Mary Damiano Photo by David Vance

Mary Damiano’s Arts Scene

Sculpture by artist K.C. Brady using shadow and light to create Naomi Wilzig’s face.

Naomi’s Birthday Bash
I didn’t get to much of the art brouhaha last week in Miami, but I wouldn’t miss Naomi Wilzig’s big blow-out to celebrate her 75th birthday. Wilzig, founder and owner of the World Erotic Art Museum, welcomed a relatively small group of guests —a few hundred, maybe—to enjoy her unique facility, celebrate her birthday and the launch of her new philanthropic endeavor, the Naomi Wilzig Art and Charity Foundation. Attired in red velvet robes and a tiara, the Queen of Erotic Art presided over the party—sometimes from her very own ornate throne in the museum’s reception area. The party was catered by the inimitable Barton G., and there was no shortage of delicious food and specatcle. The Leda and the Swan Room featured platters of shrimp and other noshes. In another room, two long tables, complete with carving stations, beckoned guests, just feet away from one of the original phallic sculptures from A Clockwork Orange. In two other salons, pasta bars were centered between stages with nude models adorned with whimsical body paint. One room filled with gay-themed art was dedicated to desserts, including the popular Blondie Pop, a blond brownie on a heavy duty stick dipped in white chocolate and encrusted with crushed Heath Bars. Can you say sugar coma boys and girls? Possibly the highlight of the evening was the birthday presentation by Wilzig’s companion, J.C. Harris, who surprised Wilzig with an interesting sculpture of an archer with a heart-shaped bow festooned with rose petals. While the guests oohed and ahhed over the sculpture, the light dimmed and the sculpture began slowing rotating on its turntable, casting shadows on the white wall that eventually formed Miss Naomi’s smiling face. Made by artist K.C. Brady, the sculpture is as unique as Naomi Wilzig. To see more photos of the party, check out James Cubby’s photo gallery in this issue.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell, dubbed “The last leading man” by the New York Times, will appear in concert for one night only on Saturday, December 12, at the Adrienne Arsht Center Knight Concert Hall in Miami. Mitchell, who won a Tony Award for the 2000 revival of Kiss Me Kate, will perform show tunes, ballads and classic love songs. TV audiences will remember Mitchell for his recurring role on “Trapper John, M.D.” and “Frasier” where he appeared as Frasier’s nemesis, upstairs neighbor Cam Winston. He was also Tony-nominated for his performance in 2001’s King Hedley II, and in 1998’s Ragtime, for which he also became the sole recipient of the Drama League’s Distinguished Performance Award, the nation’s oldest theatrical honor. He also won a Helen Hayes Award in 2003 for portraying the dual roles of Cervantes and Don Quixote in the revival of Man of La Mancha. For tickets and more information, visit www.arshtcenter.org.

Bethany Mendenhall, Marshall Pailet, and Laura Carbonell in The Storytelling Ability of a Boy at Florida Stage. Photo: Sigvision

Theatre Openings
The new production at Florida Stage Theatre in Manalapan will be South Florida’s last world premiere of the year. The Storytelling Abilty of a Boy by Carter W. Lewis runs December 11 through January 17. It’s about a young English teacher who gets involved in the personal lives of two of her students, a strange boy with a gift for writing and a brooding young girl with a nail gun. www.floridastage.org. Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs is trotting—or perhaps tapping—out an old favorite, the musical 42nd Street. It’s the backstage story of putting on Broadway show. 42nd Street runs December 11 through January 24. www.browardstagedoor.com. And Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach presents Copenhagan by Michael Frayn, a drama about a 1941 encounter between physicists Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr. It runs December 18 through January 21. www.palmbeachdramaworks.org.

Cellist Amanda Forsyth and conductor Pinchas Zukerman

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Under the baton of guest conductor and violinist Pinchas Zukerman, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, a South Florida classical favorite, opens the 2009-2010 Sanford And Dolores Ziff Classical Music Series in the Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami on Wednesday, December 16, at 8 p.m. Award-winning Canadian cellist Amanda Forsyth (who is married to Zukerman) partners with him in two works for cello and orchestra by Max Bruch: “Canzone” for cello in B-flat major and “Adagio on Celtic Melodies” for cello. Zukerman is the featured soloist in Haydn’s Violin Concerto in G major, in a program that also includes Haydn’s Symphony No. 83 (“The Hen”) and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy Overture. The four-concert music also includes a solo recital by violinist Itzhak Perlman on January 12; the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of the internationally recognized American conductor Leonard Slatkin, on February 14; and pianist Lang Lang accompanied by the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra, led by Christoph Eschenbach, on March 29. For more information, visit www.arshtcenter.org.

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