In the late 1950s and early ’60s, breaking into the music business meant writing pop songs and pitching them to a producer, who would then select an established singer or group to record them. So it went for a 16-year-old Brooklynite named Carole King (nee Klein), as depicted in the jukebox musical biography Beautiful, now receiving a very worthy production at the Wick Theatre … [Read more...]
Actresses appeal in FAU Theatre Lab’s ‘two of us,’ but play lacks bite
Those who became adults during World War I have been dubbed The Lost Generation, but as playwright Steve McMahon depicts today’s teens — the so-called Gen Z — in his new play two of us on the run, they are every bit as lost and rudderless. Certainly that is the case with Catherine and Jennifer, a pair of 16-year-olds, best friends by default, restless at home and eager to … [Read more...]
‘Funny Girl’ at Kravis uneven, but offers star power from actress Shankman
Created in 1964, at the tail end of the musical theater’s so-called golden age, it took the Fanny Brice biographical show Funny Girl almost 60 years to be revived on Broadway. In large part, that is because it has been under the shadow of its original star, Barbra Streisand. Simply put, she is the textbook hard act to follow. But it was revived — and revised — three years … [Read more...]
‘Two of Us on the Run’: Teen girls size up US in world premiere play
Have you ever wondered what goes on in the minds of 16-year-old girls? That is the exploration that Scottish playwright turned Florida resident Steve McMahon takes us on in his play Two of Us on the Run, receiving its world premiere at Florida Atlantic University’s Theatre Lab beginning Saturday. The play, a free-form road trip for a pair of teenage runaways, dubbed simply … [Read more...]
Standout leads help lift Maltz’s ‘Frozen’ from almost-there status
You have to hand it to Disney. The Mouse House certainly has its formula down cold. They start by co-opting a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen, say, sprinkle it with songs, toss in a comic sidekick character or two, inject the storyline with a few Hallmark-esque messages, then open up the box office and stand back to make room for the … [Read more...]
For director and cast, stage version of ‘Frozen’ at Maltz has all of movie’s magic
Back in 2013, long before every red-blooded preteen was singing “Let It Go,” Disney released its animated adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen” about a pair of sister princesses, Elsa and Anna, dubbing it Frozen. The feature film proved so popular — grossing a record-breaking box office total of $1.28 billion worldwide — that a stage version was … [Read more...]
‘The Cher Show’: Sketchy narrative doesn’t hamper high entertainment value
Have you had enough of celebrity biographical musicals yet? Spurred on by the success of Jersey Boys, Broadway has served up show tributes to Carole King, Donna Summer, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson and, this week at the Kravis Center, the national tour of The Cher Show, a flashy look at the up and down career of Cherilyn Sarkisian, a/k/a, well, you know who. Dividing her … [Read more...]
New-play festivals at Dramaworks, FAU promise to energize theater conversation
The audience is an integral part of the new play development process, as two area stage companies — Palm Beach Dramaworks and Florida Atlantic University Theatre Lab — can attest. Both have festivals of new work that consist of readings and talkbacks of evolving scripts, some of which will graduate to be fully produced in subsequent seasons. Coming up soon is Dramaworks’ … [Read more...]
‘Forbidden Broadway’ an up-to-date, diverting spoof
A sure sign that Broadway is in post-COVID recovery mode is its willingness to make fun of itself. So the year-end arrival of the latest edition of Forbidden Broadway --- the 40-plus-year-old commercial theater spoofathon --- is both bracingly entertaining and a heartening indicator of health for The Great White Way. With a too-short three-day stay at the Kravis Center’s … [Read more...]
Don’t miss Dramaworks’s loving return to ‘The Dresser’
Theater audiences are often intrigued by the intricacies of backstage life, and particularly the larger-than-life personalities who have devoted their careers to an unglamorous existence on the road. So there is little wonder that Ronald Harwood’s 1980 drama The Dresser has been met with success on both sides of The Pond, with several major revivals and a couple of filmed … [Read more...]