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...
World premiere about musical masterwork as related to life performed with flair by Island City Stage
WILTON MANORS, Fla. — Shakespeare wrote “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” But have you ever found yourself wishing that you were the director of your life – one with the power to say something like, “OK, let’s stop right there and...
This lighthearted ‘Legend’ will whisk you away from your worries
CORAL GABLES, Fla. Go ahead, poke fun at drag queens all you want. Call them weirdos, freaks or any other name to express your disapproval at their lifestyle or your inherent dislike of them, for whatever reason. The bottom line is that at least twice now in the make-believe world...
Cast of The Cripple of Inishmaan finds humanity behind characters’ oddities
WEST PALM BEACH — If he were a real person, Johnnypateenmike O’Dougal would never win a “Citizen of the Year” award. Guaranteed. He talks incessantly, regardless of whether anyone in the room wants to hear his babble. He’s a self-centered, rude, loud, crotchety, curmudgeon. Picture an individual walking into a...
South Florida theater company offers a winning production of It Shoulda Been You
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Even if everything’s calm and orderly “behind the scenes,” moments before a bride and groom walk down the aisle, you never know what drama might be unfolding among the guests. Aunt Delores might be a wreck in a happy kind of way, crying profusely as she...
LCT’s ‘The King and I’ is an emotionally-rich experience, as national tour proves
MIAMI — “The King and I,” to borrow King Mongkut’s words, is a puzzlement. How can two people who’ve irritated each other so much, two people who seemingly have nothing in common, have such a profound effect on each other? That surprisingly strong, life-changing effect is at the heart of...
Death and Harry Houdini amazes with captivating magic
By AARON KRAUSE MIAMI — It’s not every day that famed magician and escape artist Harry Houdini flings playing cards at you, interacts with you and even calls you up as a volunteer to participate in one of his tricks. Then again, it’s not every day that you witness a...
Slow Burn Theatre Company’s ‘Aida’ contains emotional depth
FT. LAUDERDALE — “Love Transcends Death” is a poem by Naoimh Spence, but it’s also a powerful premise in several theatrical shows, including “Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida,” a heartfelt, touching tale of honor, loyalty and forbidden love which is receiving a remarkable production by the Carbonell Award-winning, Ft. Lauderdale-based Slow Burn...
Touring ‘Matilda’ is a theatrical experience to remember and cherish
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — You can associate any one of many ferocious animals with the formidable, fiendish, she-devil of a school headmistress, Agatha Trunchbull, in renown author Roald Dahl’s beloved tale “Matilda.” But it’s safe to say we all become mother bears whenever we watch adults – particularly of the...