Reviews
SoFla Symphony Delivers Many High Notes With Porgy and Bess
If there is one disappointment about the South Florida Symphony’s ambitious staging of Porgy and Bess it is that there aren’t more opportunities to see the production. The Wilton Manors-based symphony scheduled only three performances and the third Wednesday, Jan. 23 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, where a grand gala will close the run.
Wick Actress’ Funny Girl Gives Fanny Her Own Endearing Stamp
Few theatrical challenges are as a daunting as actor taking on an iconic role made unforgettable by an inimitable talent in a career-making performance engraved in the popular consciousness. But actress Stephanie Maloney has surmounted that peak in her unassailably solid and personalized incarnation of Fanny Brice in The Wick Theatre’s Funny Girl.
Riverside’s A New Argentina And A New Look At Evita
The musical may have been around for decades, but Riverside’s triumphant production of Evita proves that the show has a strong universality that rings as loudly today as it did 40 years ago. The show brims with exhilarating invention and the fresh point of view by its director/choreographer Marcia Milgrom Dodge.
Deep And Complex, A Shayna Maidel Thrives In Its Contrasts
Whether you have seen A Shayna Maidel before, Chicken Coop Theater at Levis JCC Sandler Center does a fine job keeping intact Lebow’s touching drama and its very definite Holocaust theme. But this production goes one smart step further, finding more universal themes of love and loss, parents and their relationships to their children, and the bond of siblings.
Powerhouse Actresses Serve Up A Century Of History In Having Our Say At Primal Forces
Having Our Say is likely the first play in which both of its characters are centenarian women of color. At Primal Forces’ regional premiere, this means two roles of uncommon heft and history for Karen Stephens and Avery Sommers.
Main Street Works Hard But Superior Donuts Disappoints
It took Main Street Players’ lethargic production of Superior Donuts about 20 minutes to show much signs of life, and even then the primary electricity came from one actor as a young man ablaze with ambition and hope. This theater has gifted us with some fine work such as Bad Jews. But little voltage sparks across this story about hopes and dreams.
Bookshelf: Hirschfeld, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Michael Caine
If you’re a theater aficionado and received a nice check from your mother for the holidays or maybe from a busy relative gave you a gift card to Barnes & Noble, what should you spend it on? Here’s our review of a few books related to the arts.
Vital Hamilton Dazzles – With Asterisks – At Broward Center
Hamilton, which explodes with power, vitality and imagination in the Broward Center for a five-week run, is not the Second Coming as many overheated observers would have you believe. But this tour from Broadway Across America demonstrates why this musical epic is a watershed work that may well transmute mainstream theater for a decade to come.
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