Assuming the role of a woman who allegedly inspired 40,000 people to petition the Vatican for her canonization is no easy task. Trying to emulate the qualities that made Eva Pern an Argentine icon — namely sex appeal and dogged determination — is even more difficult while belting out thirteen…
Giacomo Puccini is often regarded as the world’s most beloved and most performed operatic composer, and a scene during the first act of Florida Grand Opera’s fall season opener, La Fanciulla del West, illuminates why. A moment early on in the recent opening-night performance at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium —…
M Ensemble’s first fall production not only begins its new season, but it also opens the festering wounds of America’s murky past, offering audiences an elegant yet tragic look at history’s harrowing repercussions. The action in Bourbon at the Border takes places in 1995 Detroit, but the play revolves around…
Bill Maher has publicly compared mentally handicapped children to dogs and called the death penalty a way of “thinning out the herd.” The iconic self-proclaimed bachelor is a clever, charismatic, and quick-witted man to watch onscreen, but speaking with him on the telephone, away from the spotlight, borders on irritating…
Brooklyn Boy: A writer from a fabled neverland called Brooklyn finally makes it big just as his personal life begins to fall apart. Donald Margulies’s bittersweet and not particularly satisfying comedy is so obviously personal that it feels unseemly to complain. Still, there is precious originality in the playwright’s treatment…
You have to admit, it’s a tough act to follow. In her runaway international hit The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler was anything but shy about that most private of private parts — and her disarming, in-your-face, beaver-affirming, life-empowering activist candor has translated into a theatrical phenomenon with a life of…
Pagans, rejoice! ‘Tis the scary season once again, and Halloween in all of its ghastly glory is listed as the second-largest commercial holiday, one that’s slowly sneaking up on Christmas. According to the National Retail Federation, this year alone consumers will spend an estimated $3.3 billion in their quest for…
Stranger things than Ethel exist in classical music, but not many. Then again, classical is not exactly the right word for this string quartet that plays nothing but decidedly new, often bizarre music. In the House of Ethel — a site-specific spectacle at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens — is…
It’s the dance homecoming of the year, except Jimmy Gamonet de los Heros didn’t really have to go anywhere. “I love Miami,” says Gamonet. “I’ve been very fortunate to be able to work in New York, Europe, and Latin America, but this is where I want to build a company.”…
American Buffalo: It’s all about a nickel, about a heist gone wrong. Three losers congregated in a Chicago junk shop plot to steal a Buffalo nickel that’s allegedly worth a lot of money. One of them says it’s business, it’s about “common sense, experience, and talent.” The play’s central irony…
It’s all about a nickel. American Buffalo, the 1975 play that made David Mamet a star and might well remain the American playwright’s best work, is a simple tale of a heist gone wrong. Three losers in a Chicago junk shop conspire to steal a buffalo nickel that is potentially…
Madagascar: In a hotel room overlooking the Spanish Steps in Rome, a lovely young woman dressed in pajamas sits on a bed and proclaims there is no such thing as coincidence. An elegant older woman emerges from the shadows in a timeless faux Chanel suit. She’s oblivious to the girl…
If you choose to vanish, we’re told early on in Madagascar, you probably won’t be found. Nine out of ten people who disappear most likely prefer to remain lost. What happens then? The answers are not easy, but they can be surprising, as is J.T. Rogers’s Madagascar. This delicate, ineffably…
The Mosaic Theatre’s Richard Jay Simon is one of the most talented theater directors in South Florida. He’s also one of the most versatile. His emotionally detailed hostage drama Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me grabbed my attention in Mosaic’s first season, when the company was playing to audiences of three…
Misery: Horror meister Stephen King certainly knows a thing or two about the vicissitudes of fame. Like many a writer before him, King draws on personal experience for his short novel Misery, a grim fairy tale about a famous novelist held captive by his “number one fan.” The 1992 play…
A play called If We Are Women in a place called the Women’s Theatre Project? Shocking but true. What sounds like scary Lifetime television, though, is actually entirely satisfying, even if you happen to sport one of those crazy penis things. It’s so satisfying that you should be prepared to…
Misery: Horror meister Stephen King certainly knows a thing or two about the vicissitudes of fame. Like many a writer before him, King draws on personal experience for his short novel Misery, a grim fairy tale about a famous novelist held captive by his “number one fan.” The 1992 play…
Horror meister Stephen King certainly knows a thing or two about the vicissitudes of fame. Like many a writer before him, King draws on personal experience for his short novel Misery, a grim fairy tale about a famous writer held captive by his “number one fan,” now in production at…
“So fair and foul a day I have not seen” goes the famous line in Macbeth and, may it be said, so fair and foul a play can now be seen in a recently opened production at New Theatre in Coral Gables. Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy is one of his most…
Sisters of Swing: The Andrews Sisters, who rose to megastardom during the World War II big band era, were the Dixie Chicks of their time. That is, if you replace the Chicks’ antiwar sentiment with patriotism and then add an unbridled popularity no girl group since the Andrews Sisters has…
Matt & Ben: Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers’s little comedy receives its Florida premiere in this Mad Cat Theatre production. It’s a cute fantasy about talent, male bonding, and fame, based on the real-life story of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s overnight rise to stardom when they won an Oscar…
The recent off-Broadway hit Matt & Ben, written by Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers, is having its Florida premiere in a Mad Cat Theatre production at the Light Box Studio, directed by Paul Tei. It’s cute. The plot is a simple fantasy about talent, male bonding, and fame, based on…
