Author Archives: Bill Hirschman
Report From New York: Come From Away & Anastasia, A Season Old; Fresh As Last Week
Two musicals open since March are still worth taking in any time you make to Manhattan. And if you can’t afford a trip up north, rest assured that these will tour in the next couple of years and should not be missed. One is the least likely to gather angels’ backing in an elevator pitch, Come From Away; the other is a surprisingly solid satisfying reinvention of an animated movie initially aimed at preteen girls, Anastasia.
Million Dollar Quartet Has A Whole Of Shakin ‘ Goin’ On
They may not look like their counterparts, but they sure sound like them. They’ve got the moves, the stylings and so much rock ‘n roll energy you’ll feel like you’re at a concert rather than the theater. Indeed, whether it’s tribute or jukebox, the musical Million Dollar Quartet at Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach is sure to entertain
Chicken Coop’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike Is Not Equal To Script’s Potential
Christopher Durang initially wrote Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike to precisely match the inimitable talents of David Hyde Pierce, Sigourney Weaver and Kristine Nielsen. So it’s no surprise that the earnest, eager and ambitious Chicken Coop Theatre troupe based at the Levis JCC in Boca Raton only succeeds in brief flashes and rarely delivers the script’s potential
Fine Voices Battle Miserable Script, Lyrics In Flashdance
Broward Stage Door’s production of Flashdance the Musical has aspects worth recommending such as two charismatic leads with powerful voices worthy of a brass band. That’s fortunate because the Stage Door crew is fighting a losing battle with miserable lyrics and a mediocre script awash in crocheted sampler homilies about taking chances, never giving up, believing in yourself, risking it all, finding your true worth, Remember the Alamo, etc. etc. etc.
Savor A Cup Of Memories At Stage Door’s Smokey Joe’s Cafe
Smokey Joe’s Café, the quintessential plotless rock n’ roll jukebox revue, is as dependable as light entertainment gets in the hands of experienced directors like Kevin Black at Broward Stage Door.
Straight White Men Succeeds At Thinking Cap Despite Thoughtless Jerks In Audience
Thinking Cap Theatre’s opening performance of Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men might have been among the best nights of theater in South Florida so far this season. I say “might have been” because I can’t be sure. The evening was crippled by drunken thoughtless, self-centered, rude patrons who learned their audience etiquette from watching Jerry Springer reruns in their underwear at home.
The Kids Attending The School of Rock Kick Out The Jams
For a show whose strengths are its celebration of nose-thumbing non-conformity and anarchic scenes of unrestrained thrash metal music, School of Rock is a surprisingly conventional musical that mechanically ticks off all the check marks in theater’s dramaturgical by-the-numbers playbook.
Winter Shorts: Welcome Holiday Warmth Against The Chill
Over 21 years, City Theatre’s ever-expanding enterprises have developed and maintained a brand-level reputation for entertaining theater; its return to cool weather programming with the current edition of Winter Shorts is just as diverting.
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