Tag Archives: Mallory Newbrough

Wick’s Million Dollar Quartet Is Still Worth Every Penny

As the Wick Theatre’s electric production of Million Dollar Quartet powers through the last four numbers, it’s easy to imagine that the sun never sets anywhere in the world where this musical isn’t playing. This current visit of Elvis, Carl, Johnny, and Jerry Lee is just as rousing as you remember from its opening blast of “Blue Suede Shoes.”

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Wick Cinderella Is a 21st Century Reboot of the Classic

Charm bubbles throughout the Wick Theatre’s lush production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, a very 21st Century riff on the classic musical that can legitimately be promoted as entertaining for the whole family. The original beloved score is beautifully enhanced with new orchestrations, but don’t go expecting Hammerstein’s fairy tale script that you may have seen with Julie Andrews or Lesley Ann Warren.

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Can’t Tell You Why, But Savor ‘Now and Then’ When You Can

I am begging every critic colleague, everyone who has seen Actors’ Playhouse’s Now and Then to NOT give away anything! One of the many pleasures in this drama laced with humor is watching the story unfold bit by bit, knowing something is going on underneath but enjoying how layers are peeled away by a quartet of superb actors and director.

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Murder on the Orient Express Reimagined as Comic Trip

Do not go to Actors’ Playhouse’s Murder on the Orient Express expecting the grim locked-room mystery at the heart of the films or the novel. This 2017 edition is penned by the playwright of Lend Me A Tenor. If you can wipe the tone of those earlier efforts from your mind, you will likely find yourself chuckling much of the night at these theater veterans turn the Christie classic into a cute, often quite funny two-hour comedy sketch.

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Slow Burn Gives New Life To Matilda Musical

Slow Burn Theatre Company’s Matilda is a lesson in theater education, showing how a regional director takes a successful Broadway show and road tour and makes it his own highly entertaining production that showcases many homegrown talents from South and Central Florida.

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Industrious Maltz Sinks Teeth Into Hoary Dracula Comedy

In the prologue of Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s production of Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, the actors literally throw out the book—chucking their musty copies behind them with the satisfaction of college graduates tossing their caps. And besides, they add, they want to get us all out of here within 90 minutes—an admirable goal for many new plays and, in this case, a small mercy.

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Pull The Wig Down Off The Shelf With Slow Burn’s Hedwig

Slow Burn Theatre hembraces this glam/grunge rock musical headlined by a protagonist who suffered a botched sex-change operation. It’s an in-your-face raunchy celebration of alternative sexuality, a show that recognizes absolutely no bounds and revels in it.

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Stunning Excoriating Equus Gallops Across Dramaworks

Mere hours before the opening night of Equus at Palm Beach Dramaworks – a drama prompted by the true story of a troubled teen who blinded five horses – another troubled teen murdered 10 people in a nightmarish school shooting. But independent of that, its Equus stands among the most effective, perfectly executed productions that this company has wrought in its mission to deliver “theater to think about.”

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Island City Stage’s Musical Hoot Zanna, Don’t! Is Zanna Do

Island City Stage’s highly entertaining production of the musical Zanna, Don’t! will never be confused with a show by Stephen Sondheim, though there are numerous references to the famed composer. Amid the numerous pop culture references, , and well-timed humor, Zanna, Don’t! slyly, yet forcefully, maintains that everyone has a right to love whom they want.

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A Last Look Back At 2017, A Fine South Florida Theater Season

One pleasure of a theater critic’s job are these year-end retrospectives that require looking back at reviews and be reminded, “Oh, yeah, that was really great. And right, there was that. And how could I forget that one?”

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