As if Disney didn’t have enough trouble from the attacks by Ron DeSantis, now the various princesses from its animated feature film corral are rebelling against the Mouse Factory for the sexist stereotypes given to them. At least that is the premise of Disenchanted!, a sly satirical revue now receiving its South Florida premiere at the Kravis Center’s Rinker … [Read more...]
Wick’s ‘Anything Goes’ a vintage bubbly delight
When the sublime, sophisticated songsmith Cole Porter collaborated with Brits P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton on the enduring confection Anything Goes, the time was 1934, seven years after Show Boat demonstrated that musicals could take on weighty material. Porter and his writing team – which eventually included play doctors Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse – knew perfectly … [Read more...]
Show about Marilyn’s last days is, indeed, unremarkable
What is there left to be said about Marilyn Monroe? Almost 60 years after her death from a drug overdose at the age of 36, the Hollywood sex goddess still is a subject of fascination for us. Particularly for those who were alive while she was, which happens to also be the primary audience of Boca Stage. So one can understand why the company chose to produce … [Read more...]
Slow Burn manages to sell second-rate, tuneless ‘Groundhog Day’
You have to admire the dedication of Slow Burn Theatre to revive musicals that got insufficient love on Broadway. (Yes, we’re looking at you Big Fish, Side Show and Parade.) Still, you have to also accept, no matter how well the company performs them, some of these shows are simply subpar. Which brings us to Groundhog Day, the stage adaptation of the 1993 Bill Murray … [Read more...]
Soggy, sluggish ‘Harlowe’ disappoints at FAU Theatre Lab
“Yes, it really rains onstage!” That was the promotional tagline for the stage adaptation of Singin’ in the Rain and the most interesting thing about Jennifer Lane’s Harlowe, a listless little play about healing, currently receiving a watery world premiere production at Florida Atlantic University’s Theatre Lab. As the audience enters the intimate Lab space, a … [Read more...]
Young playwright gets world premiere at FAU Theatre Lab
Playwright and novelist Jennifer Lane recalls exactly what the initial motivation was for her to write Harlowe, which is having its world premiere Friday at Florida Atlantic University’s Theater Lab. It was years ago, while she was in Columbia University’s graduate playwriting program. She was falling behind in her work and the program director was growing impatient with … [Read more...]
Theatre Lab’s ‘Ronia’ overlong, but captivates young and old
The Holy Grail of family theater is a play that speaks to both youngsters and adults. That is apparently also the quest of The Heckscher Foundation for Children, which is funding an annual production at FAU Theatre Lab. The program kicks off with the U.S. premiere of Allison Gregory’s whimsical Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter, based on the kid lit book by Astrid Lindgren … [Read more...]
Vibrant Irving Berlin revue offers welcome doses of optimism, patriotism
By Dale King If your holiday shopping route has taken you from Interstate 95 to the Gardens Mall by way of PGA Boulevard, you’ve passed an opportunity to enjoy a musical show at a struggling but determined performance center trying hard to establish itself as a destination of theatrical choice. Since Nov. 30, the PGA Arts Center has been presenting Irving Berlin Salutes … [Read more...]
MNM mounts respectable ‘Company’ at Rinker
That sound you hear is the third shoe dropping in a surprisingly Stephen Sondheim-rich summer in South Florida. Following FAU Festival Rep’s Into the Woods and Palm Beach Dramawork’s current steampunk Sweeney Todd comes MNM Productions with the master of ambivalence’s take on marriage, 1970’s Company. In addition to launching an extremely fertile decade for composer-lyricist … [Read more...]
Even the revue is beautiful: Songs of Kander and Ebb at the Rinker
Busy as an adjunct theater professor at Florida Atlantic University, Lynn University and Broward College during the school year, Bruce Linser has to confine his freelance directing to the summer months. No sooner had he opened his production of Once Upon a Mattress at FAU’s Festival Rep, then he began rehearsals for The World Goes ’Round, MNM Productions’ revue of songs … [Read more...]