Extra Saucy Miami Salsa Congress Starts Tonight

Miami and salsa are almost interchangeable – there’s hardly an ad or commentary about Miami that doesn’t include a salsa soundtrack, with exclamations of “caliente!” It’s a cliché, but also true: the heart of the salsa sound — Cuban son and its Afro-Caribbean rhythmic roots — makes Miami move to…

Main Street Players Gets Controversial With Extremities

Extremities, which opened last night at the Main Street Playhouse, is a play that sheds a light on the perils of the crime of rape. Is the victim partly responsible and inviting violence because of the way she’s dressed? Does the victim have a right to exercise her own brand…

Philly Hip-Hop Dance Festival Gets a Miami Makeover

It’s time to get serious about locking, popping, hip hop, house, and b-boy/b-girl moves at the 2011 Illadelph Legends Hip Hop Festival, from this Sunday to August 7. Founded by hip-hop choreography star Rennie Harris, this festival has been taking place for a dozen years in his hometown of Philadelphia…

Miami Stage Door Theatre Kicks Off with Campy Musical Suds

The Broward Stage Door Theatre company etched a name for itself on stages in Coral Springs and Wilton Manors by tackling some of Broadway’s bigger, more lavish productions and winning a 2011 Carbonell for best musical (Mack & Mabel).Now Stage Door is taking its talents to North Beach with the…

RasaBoxes Classes Start Tonight at the PlayGround Theatre

Once, while watching a basketball game, Richard Schechner, a Tisch professor and artistic director of East Coast Artists, had an idea. If players could go from total calm on the bench, to completely in the game once on the court, then why couldn’t performers? Schechner devised RasaBoxes as a way…

Art on the Street: Hype Elite Dance Company

Many of Miami’s creatives are transient, showing up on our shores and disappearing as quickly as the tides. The Art on the Street series will document this overlooked and ever-changing element of South Beach culture.The actual distance between South Beach and Opa Locka may be only about 15 miles, but…

Circus Meets Street in Cirque Éloize iD at the Artsht Center

Think the cast of Cirque du Soleil battles urban street dancers and you have Cirque Éloize iD. Contemporary cirque director Jeannot Painchaud brings the production to the Ziff Ballet Opera House starting Tuesday for an unusually long run that lasts until September 4. Sixteen artists hailing from seven different countries…

El Malentendido Gets Existential at the Arsht

El Malentendido, the International Hispanic Theatre Festival’s Spanish-language version of Albert Camus’s dipped-in-irony-titled play The Misunderstanding, opened last night at the Arsht Center. The production, translated into Spanish and directed by Mario Ernesto Sanchez, is awash in melodrama and overwrought performances. But that’s a good thing. Led by the electric Neher Jacqueline…

No Misunderstanding Here, El Malentendido Will Make You Self Reflect

The International Hispanic Theatre Festival consistently thumbs its figurative nose at all the Debbie Downers who say that Miami has no culture. Starting today and playing throughout the weekend, El Malentendido , based on the Albert Camus play, The Misunderstanding, will make you ponder self, desperation, the repercussions of war,…

Luisa Fernanda Gives a Taste of Zarzuela at Miami Beach Cinematheque

If you’ve never heard the word zarzuela you probably aren’t alone. But in Spain, it’s a popular (typically satirical) form of opera that alternates between speaking and singing. For the first time in it’s 71 year history, the Florida Grand Opera is performing a zarzuela called Luisa Fernanda to kick…

Cuerdas Walks an Uneven Tightrope at Arsht Center

Cuerdas (Strings), which opened last night at the Arsht Center as part of the International Hispanic Theatre Festival, is a tightly acted play that wants to tug at its audience’s heart, but ultimately misses the mark. That’s no fault of the fine cast, led by the fiery Richard Viquiera (who also…

Middle-Aged White Women Should Run to See Jane Run!

There are a few things that can really make us squirm. One of them is three mom-like ladies smilingly singing songs about their menstrual cycles, which we witnessed last night at the Actors’ Playhouse production See Jane Run!.Okay, so the opening song to the musical was actually about the multifarious…

See Jamaica Farewell Onstage Before Its Onscreen Debut

Stories of escaping Cuba are a dime una dozena in the Magic City. But it isn’t every day that you hear about the struggles of a Jamaican immigrant. Jamaica Farewell is a real-life account of leaving for America in a time of political unrest in ’70s Jamaica, written and performed…

Decir Lluvia Y Que Llueva Makes It Rain at the Arsht Center

Decir Lluvia Y Que Llueva (To Say Rain and Have It Rain), which opened last night at the Arsht Center, is like a Pink Floyd album cover come to life. With visually arresting set pieces and opulent sound and imagery, Decir Lluvia, which is part of the month long International Hispanic Theatre…