A few years ago, as same-sex marriage was becoming legal all across the nation thanks to the evolved support of the president, the once daring 1983 musical La Cage aux Folles – which features two gay main characters and Broadway’s first male-male kiss – was looking a little dated. But as MNM Productions correctly points out in its program notes for the show, its message of … [Read more...]
Arts Preview 2017-18: The season in theater
Keith Garsson bounces back with a sexy season of Primal Forces, Palm Beach Dramaworks produces two world premieres, Slow Burn serves up its first non-musical and in case you haven’t had enough inclement weather this hurricane season, The Wick promises to make it rain inside its theater. All in all, it looks like a promising 2017-18 at area stages. Here’s a preview, in … [Read more...]
Director Garsson revives Primal Forces company with full season
“If you miss (theater at) Arts Garage, we’re back! We’re back with a vengeance.” So says Keith Garsson, who directed the theater program at the Delray Beach storefront performance complex for a season and a half, until the drama component was abruptly curtailed in December because of huge financial losses. And with the end of his quirky, sexy productions there, Garsson’s … [Read more...]
‘Saturday Night Fever’ at Broward Stage Door revives 1970s classic in superlative style
By Dale King Disco isn’t dead. At least not at the Broward Stage Door Theater in Margate, where increasing numbers of disco divas and down-to-earth denizens are flocking to experience Saturday Night Fever, the musical that turned normal 1970s evenings into disco nights and sent millions to apparel stores to buy satin shirts and boogie shoes. The musical adaptation based … [Read more...]
Broward Stage Door’s ‘Sunshine Boys’ a late-summer gem
By Dale King Broward Stage Door Theater has plucked a gem from the Neil Simon vault – the playwright’s paean to vaudeville, The Sunshine Boys – and presents it like a shiny, late-summer gift to welcoming audiences at the Margate performance venue. Director Michael Leeds, who has helmed an arm’s length list of shows at the theater on Sample Road, taps a couple of veteran … [Read more...]
Tales from a campy life: Charles Busch offers an evening at Dramaworks
For almost 40 years, Charles Busch has been performing in his own plays, usually campy comedies based on vintage movies, with such provocative titles as Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Psycho Beach Party and Die Mommie Die. More often than not, he writes himself in as the central female character, playing in drag with winking homage to Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Kate Hepburn and … [Read more...]
‘Informed Consent’ nimbly explores intersection of science and ethics
Science has come under fire of late, most notably in the political arena. The rise of science deniers makes Informed Consent, the latest densely packed, morally ambiguous drama by Deborah Zoe Laufer particularly timely, while its core conflict between scientific truth and cultural belief systems give the play a timeless quality. Laufer, whose work has been championed by … [Read more...]
‘Kosher Cheerleader’ a tender look at one woman’s life and faith
By Dale King The Kosher Cheerleader, a humorous, often heart-warming production about a woman seeking true fulfillment in life, told by the person who lived it, is playing through late August at the PGA Arts Center in Palm Beach Gardens. Billed as a one-woman show, the performance stars Sandy (Wolshin) Gelfound, a former National Football League cheerleader who once … [Read more...]
Appreciation: Barbara Cook, queen of the Broadway songbook
Barbara Cook, one of the true great performers of the musical theater and the concert stage, has died of respiratory failure at 89. In a career that spanned six decades, she originated roles in such shows of Broadway’s Golden Age as The Music Man, Candide and She Loves Me before reinventing herself as a solo interpreter of the Graet American Songbook. In between those … [Read more...]
Michael McKeever: South Florida’s own prolific playwright
It is rare that the name Michael McKeever comes up without the adjective “prolific” attached to it. In the 21 years since the Davie playwright’s work was first produced in South Florida, he has written 27 full-length plays and countless short plays, probably between 20 and 24, by his offhanded estimate. Because he enjoys performing, McKeever often appears in his own plays … [Read more...]