Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, which first enchanted TV audiences in 1957, is based on a fairy tale by Charles Perrault that has been captivating children of all ages since it was first written in 1697. Nevertheless, when the musical was poised to make its Broadway debut in 2013, playwright Douglas Carter Beane was enlisted to give the script a makeover, injecting … [Read more...]
The Wick’s ‘Milk and Honey’: See it for the music
In 1960, a promising young composer-lyricist was sent to Israel to soak up its atmosphere and culture in order to write a musical set in that plucky new nation. The songwriter was Jerry Herman and the show would be his Broadway debut --- Milk and Honey. It ran for a respectable 543 performances and, of course, has since been overshadowed by such Herman megahits as Hello, … [Read more...]
Wick goes big with Herman’s Israel love story, ‘Milk and Honey’
Avi Hoffman did not take long to decide when the offer came from Boca Raton’s Wick Theatre to be in Milk and Honey, Jerry Herman’s 1961 Broadway debut. He has a special affection for this musical about a romance between a middle-aged couple, set against the turmoil of the early days of the state of Israel. For starters, he grew up in Israel, living there from 1969 to 1977, … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2022-23: The season in theater
Now that the COVID 19 pandemic is in the rearview mirror --- we hope --- South Florida’s theaters are looking ahead to their first full season of productions in several years. So below is a look at what is scheduled, taken in geographic order from north to south, from Jupiter to Coral Gables. Last season, the Maltz Jupiter Theatre was hit with a double whammy of COVID … [Read more...]
Maltz gets underway in new house; companies announce 22-23 season
After two postponed productions and a third delayed by a week, the Maltz Jupiter Theatre opened in late March with critical acclaim for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and for its renovated and expanded playhouse. With much of the stress of construction deadlines over, producing artistic director Andrew Kato paused long enough to discuss the new, improved theater and the upcoming first … [Read more...]
Accomplished cast lifts slight Sedaka musical at Wick
Neil Sedaka was a prolific singer/songwriter of the 1950s and 1960s, but few of his catchy hit tunes could be described as theater music. Yet for the past 15 years, thanks to that frequently popular subgenre known as the jukebox musical, he has enjoyed a new revenue stream from a show of his collected songs called Breaking Up Is Hard to Do. The title also happens to be the … [Read more...]
‘Sh-Boom!’ offers mild 1950s fluff at The Wick
When Marilynn Wick, executive managing producer of her eponymous Boca Raton theater, pulled the plug on a planned mounting of the musical Damn Yankees for financial reasons, she went looking for a less expensive, easier-to-produce show. And as the saying goes, “You get what you pay for,” in this case a piece of 1950s jukebox fluff called Sh-Boom! Life Could Be a Dream. That … [Read more...]
Like Mama Rose herself, Wick’s ‘Gypsy’ soldiers on
Many shows in South Florida have had to be canceled or postponed because of the COVID pandemic, but the Wick Theatre’s production of the musical Gypsy has toughed it out and barreled on – just like its leading character, Mama Rose Hovick, the ultimate stage mother. Veteran director Norb Joerder has dozens of shows to his credit, but he has never experienced anything … [Read more...]
COVID postpones ‘Summer,’ ‘Gypsy’ as omicron takes its toll
COVID-19 is playing havoc with local theater schedules. Breakthrough omicron cases have been reported within the company of the touring show Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, which was scheduled to play the Kravis Center this week as part of its Broadway series. The show has now been rescheduled for May 20-26, with tickets for the new performance dates to be mailed out … [Read more...]
Flimsy but hugely popular, ‘Mamma Mia!’ wins over Wick audiences
Popularity doesn’t always go hand-in-hand with quality. Consider Mamma Mia!, which ran nearly 14 years on Broadway, the ninth longest running show in the commercial theater. But this lazy jukebox musical is built from songs by the Swedish pop group ABBA that only occasionally coincide with the show’s credibility-stretching plot. Still, did I mention that it ran nearly … [Read more...]