From left: Michael McKeever, Nicholas Richberg and Angie Radosh, in Stuff.By Hap ErsteinProlific and eclectic. You’re never quite sure what you’re going to get with a Michael McKeever play. But if you don’t like one, don’t worry, there will be another along in six months.As it happens, the Davie-based playwright-performer is serving up a winner currently with his … [Read more...]
Theater review: Young thespian’s strong debut makes ‘Secret Garden’ worth cultivating
By Hap ErsteinMore interested in spiritual rebirth than the usual romance that fuels musicals, with a score more attuned to British folk melodies than Tin Pan Alley hits, you can understand why 1991’s underrated The Secret Garden is rarely revived these days.And then there is the casting challenge of its main character, 12-year-old Mary Lennox, the suddenly … [Read more...]
Theater feature: ‘Next Fall’ marks Hall’s return to Caldwell director’s chair
Tom Wahl and Josh Canfield in Next Fall.(Photo by Dustin Hamilton)By Hap ErsteinMore than a year and a half ago, Caldwell Theatre co-founder Michael Hall handed off the artistic reins of the Boca Raton stage company he had run for 36 years. But he suspected it was just a matter of time before we would be back directing a production there, and that time is … [Read more...]
Theater roundup 2: Provocative ‘Clybourne’; a star turn for Gless
Kenneth Kay and Patti Gardner in Clybourne Park. By Hap ErsteinAfrican-Americans have federally sanctioned civil rights and the nation voted a black man into the White House. So we must have made substantial advances towards racial equality and co-existence since Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 stage drama, A Raisin in the Sun, haven’t we?Not necessarily, suggests … [Read more...]
Theater feature: ‘Clybourne Park’ playwright wants to get under your skin
Gregg Weiner, Karen Stephens and Brian D. Coatsin Clybourne Park. By Hap ErsteinPlaywright Bruce Norris has no use for writing scripts that do not provoke audiences. Typical of his work, if there is such a thing, is Clybourne Park, which looks at race relations in this country and suggests that communities change faster than our racial attitudes.“Well, we’ve … [Read more...]
Theater feature: Caldwell makes a virtue of musical by bringing back ‘Vices’
Albert Cattafi and Holly Shunkey in Vices: A Love Story.By Hap ErsteinBelying the proverb about opportunity only knocking once, here comes another chance to see the steamy, quirky, Carbonell-award-winning dance musical Vices: A Love Story, back at the Caldwell Theatre in Boca Raton, where it had its world premiere in the summer of 2009.Vices is a series of … [Read more...]
Theater review: Caldwell’s ‘Into the Woods’ concert comes off splendidly
By Hap Erstein “I wish …”They are the first two and last two words of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods, an audacious and whimsical shuffle of lesson-laden Grimm’s fairy tales.It has long been my wish that a South Florida theater company would take up the challenge of presenting some of Sondheim’s innovative musicals, even though they require large … [Read more...]
Theater review: ‘Distracted’ explores ADD expertly, but writer’s homily simplistic
Michael McKeever and Laura Turnbull in Distracted.By Hap ErsteinWith two parts wisecracks and one part wisdom, Lisa Loomer has aimed her word processor at some of contemporary life’s intriguing social issues.She has illuminated our views on employing Third World nannies (Living Out), body modification rituals (The Waiting Room) and efforts to become … [Read more...]
Theater feature: For Palm Beach County theaters, a light haul at the Carbonells
Robert Creighton recreates a number from Cagney!,an award-winner Monday night for Florida Stage.(Photo by Tony Schreiber) By Hap Erstein If you are looking for Carbonell statuettes today, look southward. Monday evening’s 34th annual Carbonell Awards ceremony was a low-key, well-produced event that tilted strongly towards theaters in Miami-Dade County. In fact, to two theater … [Read more...]
ArtsBuzz: Boca native’s film of Nepali rebels screens at Delray fest before HBO
Kiran Deol discovered the subject of her first film while studying at Harvard University. “I learned the statistic that 40 percent of the rebel army in Nepal's fighting forces were women,” says Deol, a 2001 graduate of Spanish River High School in Boca Raton. “That statistic had my jaw on the floor. So the idea of showcasing the story of a woman that showed women as agents of … [Read more...]