Author Archives: Bill Hirschman

Folk-County Music & Soaring Actress Power Actors’ Playhouse’s Bright Star

Actors Playhouse’s lively Bright Star is a folk-country fable replete with spirited dances, classic character types, a genuine respect for everyday folk, and, ultimately, a moral about bedrock virtues persevering over profound tragedy. But this production’s strengths are its banjo-and-fiddle bluegrass score and its soaring performance by Kimberly Doreen Burns.

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Tuneful, Touching Always…. Patsy Cline Is Far From Crazy

Always…Patsy Cline is a cross between a memory play, historical piece, and jukebox musical that is receiving an admirable production from Arts Center Management, the City of Lauderhill and the hosting Lauderhill Performing Arts Center

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Dramaworks’ Devastating, Searing August: Osage County

You don’t want to go home again. Certainly, that’s the Weston family manse in the desolate prairie of Oklahoma as depicted in Palm Beach Dramaworks’ searing, devastating portrait of toxic family dysfunction in Tracy Lett’s masterpiece, August: Osage County, featuring as superb an ensemble as anyone could ask for, expertly molded by director William Hayes.

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A Very Different But Fully Satisfying ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

Other than the outlines of Harper Lee’s plot, do not go to the superb national tour of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Broward Center expecting echoes of the cherished movie. The style, structure, approach, even subtle thematic emphases have been reimagined to create its own incisive offering, well-distanced from the 1962 film.

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Wicked Still Defying Gravity

So much has been written about Wicked—now 20 years on Broadway and making its umpteenth stop in South Florida—it seems like defying gravity to find something fresh to say about this popular musical. But that’s easy when Wicked’s latest incarnation is as entertaining as the production at the Arsht Center and transferring to the Kravis Center. 

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Kravis Next Season’s Includes Jagged Little Pill; Boca Stage + MNM For Thriller & Comedy

The 2023-24 theater season in South Florida includes alliance of Boca Stage and MNM Theatre’s Wait Until Dark and Boeing Boeing; Kravis Center has Tina, Six, Hamilton and Jagged Little Pill.

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Feature: My Fair Lady Revival On Tour Has New-Found Depth

Madeline Powell, who plays Eliza Doolittle, and Jonathan Grunert, who stars opposite her as Professor Henry Higgins, in the Broadway national tour of My Fair Lady coming to the Arsht Center, agree that there’s a depth in the production that goes deeper than familiar and beautiful songs, and lush costumes and sets.

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Slow Burn’s Practically Perfectly Delightful Mary Poppins

Of course, Mary Poppins does fly in Slow Burn Theatre Company’s glorious production at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. As the song goes, this Mary Poppins is “Practically Perfect,”

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Sharp Inquest Into Gender Politics At Heart Of Oleanna

Skilled direction and excellent performances plumb the deep currents in Oleanna, currently on stage at Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach. In fact, Riverside’s production is as sharp and pointed and keenly drawn out as is the very play itself.

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Dramaworks Takes On Ultimate Epic of Family Dysfunction: August: Osage County

Remarkable for raging family furor, recriminations, love, regret, pain and torrents of alcohol-fueled vitriol, August: Osage County is accepted as one of The Great American Plays. Palm Beach Dramaworks is deep into weeks of rehearsal for this epic three-act, three-hour comic-tragedy with 13 cast members, director William Hayes, and a creative team taking on a Mount Everest of theater

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