Monthly Archives: March 2012
Sirois/Alliance Off Center of Nowhere Is Funny Sit Com Hiding Serious Theme
On the surface, David Michael Sirois’ Off Center of Nowhere is what would result if the Neil Simon of the 1970s wrote a rollicking comedy about teen pregnancy, abortion and racism, laced with a lot of profanity. The Alliance Theatre Lab’s world premiere is sit-com funny until it intentionally slams the audience into a concrete wall that will leave most observers stunned. That’s when you realize Off Center is really about the limits of how far people can bend their moral for loved ones before breaking. How unconditional is unconditional love?
Director & Star Deliver Fresh Hello Dolly As If It’s Brand New
There’s a brand new musical comedy you’ve never seen before playing at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre. It’s something called Hello, Dolly! and if you think you’ve seen it before, we’ll argue with you. Because director/choreographer Marcia Milgrom Dodge and leading lady Vicki Lewis invest the Jerry Herman-Michael Stewart warhorse with a freshness that nearly obliterates the iconic images created by Gower Champion and Carol Channing.
Palm Beach Dramaworks Names New Season With Albee & Friel
Palm Beach Dramaworks’ affinities for Edward Albee and Irish-themed plays are reflected in its upcoming 13th season for 2012-2013.
Director and Star Seek Fresh Spin on Hello Dolly at the Maltz
Director Marcia Milgrom Dodge and actress Vicki Lewis face that old psychology experiment: Imagine there’s an elephant in the room. Now ignore the elephant in the room. In their case, the elephants, plural, are Carol Channing and the iconic Gower Champion production of Hello, Dolly! engraved in the minds of much of the audience coming this month to see the warhorse at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre.
Say Goodnight Gracie Brings Burns and Allen’s Story Back to South Florida
It’s grossly unfair to expect an actor to impersonate an icon who remains vivid in the audience’s memory, but watching the most recent incarnation of Rupert Holmes’ biographical Say Goodnight Gracie at the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, you just keep wishing George Burns was there.
Tharp’s Come Fly Away Isn’t Theater But It’s Entertaining
Twyla Tharp’s surrogates in Come Fly Away effortlessly swirl and slide across the stage like you think you do in your dreams – and to sound of Sinatra yet, crooning “The Way You Look Tonight.” This 75-minute dance recital – it arguably doesn’t qualify as musical theater because there is not a shred of overarching plot – is an undeniably enchanting evening playing at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach this week and moving to Arsht Center in Miami next week.
Mosaic’s Death and the Maiden Is Taut Psychological Thriller
Torture, vengeance and morality take center stage in Death and the Maiden, a suspenseful thriller now receiving a riveting production at Mosaic Theatre in Plantation.
Promethean’s Swan Song, The Unseen, Is A Hell Of An Exit.
The cruel irony is that The Unseen, the last show before The Promethean Theatre closes its doors forever, is one of the finest productions that the company has mounted in its eight-year history. Craig Wright’s tale depicting two political prisoners tortured in a Kafkaesque dungeon is one of the most incisive explorations of existentialism since Waiting For Godot and No Exit. But the script is elevated to agonizing, visceral life by actors Antonio Amadeo, Andrew Wind and Alex Alvarez, led by the inestimable insight of director Margaret M. Ledford.
M Ensemble’s Harlem Duet Is Thought-Provoking But Wildly Uneven Look at Race and Sex
Playwright Djanet Sears has crafted an intriguing contemplation of the intersection of the macro issue of race on the micro-dynamics of an individual marriage in Harlem Duet. But Sears’ insightful script gets a hodgepodge treatment in M Ensemble’s production. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lowell Williams, this edition is by turns subtle and overly-melodramatic, illuminating and opaque, clear and confusing.
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