John Leonard Thompson and Kim Cozort in Candida.Candida
(Palm Beach Dramaworks; through Nov. 21)
Palm Beach Dramaworks, which recently announced plans to move into the vacant Cuillo Centre space a block away from its Banyan Boulevard playhouse in West Palm Beach, continues to take the high road of offering up the towering writers for the stage that other South Florida troupe shy away from.
Think O’Neill, Ibsen and now George Bernard Shaw, whose early work Candida is the young socialist playwright’s winking look at the institution of marriage and the gulf between genders, with the Irish Nobel laureate-to-be coming down decidedly on his feminist side.
This Shavian romantic comedy pits a verbose parson against a puppyish young poet, both vying for the affections of alluring Candida, who just happens to be the parson’s wife of many years. Still, when socially awkward Eugene Marchbanks arrives and announces his intentions to steal Candida away with him, he and the Rev. James Morell pigheadedly demand that she choose between them, underestimating her response.
John Leonard Thompson, back at Dramaworks after a stunning turn as Teach in last season’s American Buffalo, gives a terrific, wholly different performance as another misguidedly self-assured character. Kim Cozort easily makes the case for why men seem to fall instantly in love with Candida and, as Marchbanks, Will Connolly walks the tricky tightrope, rendering him inept, but not inane. — H. Erstein
CANDIDA, Palm Beach Dramaworks, 322 Banyan Blvd., West Palm Beach. Through Nov. 21. Tickets: $47. Call: (561) 514-4042.
Hannia Guillen and Jim Ballard in The Color of Desire. The Color of Desire
(Actors’ Playhouse; through Nov. 7)
It is a coup whenever a South Florida theater snags the world premiere of a play by Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz (Anna in the Tropics), even if that script seems not yet to have reached its final form. That is the case with The Color of Desire, a murky game of role-playing set against the early days after the Cuban Revolution.
The script has plenty of Cruz’s signature verbal virtuosity and is certainly authentic in its depiction of 1960 Havana, but it receives a too literal production under David Arisco’s direction at Actors’ Playhouse, where more ambiguity seems called for. An unsettling shift between reality and fantasy is what I recall from my first exposure to the play at Florida Stage’s 1st Stage Festival two years ago, but rewrites and seeing it fully produced has made that mood of mystery evaporate.
Still, it is a new work by Cruz, a master storyteller who spins evocative images that stick in the brain. At its center is an American businessman (Jim Ballard), worried about having his operation nationalized, but not so preoccupied that he does not woo and hire a local actress (Hannia Guillen) to play the part of former lover of his, offstage and in the bedroom. Filling out the cast well are Barbara Sloan and Michael Serratore as carefree American unable to say goodbye to Cuba, and two extraneous, but amusing costume shop workers (Isabel Moreno, Teresa Maria Rojas).
Chances are The Color of Desire will one day be the compelling portrait of Cruz’s homeland in upheaval, but it is not there yet. – H. Erstein
THE COLOR OF DESIRE, Actors’ Playhouse, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables. Through Nov. 7. Tickets: $40-$48. Call: (305) 444-9293.
Bridge and Tunnel
(Women’s Theatre Project; through Nov. 7)
When I whine about the limitations of one-person shows, what I really mean are one-person, one-character shows, those wooden biographical evenings that are as dramatic as recitations from an encyclopedia. On the other hand, such actresses as Lily Tomlin (The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe) and Anna Deavere Smith (Fires in the Mirror) have generated some entertaining and thought-provoking theater by crowding the stage with their multiple personalities.
Add to that list Karen Stephens, a rubber-faced master of dialects who populates and tames the problematic storefront space of The Women’s Theatre Project with Sarah Jones’ Tony-winning performance piece, Bridge and Tunnel. If America is a melting pot, the crucible is a tiny stage in South Queens, where a multicultural parade of vivid characters pour out their hearts at an amateur poetry competition. That is premise enough for Stephens to show off her acting versatility as she inhabits some 14 souls of varying personalities, genders, ages and temperaments.
Emceeing the evening is a Pakistani smoothie named Mohammed Ali – no jokes, please, he’s heard them all already – who shuttles on and off, as do immigrants from Jamaica, Vietnam, Mexico and China, each grappling with the American experience in free, or at least somewhat liberated, verse. If after a while, we are more engaged by Stephens’ chameleon act than the content of Jones’ script, that does not make Bridge and Tunnel any less entertaining. – H. Erstein
BRIDGE AND TUNNEL, Women’s Theatre Project, Sixth St. Studio, 505 N.W. 1st Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Through Nov. 7. Tickets: $25. Call: (866) 811-4111.
Shane Blanford in Cabaret.Cabaret
(Entr’acte Theatrix at the Caldwell; through Oct. 24)
The good thing about presenting Cabaret, the second production from Entr’Acte Theatrix, the professional offshoot of Palm Beach Principal Players, is that the performers at the Kit Kat Club are really not supposed to be very talented. Director-choreographer Kimberly Dawn Smith may have taken that notion to the extreme, though, or perhaps she truly does have a talent-challenged cast.
That is how it seems at the Caldwell Theatre, where Smith is closely adhering to the staging of the 1998 revival of the John Kander-Fred Ebb musical set in pre-Nazi Berlin. As the Emcee, Shane Blanford has an apt edge of smarmy menace, but every exaggerated line delivery is a blatant copy of Alan Cumming’s Tony-winning performance. At least he manages a good fascimile, whereas Leah Sessa’s Sally Bowles is simply shrill and screechy, and she apparently has no clue about the subtext of the title number.
Better is Ryan Michael Owens, whose instinct is to underplay as Cliff Bradshaw, the American would-be novelist who has his eyes opened by the increasingly evident signs of the coming world war. The very capable band elevated above the stage accompanies a mix of songs from the various stage productions and the Bob Fosse film, but this Cabaret lacks the impact of the group’s earlier Hair.
Sometimes, to answer the question in the title song, it is better to sit alone in your room. – H. Erstein
CABARET, Entr’Acte Theatrix at the Caldwell Theatre, 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Through Oct. 24. Tickets: $25-$30. Call: (561) 241-7432.
Alexa Capiello and Noah Levine in The Rocky Horror Show.The Rocky Horror Show
(Slow Burn Theatre Company; through Oct. 30)
Boca Raton’s Slow Burn Theatre Company, now beginning its second season, prides itself on producing musicals with a dark edginess. But that is exactly the quality that is missing from its take on The Rocky Horror Show.
Rocky is, of course, the spoof of B-level horror films mixed with an allegory of sexual liberation, but ever since the show gained cult status – and audience interaction – from its 1975 movie version, it has been hard to wrest it from its parody mode.
Still, the production begins very promisingly with the opening number, Science Fiction Double Feature, sung with gusto by Renata Eastlick, who later returns as castle minion Magenta and steals most of the scenes she is in. We should, however, care more than we do about fish-out-of-water fiancees Brad and Janet, who have their values and more manipulated by Dr. Frank ‘N’ Furter. Noah Levine and Alexa Capiello are fine in the early going, but we need to see more of a transition eventually beyond Rick Pena’s nicely abbreviated costumes.
Larry Buzzeo (Frank) fills out a bustier and fishnet stockings well enough, but misses much of the character’s menace. Director Patrick Fitzwater was clearly trying to get beyond the image of the movie’s Tim Curry, which is commendable, but trading him in for a Charles Busch-type doesn’t really cut it.
Slow Burn encourages Rocky Horror groupies and their audience shout-outs, but by opening night, the cast seemed a bit unnerved by the interruptions. Still, if you go, check out the midnight show on Saturday night. – H. Erstein
THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW, Slow Burn Theatre Co., at West Boca Community High School, 12811 West Glades Road, Boca Raton. Through Saturday, Oct. 30. Tickets: $30. Call: (866) 811-4111.
Zero Hour
(Maltz Jupiter Theatre; through Oct. 24)
If you had a hit show running off-Broadway, how would you spend your two-week vacation? If you are actor-writer Jim Brochu, who has toiled for decades and suddenly become hailed as an overnight success for his one-man show Zero Hour, you fly to Florida and perform the show some more.
This is the second time around for this very entertaining biographical sketch of actor-comedian-painter-blacklist victim Zero Mostel. Brochu brought the show to the Broward Stage Door in 2008 as he inched his way to New York, winning a Carbonell Award for his uncanny, high-energy performance. Zero Hour has the usual artificiality of solo shows, but Brochu more than compensates with his larger-than-life, force-of-nature presence.
The premise for this walk through Mostel’s life and career is that a naïve, unseen New York Times reporter has come to Mostel’s modest art studio – his refuge from the world – to interview him. Mostel obliges in his fashion, alternately pouring on the charm to the young man and making him the target of his volcanic anger.
Along the way, we hear some of Mostel’s testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, his feud and eventual détente with director-choreographer Jerome Robbins and the crippling collision with a city bus that almost led to the amputation of Mostel’s leg. But even as he relates these dark events, Mostel cannot restrain himself from tossing in quips and mugging to his one-man audience. Fortunately, he lets the rest of us eavesdrop. – H. Erstein
ZERO HOUR, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter. Through Oct. 24. Tickets: $23 (subscribers), $29 (non-subscribers). Call: (561) 575-2223.