Reviews

Kinky Boots Has Hot Star But Otherwise Not Much Of A Kick

Kinky Boots, the droll story of a drag queen rescuing a failing shoe factory by switching its focus to thigh-high boots favored by cross-dressers was, , a well-polished evening of musical comedy with soulful ballads and glitzy production numbers. But this construction felt so manipulative, so by-the-numbers as if it, too, came off a factory production line.

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Wick’s Curtains Is Musical For The Theater Nerd In All Of Us

Curtains is a show designed for anyone who loves musical comedy, or anyone who has ever played Toto in a community theater production of The Wizard of Oz. Envisioned as a no-calories hoot of a love letter to the quirky dysfunctional denizens of the theater, it is accurately promoted with tongue firmly in cheek as “A New Backstage Murder Mystery Musical Comedy.”

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The Phantom Of The Opera Sings Again At The Arsht

There’s something interesting about seeing at the Arsht Center a national tour of the 30-year-old Phantom of the Opera for the who-knows-which time. It’s amazing that people who have performed show three hundred times have not lost their edge as even the best professionals do over time. Instead, they have discovered all the colors and nuances possible in the work, and deliver them with confidence and brio.

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Stage Door Revives Hit Jukebox Revue ‘What’s New Pussycat’

Broward Stage Door revives its 2014 hit jukebox musical of hit tunes from the late 1950s through the early 1970s, What’s New Pussycat, with a new cast.

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Punchline’s I Love You Because Indicates Promising Future

Punchline Theatre Company’s adorably scruffy puppy of a msuical comedy about modern relationships, I Love You Because succeeds because every aspect — from the performances to the direction to the material itself — is so appealingly and earnestly presented with both self-deprecating humor and unguarded heart.

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Thinking Cap’s Droll “Or,” Is 21st Century Restoration Comedy

“Or,” is a delightful daffy farce underpinned with social commentary that fits Thinking Cap’s eclectic bent for thought-provoking comedies and dramas that are aggressively off-beat, have a literary bent, or at a minimum are a step away from predictable mainstream fare.

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Sondheim’s Swelling Passion Explores Nature Of True Love

To say that Sondheim’s Passion is not to every intelligent patron’s taste is an understatement. But if you can open yourself up to it, Zoetic Stage’s production is a transcendent work of performance art with the power to rip into your psyche and reaffirm the transformative power of love.

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Riverside Theatre Provides Chekhovian Home To Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike

You’ll laugh wildly at the pumped up, absurd comic antics in Riverside Theatre’s brilliant production of Christopher Durang’s award-winning Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. But then, it’ll sneak up, shake you out of your comedy-induced coma and warm you with the positive notion that life is all about hope

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Slow Burn Show Is Bittersweet Musical Of Romance, Romance

Despite the title , the musical Romance, Romance is not so much saccharine as bittersweet. In two playlets set in separate times, locales and social strata, we see true love blossom but ultimately surrender to socially-sanctioned cynicism or fidelity to an existing marriage. Slow Burn Theatre Company has found the groove connecting the disparate pieces in which love is precious but doesn’t always prevail.

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Frost/Nixon Is Resonating Life-And-Death Boxing Match

The strength of the acclaimed 2006 play Froist/Nixon is that no one is depicted in pure white hats or black hats. That facet is brought out in the Maltz’s production better than in any earlier edition thanks to a complex multi-faceted creation by actor John Jellison under the impeccable direction of J. Barry Lewis.

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