Everyone’s favorite ogre to rise again at Area Stage Company

Everyone’s favorite ogre to rise again at Area Stage Company

Photo courtesy of Area Stage Company In the 2018 production, Shrek (Ryan Bauta) gives fair warning to anyone daring to enter his territory   By AARON KRAUSE It really isn’t easy being green. In fact, in the fictional world, such characters as Wicked’s Elphaba, Jim Henson’s Kermit the Frog, and...

Read more
Famed actress Dame Diana Rigg dies of cancer

Famed actress Dame Diana Rigg dies of cancer

            (NBC via wikimedia commons) Diana Rigg Actress Dame Diana Rigg, a renowned English performer who played roles such as Emma Peel in The Avengers and Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones, has died at age 82.  In addition to these roles, the late stage...

Read more
In unsettling times like these, ‘Hairspray’ is a balm…and a call to action

In unsettling times like these, ‘Hairspray’ is a balm…and a call to action

  Photo courtesy of Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre Tracy Turnblad (Adee David), center, introduces herself as the newest dancer on the “Corny Collins Show” in Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre’s production of Hairspray. I saw and reviewed the production at the Indianapolis theater last fall.   By AARON KRAUSE My...

Read more
Artist and advocate during the AIDS crisis dies at 84

Artist and advocate during the AIDS crisis dies at 84

Larry Kramer Photo by David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons   Larry Kramer, a fiercely passionate playwright, screenwriter, and advocate whom many credited with jump-starting the response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in America, has died in Manhattan. He was 84 and less than a month from his 85th birthday. His husband,...

Read more
‘Happy Days’ at Thinking Cap Theatre thanks to bravura production

‘Happy Days’ at Thinking Cap Theatre thanks to bravura production

    Photo by Nicole Stodard Despite Winnie’s odd situation, she finds reason to smile. In Thinking Cap Theatre’s production, Karen Stephens (pictured) plays the character.   By AARON KRAUSE FT. LAUDERDALE — A man with much physical difficulty tries to reach the love of his life. Naturally, she seems...

Read more
This ‘Forum’ is a hoot at MNM Theatre Company

This ‘Forum’ is a hoot at MNM Theatre Company

  Photo by Amy Pasquantonio Johnbarry Green (left) appears as Pseudolus and Michael Scott Ross as Hysterium in MNM Theatre Company’s production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.    By AARON KRAUSE WEST PALM BEACH — “Think of musical comedy, the  most glorious words in the English...

Read more
New musical has promise, but flaws hamper it

New musical has promise, but flaws hamper it

Photo courtesy of Ronnie Larsen Presents Daniel #1 (Cody Jenkins) snuggles up with Greg #1 (Conor Walton) in the world premiere production of Now & Then. By AARON KRAUSE WILTON MANORS, Fla. — Time flashes years forward and backward in sometimes sunny beams of hope and love, but also darker...

Read more
Updated ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ is still amusing, touching at MNM Theatre Co.

Updated ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ is still amusing, touching at MNM Theatre Co.

Photo by Jacek Photo (From left) Clay Cartland, Heather Kopp, Anna Lise Jensen and Michael Scott Ross appear in a scene from I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.” By AARON KRAUSE WEST PALM BEACH — People love It. Perhaps, some think it’s perfect. But librettist/lyricist Joe DiPietro has changed...

Read more
Lightning Bolt Productions’ strong ‘Into The Woods’ gives musical modern resonance

Lightning Bolt Productions’ strong ‘Into The Woods’ gives musical modern resonance

(Photo by Carol Kassie) Here are some of the actors playing major characters in Lightning Bolt Production’s mounting of Into the Woods. BOCA RATON — Into the Woods’ disturbing second act occurs in a boy’s nightmare in Lightning Bolt Production’s riveting, pulse-quickening production of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s 1987...

Read more
Minimalism means more in Area Stage Company’s Shrek

Minimalism means more in Area Stage Company’s Shrek

    (Photo courtesy of Area Stage Company) Shrek (Ryan Bauta) gives fair warning to anyone daring to enter his territory. CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Can audience members believe in a world onstage even if the theatrical magic is simple and visible? After witnessing Area Stage Company’s (ASC) exhilarating production...

Read more