Reviews

Dramaworks’ Season: Our Town, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Buried Child, Zorba, Lady Day,

Palm Beach Dramaworks’s 2014-2015 season will continue its tradition of presenting classic American and British dramas and musicals, a few familiar, some rarely if ever done by professional theaters in South Florida.

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Wick’s Full Monty Isn’t Half-Bad

The Full Monty is one of those scruffy street mongrels that are undeniably cute and even inexplicably winning for short periods, but not a stray you want to take home. The Wick Theatre’s production of the musical is competent, perhaps one of the better renditions you’ve seen of it, but its not equal to the recent triumph with 42nd Street.

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Thinking Cap’s Pool (No Water) Dives In Artistic Schadenfreude

Jealousy, ego and unbridled schadenfreude that exist in any human being seem to be intensified among the rarefied spirits we call artists – at least that seems to be thrust of Mark Ravenhill’s droll little satire, Pool (No Water) enjoying a hoot of an outing thanks to Thinking Cap Theatre.

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Maltz’s Other Desert Cities Struggles In Arid First Half But Delivers Wrenching Second Act

All through the engrossing and ultimately wrenching second act of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s production of Other Desert Cities, one question screamed for an answer: Where were you people in the first act? The competent cast slogs through the exposition until they finally get create plausible characters in the second act.

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Stars Of David Is Touching, Funny Revue About Identity

Seeking “Who am I?” is the defining journey of most lives, and our religious heritage is part of the solution, even if we don’t embrace that religion or its culture. Such is the soul of Stars of David: Story To Song, a musical revue, which, despite its cripplingly kitschy title, is a surprisingly entertaining, witty and poignant look at how Jewish-Americans struggle on that journey.

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Stunning War Horse Gallops Back Into Region At The Kravis

War Horse is cherished by many of us who saw it at Lincoln Center as one of the most brilliantly executed pieces of theater we have seen. But it’s hard to shake the heretical truth that the extra sense of transcendence we felt in New York wasn’t there on the opening night of this very brief run.

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Caudle’s Visiting Hours At New Theatre Asks Should You Lie To The People You Care About

Until the final scene, it’s not terribly clear what New Theatre’s intriguing Visiting Hours is about or what it’s trying to say – and then the ideas come at you so fast that it takes a while afterward to sort out what playwright David Caudle has been setting up all night. Fortunately, the production led by director Margaret M. Ledford is consistently engaging and Caudle’s characters are absorbing enough to keep your attention.

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M Ensemble’s Knock Me A Kiss Is Uneven But Has Electric Acting

Some vibrant performances – one of them pure electricity – rescue M Ensemble’s uneven production of Charles Smith’s intriguing but flawed script about boldface names from the Harlem Renaissance, Knock Me A Kiss.

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Once Is Touching Bittersweet Love Song Of Joy And Sorrow

A yearning so palpable it almost becomes corporeal and a heartache without a shred of self-pity pour unapologetically from the stage in the legitimately affecting musical Once touring through Miami this week only. The tears and smiles are honestly earned in this bittersweet romance leavened with the humor that only chastened challenged souls can muster.

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Parade’s The Last Schwartz Doesn’t Quite Meld, But Features Vivid Performances

Deborah Zoe Laufer’s The Last Schwartz poses a difficult mélange of tones, and Parade Productions’ production doesn’t smoothly meld Laufer’s various parts. That said, the stand-alone strands of farcical comedy, subtler black humor and heart-rending pathos are delivered independently with quite satisfying results through skilled performances molded and guided by director Kim St. Leon.

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