On the face of it, Jolson and Company, the latest biographical musical presented by the Coconut Grove Playhouse, should be dead on arrival. Its subject, Al Jolson, became a star before World War I, died more than a half-century ago, and hardly registers in the contemporary Zeitgeist. He was reputed…

Chekhov in Repertory: Actors engage in a battle of egos as they struggle through an ill-fated production of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters; presented in rotating repertory with The Cherry Orchard. Through February 28. University of Miami Ring Theatre, 1312 Miller Dr., Coral Gables. 305-284-3355. The Drawer Boy: Watching Florida Stage’s…

Ars longa, vita brevis, goes the old Roman saying, and it remains true today. While decades and centuries come and go, art endures. The tumult of prerevolutionary Russia is by now a dim memory, but Chekhov’s plays remain to recall the era. So it is with the plays of Jon…

Watching Florida Stage’s new production of The Drawer Boy is a bit like observing a bumblebee in flight. Based on the evidence, it shouldn’t fly, but there it goes. Michael Healey’s 1999 script is riddled with implausibilities and secondhand ideas. Nevertheless it offers some gentle humor and soul, and both…

Want to know my definition of good theater? It’s when you take a seat, see a show, and go home a changed person. That’s what you can expect from the M Ensemble’s new production of Strands, now on dazzling display at the venerable company’s North Miami theater. Strands is one…

If you’re looking to see theatrical craft in action, I suggest you get over to the Coconut Grove Playhouse’s carefully wrought production of The Chosen, which features an array of fine acting talent and one world-class performance by Theodore Bikel. In a modern world that relies on fast-paced glibness for…

Producing theater is something akin to surfing. Hard work and talent don’t always make for success — you gotta catch the right wave. Most of the time shows roll in and out of production with unremarkable regularity and less impact. But once in a while a tsunami hits. That’s a…

Watching the Hollywood Playhouse’s new, energetic production of Beau Jest: The Musical is like attending two shows in one. As entertainment, this musical version of the popular comedy offers some sprightly tunes while retaining the original show’s humor and offering a fine performing ensemble. The play draws dramatic strength from…

There is much to savor and even more to contemplate in Nilo Cruz’s new play Beauty of the Father, now receiving a visually compelling world premiere at the New Theatre, www.new-theatre.org the third world premiere of a Cruz play at the Coral Gables space in as many seasons. The production…

Those who choose writing as a career often face many sorrows — poverty, public indifference, and critical contempt, to name but three. But whatever woes must be endured in a literary life, the writer has one secret weapon: the chance to turn life experience into a story and, by so…

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of GableStage’s current production, Joe Orton’s silly, sexually provocative farce, What The Butler Saw, is the cultural change that has occurred since Joe Orton’s cheeky sex farce was a scandalous coup de theatre in its Sixties premiere. Orton, a gay writer with a penchant for…

Uh oh. When I learn that a screenwriter has just written a play, I usually look for a place to hide. Many, no, most successful writers fall into the trap of hubris: If they thrive in one medium, they assume they will triumph in all. The result is often abysmal…

Change is a funny thing. Some of it is dramatic, embodied in single moments — a wedding, a birth, a terrorist attack. But a whole lot of change happens incrementally, so slowly that it isn’t noticed until after the fact. These thoughts may come to mind when contemplating the Coconut…

The holidays are upon us, and with them comes the annual choice of whether to surrender to or resist their cheery traditions. Clearly intent on your surrender, the Actors’ Playhouse in Coral Gables is presenting Annie, a big traditional musical staged in a big traditional way. But whereas past holiday…

“The past is prologue,” goes the old saying, but for much of the theater, ancient and modern, the past isn’t even past. Many plays have been constructed about past crimes that have risen to disturb the peace of the present. It’s an ongoing trend that’s particularly interesting in contemporary America,…

“Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you” goes the old song lyric. In the topsy-turvy world of playwright Charles Busch, that’s not a charming sentiment — it’s a direct threat. The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, now running at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, is a modern fable…

Where do ideas for musicals come from? Time was, most of them were adaptations of plays or books (My Fair Lady, Guys & Dolls, South Pacific). Nowadays, though, inspiration for shows comes from all sorts of sources. Take, for example, Bat Boy: The Musical, which began as a “real life”…

Life certainly has its daily struggles, but these tend to distract from the really big issues that sooner or later we all must face: Why are we here? Why do we have to die? And what should we do with the time we’ve got? Playwright Michael McKeever addresses the Big…

Having your share of woes in the dating wars? Consider yourself lucky you’re not one of the characters in Beyond Therapy, the scathing, hilarious comedy receiving a stylish revival at Palm Beach Dramaworks. The New York hit from the 1980s takes aim at an array of contemporary targets, among them…

Whew! Be careful what you wish for. If you have seen as many bland South Florida shows as I have, you may start hoping to find something really provocative, something so mind boggling you won’t forget it ten minutes after you leave the theater. If that is your quest, prepare…