Reviews

Disney’s Precisely Manufactured Beauty And The Beast Tour Can Still Charm An Audience

This sharply honed, finely tuned, precisely executed national tour of Beauty and the Beast piece of theater inexplicably does not seem stale. If there isn’t an overflowing sense of soul pouring from the stage, no one is coasting; everyone is throwing every shred of craft they possess into it. You know it works because the opening night audience went crazy at the curtain call.

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Report From New York: Seaworthy The Last Ship Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Sink

Back in the day, whenever that was, a Broadway musical that had a raft of virtues but wasn’t a perfectly satisfying piece had a good chance of running an entire season. But with astronomical running costs and ticket prices, such survivals are rare these days. The Last Ship is currently a test case whether that paradigm is still possible.

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Report From New York: You Can’t Take It With You Still Celebrates The Free Spirit

You Can’t Take It With You features some inspired performances (and some surprisingly disappointing ones) in a production with a sagging first act completely redeemed by two acts of jocularity if not hilarity.

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Report From New York: The Real Thing Remains A Puzzlement

Tom Stoppard’s play about the war between head and heart in romance, The Real Thing, is reputedly his most accessible. Yet on my fourth connection with it through the revival at Roundabout Theatre Company, it still doesn’t cleanly despite a starry cast.

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Joint is Jumpin’ At Broward Stage Door’s 5 Guys Named Moe

This production of Five Guys Named Moe is an energetic romp with some of the most energized performers to burn up the floorboards at Broward Stage Door. The joint is most definitely jumpin’.

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Film Version Of Sondheim-Lapine’s Into The Woods Is Holiday Wish Come True

If you can accept that film is a different storytelling medium from theater, this version of Into The Woods is not only faithful to Sondheim and Lapine’s vision of darkness and light, it actually clarifies and deepens the musical’s themes and narrative. This present opening Christmas Day is an unalloyed triumph.

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Miracle On South Division Street: Comedy Is Surprising Gift

Actor’s Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre’s production of ,Miracle on South Division Street has all the makings to become a perennial holiday comedy favorite.

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Uggams’ Glorious Voice Is Primary Virtue In Sluggish Mame

Whenever Leslie Uggams lets loose that glorious voice, whenever the live band swings into one of Jerry Herman’s standards, the Wick Theatre’s production of Mame is an irresistible pleasure. But when the music stops, so does the show. The non-musical scenes – and some of the musical ones – just lie there on the stage limp and colorless.

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Young Cast Displays Talent In Crest Theatre’s First Musical, A Mirror Edition of A Chorus Line

Delray Beach Center for the Arts’ first in-house theater production, A Chorus Line, delivers a faithful recreation with young local talent, although it’s almost a carbon copy of the original.

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Sins Of The Father…And Mother In Dramaworks’ Witty, Moving, Deftly Acted My Old Lady

Israel Horovitz’s My Old Lady at Palm Beach Dramaworks is a cornucopia of delightful wordplay and an insightful examination of human relationships, featuring superb performances by Estelle Parsons, Angelica Page and Tim Altmeyer

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