Following closely upon its satire of Big Pharma, Rx, Boca Stage now takes a jaundiced look at the bureaucracy of the social safety net in Rebecca Gilman’s Luna Gale. At the play’s center is a stressed-out, overburdened Cedar Rapids social worker named Caroline, whose caseload includes meth addicts Karlie and Peter, parents of the title baby. We first encounter them in an ER … [Read more...]
Appreciation: Remembering Sally Kellerman
The news that Sally Kellerman, who will forever be remembered for her Oscar-nominated role as Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H, died Thursday brought back memories of a lunch I shared with her back in 1995. She was about to star as Mame Dennis in the musical Mame at the then-called Jupiter Theatre, long before Milton Maltz came on the scene. Her … [Read more...]
‘The Duration’: World premiere play deftly examines shadows of 9/11
Can it really be 20 years since the events of 9/11, a day so etched in our memories that it feels like yesterday? Perhaps by now Audrey Batten’s well-earned anger and bitterness have subsided, but in Bruce Graham’s world premiere play, The Duration — which initially takes place mere days after the destruction of the Twin Towers — her grief has the highly rational history … [Read more...]
New Kravis CEO: Let’s program for the community
Cue the arrival of the new Kravis Center chief executive officer. Take two. When the longtime head of the West Palm Beach performing arts center, Judith Mitchell, announced that she was retiring, it triggered a nationwide search for her successor. Eventually, Terrence Dwyer, a veteran southern California arts manager, was selected, but he lasted a mere five months during … [Read more...]
Slow Burn’s lovely ‘Once on This Island’ another winner for company
Two seasons ago, Slow Burn Theatre almost produced the epic Stephen Flaherty-Lynn Ahrens musical, Ragtime, but COVID got in the way. Perhaps they will get back to that show one day, but fans of the songwriting team should be pleased with the company’s current musical offering, Once on this Island, a spirited tale of the power of love, class distinctions and godly interventions, … [Read more...]
Hewitt’s Barrymore makes Maltz’s ‘I Hate Hamlet’ a must-see
The Maltz Jupiter Theatre never expected to start its season with Paul Rudnick’s puckish comedy, I Hate Hamlet, but such as the vagaries of COVID and construction. Still, when you think about it, what better way to welcome back its audience than with this tongue-in-cheek celebration of theater and of the man who wrote with such peculiar, stilted, yet soaring language – William … [Read more...]
World premiere ‘The Duration’ at Dramaworks takes on 9/11 legacy
As we continue to deal with the dark cloud of the COVID pandemic, Palm Beach Dramaworks wants us to look back 20 years to another tragic time in our history — September 11, 2001 — the day two airplanes flew into the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan and 3,000 lives were lost. It is the event that motivates Bruce Graham’s drama The Duration, receiving its world premiere at PBD on … [Read more...]
‘Power of the Dog’ leads Oscars race
Powerful is the word for The Power of the Dog, a contemporary, revisionist Western that streamed on Netflix, which led the field when Academy Award nominations were announced this morning. It galloped away with 12 nominations, including best picture, director (Jane Campion), actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), supporting actors (Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee), supporting … [Read more...]
Maltz returns with ‘I Hate Hamlet,’ a valentine to the theater
Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. In Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, novelist Charles Condamine is haunted by his peeved ex-wife Elvira. And in Paul Rudnick’s comic valentine to the theater, I Hate Hamlet, TV star Andrew Rally – nervous about taking on one of Shakespeare’s greatest roles – is persuaded to accept … [Read more...]
‘Rx’: Boca Stage’s gentle skewering of Big Pharma delivered with dispatch
Workplace depression is not an officially recognized medical condition, but that does not stop Schmidt Pharma from trying to develop a lucrative cure for what ails so many of us. That includes Meena Pierotti, managing editor of American Cattle and Swine magazine, a trade publication so dreary that depression seems the logical response to employment there. Meena is the … [Read more...]