Author Archives: Bill Hirschman
Florida Report From NYC: “Once” Is Charming, Affecting Tale
Or Coming To A Theater Near You (Or Not) By Bill Hirschman Welcome to our semi-annual scouting trip for shows likely to appear in South Florida in a local production or a national tour — or shows you should make …
CD Review: Score of Once is Affecting, Often Lovely and Occasionally Haunting.
The msuic of the Broadway show Once is affecting, often lovely and occasionally haunting. However, if you expect an Original Broadway Cast album to give you a glimpse into a theatrical experience you might have missed, you will find this album frustrating at first. As likely as it is that you will come to love the score, you can’t get much of an idea of the show itself just from these 16 or 17 or 18 tracks.
Florida Report From New York: Leap Of Faith & Raul Esparza
The terrific 1992 film that this musical Leap of Faith is based on contains a roof-raising gospel number with the lyric: “Are you ready for a miracle?” That’s exactly what’s needed with this tale of a con man (played by Raul Esparza) and his crew traveling the drought-stricken Midwest posing as evangelistic faith healers, ripping off indigent folks desperately looking for hope during tent revivals.
Experience Death and Harry Houdini At Arsht Center Before It Disappears
There couldn’t be a more fitting space for The House Theatre of Chicago to bring its production of Death and Harry Houdini to South Florida than the Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center. The biographical play/magic show embraces the most famous magician of all time’s mad-as-a-hatter life. It brings to the front that mysterious element of “carny,” taking audiences on the journey from his early career as a card-trickster in a sideshow to a household name.
Arsht and Chicago Company Hope Death & Harry Houdini Mixes Theatrical Magic
The melding of narrative metaphors and stage magic are emblematic of the spectacle infused in the play Death and Harry Houdini, another imagistic work from the House Theatre of Chicago and the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts opening this week. Last year, Arsht vice president Scott Shiller brought the House production of The Sparrow to Miami, notable for its highly stylized brew of acting, video, music, singing, lighting, sound and imaginative staging.
FGO’s Romeo et Juliette Has Fine Soprano And Staging But Won’t Touch Your Heart
Florida Grand Opera’s incarnation of Charles Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette under the direction of David Lefkowich is an inventively staged, well-acted mounting of this stark take on Shakespeare’s classic. But like FGO’s other essays on love this season such as La Rondine, Luisa Fernandez and Rigoletto, the technically admirable production starring Maria Alejandres and Sebastien Gueze isn’t likely to quicken the pulse of the audience.
Broward Stage Door’s Little Shop of Horrors Is Tasty Snack
Sometimes, when the material is strong enough, success means just getting out of its way. For the most part, that’s what a cast of strong singers and the director do to make Broward Stage Door’s Little Shop of Horrors a smile-inducing entertainment.
Mosaic’s A Measure of Cruelty Is a Benchmark Triumph
Neither protagonists nor antagonists, the haunted trio at the center of A Measure of Cruelty are desperately seeking compassion and redemption for their separate sins when all they can find in themselves are levels of self-disgust. Your awareness of your own transgressions and your ability to muster forgiveness for others is jammed into a crucible for self-examination by the spectacle of flawed humanity in this stunning world premiere at the Mosaic Theatre of Joe Calarco’s play.
Theater Shelf: People In The Picture, Hammerstein, Spiderman, Connecticut Yankee
Florida Theater On Stage Brad Hathaway reviews CD/DVDs of People in the Picture, Spider-man Turn Off The Dark, Oscar Hammerstein – Out of My Dreams, A Connecticut Yankee,
Mad Cat Scholarships, Walk On in Amadeus, Showboat Docks At Stage Door, Mosaic Names Finalists, Short Plays Staged
Mad Cat Awards Scholarships Mad Cat Theatre Company has presented its first Nine Lives Scholarship Awards to Arielle Hoffman for outstanding high school senior and Emilie Paap as outstanding college senior. Each will be receive a $500 scholarship prior to …
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