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...]
TV’s ‘Shirley,’ Cindy Williams, to debut one-woman retrospective at Wick
A not-so-funny thing happened to Cindy Williams on her way to the Wick Theatre. COVID-19. Not only did the comedienne most closely associated with the long-running sitcom Laverne & Shirley contract the deadly virus — she’s fine now — but the production of Nunsense that would bring her to Boca Raton had to be canceled. As Williams recalls, it was Dan Goggin, the … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2020-21: Theaters mostly in hiding for season
Although Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared the state’s playhouses safe to reopen, the area’s theater companies are less than comfortable with the notion of getting up and running again. Most have canceled their 2020-2021 seasons, some in favor of a presence online with streaming options. A few have pushed their openings to next year with a shortened season of offerings. And … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Sept. 12-13, 2020
Film: Just in time with the opening of movie theaters in Palm Beach County comes the season’s most anticipated release, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. Anything from the writer-director who gave us the Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Memento and others would be a must-see, but Tenet is his most ambitious and audacious film yet. Part science fiction, part spy-versus-spy action … [Read more...]
Area’s theaters exploring the question: What now?
Optimism tempered by uncertainty is the mood of area theater companies, which project several possible scenarios for re-opening their playhouses and getting back to producing shows, based on what the government will allow. While champing at the bit to be up and running, to have subscribers and single-ticket buyers return, their plans to restart vary over time, with options that … [Read more...]
Local arts organizations hopeful even as future looks bleak
By Jan Engoren When the Cannes Film Festival is canceled and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is projected to lose $100 million after closing down because of the coronavirus, the impact on the arts and culture all over the world is significant. And Palm Beach County is no exception. While many sectors are suffering, arts organizations and cultural … [Read more...]
Interrupted ‘Chorus Line’ was one of Wick’s best
Due to “an abundance of caution,” either self-inflicted or by governmental fiat, virtually every stage company in South Florida has postponed or canceled its March show, citing the dangers of communal theatergoing in this time of coronavirus. Then there is The Wick Theatre, which threw caution to the wind and opened its scheduled production of A Chorus Line, at least … [Read more...]
Wick’s ‘Evita’ recycles Hal Prince, comes up with a dud
The Wick Theatre uses director Norb Joerder so frequently because he has staged most of its musicals already, often many times over. He could, as the expression goes, direct them in his sleep. And with the current production of Evita, that is exactly what it looks like he has done. The Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice biographical musical about Argentina’s power-hungry Eva … [Read more...]
Leads, production make ‘Music Man’ at Wick a winner for holiday
The flim-flam man who gets himself bamboozled is a staple character of the musical theater. Think of Max Bialystock of The Producers, Lawrence Jameson of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and especially Harold Hill of The Music Man. That last one, the creation of composer-lyricist-book writer Meredith Willson, is an enduring conning icon who arrives in River City, Iowa, intent on … [Read more...]