Don and Bebe. This sets the tone for embarrassment galore to come.

Bebe has been living with Don ever since Ellie left and has been acting as a step mother to offspring Lyla (Katherine Heigl), Jared (Topher Grace) and adopted son Alejandro (Ben Barnes). Lyla is married but separated. Jared is a doctor and a prime catch for all the females in his vicinity, but he has vowed to remain a virgin until true love comes along. Jared is almost 30 and still waiting.

Alejando is engaged to be married to Missy (Amanda Seyfried), the lovely daughter of Don’s snobby, insufferable neighbors Muffy (Christine Ebersole) and Barry (David Rasche). Alejandro’s real mother is Madonna (Patricia Rae) a very pious Catholic woman who lives in Columbia. Madonna has never before come to the USA, but to be at her son’s side she decides to visit, with her nubile daughter Nuria (Ana Ayora) in tow.

Did we mention Don is a recovering alcoholic who has been sober three years, or that Bebe has been asked to bear gracefully the humiliation of Ellie masquerading in her role? Oh, and how about the fact Nuria takes an instant shine to Jared, despite the fact he is technically her half-brother?

Throw Robin Williams in as a boozy priest, and you have the recipe for chaos. To the credit of all involved, “Big Wedding” is very funny, though the laughs may feel guilty.

Priscilla Does West Palm Beach

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“Priscilla” Struts His or Her Stuff at Kravis Center

By Skip Sheffield

The extremely colorful, disco-flavored, drag musical comedy “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” continues its merry run through Sunday, April 28 at Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.

“Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” is one of the few movies I have never seen, but I do know it has an ardent cult following. I thought you had to be a fan of drag shows to enjoy “Priscilla,” but I was wrong. This is a spectacularly visual show for any sexual or political persuasion.

Both the 1994 MGM movie and the stage musical by Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott are specifically set in Australia, with all the accents and details that entails. Australia is a rugged place with tough characters and a forbidding Outback, which makes staging a flouncy female impersonator show in the middle of nowhere all the more absurd.

Wade McCollum, Scott Willis and Bryan West are Tick (Mitzi), Bernadette and Adam (Felicia), the three stars of a costume drag show in Sydney, Australia. When the fellows (girls) get a booking way out in the desert town of Alice Springs, Tick sees it as a chance to have a reunion with his long ago-liaison Marion (Christy Faber) and the six-year-old son Benji (Shane Davis, Will B.) he has never met.

The nominal plot is the least important part of “Priscilla.” Far more important are the incredible costumes by Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner; the magic, color-changing bus called Priscilla, designed by Bryan Thomson, and the thumping, thundering 1970s and 1980s greatest-hit disco songs by the likes of Madonna, Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper, Dianne Warwick, Gloria Gaynor and even John Denver.

Adding to the spectacle are three airborne Divas: Emily Afton, Bre Jackson and Brit West, each a powerhouse in her own right.

Yes, there are real woman such as the Divas, a transsexual Bernadette, a gay-friendly mechanic named Bob (Joe Hart) and assorted cross-dressing gay and straight men.

It’s a heady, disorienting brew punctuated by one showcase song number after the other.

The mood is set with “It’s Raining Men” and continues with an amazing Tina Turner impersonation by a character known as Miss Understanding (Nik Alexzander) and the funniest rendition of the sappy ballad “MacArthur Park” you will ever see or hear.

Funny? Check. Tuneful? Check. Colorful? Double-check. Meaningful? Well sort of, if you feel in an ideal world even the most dramatically-opposed characters can get along.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

Tickets are $35 and up. Call 800-572-8471 or go to www.kravis.org.

Polo Wraps in Wellington, Hits Miami Beach

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Polo Wraps in Wellington, Opens in Miami Beach

By Skip Sheffield

Once upon a time, high-goal polo was played in Boca Raton at Royal Palm Polo Grounds.

Polo is still played at Royal Palm under the direction of Joey Casey, but it is no longer high-goal, high stakes international competition.

For that you have to go to the International Polo Club of Palm Beach in Wellington way out west on Lake Worth Boulevard.

Boca Raton Tribune columnist and photographer Mike Gora and I took the trip Sunday, April 21 to see the 109^th Maserati U.S. Open Final. This is where the best of the finest polo players and horses face off for ultimate bragging rights and is the culmination of the 10^th anniversary season.

The final two teams were Valiente, which beat Zacara 13-9 in the USPA Piaget Gold Cup finals a few weeks ago.

Players are rated by goals, 10 being the highest rating. Valiente has two 10-goal players, Pelon Stirling and Adolfo Cambiaso. Zacara has one 10-goal player, Facundo Pieres; an 8-goal player Magoo LaPrida and 7-goal player Mike Azzaro.

Almost all the players are from South America with the exception of Mike Azzaro, who is from the USA.

The USA spirit was set by singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood who sang his signature tune “God Bless the USA” for the first time ever at a polo match.

The competition was fast and furious with both teams rated at 26 goals. Polo is very combative both for humans and horses, and penalties were plentiful. The score was tied eight times in the hard-fought action. Ultimately Zacara triumphed over Valiente 16-13. Facundo Pieres lead all players with an incredible 12 goals, 9 by penalty, earning him Most Valuable Player. This was Zacara’s second U.S. Open Championship.

A player is only as good as his or her horse. Valiente team patron Bob Jornayvaz’s horse Medallion was voted Best Playing Pony. Concha, a 7-year old American Thoroughbred, was named Horse of the Year.

High-goal polo is over for now at International Polo Club of Palm Beach, but this weekend there will be polo of a different sort in Miami Beach.

Miami Beach Polo World Cup 2013 runs April 25-28 on the beach between 21^st and 22^nd Streets in Miami Beach. The action starts Thursday with a South Beach Women’s Polo Cup V Kick-Off Party and continues Friday with Miami Beach Polo Cup IX, Saturday with more World Cup IX plus La Martina Fashion Show and Sunday with Miami Beach Polo World Cup Final Play-Offs and Farewell Party.

See www.miamipolo.com for more information. Palm Beach Polo’s web site is www.InternationalPoloClub.com at 561-282-5334.

An Admirable, Not Lovable "Sweeney Todd"

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“Sweeney Todd” An Admirable Production of a Difficult Show

By Skip Sheffield

“Sweeney Todd” is a show to be admired, if not embraced with love. The challenging Stephen Sondheim musical in its entirety is on the boards just through Sunday, April 21 at West Boca High School Performing Arts Theatre.

It is hard to love a character who vengefully slits the throats of people who have done him wrong- and sometimes does the same to complete strangers.

Director-choreographer Patrick Fitzwater has chosen to present an unabridged version of Sondheim’s 1979 musical. While this is admirable, it means this production of “Sweeney” is longer than most of us have seen. Fitzwater even warned us it is two hours, 35 minutes, with one 15-minute intermission.

Starring as the “Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is Slow Burn Theatre’s co-founder Matthew Korinko.

Korinko has a strong, pleasant baritone voice befitting his character, and he even went to the effort of growing real muttonchop sideburns to look like a 19^th century London swashbuckler.

Korinko also accentuates the underlying heartbreak of his character, who has just emerged from prison and assumed a new name. Sweeney is no random crazy guy. He mourns the death of his wife and the absence of his beloved daughter Joanna (Kaela Antolino) whom he hasn’t seen in 15 years.

By stroke of fate Sweeney meets Mrs. Lovett (Karen Chandler) maker of “The Worst Pies in London,” one of the score’s funniest songs.

Mrs. Lovett is a widow who has designs upon handsome Sweeney. She allows him to set up his new barbershop in a spare room. To drum up business, Sweeney challenges the vain, foppish Pirelli (Rick Pena) to a duel of skills. In that time barbers not only shaved and cut hair, but pulled teeth.

The talented Pena is also the company’s costume designer. He has made some minor miracles in his time with Slow Burn and this show is now exception.

Little Bruno Vida plays the orphan boy Tobias, who befriends Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett. His high tenor voice is one of the loveliest in the cast. Also in fine voice is Christian Vandepas, who plays Johanna’s callow boyfriend, Anthony.

Shawn Wayne King makes a properly dastardly villain, Judge Turpin, who eyes his ward Johanna with bad intent. When she rebukes him it will get worse for the innocent lass, making the viewer sympathize with Sweeney all the more.

A special note to Ann Marie Olson for her mysterious beggar woman for both her singing and acting.

The opera-like musical score and tongue-twisting lyrics are devilishly complex, but this cast of non-union and professional actors execute it well with the help of musical director Manny Schvartzman and a small but precise combo, which includes a churchy organ.

This is not “Some Enchanted Evening” in the romantic sense, but it is funny, lively entertainment with a nod to history. Thankfully Fitzwater has not elected to go all gory with fake blood as I’ve seen in some other productions. The story is nasty enough in pantomime without special effects pantomime.

Tickets are $35 adults, $30 seniors and $20 students. Call 866-811-4111 or go to slowburntheatre.org.

Something is Rotten in Schectady

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The Seamy Side of Schenectady

If you are entirely too cheerful right now, “A Place Beyond the Pines” will alter that in the course of two and a half hours.

Writer-director Derek Cianfrance seems preoccupied with the seamy side of life.

Most recently his “Blue Valentine” was a searing story of a marriage going wrong. That movie starred Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams as a blue collar couple trying to keep love alive, but failing.

Gosling is back as another blue collar kind of guy named Luke Blanton, who is a professional daredevil stunt motorcycle rider with a traveling carnival. We see Luke woozily acknowledge the command “Show Time,” fire up another cigarette, wade through the crowd to his dirt bike, and fire it up to ride into a steel mesh ball with two other riders who speed like maniacs in every direction, missing each other by inches.

After the show Luke stops by to see Romina (Eva Mendes), a woman he had a one-night stand with the last time he passed through.

Ro, as he calls her is none too happy to see him. She has an infant son, Luke’s, and a new boyfriend (Mahershala Ali) who allows Ro, her son Jason and her mother to live in his house.

When Luke is unable to seduce Ro back into his arms, Luke impulsively quits the carnival and falls in with another low-life. Robin (Ben Mendelsohn) runs a small car repair shop and has a trailer where Luke can bunk. When Luke complains about not making enough money working as part-time mechanic, Robin tells him he used to rob banks, and was pretty good at it.

It doesn’t take great imagination to see where this is going. Granted, “A Place” has plenty of thrills and chills, but you know it is heading for a bad place. The story is actually in three acts. The first is about Luke, Ro and their baby. In act two Schenectady Police Officer Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper) makes his entrance for a first and final confrontation with Luke.

Cross becomes a big-deal police hero, and he uses his status to his advantage.

There is something rotten in Schenectady (Mohawk for “A Place Beyond the Pines”) and it centers in the Police Department, which includes the ever-reliable Ray Liotta as the menacing, smiling special investigation cop Deluca.

The sins of the father are visited to the sons it says in the Old Testament and Shakespeare. Chapter three concerns Jason (Dane DeHaan), the son of the late Luke, and AJ Cross (Emery Cohen), son of Avery Cross. Let’s just say they have not turned out very well.

There is a certain sense of satisfaction, resolution and redemption in these tawdry intertwining tales, and it may haunt you for awhile. Fair warning: feel-good it is not.

"The Sapphires" Inspires, and You Can Dance To It

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Feel Good with “The Sapphires”

“The Sapphires” is a tale of racial prejudice on the other side of the world, in Australia. Like “42” it is based on the true story of the first-ever Aboriginal girl singing group. Because the girls sing Motown classics on a tour of Vietnam, you have a great musical soundtrack, sung by four very talented women.

Like African-Americans, the native Aborigines of Australia and New Zealand were mistreated, segregated and scorned by the Caucasian immigrants to the remote British outpost. The worst part was they were not granted equal rights until 1967.

“The Sapphires’ begins in 1958 with the Sapphires as little girls. Three of the girls sing at amateur competitions and show natural talent, despite prejudices against Aborigines.

The film flashes forward to 1968 with the girls in their teens. A fourth member, Kay (Shari Sebbens) is reunited with her darker-skinned cousins after having been forcefully removed from her family and relocated to Sydney to be raised as a white person.

Eldest Gail (Deborah Mailman) is the natural leader of the group, but her younger sister Julie (Jessica Mauboy) has a better voice than Gail or her sister Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell). Talent scout Dave Lovelace (Chris O’Dowd) realizes this hard fact instantly and insists Julie sing lead.

Dave Lovelace is a lovable drunk and a bit of a screw-up but he knows talent and he knows how to land a gig. He gets a booking with the U.S. Armed Forces for lonely, entertainment-starved GIs on the battlefront.

“The Sapphires” is a highly fictionalized story based on real Aboriginal sisters who did tour Vietnam in 1968. The script is by Keith Thompson and Tony Briggs. Briggs created a stage play before the movie, which is directed by Wayne Blair.

While there are some stock dramatic contrivances and romantic detours, “The Sapphires” is basically a feel-good story of triumph over adversity, with a great soundtrack you can dance to.