By Sharon Geltner Big Broadway stars who have played the storied 54 Below cabaret in Manhattan are performing for the first time at the Rinker Playhouse, the first arrangement of its kind in the country. Georgina Young, vice president of marketing and programming at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, proposed the partnership at a chance meeting in a Fort … [Read more...]
‘Pretty Woman’ musical sticks too close to its movie model
Since romance is a cornerstone of the musical theater, perhaps it was inevitable that Pretty Woman — the most popular rom-com of all time — would make its way to Broadway It did so in 2018, thanks to an adaptation by Garry Marshall and J.F. Lawton — the film’s director and screenwriter, respectively — as well as a score by Canadian pop composer Bryan Adams and his frequent … [Read more...]
‘Something Rotten!’ a delightful, funny spoof at the Kravis
It is called musical comedy, but you can count on two hands the number of shows that are genuinely funny. Something Rotten!, a stew of Elizabethan foolishness, is certainly one of them. Where most new musicals these days are based on movies, Something Rotten! is an original story and its premise should get you giggling quickly. It concerns the Bottom brothers – Nick and … [Read more...]
‘Something Rotten!’ an amusing antidote to Bardolatry
You think Antonio Salieri had trouble competing with that wunderkind composer Mozart in Amadeus? That was nothing compared with the woes of Nick and Nigel Bottom, two Elizabethan playwrights stymied by the skill and acclaim of rock star wordsmith William Shakespeare in the cleverly comic musical, Something Rotten!, at the Broward Center through April 2. Imagine the chutzpah … [Read more...]