Is there a yearning more primal than for the approval of a parent? Well, if you happen to be in the theater, the approval of critics comes in a close second. Both are captured, pitfalls and all, in Halley Feiffer’s dark, probably autobiographical, disturbing tale of father-daughter struggles, I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard, now in its area premiere at GableStage. … [Read more...]
Powerful ‘If I Forget’ stuns at GableStage
These days, we cling to our memories, worried that without them we will drift into dementia. But in his latest controversial book, fictional professor of Jewish studies Michael Fischer argues that American Jews need to forget – forget the Holocaust and stop obsessing over it for the sake of their mental health and general well-being. Not surprisingly, perhaps, he … [Read more...]
2017’s Top 10 in local theater
2017 was a strong year for theater in South Florida, particularly for musicals, though it wasn’t until I started to compile my 10 best list that I noticed how many musicals were among the standouts. Here is my highly subjective look back on the past 12 months from where I sat. 1. Arcadia, Palm Beach Dramaworks – Thermodynamics, mathematical algorithms, chaos theory and … [Read more...]
‘The Humans’ stuns at GableStage
Yes, the Blake family of Stephen Karam’s The Humans is dysfunctional, but what onstage clan is not? Still, most of them are so wrapped up in their own troubles, they are oblivious to their collective difficulties. In a work that is alternately dramatic, comic and more than a little creepy, it would be the rare audience member who does not identity with this clan on some … [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...]
‘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...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 19-20
Film: Add to the list of offbeat competition documentaries like the spelling bee in Spellbound and the foxtrot battle of 2005’s Mad Hot Ballroom, an involving tale of inner-city Baltimore and the precision step dance contest, called simply Step. But far more is at stake at the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, a recent charter school that strives not only to graduate … [Read more...]
Entertaining ‘Georgia McBride’ anything but a drag
Measured by the usual hard-hitting fare at GableStage, Matthew Lopez’s The Legend of Georgia McBride isn’t much of a play, but it does have the makings of one hell of a drag show. Sure, you could argue that the 90-minute evening is a celebration of the tawdry lower depths of show business and a look at how one unlikely cross-dresser gets in touch with his feminine side, but … [Read more...]
Raucous ‘Riverside’ at GableStage jolts, compels
Were it not for Joe Adler and his adventuresome GableStage, we would probably not be exposed to the raucous, humor-laced urban tales of Stephen Adly Guirgis and South Florida would be poorer for it. Adler has a taste for writers whose work is provocative and edgy, qualities he previously found in Guirgis’s Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train and The Mother*****r with a Hat. He is … [Read more...]
2016-17 Season Preview: Theater
“You can’t keep a good man down,” goes the saying, and Lou Tyrrell is the proof. After championing new work at Florida Stage, he moved his operation to Delray Beach with Theatre at Arts Garage, a smaller version of the company he ran for almost 25 years. Last season, he moved a little further south to the campus of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, still introducing … [Read more...]