This was supposed to be the first post-COVID theater season in South Florida, but the delta variant took care of that wishful thinking. Most stage companies are optimistic that they can produce something this season. Whether the audience will show up is another story. If all goes well, it could be an exciting year at the theater, with a new artistic director at … [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...]
Hyper ‘Starcatcher’ at LW Playhouse can’t outrun overlong material
By Dale King Lake Worth Playhouse has opened its 69th season with a frenetic production of Peter and the Starcatcher, a paean to Peter Pan that offers up a plausible prequel to J.M. Barrie’s 1904 children’s fable, elaborating on the tale of “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” by focusing on friendship, leadership, fealty and a few other add-ons. The hectic performance combines … [Read more...]
Slow Burn’s ‘Songs for a New World’ makes the case for composer Brown
In 1995, audiences did not yet know composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brow. After all, he had not won his Tony Awards for best score (Parade and Bridges of Madison County). Nor had he written The Last Five Years, the two-character, backward-and-forward narrative musical that regional theaters all across the country have since embraced. But he had penned Songs for a New … [Read more...]
FAU student cast does well by Ibsen’s ‘Hedda Gabler’
By Dale King Students in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Florida Atlantic University have picked up where their predecessors left off nearly two seasons ago when a COVID pandemic forced FAU to curtail public performances and required young actors to hone their talents behind the scenes. Last weekend, a new troupe of budding thespians – 10 of them pursuing master’s … [Read more...]
Shakespeare Fest sticks to basics in impressive ‘Twelfth Night’
I never thought I would be able to use this word to describe a Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival production, but its latest take on Twelfth Night – the company’s fourth version – is “conventional.” In a good way. Perhaps producer/director Seth Trucks had no interest in setting the plot-initiating shipwreck on Mars or turning it into an air crash on a South Pacific island, as … [Read more...]
‘We Will Rock You’ offers killer Queen tunes, sharp performances at LW Playhouse
By Dale King We Will Rock You, the jukebox musical that throws an aural spotlight on the poperatic music of the British rock group Queen and their flamboyant frontman Freddy Mercury, is shaking walls, vibrating scenery and winning over audiences at the Lake Worth Playhouse. The single summer entry at the Lake Avenue performance center spreads 20-plus powerful Queen tunes … [Read more...]
Maltz to open its post-COVID season with ‘Jersey Boys’ at Roger Dean stadium
Never accuse the Maltz Jupiter Theatre of thinking small. During the past year, when most resident stage companies were idled by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Maltz was busy demolishing its theater chamber and rebuilding an improved, larger complex to the tune of $36 million. The new theater could eventually house pre-Broadway tryouts, and in a later phase an expanded … [Read more...]
Tight actorly quartet brings vivid life to Delray Playhouse’s ‘Doll’s House, Part II’
By Dale King The 20th century saw major feminist movements such as the suffragettes' quest for the right to vote in the early 1900s and the women’s liberation drive of the 1960s. The 21st century is following in its stead, dealing with complex matters such as the #MeToo movement, LGBTQ representation and questions of gender identity explored in a “woke” culture. … [Read more...]
Powerhouse performances make for gripping ‘Hedwig’ at LW Playhouse
By Dale King Catharsis and storytelling mix musically and, in the end, triumphantly, in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a turbulent, gender-unspecific narrative being staged with passion and powerhouse music at the Lake Worth Playhouse through much of June – LGBTQ+ Pride Month. The show concludes the downtown venue’s successful effort to pull together an in-person season of … [Read more...]