“Immersive” and “environmental” are the hot buzzwords on Broadway these days, nowhere more evident at Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club. The August Wilson Theatre has been gutted and transformed into the tawdry nightclub of Weimar Berlin, the site of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s landmark musical, which has grown edgier and more topical over the years. While their Chicago is … [Read more...]
‘Chicago’ at the Kravis still has plenty of razzle-dazzle
Musicals are rarely cynical, but then there is Chicago, a snarky look at our justice system as seen through a pair of accused murderesses awaiting trial in the Cook County jail, circa the late 1920s. Perhaps the show’s appeal stems more from its Bob Fosse-inspired choreography and its John Kander-Fred Ebb score than from the snide script Fosse co-wrote with lyricist Ebb. … [Read more...]
‘Chicago’: The 1920s have something to say to the 2020s
By Hap Erstein Although based on a play from 1926, that was adapted into a musical in 1975, Chicago “just feels like it was written five minutes ago, the way that it examines our culture and the cult of celebrity in our country.” So says Denis Jones, a veteran of the concert-like revival that continues in New York after 23 years, the longest-running American … [Read more...]
Kander and Ebb catalog gets entertaining take at Delray Playhouse
By Dale King Musical revues have become popular fare at community and regional theaters of late. They’ve been staples the past few years at Broward Stage Door Theatre, particularly themed compilations created by Michael Leeds and/or Kevin Black. The Wick Theatre had such success with a show called Beehive last year that one of its performers, Mallory Newbrough, has been … [Read more...]
Fierce punch of ‘Cabaret’ still lands
It’s tawdry and sleazy, and you wouldn’t want it any other way. That describes director Sam Mendes’ take on the hard-hitting, yet melodic, leer at the rise of Nazism in pre-war Berlin, Cabaret, now playing at the Kravis Center through Sunday. Harold Prince staged the original 1966 Broadway production of the John Kander-Fred Ebb-Joe Masteroff show based on the … [Read more...]
Fosse’s magic returns to Kravis in popular ‘Chicago’
More than a mere show, the revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s Chicago has grown into a phenomenon. Having run 8,795 performances since opening in 1996, it is not only the longest-running revival in Broadway history, but the longest-running American show of any kind there. The musical has also proven popular locally, in several engagements at the Kravis Center, where it … [Read more...]
Even the revue is beautiful: Songs of Kander and Ebb at the Rinker
Busy as an adjunct theater professor at Florida Atlantic University, Lynn University and Broward College during the school year, Bruce Linser has to confine his freelance directing to the summer months. No sooner had he opened his production of Once Upon a Mattress at FAU’s Festival Rep, then he began rehearsals for The World Goes ’Round, MNM Productions’ revue of songs … [Read more...]