Author Archives: Bill Hirschman

Passable Dial M For Murder Doesn’t Quite Ring Any Bells

The classic 1952 crime play Dial M For Murder is a brilliantly-designed timepiece of plotting and dramatic construction. Unfortunately, Broward Stage Door’s barely serviceable production of this supposed thriller lacks much sizzle or suspense.

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Sex With Strangers: Art Isn’t Easy In The 21st Century

What does a man profiteth if he gains technology and loses his artistic soul? And can romance survive ambition when the two collide? Those issues, along with scores of corollaries, swirl through the entertaining thought-provoking Sex With Strangers, accurately subtitled “a romantic comedy for the digital age” kicking off Theatre at Arts Garage’s second incarnation.

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Hello, Dolly! At The Wick, Lee Roy Reams Asks If “It Takes A Woman” To Play Dolly Levi

It’s not a drag show. Broadway veteran Lee Roy Reams may become only the second man to play Dolly Levi in a sanctioned production of Hello, Dolly! when it bows this week at The Wick Theatre in Boca Raton, but he is committed to playing it straight.

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Hoary, Dependable Mousetrap Springs Again At The Maltz

The Mousetrap at the Maltz is indeed a hoary old chestnut chock full of clichés which weren’t even new when it bowed in 1952. But director Peter Amster and his cast wisely don’t try to fight it or update it. Instead they embrace it with gusto and with hardly a post-modern wink other than playing up everyone’s suspicious facets with a gleeful melodramatic flair that is usually, but not always under control.

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Swinging On A Star Indeed Swings At Riverside Theatre

VERO BEACH — Good songs tell compelling stories. And after seeing Riverside Theatre’s stylish, smart and vivacious production of Swinging on a Star, you’ll think no one did it better than Johnny Burke.

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Cappies’ Student Reviews Of Florida High School Shows Posted Here For Second Year

Publishing student reviews of high school theater is the cornerstone of a service from Florida Theater On Stage and the South Florida Critics and Awards Program, better known as The Cappies.

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Slow Burn Lands Really Big Fish In Bow At The Broward Center

With this production of Big Fish, Slow Burn Theatre Company has proven itself with no asterisks to be the equal of any company producing musicals in the region, some with far more resources, government grants and well-heeled donors — not to mention among the most adventurous in tackling what few others attempt.

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Slow Burn Theatre Is Ready For ‘Big’ Move To Broward Center

After five years of staging its shows in a high school auditorium in West Boca, Slow Burn Theatre Company moves to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts with its season opener, the largest-scale Big Fish.

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2014-15 Silver Palm Awards Announced For 27 Honorees

Twenty-seven theater artists and organizations will receive the eighth annual South Florida Silver Palm Theatre Awards honoring an outstanding or unique contribution,” the group announced Monday.

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Halloween Comes Early With Spoofy Musical Toxic Avenger

Somewhere under the green slime encrusted set of The Toxic Avenger at Actors Playhouse, a nuclear plant must be melting down all China Syndrome like. That might explain the raw power emanating from this hilarious hoot of a rock musical.

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