Can it really be 20 years since the events of 9/11, a day so etched in our memories that it feels like yesterday? Perhaps by now Audrey Batten’s well-earned anger and bitterness have subsided, but in Bruce Graham’s world premiere play, The Duration — which initially takes place mere days after the destruction of the Twin Towers — her grief has the highly rational history … [Read more...]
New Kravis CEO: Let’s program for the community
Cue the arrival of the new Kravis Center chief executive officer. Take two. When the longtime head of the West Palm Beach performing arts center, Judith Mitchell, announced that she was retiring, it triggered a nationwide search for her successor. Eventually, Terrence Dwyer, a veteran southern California arts manager, was selected, but he lasted a mere five months during … [Read more...]
Slow Burn’s lovely ‘Once on This Island’ another winner for company
Two seasons ago, Slow Burn Theatre almost produced the epic Stephen Flaherty-Lynn Ahrens musical, Ragtime, but COVID got in the way. Perhaps they will get back to that show one day, but fans of the songwriting team should be pleased with the company’s current musical offering, Once on this Island, a spirited tale of the power of love, class distinctions and godly interventions, … [Read more...]
Hewitt’s Barrymore makes Maltz’s ‘I Hate Hamlet’ a must-see
The Maltz Jupiter Theatre never expected to start its season with Paul Rudnick’s puckish comedy, I Hate Hamlet, but such as the vagaries of COVID and construction. Still, when you think about it, what better way to welcome back its audience than with this tongue-in-cheek celebration of theater and of the man who wrote with such peculiar, stilted, yet soaring language – William … [Read more...]
World premiere ‘The Duration’ at Dramaworks takes on 9/11 legacy
As we continue to deal with the dark cloud of the COVID pandemic, Palm Beach Dramaworks wants us to look back 20 years to another tragic time in our history — September 11, 2001 — the day two airplanes flew into the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan and 3,000 lives were lost. It is the event that motivates Bruce Graham’s drama The Duration, receiving its world premiere at PBD on … [Read more...]
DB Playhouse’s ‘Respect’ a delightful tribute to the journey of women
By Dale King As the undisputed Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, has sung repeatedly with deep sisterly inspiration, all women want “is a little respect.” Eight ladies have taken to the stage at the Delray Beach Playhouse this month to “tell it like it is” — the history of women in America, that is, in a finely tuned, thought-provoking and often humorous story of how women … [Read more...]
Maltz returns with ‘I Hate Hamlet,’ a valentine to the theater
Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. In Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, novelist Charles Condamine is haunted by his peeved ex-wife Elvira. And in Paul Rudnick’s comic valentine to the theater, I Hate Hamlet, TV star Andrew Rally – nervous about taking on one of Shakespeare’s greatest roles – is persuaded to accept … [Read more...]
‘Rx’: Boca Stage’s gentle skewering of Big Pharma delivered with dispatch
Workplace depression is not an officially recognized medical condition, but that does not stop Schmidt Pharma from trying to develop a lucrative cure for what ails so many of us. That includes Meena Pierotti, managing editor of American Cattle and Swine magazine, a trade publication so dreary that depression seems the logical response to employment there. Meena is the … [Read more...]
LW Playhouse’s ‘9 to 5’ a bright revival of workplace classic
By Dale King Lake Worth Playhouse flips the calendar page on its 2021-22 season, opening the new year with a lively and entertaining revival of the comic workplace improvement saga, 9 to 5. The 2008 stage production inspired by the 1980 film starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton (who wrote the tunes and lyrics for the show’s mainly up-tempo soundtrack) … [Read more...]
‘Almost, Maine’ at Dramaworks: Dramatic fare takes pleasant backseat to whimsy
Palm Beach Dramaworks likes to say that it traffics in “theater to think about.” But if you are looking for an entertaining night out without much thinking required, the West Palm Beach stage company has a lightweight slice of whimsy on view now that certainly fills that bill. Called Almost, Maine, it consists of nine brief vignettes on the subject of romance, … [Read more...]