When a theater is packed with children instead of adults, it becomes a site not of high culture but of mass fidgeting. On a recent Wednesday morning, the Shores Performing Arts Theater was filled with an audience whose heads barely topped the backs of their seats. The crowd was neatly…
Down the Road: To blame society’s problems on celebrity culture is shallow beyond contempt, but it will always appeal to those more interested in bitching than thinking. The same can be said for Lee Blessing’s Down the Road. It’s the story of Iris and Dan Henniman (Margie Elias Eisenberg and…
Don’t be fooled. Although Lee Blessing’s usual eloquence gives Down the Road the look and feel of Devastating Cultural Analysis, its heart is pure pop psychology. The subject under discussion is that old canard, The Commodification of The Individual and The Ascendance of Celebrity Culture, but Blessing can’t seem to…
Just a Kiss: In Catherine Bush’s new play, making its world premiere, two beautiful but struggling actresses are excited to land costarring roles in an off-Broadway play. The enthusiasm of Zee Scott (Caroline Edelen), a guarded, eccentric loner; and Annie Howard (Elise Girardin), one half of a conservative cohabitating couple,…
Up Wake: The stage is set: three blank walls, one actor, and no script. For this performance be prepared to go on a sensory journey. Natasha Tsakos’s show synchronizes the disciplines of animation, music, and acting, exploring a completely original style of theater that integrates technology and performance. As the…
I wasn’t looking forward to seeing Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love. On the surface, the Caldwell’s decision to house the production seemed like the most awesomely cynical move imaginable, coolly calculated to pacify the antediluvian nostalgia junkies who pay the theater’s bills. I thought the show would be theatrical comfort food,…
Zoo Story: Written in 1958 and steeped in shades of economic disparity and dehumanization in a materialistic world, Edward Albee’s searing one-act play still retains its power to shock nearly a half-century later. The Edge Theatre stages the numbing encounter between a middle-class publishing exec and a disturbed transient at…
It’s difficult imagining a more idyllic way to enjoy an afternoon of stimulating theater than spending a Sunday in the park with Ed. During a recent matinee, Edge Theatre staged a minimalist production of Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story outdoors, on the lawn of the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, under…
Attention, all twelve-year-old boys: Krysten Batlle is looking for a dance partner. Batlle, an attractive brunet with a ready smile and an infectious giggle, is one of the most accomplished competitive ballroom dancers in Miami, if not the state. She’s also a seventh-grader at Arvida Middle School in Kendall. Only…
King Lear: Aaron Spelling certainly injected Shakespearean ambition into his glittering prime-time soap operas — Melrose Place was a total tragicomedy — but here’s a theatrical mashup we never could have envisioned: Ted Lange starring in a touring production of King Lear. Lange, he of the red tux, perfectly spherical…
Mr. Marmalade: Teetering on the edge of reality, Noah Haidle’s play takes you to the playground of make-believe for emotionally disturbed children. Yes, four-year-old Lucy’s imaginary friend is a bipolar coke addict who also has a personal assistant. And the little girl’s real friend, Larry, is suicidal. (Life sucks when…
Among the many splendors of Florida Grand Opera’s thrilling new Aïda, not least of them the arrival of a young powerhouse named Angela M. Brown in the title role, is this fact: For the first time in its adventuresome 65-year history, the company and its opera fans have the venue…
Fahrenheit 451: Cast in the, er, glow of the recent public school book-banning controversy (Vamos a Cuba) and fresh off of its selection by the Florida Center for the Literary Arts as this year’s “Big Read,” Fahrenheit 451 lights up GableStage in its Southeastern premiere. Adapted for the stage by…
It’s no secret that, in a country where national service is decidedly not everyone’s duty, it is often the poorest who find in the armed services a sane career choice. It beats making sandwiches at a fast-food joint. Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue, Quiara Alegria Hudes’s play about three generations of…
Fahrenheit 451: Cast in the, er, glow of the recent public school book-banning controversy (Vamos a Cuba) and fresh off of its selection by the Florida Center for the Literary Arts as this year’s “Big Read,” Fahrenheit 451 lights up GableStage in its Southeastern premiere. Adapted for the stage by…
The decision to stage Fahrenheit 451 is a thinly veiled response to a 1990s Miami-Dade County ordinance banning groups with ties to Cuba from receiving public money. (Of course in Miami, not denouncing Fidel Castro at every turn is almost as bad as saying Gloria Estefan can’t sing.) In 2000,…
Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue: Quiara Alegria Hudes’s play about three generations of an American military family is picking up steam across the nation. Ricky J. Martinez’s current production for New Theatre comes on the heels of a successful off-Broadway run, and it will be followed by different stagings in prestigious…
Fahrenheit 451: Cast in the, er, glow of the recent public-school book-banning controversy (Vamos a Cuba) and fresh off its selection by the Florida Center for the Literary Arts as this year’s “Big Read,” Fahrenheit 451 lights up GableStage at the Biltmore in its Southeast premiere. Adapted for the stage…
During the Nineties, a visit to one of South Florida’s strip clubs made for a rip-snorting time. From seedier dives such as the Bottoms Up on SW Eighth Street to the wildly popular Porky’s in Hialeah, freewheeling floozies ratcheted up their repertoires with raunchy antics that engaged the audience in…
The first words heard in Lincolnesque are those of Abraham Lincoln. They are lyrical, lofty, and moving, spoken by a tall, bearded man in a long black coat, his voice at once inspiring and reassuring, if only a little off. Maybe a lot off: He is in fact a madman…
Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman arrives at GableStage trailing considerable acclaim in its wake, having won an Olivier Award for Best Play in 2004 and a Tony nomination in 2005. It is a departure of sorts for the brilliant McDonagh: Instead of being about all things bizarre, violent, and Irish, it…
The Mystery of Irma Vep: Crisply directed by David Arisco, its costumes magically engineered by the sensational Mary Lynne Izzo, and gleefully performed by the comically gifted John Felix and Tom Wahl, The Mystery of Irma Vep is a delirious descent into madness that sticks to the ribs and never…
