By Dale King Newsies takes a high-energy, somersault-flipping, song-filled dip into a generally factual, historic event — a work stoppage involving newspaper delivery boys, called “newsies” — at the end of the 19th century. The show, a thought-provoking, entertaining and entrancing tale about industrious street kids with a genuine interest in righting wrongs — … [Read more...]
‘Aladdin’ is a world of wonders in Kravis run
By Dale King The latest iteration of Aladdin, one of the oldest and most told and retold tales in literary history, is being performed through Friday at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach. The production, based on Walt Disney’s 1992 animated film, is festooned with colorful characters, a pleasing, often powerful musical score and amazing … [Read more...]
‘Bronx Tale’ derivative, but strong performances compel
Whether or not actor-writer Chazz Palminteri is concerned about ecology, he owes much of his career to recycling. Consider A Bronx Tale, which he first wrote and performed in the late 1980s, a semi-autobiographical one-man show about his coming of age in the New York borough. In the show, a young Palminteri surrogate named Calogero is caught in a tug-of-war between … [Read more...]
Delightful ‘Sister Act’ wraps FAU’s Summer Rep
By Dale King Mirth and glitz mingle with murder, mobsters and fine vocals in Sister Act, the musical that’s wrapping up the two-play Summer Rep schedule at Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus. Students in the master of fine arts graduate program join forces with four Actors Equity performers to present the show based on the 1992 movie featuring Whoopi Goldberg … [Read more...]
Wick’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ delightful treat for summer
As managing executive producer Marilynn Wick readily concedes in her pre-show speech, she has purposely aimed her summer show, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, at youngsters and at developing an audience of tots. Then she has chosen well, with one of the Mouse Factory’s most popular animated features, transformed into the company’s first Broadway venture in 1994, a … [Read more...]
Wick’s ‘Sister Act’ offers escapism with a heart
Ask Patrece Bloomfield, who is making her Wick Theatre debut in Sister Act as Delores Van Cartier – a/k/a the Whoopi Goldberg character in the 1992 movie – how she got the role and she will answer in two words, “Divine intervention.” How appropriate for a musical that takes place largely in a convent. Bloomfield was appearing in a theme park show at Universal Studios in … [Read more...]