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…
From the first moments of Red Herring, Florida Stage’s sly new comedy, you know something’s up: A billboard advertising kippers reads: “Put a Fish in Your Pocket.” Characters talk intensely into phones that have no cords. In this wacky Fifties of playwright Michael Hollinger’s imagination, what seems normal and straight-faced…
Heaven and Hell have long been subjects for human speculation, but when it comes to fiction, let’s face it: Perfection isn’t very interesting, and Hell wins hands down. Writers love going to Hell; it’s dramatic, dangerous, and sometimes funny. Witness the production at Fort Lauderdale’s Sol Theatre of Hell on…
A positive sign in South Florida’s stage scene is the vitality of its fringe community, individual artists and tiny companies that create a range of intriguing, unique projects. But much of this flies under the radar of the major media and most theatergoers; searching out this kind of show takes…
“In vino, veritas” goes the Latin saying: “In wine, truth” — the idea being that what may be suppressed in everyday life will come to light after a few drinks. The ancient Athenians went so far as to legalize this belief for a time: In critical votes citizens voted twice,…
Now that the holidays have been dispensed with, the South Florida theater scene kicks back into gear with a flurry of openings. No fewer than twenty new productions open this month, with another truckload of shows rolling up in February. Meanwhile several intriguing productions are finishing their runs. If you…
For many people at this time of year, all of the seasonal cheer and de rigueur bonhomie can get downright depressing. If you’re among this not-so-select group, GableStage may have a holiday show for you: James Joyce’s “The Dead,” a New Musical Play, which is based on the celebrated short…
Serious theater? In Broward County? Don’t chuckle. You’ve been asleep if you haven’t noticed some decided cultural shifts in what used to be the Land of Laughs and Musicals. Broward stage companies have long leaned toward the sweet and silly when programming their seasons, usually top-heavy with musical reviews and…
This is a busy time of the year, so let’s get to the point of this review fast. If you want to see a classic example of sitcom at its silliest, get over to Ray Cooney’s Caught in the Net at the Coconut Grove Playhouse. No, that’s not a sneer;…
In the curious, peculiar little world of theater, there has always been and always will be an ongoing debate between the aficionados of art and those of entertainment. Aesthetes tend to roll their eyes at anything corny, sweet, or obvious, while fun-loving fans head for the door at the first…
Is the glass half empty or half full? Thoughtful theatergoers may rue what may be missing on the South Florida stage scene — classical productions, experimental theatricality, multimedia — but none can deny the area’s strengths, chief among them plenty of entertaining, vigorously produced musical offerings. Any number of musicals…
If high drama is your cup of tea, you should find what you’re looking for at theater companies all over South Florida. Just don’t look on the playbill. The offstage news from several local theaters is as full of dire foreboding, narrow escapes, and last-minute miracles as The Perils of…
Think of modern Broadway comedies and Neil Simon immediately springs to mind. The prolific and popular playwright spans four decades of American theater with no fewer than 28 plays and musicals produced on Broadway. And at age 74, he shows no signs of letting up; his Forty Five Seconds from…
