Reviews

Bower Shines Like A Star in Tuneful, Witty Anything Goes

If only for the opportunity to enjoy Aaron Bower inhabiting a role she was born to play, we’d urge you to see the Wick Theatre’s revival of the updated Cole Porter musical Anything Goes. But the broader truth is that every aspect of this tuneful, witty musical gets as fine a production here as you can ask for.

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Fiery Performance Powers Musical About Tina Turner

Ever wondered what a blazing comet looks like a few yards from your face? Visit the Broward Center to catch the national tour of Tina, a huge fireball smashing through the backwall powering right through the auditorium.

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Not Hamlet or Hamilton, But The Full Monty Eventually Wins Over

True, there’s not particularly buff former factory workers stripping down to G-strings, pumping and grinding in a ladies’ bar, but The Full Monty is the kind of pleasant mainstream musical that folks used to complain wasn’t being made anymore.

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Like the Country It Unravels, ‘American Rhapsody is Complicated, Ambitious & Flawed

American Rhapsody, Michael McKeever’s sprawling premiere at Zoetic Stage, is a history play, a bildungsroman, a tribute to fluid families, a cautionary tale about where the zeitgeist might be headed. It spans more than 60 years and feels, perhaps like the American experiment itself.

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Cruz-Directed Anna in the Tropics Melds Prosaic and Poesy

Miami New Drama’s triumphant 20-year-anniversary production of Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer-winning Anna in the Tropics., directed by Cruz, enables us to see ourselves and all around us more clearly. It exposes truths and secrets we may not have been aware of and to varying degrees changes us;

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Entertaining Sweet Charity Reflects Its Social Myopia

The Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s Sweet Charity is a thoroughly well-produced and inarguably entertaining time machine back to when the musical was created in 1966 and when the cutting-edge dance craze was the Frug. It also celebrates a sexist societal mindset that will aggravate anyone born after 1966.

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The Banality of Evil Is At The Crux of GableStage’s Powerful We Will Not Be Silent

Evil thrives when good people, normal people, do nothing. This banality of evil provides the crux of playwright David Meyers’ incisive play We Will Not Be Silent, receiving a bold, powerful production at GableStage.

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Boca Stage’s Time Alone Examines Grief, Doubt Within Two Isolated People

Time Alone brings out moments of self-doubt; of deep, endless grief; questions of what ifs and should haves —so skillfully explored in Boca Stage’s scintillating Time Alone. Credit director Genie Croft and first-class actors Karen Stephens & Rio Chavarro — who elevate it into a bold, emotional production.

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Riverside Gifts Exquisite Voices, Bold Visuals To La Mancha

With its soul-stirring theme ,” the musical Man of La Mancha is the ideal choice for Riverside Theatre to reflect on how it has triumphed over adversity.This abundantly satisfying production boasts exquisite voices and bold visuals to tell the basic story of summoning the courage to follow one’s star.

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Book Review: New Sondheim Volume More About Interviewer

D.T. Max got Stephen Sondheim to reveal glimpses of his work process in five “interviews” but clearly, Max is almost as crucial, at least to him, for what’s in this book as what Sondheim says. At one point, Sondheim mentions that Max looks like Geoffrey Rush, but Max responds in a post-interview add-on that most people mistook him for Nicholas Cage when he was younger. And we care, why?

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