Latest Articles

  • Vogel Encourages Dramaworks To Use Indecent Script As Blueprint Not Straightjacket

    Paula Vogel welcomes, even celebrates how imaginative directors and committed casts use her work as a starting blueprint for their own explorations. She is pleased that this week the team at Palm Beach Dramaworks will unveil their particular vision of Indecent, just one of 20 productions that have been or are being mounted around the country last season and this season.

  • Glad To Be Conned By Stage Door’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

    It’s a genuine compliment when a critic doesn’t particularly look forward to a show based on past productions and recordings – and then reassesses his antipathy based on seeing a fresh new production. So it’s saying something that Broward Stage Door’s Dity Rotten Scoundrels is a pleasing romp.

  • GableStage’s Admissions Asks Liberals What Happens When It’s Your Own Ox Being Gored?

    GableStage’s Admissions is one of the more uncomfortable evenings of theater that avowed liberals and proud progressives will sit through any time soon. It holds up an unsparing mirror that asks whether such advocates will stay true to their ideals when the consequences directly affect them and their families.

  • Dracula’s Prey At Zoetic: No Helpless Fainting Victims Here

    In Zoetic Stage’s premiere Dracula, the vampire is a sexist pig (as are several men in the play). The protagonists are strong-willed proto-feminists. Together, they embody a society struggling with re-envisioning what self-empowered women can and should be. Michael McKeever’s script as directed by Stuart Meltzer presents social commentary told with droll, wry and self-aware humor, and the retelling of the classic horror narrative.

  • Havana Music Hall: The Story Of Those Who Stayed Behind

    It would be intriguing and accurate, but misleading to say that Havana Music Hall, the hopeful Broadway musical about Cuban artists before and after the Revolution, is the brainchild of 72-year-old New Jersey-born Jewish insurance salesman Richard Kagan. He conceived it, wrote the tuneful score, and is bankrolling a $2 million cost. But he credits a half-dozen others who imbued it with the pungent ethnic flavor and cultural insights he learned second hand.

  • Saying Goodbye To Iris Acker

    The memorial celebration of Iris Acker will be held Monday at The Wick Theatre in Boca Raton with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. and the celebration starting at 7 p.m. Playwright, producer and patron Tony Finstrom wrote a piece about his memories of her forged during their relationship. He asked us to publish it.

  • In-Depth: State Cuts Will Affect What You See On Stage; Theaters Pledge To Fight Back

    Some South Florida theaters are scrapping some of what they plan to put on stage this season or next. Some are leaving support positions unfilled. Some plan smaller cast shows. Some have sidelined plans for growth. Theaters are scrambling to cope with an unexpected 90 percent slash in state funding. But theater champions vow to fight back by organizing patrons and leading citizens to influence lawmakers.

  • Lightning Bolt Returns Again To Little Shop & Audrey II Too

    Lightning Bolt Productions,’ Little Shop of Horrors delivers yet another merry recreation of one of the most amusing small musicals in the canon: an intentionally silly, unapologetically unsubtle hoot. If you haven’t seen in it in a while or, hard to believe, haven’t seen it at all, Lightning Bolt’s ebullient edition is a perfect reason to visit or re-visit Skid Row.