By Dale King Dolly Parton is more than just a dwarfish country vocalist with conspicuous curves and an explosion of blonde hair. Inside that yellow-coiffed cranium is the brain that concocted money-maker Dollywood. And it also crafted the words and music to the 2008 show, 9 to 5: The Musical, now playing at the Broward Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs. And while the … [Read more...]
A challenging ‘Ballyhoo’ at Broward Stage Door
By Dale King The Last Night of Ballyhoo is something of an enigma. Though labeled as a comedy, it isn’t particularly funny. While its main characters focus exclusively on a popular cotillion, they generally ignore an impending world crisis, as well as discord among their fellow Jews derived simply from where they were born. Certainly, Ballyhoo, written by Alfred Uhry (who … [Read more...]
Brilliant FGO production lets ‘Mourning’ shine
Marvin David Levy’s opera Mourning Becomes Electra made a big impression when it was first launched at the Metropolitan Opera in 1967, helped by the star turns of its leading ladies, Evelyn Lear and Marie Collier, and a young baritone named Sherrill Milnes. It had to wait 30 years for its next performance, at Chicago’s Lyric Opera, and its current production at Florida Grand … [Read more...]
Broward Stage Door’s ‘Sophisticated Ladies’ does the Duke proud
By Dale King Guys in tuxes and glittery vests. Gals with long evening gowns strewn with sparkles. All this, set against a stark, black-and-white Art Deco stage setting. Sophisticated Ladies, a 32-year-old revue of the tunes, dress and dance steps most associated with Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, is the latest offering at Broward Stage Door Theatre, and it brings us back … [Read more...]
Broward Stage Door cast does well with disturbing ‘Twilight of the Golds’
By Dale King The morality drama The Twilight of the Golds asks a question that some might not want to answer: If parents knew their child would be born gay, would they allow the birth or choose abortion? Broward Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs takes a bold step by opening the 2013-14 season for Theatre II with this taut and tense tragicomedy, which demands responses to … [Read more...]
Broward Stage Door’s ‘Moon Over Buffalo’ gives light farce an edge
By Dale King Broward Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs kicks off the 2013-2014 season with a show that encourages yelling, running, door slamming, drinking, occasional sexual innuendos, mayhem and general chaos. The play, Moon over Buffalo, written by slapstick playwright Ken Ludwig, drew iconic comedienne Carol Burnett back to the Broadway stage when it debuted in 1995. … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 30-Sept. 1
Music: Robby Krieger was one of the respected guitarists in rock during his time with The Doors from 1967 to 1972. These days, at 67, he’s still out there with a band, this one called Robby Krieger’s Jam Kitchen, with a powerhouse lineup including two former Frank Zappa alums, guitarist Arthur Barrow and keyboardist Tommy Mars, veteran L.A. session saxman and Neil Diamond … [Read more...]
For Kingston, in the beginning was the word
Maxine Hong Kingston first became aware of the importance of language when she went to kindergarten in Stockton, Calif., where she grew up the child of Chinese immigrants. “I spoke Chinese only until I started school,” Kingston says by phone from her home in Oakland, Calif. “I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying. I couldn’t communicate.” That first experience of … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Sept. 8-9
Film: Now that journeyman actress Melissa Leo has won an Oscar (for The Fighter), she should gain the clout to get her films general distribution, but t hasn’t happened yet. That is why her first-rate performance as a drug-addicted mom struggling with submitting herself to a rehab clinic in Why Stop Now is opening locally at the Mos’Art Theatre in Lake Park, even in this … [Read more...]
Return To Forever, Dweezil Zappa make a Boca Saturday even hotter
Keyboardist Chick Corea occupies the rare air of a jazz superstar who can do whatever he wants. Some of his recent whims included a 2008 reunion tour by the popular fusion quartet version from among his various Return To Forever lineups from 1972-1977, and the recent Forever CD by three of that reunion’s principals (himself, original RTF bassist Stanley Clarke and longtime … [Read more...]