Deserving of a Pulitzer Prize, yet denied one when the jury’s recommendation was overruled because of the occasional, but entirely appropriate, profanity in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee’s marathon three-act, three-hour look at marriage and the illusions we cling to in our daily lives. First performed in 1962, and adapted into an Oscar-winning film four years … [Read more...]
‘Les Miz,’ even in anniversary revamp, an epic you don’t want to miss
Forty years ago, the Royal Shakespeare Company had the audacity to create a musical out of Victor Hugo’s classic 1,200-page novel, Les Misérables. It did not take long for the show to become a commercial success in London’s West End and on Broadway. In fact, it is currently the sixth-longest running show in Broadway history, having logged 6,680 performances of its original … [Read more...]
It’s no mystery: There’s no good reason to catch ‘Clue’ at Kravis
Remember the old joke about the guy who complained of the poor quality of a restaurant’s food, then added “and the portions are so small.” So it is with Clue, the painfully silly, amateurishly performed show at the Kravis Center through Saturday. And it only runs an intermissionless 80 minutes. Maybe the West Palm Beach performing arts center was stuck for a show to fill … [Read more...]
‘Camping With Henry and Tom,’ at Dramaworks, a trip worth taking
Suppositional history is a specialty of playwright Mark St. Germain, as he demonstrated in Freud’s Last Session, The Best of Enemies and Camping with Henry and Tom, plays of fiction that bring together notable real-life characters, unconstrained by any knowledge of what actually occurred at their meetings. A case in point is Camping With Henry and Tom, which explores a … [Read more...]
Stunning central performance drives FAU Theatre Lab’s mordant ‘Impossible Task of Today’
Five years after a tragic event, Jack Jordan is still reeling from its effect on him. Although it takes quite some time in Jeff Bower’s mordant drama, The Impossible Task of Today, to learn what has turned this formerly high-functioning school teacher agoraphobic and deeply depressed, the memory of it remains with him like a black-cowled specter of death. Bower’s play, his … [Read more...]
‘Moulin Rouge’ provides entertainment in excess, and it’s welcome
As Oscar Wilde is said to have said, “Nothing succeeds like excess.” Wilde lived in the late 19th century, the time period that Moulin Rouge: The Musical takes place, though he was born too early to see the musical, which is a perfect illustration of his aphorism. From Catherine Zuber’s sensuous costumes to Derek McLane’s fanciful, eye-popping sets to Justin Townsend’s very … [Read more...]
Maltz’s ‘Guys and Dolls’ competent but uninspired
By critical consensus, Guys and Dolls is as close to perfect as musicals get. Subtitled “A musical fable of Broadway,” it hails from 1950, when composer-lyricist Frank Loesser and book writers Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows adapted a couple of comic Damon Runyon tales of Times Square underworld characters. The show’s journey to Broadway was anything but smooth, yet the quality … [Read more...]
Wick’s ‘No, No, Nanette’ dusts off century to reveal sparkle beneath
Exactly a century ago this year, a trifle of a musical called No, No, Nanette arrived on Broadway and was acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, neither of which apparently wanted anything more than an excuse for some upbeat, hummable songs and captivating dance numbers. Fast forward to 1971, when the show had its cobwebs wiped away and its still-flimsy script somewhat … [Read more...]
‘Book of Mormon’ still hilarious, charming in third Kravis run
George S. Kaufman once observed that “satire is what closes on Saturday night.” But then he never met Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the two wags behind the comic boundary-pushing cable television show, South Park, and the musical, The Book of Mormon. In 2011, they brought their satirical and scatological sensibilities to Broadway with the latter, a brash send-up of the loopy … [Read more...]
Hap’s fearless Oscar picks: Wins for ‘Conclave,’ ‘Brutalist,’ Brody, Moore
Predicting the Academy Awards last year was easy, because of the evident dominance of Oppenheimer. But this year's field for Best Picture, and several other categories, is wide open. But that does not stop me from jumping into the fray with my insightful, though probably erratic, picks. With these answers, you have just enough time to hop a plane to London and place a bet … [Read more...]