You can understand why Debra Messing (of TV’s Will & Grace) was drawn to play Ernestine, the central character of Noah Haidle’s new multi-generational comic drama, Birthday Candles. The character spans 90 years – from age 17 to 107 – from high schooler to great-grandmother, from young love to heartbreak and divorce to unexpected late life romance. It is a role with built-in … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2022
In New York: Exhilarating ‘Six’ gives Henry’s wives unstoppable grrrl power
Within seconds, the audience for the high-energy faux-history lesson, Six, is whipped into a rock concert frenzy. Except for a couple of ballads, that frenzy does not let up for the show’s brief, but exhausting 80-minute running time. And you wouldn’t want it any other way. The title, of course, refers to the half-dozen wives of the English King Henry VIII. By a quirk of … [Read more...]
Cream tribute show did best when it stuck to trio’s heyday
For a band that lasted less than three years between 1966 and 1968, Cream cast a long shadow, influencing the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top, and countless others. But considering the trio's all-star personnel of guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, vocalist/bassist Jack Bruce (1943-2014) and drummer/vocalist Ginger Baker (1939-2019), that isn't … [Read more...]
Emerging Miami Worldcenter curates transformational art program
By Sandra Schulman Miami is being reborn --- again --- as a major arts and technology center. The rapid pace of development has created mini-cities downtown and in the surrounding areas. Now the second-largest urban mixed-use development in America, just behind New York City’s Hudson Yards on the Hudson River, the 27-acre “city within a city” Miami Worldcenter is … [Read more...]
Thomas’s towering performance leads strong ‘Rigoletto’ at FGO
By Rosie Rogers Directed by Kathleen Belcher, Florida Grand Opera’s most recent production of Verdi’s Rigoletto -- seen at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale on March 31 -- was enjoyable overall, with experienced baritone Todd Thomas in the title role elevating the show. Placed in its traditional setting, long trains of dresses, towering stone walls, and a multicolored … [Read more...]
You’ll be glad you met Esther in Dramaworks’ powerful ‘Intimate Apparel’
Playwright Lynn Nottage has two Pulitzer Prizes to her credit (Ruined and Sweat), but Esther Mills of Intimate Apparel is arguably her most memorable character. Esther is a seamstress who makes delicate lingerie, corsets and other intimate apparel for clients ranging from Mayme (Krystal Mosley), a black prostitute, to Mrs. Van Buren (Gracie Winchester), a white society … [Read more...]
Sharp, funny ‘Scoundrels’ a welcome reminder of Maltz’s skill
They call it musical comedy, but few shows are actually laugh-out-loud funny. One exception is Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the tale of a couple of unscrupulous con men out to fleece rich women on the French Riviera. It earns its audience guffaws thanks to the unexpected lyrics of composer David Yazbek — who else would come up with the almost-rhyme of “castle” and … [Read more...]
Graham company impresses at Duncan in works classic and new
“Something old, something new” was once again the theme at the Duncan Theatre as the Martha Graham Dance Company closed out the 2022 Modern Dance Series at Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth Beach. Straddling the lifespan of the company from 1926 to 2022, the program March 25 presented was both historical and very current. Opening and closing the program, like covers of … [Read more...]
Cream, prog rock tribute acts bound for Lauderdale, Boca
Two drummers; two very different tribute projects, each paying homage to two very different styles of music. And yet, where there are tributes, there are also tributaries. Kofi Baker is the son of drummer Ginger Baker (1939-2019), the firebrand who drove the short-lived 1960s British blues-rock trio Cream with vocalist/guitarist Eric Clapton and vocalist/bassist Jack … [Read more...]
Lake Worth Playhouse’s ‘Wizard of Oz’ tracks movie and book classic agreeably
By Dale King For most of us in the age-55-and-over bracket, a visit to “the merry old land of Oz” used to be a once-a-year excursion provided by one of the three sole TV networks that broadcast the classic 1939 film of author L. Frank Baum’s fanciful story, The Wizard of Oz, on our 12-channel, antenna-on-the-roof television sets. Today, folks can find the same video … [Read more...]