If Broadway composer, lyricist and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda had not taken a vacation to Mexico during the run of his Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights, he might never have written his hip-hop history lesson, Hamilton. In the airport on his way to Mexico, you see, he popped into a bookshop and bought Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton and read it while … [Read more...]
‘Play That Goes Wrong’ long overstays its slapstick welcome
Since theater is a live event, that means that on any given evening anything – good or bad – could happen. But with the play currently at the Kravis Center’s Dreyfoos Hall, if something unexpected went wrong, you would never know it. That is because the show playing through Sunday is called The Play That Goes Wrong, an Olivier Award-winning British import based on one … [Read more...]
‘Lion King’ brings Kravis into circle of joy
By Dale King Big city residents often lament: “It’s a jungle out there.” Through May 5, audiences in Dreyfoos Hall at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts can shout: “It’s a jungle in here” as Disney’s The Lion King leaps onto the stage. A mix of fantastic and fantasy, this awe-inspiring performance set amid the greenery and savagery of an African grassland … [Read more...]
Plenty of energy, middling payoff at MCB’s Program Two
Though there were some kernels of wonderfulness in the Jan. 19 presentation of Miami City Ballet’s Program Two at the Kravis Center, the overall takeaway was that this program was not up to par with past shows. Presenting two works instead of the usual three or four, the program had some clear flaws. Dances at a Gathering, which opened the performance, was a pastel mosaic … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2018-19: Dance
Devotees of dance around South Florida have a satisfying season ahead, not just with regular performances by Miami City Ballet and visits to the Duncan Theatre and Kravis Center by some of the world’s best-known troupes, but also in the innovation and promise on view in the work of the area’s local companies and schools. Miami City Ballet mounts its 33rd season, as always, … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2018-19: Theater
If you don’t watch carefully, South Florida theater companies will move around on you. Celebrating its 25th season, Stage Door Theatre has relocated from Margate to Lauderhill, a move westward and a little south, but also a move up in the world to the gorgeous new $11.6 million, 1,100-seat Lauderhill Performing Arts Center. And the nomadic Primal Forces troupe has moved … [Read more...]
MNM’s brings care, skill to edgy ‘Avenue Q’
As long as there is latent racism, widespread fixation on internet porn and young people stumped by their purpose in life – three subjects explored in bouncy, infectious songs – then Avenue Q, the adult Sesame Street-inspired show populated by puppets, will probably be around. And if it is produced with the care and skill that MNM Theatre Company brings to the task, … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony struggles in season finale
By Dennis D. Rooney The Palm Beach Symphony closed its 44th season April 17 at the Kravis Center with a most ambitious program. Too ambitious, as it happened. American cellist Zuill Bailey was the soloist in Edward Elgar’s 1919 Cello Concerto (in E minor, Op. 85), taking the place of the previously announced Romanian cellist, Răzvan Suma. Playing the “ex-Schneider” … [Read more...]
Lovely, lustrous ‘Jewels’ opens MCB’s season
Seeing the Miami City Ballet’s opening program of the season Nov. 18, which featured George Balanchine’s Jewels, was very much like opening a box and finding an array of precious gems inside, beautifully crafted in elegant and intricate settings. Each section of Balanchine’s acclaimed triptych was distinctly different but all were polished, multi-faceted and brought to … [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...]