By Dale King Summer has arrived, and while most college students have gone home for a school break or to earn tuition money for the coming year, Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Theater and Dance has kicked off its annual Summer Repertory two-show festival. The first entry is a play that concludes this week. The second is a musical scheduled to open in … [Read more...]
Camp classic ‘Irma Vep’ lights up Island City Stage
By Dale King The Mystery of Irma Vep is a high-octane, mystery/thriller/satire that’s getting plenty of guffaws from summer audiences at Island City Stage in Wilton Manors. The show is peculiar in its uniqueness. Playwright Charles Ludlam, a pillar of the LGBTQ+ community for his contributions to literature and stage shows during his AIDS-shortened career as an actor and … [Read more...]
Letter from London: Trump tale makes for canny look at America’s past, future
In the 50 years that I have been going to London, the city has gone through major changes. The skyline is drastically different. The culinary choices have become far more sophisticated. What once was a bargain for tourists has since become one of the world’s most expensive cities. But one thing has remained constant – London was and still is one of the greatest places … [Read more...]
‘Summer’ revives disco queen’s energy, but lazy book is anything but hot stuff
In the same way that Andy Warhol predicted we will each have 15 minutes of fame, it is starting to look like every pop singer-songwriter and vocal group will have a biographical jukebox musical. And while some fared poorly on Broadway – Summer: The Donna Summer Musical lasted a mere eight months in New York – there is such a demand for product at performing arts centers across … [Read more...]
Actress Lowe brings revelatory Dickinson to ‘Belle of Amherst’
For the past 46 years, the theatrical image that many of us have had of poet Emily Dickinson has come from William Luce’s one-woman play, The Belle of Amherst, and from Julie Harris’s Tony Award-winning, definitive performance in the role. But now, aided by new information about Dickinson uncovered in the intervening years, Palm Beach Dramaworks and actress Margery Lowe are … [Read more...]
Schlocky ‘Boca’ unworthy of GableStage’s standards
As GableStage audiences continue to assess what its new artistic director Bari Newport has in mind for the troupe, they are receiving mixed signals. Its recent production of the challenging, racially themed The White Card suggested it will be business as usual for the company that built its reputation on tough-minded, cutting-edge drama. But now it drastically switches gears … [Read more...]
After scoring virtual COVID hit, Dramaworks brings ‘Belle of Amherst’ back to stage
You could call the production of William Luce’s 1976 one-woman play, The Belle of Amherst, which will open Friday at West Palm Beach’s Palm Beach Dramaworks a revival for the company, because it streamed a filmed version last summer during the COVID-19 shutdown of live theater. But Margery Lowe, who plays poet Emily Dickinson both then and now, would disagree. “I feel … [Read more...]
Delray Playhouse’s ‘Same Time, Next Year’ ends season with sweet accomplishment
By Dale King Delray Beach Playhouse is wrapping up its 75th anniversary season with a gem of a show, a production so nicely packaged and executed that it may remain on the minds of audience members until autumn brings a new roster of main stage performances. The showhouse on the east shore of Lake Ida is currently presenting Bernard Slade’s romantic comedy, Same Time, … [Read more...]
Where ‘Officer and a Gentleman, The Musical’ belongs: Not on stage
Opting for pre-sold familiarity, so many musicals these days are based on popular movies. But not all of them justify the insertion of songs into the story line, serving more as filler than increased emotional impact. Take An Officer and a Gentleman, The Musical, or rather, don’t bother to take it. Based on the 1982 Richard Gere-Debra Winger flick about the Naval Officer … [Read more...]
Maltz gets underway in new house; companies announce 22-23 season
After two postponed productions and a third delayed by a week, the Maltz Jupiter Theatre opened in late March with critical acclaim for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and for its renovated and expanded playhouse. With much of the stress of construction deadlines over, producing artistic director Andrew Kato paused long enough to discuss the new, improved theater and the upcoming first … [Read more...]