Author Archives: Bill Hirschman

Powerful Dear Evan Hansen Has Extra Resonance In Broward

Perhaps the artists gifting us this superb tour of Dear Evan Hansen may not quite appreciate how some of its themes resound specifically in South Florida like the deafening battery of cannon fire. A year after the Parkland tragedy and less than a week after two teen suicides, the story does not pluck heartstrings as it has for tens of thousands of fans; it rips them out.

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Performance for Evan Patrons Displaced By Power Outage

Due to a power outage on opening night, the first performance of Dear Evan Hansen was unable to go on as scheduled. A performance has been added for Sunday, April 7 at 6:30 p.m. for audience members displaced by the cancelled performance..

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The Past Is Present At Island City Stage’s From White Plains

From White Plains at Island City Stage is ostensibly about bullying and responsibility, but it’s really about something simpler and deeper: The past owns us.

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Actor Returns To Fences To Explore New Vulnerability

Last July, Lester Purry had just finished playing the volcanic Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s most popular play Fences at Portland Playhouse in Oregon. “I told my wife, I’m never doing this play again,” he recalled last week. Then the phone rang.

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Neil Simon’s Gingerbread Lady: Harrowing Descent Into Alcoholism — With Laughs

Neil Simon’s dark comedy The Gingerbread Lady gets a fine production at Primal Forces featuring a bravura performance from Patti Gardner.

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‘Cowboys’ Confessions Tells Of Magic City’s Not So Golden Days

The world premiere of Confessions of a Cocaine Cowboy, a fact-based but stylistically executed play at Miami New Drama from filmmaker Billy Corben and screenwriter Aurin Squire, captures Miami’s drug-obsessed past through the eyes of a hitman.

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They’ve Got Rhythm: Wick’s Glorious Crazy For You

In 2019, if you want some idea what the original production of Crazy For You was like, or what those Depression Era musicals were like, live and in the flesh, settle in for The Wick Theatre’s glorious revival.

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Breaking News: Broward Stage Door Lowers Its Curtain

UPDATED: Broward Stage Door, which has battled through a dozen fiscal and artistic highs and lows over a quarter-century, has shut its doors. This week, the company cancelled the remaining performances in its current production, My One and Only at Lauderhill Performing Arts Center.
The rest of the season also has been cancelled

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Dynamic ‘Memphis’ Is A Rousing Hit At Actors Playhouse

Actors’ Playhouse is staging an electric, pulsating production of Memphis — a high-octane, acrobatic dancing, believable performances and soulful, spirited singing. The performers’ voices are versatile, strong and emotive.

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No Need To Go To NYC To See My Fair Lady; Try Vero Beach

You’ll be hard pressed to find a more energetic and exquisitely directed production of My Fair Lady than that on stage now at Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach. This production is a theatrical feast serving up humor, strong performances, lusty choreography, impeccable elegance and music that tests the audience’s will to behave.

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