Four flawed characters populate the otherwise vacant lobby of a Manhattan residential apartment building in Kenneth Lonergan’s compelling if meandering comic drama Lobby Hero. Each of them has justification for his moral transgressions, but we soon begin to question whether any of them deserves the designation of hero. Unlikely to merit hero status is the play’s … [Read more...]
2023-24 Season in Film: Rich cinema bounty for 2023, but strike will affect 2024
There’s good news and bad news for the strike-riddled film industry. The good news is that the fall release schedule should not be adversely affected, since the work by screenwriters and actors on films slated to open by the end of this calendar year was all completed before their guilds called them to strike. (They will open, mostly on schedule, but with a lot less … [Read more...]
2023-24 Season in Theater: A post-COVID lineup full of promise
With COVID safely in the rear mirror and audiences back attending theater, the 2023-2024 South Florida season looks quite promising, with full schedules, numerous world premieres and several companies celebrating significant anniversaries. Here’s how the theater scene is shaping up, moving geographically from north to south. With its playhouse expanded, the Maltz … [Read more...]
‘Jasmine Starr-Kidd’ needs some tinkering, but lead actress is a keeper
Regret can be a powerful emotion, but usually one that has little positive value. That is among the lessons learned by Jasmine Starr-Kidd, a 12-year-old computer whiz who deeply regrets her parents’ divorce and believes she can employ her scientific savvy to bring them together again. So it goes in The Many Wondrous Realities of Jasmine Starr-Kidd, a whimsical and somewhat … [Read more...]
Dramaworks takes ‘natural’ step, hires in-house playwright
At a time when many regional theaters are decreasing their staffs because of COVID, the economy and shrinking attendance, Palm Beach Dramaworks has a new hire. Producing artistic director William Hayes has announced the addition of the company’s first resident playwright, Jenny Connell Davis, whose Holocaust-themed drama The Messenger will have its world premiere at the … [Read more...]
PB Shakespeare Festival makes good case for ‘Measure for Measure’
Now in its 33rd year, Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival — the oldest professional theater company in continuous operation in Palm Beach County — is getting around to some of its namesake playwright’s less popular works. Plays like Measure for Measure, a dark comedy of judicial and sexual politics, categorized as a comedy chiefly because it concludes with couples sorted … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival mines dark comedy for current truth in ‘Measure for Measure’
Now in its 33rd season, The Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival reaches deep into the Bard’s folios for a less frequently performed dark comedy, Measure for Measure, a particular favorite of the company’s artistic director, Trent Stephens. “I might have a bias. I might seek these less frequently produced plays out,” he explains. “There are many works of Shakespeare’s that … [Read more...]
Appreciation: Sheldon Harnick, exacting lyricist of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’
Broadway’s golden era of the 1960s just lost one of its greats. Sheldon Harnick, the lyricist of Fiddler on the Roof – the final survivor of that classic musical’s creative team – has died at the age of 99. If he only wrote Fiddler, Harnick’s place among the top tier of musical wordsmiths would be secure. (Has there ever been a Jewish wedding in the past half a century … [Read more...]
Broadway veteran Langel launches new theater company
Broadway performer-author-acting coach Jodie Langel is about to add another role to her crowded résumé and life — executive director and founder of a new theater company. This June, she launches the Boca Raton-based Off-Glades Theater Company, whose mission is “to promote and produce musical theater in South Florida for the cultural development of young people in the … [Read more...]
Challenging two-hander ‘Topdog/Underdog’ packs punch at Dramaworks
Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks has more important things on her mind, but one takeaway from her 2002 Pulitzer Prize winner, Topdog/Underdog, is surely to be careful when you name your children. For their father, as a perverse joke, named his two African-American sons Lincoln and Booth. As a result, they have been pitted against each other throughout their lives and … [Read more...]