What causes some of us to see joy in the world and others to see pure gloom? And if the difference between the two perspectives were caused by a brain tumor, would you accept a potentially fatal condition for a temporarily rosy outlook? That is the dilemma facing Bari, a former professor of nihilism and avowed cynic, in Deborah Zoe Laufer’s quirky and ultimately … [Read more...]
Community theater: 30 years later, ‘Blackout’ still delivers the whodunit goods
By Dale King The stage production of Rick Harlowe’s mystery thriller, Blackoutis back where it all began three decades ago – at the Delray Beach Playhouse. Harlowe’s whodunit – which meanders into who-might-do-it-again territory – will conclude its three-week run Sunday at the theatrical center on the east shore of Lake Ida. The play actually made its world premiere in … [Read more...]
Actors lift slight but promising ‘Edgar & Emily’
Palm Beach Dramaworks, the area’s most literary stage company, usually traffics in classic American plays. This season, however, it has developed and premiered a couple of new works, both centered on unexpected match-ups – and mash-ups – between iconic writers. In December, Dramaworks unveiled Terry Teachout’s Billy and Me, an exploration of professional jealousy … [Read more...]
With ‘Be Here Now,’ playwright Laufer looks for meaning in chance
For 15 years, Deborah Zoe Laufer has been writing plays on such diverse subjects as family dysfunction, the end of the world and medical ethics. More often than not, her scripts stem from something she heard on National Public Radio. Certainly that is the case with Be Here Now, Laufer’s latest thought-provoking comedy, opening at Florida Atlantic University’s Theatre Lab … [Read more...]
Gershwin score brings the bubbly to ‘Nice Work’ at Broward Stage Door
By Dale King Suppose you could write a great musical with songs a couple of other guys already composed? And suppose those other guys just happened to be George and Ira Gershwin? Creating a laugh-laden production from such enviable grist would be nice work if you could get it. But some other folks already got it. As a result, a “brand-new” Gershwin musical production hit … [Read more...]
In this play, Poe and Dickinson meet on the field of art
There is no evidence that reclusive Emily Dickinson and master of the macabre Edgar Allan Poe ever met. But that did not stop Joseph McDonough from introducing them to each other in his two-character play, aptly titled Edgar & Emily, receiving its world premiere at Palm Beach Dramaworks beginning Saturday, March 31. “I mean, I did my research and I think everything I talk … [Read more...]
Expert Maltz cast delivers a strong ‘South Pacific’
Composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II have mistakenly acquired a reputation for sentimental musicals, yet this is the team that gave up shows about domestic abuse (Carousel), cross-cultural conflict (The King and I), the rise of Nazism (The Sound of Music) and racial prejudice (South Pacific). Perhaps their misguided reputation stems from the … [Read more...]
Score, singing rescue Wick’s ‘Brigadoon’ from missteps
Long before lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe cemented their places as musical theater icons with My Fair Lady and Camelot, the scored their first Broadway hit with an original romantic fable, Brigadoon. Although it ran a respectable 581 performances in the 1947-48 season, it has since been overshadowed by the songwriting team’s other shows and is … [Read more...]
‘The Illusionists’: The sound of 2,000 jaws dropping
I am a sucker for magic, for the jaw-dropping, “How did they do that?” tricks and illusions that seem to defy the laws of nature and logic. There is a profusion of such stunts in The Illusionists: Live from Broadway, an Australian-born, Great White Way-branded show that is flummoxing audiences at the Kravis Center through Sunday. Yes, there are a few sub-par sequences in … [Read more...]
Murray charms Mizner Park audience in hybrid literature-music show
By Dale King Bill Murray found himself in Boca Raton on Friday night. He wasn’t there to bust ghosts or whack moles. And if he were not standing on one of the city’s largest outdoor stages with three other talented performers, he might have been sitting in the sold-out crowd of a Festival of the Arts Boca event, sipping a Heineken and enjoying the vibe. But Murray, who … [Read more...]