Tag Archives: Kimmi Johnson

Dickens Nailed It: South Florida Theater Two Years In Review

If Dickens’ opening line in A Tale of Two Cities has become a trite cliché through overuse it has become a painfully accurate truism about theater over the past two years, especially South Florida theater. Crippling loss and inspiring resurrection. Surrender and perseverance. And , now, the Covid threat has reasserted. But looking back on those two years delivers a testament worth celebrating and learning from.

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Slow Burn’s Groundhog Day Is Worth Visiting Again — & Again

The first things to know about Slow Burn Theater Company’s musical Groundhog Day is (a) do not go expecting to see the movie and (b) do not go expecting Bill Murray. The third thing is that it doesn’t matter. At all. This unapologetically uplifting, deeply poignant and very funny version is well worth seeing over and over on its own terms.

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We’re a Believer: Charming Shrek Lets Its Freak Flag Fly

Slow Burn Theatre Company’s Shrek the Musical is pure unadulterated fun, not just youngsters in the audience watching familiar fairy tale characters cavort in atypical ways, or older kids enjoying nose-thumbing humor involving farts and belches, but also adults quietly enjoying the more sophisticated jokes, cultural references and gentle skewering of the unrealistic tropes they were raised on.

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Slow Burn’s Legally Blonde Is An Early Christmas Gift — In Pink

The Christmas season officially opened this weekend wrapped in pink. Elle Woods, leading a perky singing and dancing ensemble in Slow Burn Theatre Company’s ebullient Legally Blonde, lit up the Broward Center with a positive attitude that probably allows that Santa Claus might yet exist

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Freaky Friday Is Fun For Kids, But Resonating For Adults

Put aside your expectations that the musical Freaky Friday is going to be yet another manipulative Disney raid on its popular film titles, designed primarily for those who fondly recall one of three cinematic versions. Instead, Slow Burn Theatre Company has delivered a thoroughly enchanting evening, one of most polished and downright fun productions it has offered in recent years.

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The Joy And Pain Of Discovery Make Zoetic’s Fun Home Soar

The stirring musical Fun Home is a detective story in which the mystery is never solved, but the investigator comes to terms with the existence of the enigma. What Zoetic Stage’s triumphant production does better than the Tony-winning production is its depiction of the unalloyed joy and bottomless agony of discovery in that journey.

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Slow Burn Hosts Lovely Swirling Visit To The Secret Garden

Be grateful that Slow Burn Theatre Company with its audacious affection for large scale challenging musicals has decided to mount The Secret Garden, that ode to rebirth, memorable for its lush unconventional score that resembles streams of music intertwining into an aural waterfall.

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MNM ‘s Less Zesty But More Heartfelt La Cage aux Folles

For a show that shattered a ceiling in 1983, La Cage aux Folles has become a warhorse in 2017. MNM Productions’ edition embraces the spangles, glitz and sheer Jerry Herman of it all. So if you haven’t seen it in a while, this is an entertaining reminder. What sets this apart is how it emphasizes the heart rather than the heat – and that’s a welcome emphasis for those who may have seen this classic once too often.

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Main Street Players’ Vicious Voluble Family In Bad Jews Is Equally Funny And Unnerving

One of the joys of seeing local theater over the years is charting a new theater’s growth and promise. But it’s rare to see a fledgling theater develop so quickly as Main Street Players, as evidenced by its no-excuses-needed production of Bad Jews.

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Commitment Makes Up For Spectacle In Outre’s Tommy

Outré Theatre Company’s edition of Tommy demonstrates how skill, imagination and pure guts can triumph over the most modest of means. Its greatest virtue in bringing the classic rock opera to the postage stamp stage is a total, laser-focused tsunami-strength commitment.

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