The solid triumph of Bill Clinton and the brutal lashing of the religious right suggest that the country is ready to move forward again instead of twenty steps back. With a renewed spirit of hope, the mass audience heads to the laboratory, resolved to try brave experiments, such as saluting…

I mentioned in a previous column that this quote is attributed to Eugene O’Neill: “The artist who tries to save the world loses himself.” I’d like to add that, in the case of Edward Albee, the artist who tries to save himself loses his art. Desperate to retain his former…

Since I’m about to deal with a murder mystery/courtoom drama — Aaron Sorkin’s 1989 Broadway hit, A Few Good Men, which is now enjoying a satisfying production at the Caldwell Theatre Company — allow me to play Sherlock Holmes for a moment and hypothesize how this particular work came into…

If I ever question the validity of devoting so much time to theater criticism in a town like this, there’s no stronger reassurance than the occasional, sudden privilege of attending a momentous event or meeting a luminary from the world of the stage. Last week I enjoyed the honor of…

In an effort to market the newest commandment — Thou Shalt Have Family Values — both major political parties have made attempts to define just what a family is. According to their guidelines, several groups didn’t cut the mustard. Forget gay couples and straight married ones without children. And forget…

Though I was provided with excellent seats for “Give ‘Em Hell Harry!”, and though artistic director Arnold Mittelman was gracious enough to invite me to his theater balcony supper afterward, I must confess that I walked out of the play shortly after intermission. Now, as a critic, one might argue,…

‘Tis the season to face the theater of 1992-93, so a broad review of last year’s high and low points seems to be in order, as well as a peek into which shows ahead merit breaking into the piggy bank. And since everyone in this place remains too polite to…

Admittedly, it’s helpful of the Miami Herald to separate theater listings into “Professional/Equity,” “Professional Non/Equity,” “Community,” “Dinner Theater,” and “In Spanish” (as if Spanish is a show-business category), but such divisions mean nothing unless they are defined. As South Florida gains a more vital, arts-oriented population and more refugees from…

Every molecule of my hyper-educated mind, every atom of refined artistic taste yearns to dismiss the old-fashioned, cornball 1950 John Patrick comedy, The Curious Savage, now transported through that ever-churning South Florida time machine to the stage of the Caldwell Theatre. This is not new, not moving, not powerful, and…

Of all the techniques used to teach acting, Sanford Meisner developed one of the most famous, practical, and, curiously enough, the simplest. Meisner and his Neighborhood Playhouse cohorts (count David Mamet among their graduates) believed that the key to the craft was found simply in the art of listening and…

Despite the normally vapid state of TV, remote-control fast-forwarding does occasionally result in the unearthing of something worth staring at. Case in point: One night while zapping through the dreck I came across an interview, conducted by Dick Cavett, of the cerebrally luminous author/philosopher Gore Vidal. America’s internal conflicts, postulated…

First, an anecdote, since as most populations outside America know, a sense of humor can help to ease one’s pain. The story concerns nineteenth-century playwright Sir Charles Sedley, author of the comedy Bellamira. During the very first performance of the play, the roof of the theater caved in. Luckily, few…

The great posthumously celebrated poet and recluse Emily Dickinson wrote: “One need not be a chamber to be haunted/One need not be a house/The brain has corridors surpassing/Material place.” I begin with this verse partly because Emily haunts the stage brilliantly through the efforts of Academy Award-winner Kim Hunter, in…

The word “thespian” is derived from the name of the first actor who made history, Thespis, who dazzled the crowds at the festival of Dionysus in 534 B.C., but stirred up controversy simultaneously. According to Plutarch, the Greeks initially questioned the morality of drama; Solon, the great lawgiver, publicly denounced…

What was Vince Rhomberg at the Public Theatre thinking when he allowed the vanity production Yetta & Sophie In Miami Beach to occupy his space under his sponsorship? Despite the fact that I was told repeatedly by the management that it was a “hit,” and despite the fact that some…

As a zesty summer alternative, I’ll take a few weeks off here and there from slicing, dicing, and stroking to discuss more important issues in South Florida theater than Goldilocks and the Three Bears, or another revival of Neil Simon. And without a doubt, the new Theatre League of South…

In this business, the snappy little cliche “he stole the show” seems to be used ad nauseam to describe any performance that displays even a smidgen of talent. But the number of times any show-stealing actually occurs continues to dwindle as the years go by. Waning stage opportunities force many…

Some of the best singing, dancing and musicianship I’ve seen at the Coconut Grove Playhouse this year now occupies the main stage — and the occupants are a group of local teen-agers and the Playhouse’s young apprentices, presenting an original work called The Sun Drum. Although it deals with loads…

In an article called “Critical Condition,” published in the June 1991 edition of American Theatre, the great playwright A.R. Gurney, himself a survivor of some nasty reviews, editorialized on the role of critics and the importance of a concept called “bestowal” in considering a work of art. “An example of…

Having just learned from a reader’s letter that one’s perception of art is fact and not opinion, a whole new world of commentary has opened up for me. In case you don’t remember the missive sent to me by one of Pia’s musicians, it stated: “That’s how good our performances…

Want to hear an AIDS joke? A one-liner about crack addicts? Okay, how about the riots in L.A.? That’s a knee-slapper for sure. Maybe you think I’ve finally crossed the boundaries of sane Homo sapiens taste — well, not yet. I don’t believe these subjects lend themselves to wry humor,…

In my Spanish-English dictionary, the following words are translated in sequence: machacar (or machucar): to pound, to crush machete: heavy knife macho: male animal, male part, manly Sometimes, in learning a language, one can glean meaning from other words with similar root sounds. The connection seems to hold true in…