If I were programming the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, I would also be looking for vehicles for the dynamic Matt Loehr, who has earned Carbonell Awards for each of his three previous appearances there (Crazy for You, Hello, Dolly!, The Music Man). While he is too high-energy to be an ideal fit to play cowboy-humorist-philosopher Will Rogers, the laconic “poet lariat” of the nation, … [Read more...]
West Palm roundup: Amanda Valdes; another plan for the Carefree
By Sandra Schulman South Florida native Amanda Valdes is having a major moment with her art of creepy darling Goth girls, all doe eyes and angles and cartoonish allure. Her art focuses on the wildly embellished Girl, and how costuming, identity and myth play into female perceptions. Mermaids, Day of the Dead dames, courtesans and other coquettes parade and pose in her alpha … [Read more...]
Theatre roundup: ‘Daniel’s Husband,’ ‘Summer Shorts 2015’
Daniel and Mitchell are a successful architect and a novelist who have lived comfortably and happily in a committed relationship for the past seven years. They are the very picture of an ideal gay couple, so what could possibly go wrong for them? From the opening scene of Daniel’s Husband, the latest world premiere by South Florida’s most prolific and acclaimed playwright, … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’ ‘Casa Valentina’
Slow Burn Theatre forged its reputation producing offbeat, underappreciated musicals, like Bat Boy, Urinetown and Parade. Whether it is a switch of missions or simply a pause, the Boca Raton troupe recently served up the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Rent and is now having fun with the very entertaining Little Shop of Horrors — the 1982 hit that remains the most … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘My Old Lady,’ ‘Book of Mormon,’ and ‘When You’re in Love…’
Write a play with a prominent role for actresses of an advanced age and watch it attract major award-laden performers. Certainly that is the case with My Old Lady, Israel Horovitz’s tribute to the French and their cultural differences with Americans. In the film version released earlier this year, two-time Oscar winner Maggie Smith took on the title role of wily nonagenarian … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Once’ far more than enough; ‘Wiesenthal’ lacks drama
There used to be a skit in the parody show Forbidden Broadway that declared the show Thoroughly Modern Millie to be the worst best musical in Tony Award history. But that was before Once. Winner of the top Tony in 2012 — a weak season for musicals by any measure — this simple love story between a Dublin vacuum cleaner repairman/rock star wannabe and an angelic Czech immigrant … [Read more...]
Theatre roundup 2: Challenging new ‘Hummingbird’ at Arts Garage; Wick rebounds with sparkling ‘42nd Street’
Playwright Carter Lewis uses a light touch to address heavy issues. In such past works as Women Who Steal, Ordinary Nation and The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider — all produced by Florida Stage — he has gathered current social ills and shaped his observations about them into entertaining, and often challenging, theater. Certainly that is the case with his latest play, The … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘The Lion in Winter,’ ‘Annie’
Two solid productions have arrived for the holidays, each prominently featuring the Christmas season in its plot. The Lion in Winter is salted with plenty of humor and (spoiler alert!) none of the dysfunctional Plantagenets assembled for a Christmas reunion to decide who will inherit the crown from aging King Henry II gives his life during the cutthroat war of words. So James … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Don Quixote vanquishes Coriolanus in summer offerings
Palm Beach Dramaworks has often been challenged by what to program in the summer. It wants to keep its doors open with a production or two, but is wary of spending too much for minimal return from a reduced audience pool. Its answer this summer is a couple of musicals in concert form, semi-staged readings of fairly well known shows from Broadway’s golden age that would be … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Smart ‘Lungs,’ engaging ‘4000 Miles’
Duncan Macmillan’s 90-minute conversation, Lungs, is both up-to-the-minute and timeless. While it is certainly a new play, it has already had more productions than most scripts that The Theatre at Arts Garage’s Lou Tyrrell is used to dealing with. But Macmillan’s way with dialogue is so crisp, glib and theatrical, it is easy to see why the Delray Beach artistic director would … [Read more...]