Umoja should be presented with two disclaimers. The first: May cause serious fatigue. Meaning this 36-member troupe emanates more energy than a hyperactive four-year-old hooked up to an intravenous caffeine drip. And during Wednesday’s electric opening-night performance at the Gusman Center, an enthusiastic crowd barely kept up. From tribal snake…
Educating Rita: With this tale of upper-crust English professor Frank mentoring lower-class literary wannabe Rita, Dramaworks’ director Nanique Gheridian sends us into a supposedly well-recognized Pygmalion paradigm. But for those of us who shied away from seeing the 1983 Michael Caine film version of the play, it is not as…
Ed Bullins is one of the most influential and controversial names in African-American history. Spike Lee may be more familiar; Denzel Washington and Halle Berry are undoubtedly more bankable. And in modern literary circles, Toni Morrison’s moniker might spark more interest. But Bullins, a prize-winning African-American playwright who dominated the…
Educating Rita: With this tale of upper-crust English professor Frank mentoring lower-class literary wannabe Rita, Dramaworks’ director Nanique Gheridian sends us into a supposedly well-recognized Pygmalion paradigm. But for those of us who shied away from seeing the 1983 Michael Caine film version of the play, it is not as…
Day of Reckoning: The sad and seamy underbelly of the mythical American dream is not a place of hope, though this production makes a scattered attempt at embracing quite a bit of America’s historical landscape: Ku Klux Klan rallies, slavery and its aftermath, burning crosses, forbidden love, shameless hate, interracial…
For most of us, combining the words dance and Miami Beach in a sentence conjures up the same image: a self-esteem-shrinking battle with a member of the ubiquitous velvet-rope squad. You attempt to persuade the very important door personnel that you are attractive, thin, and/or cool enough. He or she…
The name says it all: Masters at Work. Since 1991, Little Louie Vega has dropped gem after gem like a careless jewelry thief at Magic Sessions, the Miami Music Conference’s longest-running event. “Sixteen years later we’re still here. What does that tell you?” quips Vega. “It’s a party that has…
If you have ever dreamed of crab-scratching a twelve-inch, Remix magazine’s Remix Hotel Miami 2006 may be the ultimate WMC venue for you. For three days, beginning March 22, some of world’s leading music and technology pioneers will turn South Beach’s National Hotel into the largest music technology showcase of…
The first question many people ask about The Full Monty at the Miracle Theatre is not if the play is any good, but if the male performers actually bare their tackle. The answer is yes. This Broadway musical — showing at Actors’ Playhouse through April 9 — is based on…
America/America: One Nation, Many Stories: The Dance Now! Ensemble is set to premiere its newest work. Drawing on the company’s trademark fusion of contemporary Western dance, ballet, modern, and contemporary jazz, the show will spotlight the nine-person troupe performing a dazzling display of athleticism and art. Set to a haunting…
What is it about gangsters that we find so fascinating? From the real-life Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel to the fictional Tony Soprano, mobsters have become as much a part of American culture as Apple Computer. But as rich as our nation’s history is with tales of organized crime, it’s unlikely you…
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men: Some things mature with age, others don’t. Almost 40 years after Ceremonies premiered off-Broadway, it still offers a powerfully rich portrayal of a disenfranchised African-American family in crisis. But it also projects such a clichéd, outdated, and stereotypical image of black men that it begs…
Few things are more difficult to describe than childhood molestation. But Paula Vogel’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning controversial play, How I Learned to Drive, now onstage at the University of Miami’s Jerry Herman Ring Theatre, does just that. Set in Maryland largely during the Sixties, this 90-minute dark comedy moves in…
To most people, food sustains life. But to the culinary celebrities converging on Miami February 24 through 26 for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, food is life. And they’re set to nourish the hungry crowds with shows of sustenance. “You can call me a lot of things,” quips…
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men: Some things mature with age, others don’t. Almost 40 years after Ceremonies premiered off-Broadway, it still offers a powerfully rich portrayal of a disenfranchised African-American family in crisis. But it also projects such a clichéd, outdated, and stereotypical image of black men that it begs…
Some things mature with age, others don’t. Almost 40 years after M Ensemble’s latest show premiered off-Broadway, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men still offers a powerfully rich portrayal of a disenfranchised African-American family in crisis. But Lonne Elder III’s classic tale also projects such a clichéd, outdated, and stereotypical image…
Slam is the World Wrestling Entertainment of the literary universe. It’s a sport like Fox’s Survivor. There’s competition. Someone wins. Someone loses. And that makes Will “Da Real One” Bell, a six-foot five-inch, 36-year-old Liberty City native, the main draw at Miami Art Central for the Invitational Poetry Slam February…
Imagine a ballet with a Billy Joel cover band for an orchestra. That pretty much describes Movin’ Out in a nutshell. The brainchild of two-time Emmy-winner Twyla Tharp — with a little help from the Piano Man himself — Movin’ Out is not your average Broadway show. In fact it…
You’d think Cirque du Soleil’s dauntless artistes were superhuman. That is unless you witnessed the heart-stopping finale during this past Friday’s opening-night performance of Varekai and the gymnast who painfully missed his landing. Watching paramedics rush toward his motionless body magically unmasked the 56-strong troupe for what they really are:…
Exits and Entrances: Athol Fugard has the well-earned ability to suck the air out of any other plays competing against him on any given night. This snapshot of the mid-twentieth-century crossroads of change in South Africa is no exception. Although the playwright-icon isn’t here in body, his spirit shines through…
Every year at this time most of us determinedly scribble a list of New Year’s resolutions, pledges, if you will, by which we solemnly vow to live the remainder of our lives: Quit smoking, stop drinking, begin rigorous exercise regimen, go on strict diet, develop enviably muscular physique, find perfect…
Exits and Entrances: When Athol Fugard is in town, he has the well-earned ability to suck the air out of any other plays competing with him on any given night. This snapshot of the mid-twentieth-century crossroads of change in South Africa is no exception. Although the playwright-icon isn’t here in…
