By Dale King In the real world, school won’t start for at least a few more weeks, maybe even a month. But in the realm of stage musicals, School of Rock opened this past weekend at the Lake Worth Playhouse. Its “semester” runs just three weeks, but lots of songs, antics, expectations, rules for proper in-class behavior and family relationships are packed into its … [Read more...]
PB Shakespeare Fest offers an admirable, dark-hued ‘Lear’
It is said that if William Shakespeare were alive today, he would probably be writing for a popular medium like television. Perhaps he would be penning tales of power struggles and family conflict on a series such as Succession. Instead, he wrote on those same subjects in King Lear, one of his greatest tragic plays. Now in its 34th season, Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival … [Read more...]
The arts cut fallout: Theater leaders discuss state funding veto
In the wake of the June 12 elimination of all state arts and culture grants in Florida by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Palm Beach ArtsPaper’s Hap Erstein talked to three of the area’s theater leaders for their reaction to the unprecedented cuts. Here is some of what they had to say: Sue Ellen Beryl, managing director, Palm Beach Dramaworks I believe the first thing I saw was a … [Read more...]
‘Mamma Mia!’ is in fine shape at the Kravis
Broadway lately has been plundering the song libraries of pop composer/performers, creating what has become known as jukebox musicals. Of them, none has been as successful — at least commercially — as Mamma Mia!, a celebration of the infectious compositions of the Swedish rock group ABBA. The show arrived on our shores in 2001, soon after 9/11, at a time when audiences … [Read more...]
At FAU Summer Rep: Excellent cast sustains overlong ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’
By Dale King Summer may be a slack season for many students. But not for the actor wannabes in Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Theatre and Dance. They’ve spent weeks gearing up for perhaps their busiest time of the year – the annual two-play Summer Repertory Theater Festival. The first show, a high-energy production of Peter and the Starcatcher, opened in the … [Read more...]
Broadway Review 2: A gritty revival and a musical like no other
Ahead of this season’s Tony Awards presentation on Sunday, June 16, here are more of my Broadway reviews: * Appropriate — Where would the theater be without dysfunctional families? With his Broadway debut, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins conjures up an extraordinarily vicious clan in the Lafayettes, who reunite in the dilapidated rural Arkansas home of their recently … [Read more...]
Broadway Review 1: Four new musicals contend in Tony season
Following a very busy April, in which two dozen new shows opened to end the Tony Award-eligible season, a host of new musicals by debuting composers arrived, many of them adaptations of popular novels and their subsequent movie versions. * Water for Elephants — Who wouldn’t want to run away and join the circus, even one so ramshackle and cash-strapped as the … [Read more...]
‘Trying’: Overlong play at Dramaworks rescued by impressive performances
Even the greats of government service will eventually succumb to the physical and mental ravages of age. So it is with Francis Biddle, the former attorney general under Franklin Roosevelt and chief American judge of the Nuremberg war trials. By the time we meet him in Joanna McClelland Glass’ biographical play Trying, he is 81 and a decrepit shell of his former self. … [Read more...]
‘Kite Runner’ just as moving on stage as it was on film, in pages
Reportedly more than 30 million copies of Khaled Hosseini’s pre-9/11 Afghanistan-set novel of friendship, betrayal, death-defying risk and eventual redemption, The Kite Runner, have been sold worldwide and countless millions more saw the powerful 2007 movie adaptation. But even if you are already familiar with this tale that spans decades of evolving Middle Eastern history, you … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 7: Gritty ‘Outsiders’ not otherwise persuasive
April 28, 2024: I completed my bite out of Broadway today with my eighth show in six days --- The Outsiders --- based on S.E. Hinton's novel and Francis Ford Coppola's movie adaptation. It's a visceral musical, steeped in the street warfare between the blue-collar Greasers and the socially better-off Socs. The comparison may be unfair, but it is hard not to think of West Side … [Read more...]