Experience Canada’s Shakespeare paradise without leaving the states
STRATFORD, Ont. — No passport? No problem. Stratford Festival Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino has United States residents covered if they’ve always wanted to see Shakespeare’s work at the world-renown Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada. While he won’t get U.S. residents a passport and ferry them to the festival, he’ll do...
‘The Two Character Play’ may confuse, but Miami Theater Center triumphs with late Tennessee Williams work
MIAMI SHORES, Fla. — You’ll likely find your mind in overdrive but still rapidly spinning in thought and confusion after witnessing “The Two-Character Play,” Tennessee Williams’ dream-like, little-produced, convoluted but thought-provoking, riveting, touching and humorous dramatic work. The dark and disturbing play see-saws between reality and fantasy and will leave...
Teaching Shakespare to…toddlers?
This is not a review, per say, but it’s praise for a book for parents of young children who want to teach them….Shakespeare? Ken Ludwig, a prolific, respected, widely renown and award-winning playwright, has penned a book titled “How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.” I’ve read it and believe me,...
‘A Minister’s Wife’ will win you over at GableStage
CORAL GABLES — As I scanned the audience before a performance of GableStage’s finely performed and executed production of “A Minister’s Wife,” a musical version of George Bernard Shaw’s “Candida,” on stage through April 24, I couldn’t find any young people. You know, that age demographic Bernie Sanders has won...
A ‘Lesson’ imparted solidly by historic African American theater company
NORTH MIAMI — What does someone do with an old piano he or she never uses, all the while it’s sitting there collecting dust? If the person in question is living during the Great Depression and is lucky enough that an eager buyer has come with money, the answer seems...
Stephen Sondheim’s feeling about Actors Playhouse’s production would far exceed satisfaction
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — During a performance of the current Actors Playhouse’s splendid production, a thespian was interrupted soon after he began singing one of the musical’s songs. But nobody was perturbed, or even slightly bothered. In fact, some audience members chuckled. That’s because the musical is unlike many others...
Pulitzer-winning playwright gives vivid voices to inner thoughts in series of monologues about war, sexism
MIAMI, Fla. — “If men could hear the voice in my mind, I’d probably be punished,” the teenage girl dressed as a boy from an early age says in Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz’s “Farhad or The Secret of Being.” Lucky for her, we as the audience members are the...
Area Stage conservatory program’s ‘A Chorus Line’ is sensational
CORAL GABLES — There are perhaps no words in “A Chorus Line” that resonate so strongly with an audience today– roughly four decades after the Pulitzer-Prize and Tony Award- winning musical’s creation — than “I Hope I Get It.” Whether you’re unemployed, hoping to get a promotion, win an award,...
Zoetic Stage’s current production filled with palpable ‘Passion’
MIAMI, Fla. — “What is love,” the song released in 1993 by Haddaway asks. You won’t find simple, black and white answers in “Passion,” the 1994 Tony-Award-winning chamber musical receiving a production full of honest emotion, soaring, captivating singing voices, backed by a small but clear-sounding orchestra, superb acting and,...
‘The Dumb Waiter’ is smart theater
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Silence isn’t always serene or golden. Look no further than the works of British playwright Harold Pinter for a type of silence with an undercurrent of menace and tension. As the lack of sound permeates the air, there’s a foreboding sense that something terrible is imminent....