From the opening alarm bell signifying an institutional lockdown, Gina Montet’s Dangerous Instruments, now playing at Palm Beach Dramaworks, foreshadows the all-too-familiar inevitability of gun violence in America. Told as a gripping case study of a young, mentally troubled boy and his mother’s battle to save him from being dismissed by an inadequate social services system, … [Read more...]
‘Leaving Omaha’ not Lewis’s best, but fine lead actors make it work
Playwright Carter W. Lewis does not have much positive to say about Omaha, the setting of his latest play, now receiving its world premiere at Palm Beach Dramaworks. But in his program notes, the production’s director Bruce Linser suggests that the Nebraska town is merely a microcosm for a nationwide society that has failed to provide the educational, economic and social … [Read more...]
‘The Science of Leaving Omaha’: Downward mobility on the prairie
It is one thing to recognize the dramatic potential in a New York Times article about the disintegration of working-class communities and its devastating toll from one generation to the next, as playwright Carter W. Lewis did. It is quite another thing to make the imaginative leap and turn that material into The Science of Leaving Omaha, about a teenage dropout working in a … [Read more...]
Camp classic ‘Irma Vep’ lights up Island City Stage
By Dale King The Mystery of Irma Vep is a high-octane, mystery/thriller/satire that’s getting plenty of guffaws from summer audiences at Island City Stage in Wilton Manors. The show is peculiar in its uniqueness. Playwright Charles Ludlam, a pillar of the LGBTQ+ community for his contributions to literature and stage shows during his AIDS-shortened career as an actor and … [Read more...]
MNM’s ‘Man of La Mancha’ true to the mad knight’s idealism
Although based on a novel written in 1605, a musical drama about a fervent idealist facing a stubbornly vindictive government can seem surprisingly timely today. The musical in question is Man of La Mancha, based on Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, which opened on Broadway in 1965, an era of Vietnam War protests. But such are the show’s sweeping themes of compassion, good … [Read more...]
Lead actors keep madness of ‘Blue Leaves’ in canny check at Dramaworks
By Dale King The House of Blue Leaves, the darkly seriocomic John Guare play, is appropriately apt as the finale for Palm Beach Dramaworks’ 19th season. The show that packed the West Palm Beach venue on opening weekend homes in on characters who desperately want their hopes and dreams to work. But a realistic assessment says they probably won’t happen. The Obie … [Read more...]
Dramaworks sees profundity in dark comedy of ‘Blue Leaves’
Palm Beach Dramaworks is closing out its 18th season uncharacteristically with a comedy – John Guare’s 1971 dark farce, The House of Blue Leaves. But director J. Barry Lewis insists it is not a departure for the company. “I believe that drama is comedy and comedy is drama. I think that they are one and the same,” he says prior to a recent rehearsal. “Comedy is an … [Read more...]
For Dramaworks, ‘Spitfire Grill’ is the little musical that could
A stage company like Palm Beach Dramaworks, known for “theater to think about,” could hardly make a lightweight choice for its first musical produced within a subscription season. So it selected The Spitfire Grill, a 2001 off-Broadway show based on an acclaimed – but also little seen – independent film about hope and redemption. “‘Spitfire Grill’ is probably one of the … [Read more...]
Stage Door’s new venue outshines uneven ‘La Cage’
You want the good news first? The 26-year-old Stage Door Theatre has moved from Margate, across Broward County, to a gorgeous new $11.6 million playhouse, the 1,100-seat Lauderhill Performing Arts Center. With ample wings and fly space, plus all the bells, whistles and amenities that its former home lacked, the complex should be the envy of every other resident company in South … [Read more...]
At Dramaworks, a sparkling tour of Woody Guthrie’s America
Oklahoma-born Woodrow Wilson Guthrie, champion of the underclass and the union movement, was a genuine poet, though he was never comfortable with that label. He wrote simple, hummable songs that celebrated this nation, but as the Great Depression consumed the country and exposed economic inequities, his tunes took on a tone of angry protest and confrontation. That … [Read more...]