By Dale King Autumn has officially arrived in South Florida, a sure sign that community theaters throughout Palm Beach County are readying their performance schedules for a new slate of programs. Most open this month. Delray Beach Playhouse has launched its 72nd season, said executive director Kevin Barrett, who’s entering his second year at the helm of the showplace … [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...]
McTeer does remarkable star turn in ‘Bernhardt/Hamlet’
It is a given of Theresa Rebeck’s new, thought-provoking, though overstuffed new play, Bernhardt/Hamlet, that 19th-century stage diva Sarah Bernhardt was one of the greatest actresses who ever lived. To cement that point, she is played in the Roundabout Theatre’s premiere production by the stunning Janet McTeer (A Doll’s House on Broadway, Tumbleweeds on the silver screen), … [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...]
Stage Door’s new venue outshines uneven ‘La Cage’
You want the good news first? The 26-year-old Stage Door Theatre has moved from Margate, across Broward County, to a gorgeous new $11.6 million playhouse, the 1,100-seat Lauderhill Performing Arts Center. With ample wings and fly space, plus all the bells, whistles and amenities that its former home lacked, the complex should be the envy of every other resident company in South … [Read more...]
Appreciation: Burt Reynolds, a great star who could have been an even greater actor
When I get asked about the difference between a film actor and a movie star, I usually bring up Burt Reynolds, who was the latter. By his own choice. As he demonstrated in 1972’s Deliverance, in which he gave the performance of his career as macho outdoorsman Lewis, Reynolds could have been a major actor. Instead, he steered in a more commercial direction, preferring to make … [Read more...]
Appreciation: The enduring wit of Neil Simon
The first time I met and interviewed Neil Simon he was not in any mood to be funny. It was January 1991, in Washington, D.C., where he was for the out-of-town premiere of Lost in Yonkers, a dark comedy about two brothers forced to live with their crotchety grandmother while their salesman father went on the road to make a living. The play went on to great acclaim … [Read more...]
Theatre Lab’s new director committed to South Florida
Louis Tyrrell, a South Florida champion of new works for the theater, has been an artistic director for almost four decades. First at the Theatre Club of the Palm Beaches, which morphed into Florida Stage, then at the Arts Garage and most recently at Florida Atlantic University’s Theatre Lab, where he currently one of a four-member staff. But Tyrrell has now passed the baton … [Read more...]
‘White Guy on the Bus’ engages, unsettles at GableStage
Remember the song from Avenue Q that chirps that “Everyone’s a little bit racist”? That is the premise as well of Bruce Graham’s unsettling contemporary drama, White Guy on the Bus, now receiving a powerful area premiere at Coral Gables’ GableStage. Expertly directed by Michael Leeds, who orchestrates a top-notch cast led by Tom Wahl – the eponymous “white guy” – the play … [Read more...]
Young thespians learn ‘Mockingbird’ lessons at Maltz
By Janis Fontaine It’s no easier to talk about race today than it was in 1960 when Harper Lee’s acclaimed novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published, or in rural Alabama in 1936, when the novel takes place. But conversations must be had. To jump-start those dialogues, a group of young professionals at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre are producing the play based on Lee’s … [Read more...]