For those with a low tolerance for delayed gratification, be forewarned. Hot Shoe Shuffle, the tap dance musical from Australia now being revived by Boca Raton’s Wick Theatre, does eventually heat up, but it takes until the second act for its temperature to rise. That slow combustion is really built into the show’s storyline. You see, it concerns the seven performing … [Read more...]
‘Hot Shoe Shuffle’ promises tap razzle-dazzle at The Wick
A tap-happy musical romp, Hot Shoe Shuffle, was a big hit in its native Australia in the early ’90s, and then went on to similar acclaim in London’s West End. Although next aimed for Broadway, the show never made it to New York, but decades later the revived show arrives this weekend at the Wick Theatre in Boca Raton. Managing executive producer Marilynn Wick went … [Read more...]
Polo Club residents try their luck with ‘Boca Bound,’ new musical at The Wick
Bonnie Logan and Richard Peshkin readily concede that they are novices when it comes to writing musicals, but that is what has occupied much of their time for the past two years. If all goes well at their four-night premiere run beginning Sept. 19 at the Wick Theatre, their show – Boca Bound: A New Musical – may be bound for productions at regional theaters all across the … [Read more...]
‘Patsy Cline’ sparkles as Wick’s season-ender
Long before show business personalities had to worry about stalkers, fledgling country music star-to-be Patsy Cline forged a friendship with an emotionally needy Texas divorcee. The latter, a bubbly redhead named Louise Seger, became enamored of Cline’s twangy song stylings, heard on the radio and seen on television, never guessing where her musical obsession might lead. … [Read more...]
Loehr, Kleiner shine in sensational ‘Crazy for You’ at The Wick
Legendary composer George Gershwin died in 1937, but that has not stopped the creation of three major book musicals featuring his songs in relatively recent years. The best of them is surely 1992’s Crazy for You, a clever romantic comedy with the emphasis on the comedy, thanks to a jokey script by Ken Ludwig. But to work, the show needs a charismatic hoofer in the male lead. … [Read more...]
Maloney sensational as Fanny Brice in Wick’s ‘Funny Girl’
Barbra who? For more than half a century, theater companies have shied away from producing Funny Girl, the biographical musical of Ziegfeld Follies star Fanny Brice, in part because whoever plays the leading role would be subjected to comparisons with Ms. Streisand. Apparently Boca Raton’s Wick Theatre was unfazed by that hurdle and, boy, have they found an … [Read more...]
Forgetting Barbra to reveal Brice is actress’s challenge in Wick’s ‘Funny Girl’
Arguably more than any other musical, memories of 1964’s Funny Girl have been so dominated by its original Broadway star – Barbra Streisand – that there has never been a major revival of the show. But audiences at the Wick Theatre in Boca Raton voted the Jule Styne-Bob Merrill musical biography of vaudeville vocalist and clown Fanny Brice (1891-1951) the show they most … [Read more...]
Struthers, young star help drive near-flawless ‘Annie’ at The Wick
Optimism. It is a quality in short supply across the land these days, but if it is something you crave, take a cue from a spunky carrot-topped orphan who inspires optimism in a Depression-era Hooverville of homeless souls as well as in FDR and his presidential cabinet. I’m referring, of course, to the musical Annie, currently receiving a near-perfect … [Read more...]
TV’s Struthers happy to be back on stage in ‘Annie’
Playing Gloria Stivic, daughter of Archie Bunker, on the ’70s sitcom All in the Family brought stardom and two Emmy awards to Sally Struthers. But at her core she is a stage performer. “I started out in live theater,” she says during a rehearsal break from Annie, opening this Saturday night at Boca Raton’s Wick Theatre. “I went to the Pasadena Playhouse College of … [Read more...]
Wick’s ‘Pirates of Penzance’ comes together in winning topsy-turvy style
The year was 1980, when director Wilfred Leach and choreographer Graciela Daniele took the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance and gave it a comic, anything-for-a-laugh spin, captivating audiences in Central Park and later on Broadway. Surely the Wick Theatre’s Norb Joerder was taking notes, for he has recreated that Hellzapoppin’-style production, right … [Read more...]