A unique stage experience is brought to vivid life
(Photo courtesy of Area Stage Company) Mallory Newbrough (Dora) and George (Robert Richards, Jr.) appear in a scene from Area Stage Company’s production of An Octoroon CORAL GABLES, Fla. — “If anything, the theatre is no longer a place of novelty,” says a character in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon. “The...
Oleanna proves powerful, provocative in Boca Raton
Photo courtesy of www.eveningstarproductions.org. Carol (Sara Elizabeth Grant) presents which she feels is damning evidence against her professor, John (Todd Bruno), in Evening Star Production’s staging of David Mamet’s Oleanna. BOCA RATON — Depending on your point of view, and how it’s directed and acted, David Mamet’s scorcher of a play,...
Simon’s one-liners are a nice respite in these frightening times
Photo by George Wentzler From left, Al Lewis (Peter Librach) and Willie Clark (Michael H. Small) don’t exactly see eye-to-eye in Broward Stage Door’s production of Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys. MARGATE — As you hear his one-liners zing from the mouth of one character to the ear of another,...
Get on the wild side with these Shorts
(Photo by George Wentzler) Marquise Rogers and Lawrence Buzzeo appear in Give Me Space, one of the short plays in a South Florida co-production of Shorts Gone Wild 5 WILTON MANORS, Fla. — “I will obliterate those who oppress and repress people they do not understand,” the ambitious,...
Morality play about science, religion sizzles in GableStage production
(Photo by George Schiavone) Betsy Graver and Jovon Jacobs appear in a scene from GableStage’s production of Informed Consent CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Art has the ability to make us feel a variety of emotions, including fear and helplessness. Consider the following from Deborah Zoe Laufer’s heartfelt, heartbreaking and unsettling...
Bad Jews can remind us of our naughty selves
Photo by Dennis Lyzniak Hannah Benitez and Joseph Paul Pino play feuding cousins in Main Street Players’ production of Bad Jews MIAMI LAKES — Unless you hail from South Africa, you might not have heard of a koeksister. A feature on www.salon.com describes it as “South Africa’s twisted and delicious...
‘Finding Mona Lisa’ brings history to life entertainingly
(Photo courtesy of Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre) CORAL GABLES, Fla. — You hardly have to brush up on your art history to enjoy award-winning playwright Michael McKeever’s new play Finding Mona Lisa. McKeever takes us on a fun-filled trip featuring stops in France and Italy and time periods...
Adaptation of graphic novel set to music has world premiere
PALO ALTO, Calif. — Award-winning Bay Area playwright and composer Min Kahng thought his discovery several years ago was “fascinating” and “unique.” It would be “fun and interesting” to adapt for the stage, he further believed. Kahng has done that. His adaptation of one of the first-ever graphic novels...
New City Players’ Twelfth Night is highly entertaining, but achieves mixed results
Ernesto Gonzalez as Sebastian (Photo by Ryan Arnst) FT. LAUDERDALE — Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is classified as a comedy, and for good reason: There’s plenty of mischief and merry making, which merge to form a frolicking night of theater. It ends (mostly) happily. But there’s a darker side to the...
Provocative dark comedy seeks to light a fire under audiences regarding climate change
(Photo by George Schiavone) MIAMI SHORES — A “hurricane party” hardly refers to a celebration involving University of Miami sports teams in the new, clever, satirical comedy Firemen are Rarely Necessary, set partly in Miami in a not-too-distant future. Normally when a mammoth hurricane is about to make landfall in...
