By Dale King Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest has been modified and repackaged in many different ways since it first hit the London stage on Valentine’s Day 1895. Lake Worth Playhouse has made its own modifications to the three-act production, pulling it into the 21st century, relocating it from England to Palm Beach County and toying with some of the gender … [Read more...]
Hyper ‘Starcatcher’ at LW Playhouse can’t outrun overlong material
By Dale King Lake Worth Playhouse has opened its 69th season with a frenetic production of Peter and the Starcatcher, a paean to Peter Pan that offers up a plausible prequel to J.M. Barrie’s 1904 children’s fable, elaborating on the tale of “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” by focusing on friendship, leadership, fealty and a few other add-ons. The hectic performance combines … [Read more...]
‘We Will Rock You’ offers killer Queen tunes, sharp performances at LW Playhouse
By Dale King We Will Rock You, the jukebox musical that throws an aural spotlight on the poperatic music of the British rock group Queen and their flamboyant frontman Freddy Mercury, is shaking walls, vibrating scenery and winning over audiences at the Lake Worth Playhouse. The single summer entry at the Lake Avenue performance center spreads 20-plus powerful Queen tunes … [Read more...]
Powerhouse performances make for gripping ‘Hedwig’ at LW Playhouse
By Dale King Catharsis and storytelling mix musically and, in the end, triumphantly, in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a turbulent, gender-unspecific narrative being staged with passion and powerhouse music at the Lake Worth Playhouse through much of June – LGBTQ+ Pride Month. The show concludes the downtown venue’s successful effort to pull together an in-person season of … [Read more...]
LW Playhouse mounts powerful, compelling ‘Next to Normal’
By Dale King Next to Normal – the musical now being staged at the Lake Worth Playhouse – pulls no punches in its powerful portrayal of a woman haunted and dismayed by mental illness and the misery it inflicts on her loved ones. The show is frank and overt, focusing not only on the woman’s unpredictable behavior, but also on the plenitude of pills she consumes, the … [Read more...]
Sharp cast shines in ‘Deathtrap’ at LW Playhouse
By Dale King Deathtrap, the wryly comic mystery by author/playwright Ira Levin (Rosemary’s Baby, Stepford Wives), is at once easy and hard for a reviewer to critique. The 1978 production won a Tony for Best Play, and begat a 1982 movie about the selfsame playwriting duo from the stage production that longs to create a ragingly successful Broadway thriller, even if blood … [Read more...]
LW Playhouse’s ‘Patsy Cline’ a memorable, tuneful two-hander
By Dale King Not all of us remember Patsy Cline, the country vocalist whose powerful voice, often measured in tearful tones, vocalized poignant stories in song. But we know her music, even 58 years after she died in a plane crash while returning to her home in Nashville the same year John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Her legacy of tunes is still golden, even in the 21st … [Read more...]
Spunky, sharp ‘Annie’ takes away our hard-knock life at Lake Worth Playhouse
By Dale King Not every stage show can be introduced with the phrase, “Ten months in the making.” But that’s how Lake Worth Playhouse Artistic Director Daniel Eilola launched Annie when it opened this past weekend at the Lake Avenue performance center. It’s the first live production at the venue that’s been shuttered and vacant since the global coronavirus epidemic struck … [Read more...]
Theater: The 2019 Summer Season
Summer used to be a time when local theaters went on vacation and area performers, directors and designers recharged their batteries. Nowadays, many South Florida theaters run year-round or at least have one hot weather show and/or showcases for its student training programs. So consider avoiding the summer superhero movies in favor of live theater, like the following … [Read more...]
Actor Colombel preps cabaret show, ‘Pardon My French!’, for LW Playhouse
Remember Tangi Colombel, the puckish, bald French performer whose American debut at Palm Beach Dramaworks 14 years ago in the Carbonell Award-winning musical, Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, that also earned him a Curtain Up Award as Outstanding New Performer? It turns out he is alive and well and living in Palm Beach Gardens, having forged a … [Read more...]