After two months in chilly London, sultry Florida feels good. And propelled by a notebook full of observations from U.K. theater, it also seems a good time, before the fall season, to reflect on the good and the bad in our own scene. First off, the bad. Like any community,…
In theater, as in life, we expect marriages to fail, lovers to betray, and family members to hurt us, but when friendship takes the center stage, one cannot help but take note. This familiar but unpredictable territory offers much dramatic potential, and GableStage’s current production Chinese Coffee makes the most…
Anyone looking for the theatrical capital of the world will unquestionably end that search here in London, where a strong theatrical tradition has been nurtured, almost unbroken, for well over 400 years. The city is looking more prosperous and confident than it has in many decades, choked with new construction…
Ancient festivals served as markers for human progress, celebrating the passing of time and the progression of the community. Although seasonal changes, harvests, and rites of passage are not the focus of today’s festivals, these celebrations still provide a forum for assessing a community’s evolution. Søren Kierkegaard wrote, “Life must…
In dramaturgical terms, a play by a man about men is called theater — from Hamlet to Nixon’s Nixon, male playwrights, actors, and themes are not distinguished as “men’s theater” (and thankfully so). In contrast a play by a woman about women is frequently dubbed “women’s theater,” “touchy-feely,” “man hating,”…
When a historical play has done its work, one can expect to hear one of two exclamations from audience members as they file out: the ever-popular “My, how times have changed!” or the unforgettable “Oh, how history repeats itself!” GableStage’s production of Russell Lees’s Nixon’s Nixon might inspire both utterances…
Beware of backhanded compliments. If you heed the critics and the advance press, you might have heard that the Stage Door Theatre’s Our Sinatra, the long-running musical imported from New York, is a stylish cabaret revue. This is true and that’s good, and it’s also not so good. Our Sinatra…
In the end is a beginning, as the saying goes. And so it is with Apartment 3A, a romantic comedy with a Hollywood ending that marks a Hollywood beginning: the Acting Studio Stage Company’s new space on Hollywood Boulevard. While there are certain drawbacks to this production, plenty of encouraging…
Big is sometimes better. For instance South Florida has become home to the largest Hispanic theater festival in the United States, which this year will host thirteen companies from seven other countries (Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Slovenia, and Spain). Almost all of the companies have been presenting theater…
What a difference a week makes. In the last issue of New Times, Florida Stage in Manalapan was lauded as the Best Theater in South Florida. Now along comes its final show of the season, Women Who Steal, which is, to be very blunt, the worst show of the stage’s…
Murder mystery alert: Some devilish scheming and startling plot twists are lying in wait for unsuspecting audiences in Murderer, which opened recently at the Actors’ Playhouse in Coral Gables. Theatergoers may also be surprised by some rough language as well as explicit violence and nudity, decidedly a departure from the…
At first glance you wouldn’t think there’s much in common between the ragtag Mad Cat in dirty downtown Miami and the stylish Dreamers Theatre in restaurant-infested Coral Gables. Mad Cat goes for in-your-face gonzo drama and aims for a pierced, punk crowd, while Dreamers opts for more elegant, refined material…
Most everyone knows the two masks of the theater: the sorrowful mask of tragedy and the gleeful one of comedy. Tragedy (or at least drama) is usually serious and “elevated” and therefore tends toward social acceptability: Because drama is serious, the society it portrays is to be taken seriously. Comedy,…
What’s your pleasure, the sizzle or the steak? The Coconut Grove Playhouse offers both in its latest production, a musical revue called The Soul of George Gershwin: the Musical Journey of an American Klezmer. It’s a studious, educational show that also happens to offer some outstanding vocal and instrumental artistry…
Bee-luther-hatchee (noun, African-American slang, 1920s-1940s): a far away, damnable place, the next station after the stop for Hell. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. But in Florida Stage’s intriguing new production, Bee-luther-hatchee, hell isn’t the final destination. There’s another torment ahead, so dreadful it doesn’t…
Here’s a question for you: When does a theater company become “significant”? Is it a question of the number of seats in the auditorium? If so, your average high school produces “significant” theater. Is it a question of the company’s annual budget? Or the number of shows produced? In the…
If you’re a fan of feel-good, upbeat musical theater, you have to like what Barbara S. Stein and the Actors Playhouse have been doing for lo these many years. Stein and her artistic director, David Arisco, regularly serve up well-produced, tightly staged shows that could more than hold their own…
Some theaters, like some people, have a clearer sense of self-identity than others. The New Theatre and its artistic director Rafael de Acha certainly know what they are about, presenting plays with emotional texture, poetic resonance, and often a welcome dose of sociopolitical thought. Such is the case with Mario…
What’s South Florida’s most overlooked cultural resource? I’d vote for the variety and depth of children’s theater on the local scene. With little public notice and less media fanfare, a number of busy stage companies are finding a huge audience base hungry for live entertainment suitable for the younger set…
At first glance there is much to celebrate in Out of Season, Elinor Jones’s new comedy now receiving its world premiere at the Caldwell Theatre. The play itself gives voice to five mature female characters, a welcome counterpoint to the general scarcity of roles for women, even in this so-called…
When I think of Edward Albee, two particularly pungent quotes come to mind. “I have a fine sense of the ridiculous,” says American theater’s perennial bad boy, “but no sense of humor.” If you catch Albee’s witty, challenging The Play About the Baby, which is receiving its Florida premiere at…
Theater comes in all shapes and sizes, from loud, lavish, traditional musicals to small-cast, single-set dramas. The most intimate of all, the solo performance, offers a chance for direct audience/actor connection and an opportunity to take on material that might be too risky for a larger venture. Two such shows…
