Author Archives: Bill Hirschman

Doubt Is The Point At The Maltz

Audiences members should leave the Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s production of Doubt: A Parable arguing whether Father Flynn did or didn’t abuse a child, and some will be unable to make up their minds — which is the theme of the play and the reason for the title. Doubt is the point.

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Maltz Names Next Season: Other Desert Cities, Annie, Chorus Line, The King And I

The Maltz Jupiter Theatre, with its reputation as a quintessential mainstream house, will mix up its 2013-2014 season with titles dating back decades and the hottest play on Broadway last year: Dial M For Murder, Annie, A Chorus Line, The King and I and Other Desert Cities plus a benefit concert by Brian Stokes Mitchell.

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Side Show Burns With Passion About Love Among Outsiders

There is more passion pouring off the stage in Slow Burn Theatre Company’s thrilling Side Show than in ten other musicals we’ve seen in the past year put together. That may result in one too many deafening power ballad after power ballad for some tastes and eardrums, but for those wanting to be touched by a poignant, but very dark tale skillfully delivered, Side Show is a powerful example of what the modern musical can be.

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Dramaworks’ Raisin Starts Slow But Builds To Emotional Crescendo Of Yearning

It starts slow, so slow that you fear it may never get going. But when Palm Beach Dramaworks’ A Raisin in the Sun finally gets rolling, the emotional wallops arrive in every deepening wave of gut-wrenching, heart-rending passion, arguably all the more potent for having emerged from such a quiet, prosaic run up.

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Parade’s The Whole Caboodle: Clever Plays & Talented Cast Dragged By Confusing Concept

Parade Productions’ collection of short plays by Michael McKeever, The Whole Caboodle, has the makings of a terrific evening of theatre, but an added conceptual element prevents the show from fulfilling its potential.

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FGO’s Offbeat Magic Flute As Funny As It’s Beautifully Sung

In a classic opera depicting the battle between intellectual enlightenment and romanticism with allusions to ancient Masonic rituals, you don’t expect a character to exclaim, “Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?” But this is director Jeffrey Marc Buchman’s whimsical take on Mozart’s The Magic Flute, one of the most popular operas of all time, in part, because its inherent irreverence begs to be enhanced with goofball humor and imaginative re-interpretations – both of which mark the Florida Grand Opera’s edition.

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Wicked Flies Into Broward To Enchant Local Fan Seventh Time

Thirty minutes before curtain at the Broward Center Wednesday, Miranda Palumbo ecstatically grinned as a clerk at the Oz Dust Boutique stuffed a grey hooded sweater jacket into a Wicked shopping bag along with some other memorabilia while her mother paid $94.

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Alliance Faces Deadline Raising Money For Brothers Beckett

You have until just before midnight today (Thursday) to contribute to the Alliance Theatre Project’s online funding campaign to raise money to help pay for its revival of the acclaimed Brothers Beckett at the Arsht Center in March this spring. …

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Irreplaceable Playbills, Costumes And Ephemera Rescued From Coconut Grove

In the six years since the Coconut Grove Playhouse shuttered, irreplaceable theatrical history has festered in a fetid, crumbling structure, endangered by everything from larcenous-minded vagrants to Florida’s infamous mold-rich climate.
But in a third-act development worthy of a melodrama, Actors Playhouse in Coral Gables and the University of Miami library’s special collections division have rescued some of the Grove’s treasures.

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Stephanie Powers To Sub For Ailing Valerie Harper In Return of Looped

By Bill Hirschman Illness has sidelined Valerie Harper from starring in the revival of Looped that was to kick off a new national tour at Parker Playhouse Feb. 26-March 3. The role of Tallulah Bankhead near the end of her …

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