Playwrights often complain bitterly about the subjectivity of critics. A.R. Gurney, author of such classics as The Dining Room, has given several lectures around the country in which he rants about the fact that everyone, including professional viewers, comes to the theater with certain preconceptions that make it impossible for…
‘Tis the season to be jolly, go shopping, trim the tree, and light the candles. And to be falsely pious. Right this moment it’s ultrachic to embrace that Christmas and Chanukah spirit, even if it doesn’t extend as far as helping a homeless man on the street, or committing a…
While I am genuinely thrilled by the growth in the number of small theater companies and theatrical experiments cropping up in the local scene over the past two years, I am also aware of certain demons that nascent groups may encounter no matter how hard they try to avoid them…
It may sound surprising to some, but I have long suspected that David Mamet may one day be regarded as highly as Shakespeare is today: as a playwright of such skill, breadth, and intellect that every element of his work — from dialogue to plot to premise to characterization –…
There’s a certain time in every would-be playwright’s life when he or she feels compelled to imitate the so-called “absurdist” authors such as Pinter, Beckett, or Ionesco. In many cases, because the tyros don’t understand that these grand masters do not randomly choose their symbolic dialogue and situations, the novices…
When I first learned of David Cronenberg’s plans to film the play M. Butterfly, I declared that the project was doomed to disaster. Now that the movie is out, people mention my prediction and commend its accuracy. How did I know? Mainly because certain plays do not translate into the…
Time is alarmingly relative. Anyone who is rapidly aging knows the truth of time’s subjective effects. When you’re ten or eleven, it seems as though your next birthday will never arrive. However, when you pass 40, years fly by with such alarming speed you suffer from emotional whiplash. What, 1994…
As John Lennon and Paul McCartney once wrote: “I should’ve known better.” Rock and roll has always worked best as anthems of youthful power and rebellion, so something had to be rotten in the state of Broadway when the majority of the critics and theater audiences so readily accepted and…
On January 26, 1988 at the Majestic Theatre in New York, I was privileged to attend the opening of one of the greatest theatrical spectacles ever to grace a stage, a show that featured thrilling and innovative music wedded to a delicately woven romantic plot. Putting aside my own elitist…
I recently phoned a publicist friend of mine who moved here from Los Angeles about the same time I moved from New York — in 1989 — and told her I was reviewing Lionel Bart’s zippy 1960s musical Oliver! at the Actors’ Playhouse. Her immediate reaction was: “What? I haven’t…
Without a doubt, fate led me to see in the same week the New Theatre’s rendition of Jean Paul Sartre’s No Exit and playwright William Inge’s Natural Affection, produced by the Miami Actor’s Studio. Though Sartre penned his work in 1944 and Inge in 1963, they share an almost uncanny…
When people in the South Florida theater community protest that the area is mainly interested in developing new plays instead of producing tired old revivals, I listen politely but with cynicism. During the two years I’ve done this job, I can’t even count the number of times I’ve heard this…
When the long-awaited revival of Hair, the quintessential Sixties musical, opened in London two weeks ago, the critics unanimously agreed on one thing: not all plays wear well. Charles Spencer of the Daily Telegraph summed up the expensive mistake succinctly: “It would have been far kinder to have let Hair…
All plays are not created equal. Apart from the obviously weak entries, there exist some works of “light” dramatic art suitable for a wide range of acting companies, from the competent troupe to the spectacular. Neil Simon froth, English drawing room comedies, and large-cast mysteries fit under this umbrella. Appropriately,…
The great Noel Coward once heard that a particularly dimwitted producer had blown his brains out. “Must have been rather a good shot,” Coward marveled. As a rule those who produce theater are regularly and soundly ridiculed by those who create theater. Often viewed as starry-eyed prep school graduates with…
Although Hadleyburg, U.S.A. will have closed by the time you read this, ACME Acting Company’s mistakes in choosing this play warrant a postmortem — especially if South Florida venues seriously consider mounting new works as part of a steady theatrical menu. ACME’s artistic director Juan F. Cejas and many other…
The saying is well-known: there are three sides to every story. His side, your side, and the truth. In the interest of fairness to the theatrical community and my readers, this column will address another side of that pesky little political hotbed — the $170-million Dade Performing Arts Center. To…
In the age of so few statesmen and so little great theater, I feel privileged to recommend New Theatre’s production of Mountain, a three-person, no-prop, no-set show. It builds its magic from flawless direction, excellent performances, and the ingeniously written tale of Supreme Court Justice and statesman extraordinaire William O…
The singer who holds the vibrato on a note a bit too long. The dancer who takes three extra leaps. The piano player who tinkles around on one end of the keyboard until you’re anxious for him to move on. All represent examples of the show business phenomenon commonly called…
Over the years, various local theater educators, artists, and yours truly have tried to determine why Miami regards the dramatic arts as a sort of leprous beggar: pathetic enough to throw a few coins its way but too unsightly and inconsequential to develop and build up with hard, hefty cash…
In an essay called “The Decline of Quality,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Tuchman writes of Michelangelo, who locked all potential helpers out of the Sistine Chapel while he spent four painful years on a scaffold carrying his famed work to completion. “That is what makes for quality — and its…
An esteemed acting teacher named Richard Pinter, himself a student of the great coach Sanford Meisner, once succinctly explained to his students (including me) the difference between real life and life as properly written and acted for the stage. “If we wanted belly-scratching reality in drama,” he began, “we’d take…
