Theatrical tastes and gender sensibilities can change drastically in 86 years. So while a play like Gaslight thrilled audiences in 1938 – as did its more famous movie version six years later – it would be unlikely to captivate theatergoers today. Enter Patty Jamieson and Johnna Wright, a pair of Canadian actresses-turned-writers who were on the right track with their rewrite … [Read more...]
Actress Jacobson triumphs in ‘Becoming Dr. Ruth’ at the Maltz
Few people are unfamiliar with Ruth Westheimer, the straight-talking grandmotherly sex therapist of radio, television, books and even a sex education board game. Perhaps even fewer, however, are aware of her back story, how this plucky German girl fled from the Nazis to Switzerland, eventually emigrating to America by way of Palestine and then becoming an unlikely media … [Read more...]
At the Maltz: ‘Becoming Dr. Ruth’ tells remarkable story of woman behind the frank talk
Most people are familiar with Ruth Westheimer, but few know her backstory — her roots as a German child who fled her homeland to Switzerland as the Nazis were gaining power. After World War II, she emigrated to Palestine and took up arms as a sniper for the Haganah, a Zionist paramilitary troupe. Ultimately, she moved again to the United States and became the world-renowned, … [Read more...]
Big, beautiful ’42nd Street’ at Maltz is dazzling triumph for local theater
At one point in 42nd Street, the production number-heavy backstage musical about a Depression-era Broadway tryout, Julian Marsh, the director of Pretty Lady — the fictional show-within-the-show — calls it “the biggest musical this town has seen in two decades.” While that is true, he could also be referring to what the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has lovingly assembled on a … [Read more...]
Simon’s ‘Plaza Suite’ not just for laughs, Maltz director says
You might think when the Maltz Jupiter Theatre takes a break from its usual musical menu to produce a comedy like Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite that the task is easier. Not so, says director J. Barry Lewis, the Maltz’s go-to guy when it comes to staging Simon’s plays. “They’re always a challenge, there’s no doubt about it,” he says. “It’s one of the oldest sayings in the … [Read more...]
Standout lead performance makes Carole King bio ‘Beautiful’
The beginning and ending of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical depict the legendary singer-songwriter at Carnegie Hall performing numbers from her multiple Grammy Award-winning album, Tapestry. If those scenes are the standout highlights of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s new production, that is because they show King at the peak of her writing talent, because the stunning … [Read more...]
Maltz takes on ‘Beautiful’ look at classic pop songwriter
From a shy Brooklyn teenager who composed chart-topping songs that others recorded to a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical chronicles the career and life of one of the pop music world’s most acclaimed singer-songwriters. Following the show’s five-year Broadway run, it now arrives at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre in its South Florida regional … [Read more...]
Maltz’s ‘Christmas Carol’ looks great, comes up short in story
When, in 1843, Charles Dickens published a novella called A Christmas Carol, he had no idea that 180 years later, scores of regional theaters across America would be producing stage versions of the durable ghost story. And for many of them, it would be an annual event, the biggest moneymaker of the season. Now following in that tradition is the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, with a … [Read more...]
‘Orient Express’ gets brilliant stage treatment at Maltz
There is no mystery why the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has become South Florida’s preeminent stage company over the course of its 20 years of existence. The clues are all on display in the expert ensemble cast and stunning design elements that add up to a production of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express that must be seen to be believed. Christie’s 1934 novel, a most … [Read more...]
Beloved whodunit ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ to open Maltz season
JUPITER — What do you get when you cross a popular murder mystery by Dame Agatha Christie with the comedy of Tony and Olivier Award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig? You get a serio-comic stage version of Murder on the Orient Express, the often-filmed whodunit, chosen to open the season of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre on Thursday, Nov. 2. What explains the enduring … [Read more...]