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...]
2023-24 Season in Theater: A post-COVID lineup full of promise
With COVID safely in the rear mirror and audiences back attending theater, the 2023-2024 South Florida season looks quite promising, with full schedules, numerous world premieres and several companies celebrating significant anniversaries. Here’s how the theater scene is shaping up, moving geographically from north to south. With its playhouse expanded, the Maltz … [Read more...]
Strong lead performances make ‘Oliver!’ a solid Maltz closer
In the early 1960s, long before Andrew Lloyd Webber and others sent a steady stream of mega-musicals from Britain to Broadway, a London songwriter named Lionel Bart scored a big hit on both sides of the pond with Oliver! Based, of course, on Charles Dickens’ classic novel Oliver Twist, Bart erased much of its crusading social message in favor of bouncy tunes and adorable … [Read more...]
‘Good People’ speaks its truth in searing Maltz production
“Write what you know” goes the clichéd but all-too-true route to theatrical success, and playwright David Lindsay-Abaire knows about escaping poverty. Born and raised in a blue-collar neighborhood of South Boston, he became a Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist (Rabbit Hole) as well as the adapter of his play Kimberly Akimbo into a much-acclaimed musical on Broadway this season. … [Read more...]