Reviews
Side Show Burns With Passion About Love Among Outsiders
There is more passion pouring off the stage in Slow Burn Theatre Company’s thrilling Side Show than in ten other musicals we’ve seen in the past year put together. That may result in one too many deafening power ballad after power ballad for some tastes and eardrums, but for those wanting to be touched by a poignant, but very dark tale skillfully delivered, Side Show is a powerful example of what the modern musical can be.
Dramaworks’ Raisin Starts Slow But Builds To Emotional Crescendo Of Yearning
It starts slow, so slow that you fear it may never get going. But when Palm Beach Dramaworks’ A Raisin in the Sun finally gets rolling, the emotional wallops arrive in every deepening wave of gut-wrenching, heart-rending passion, arguably all the more potent for having emerged from such a quiet, prosaic run up.
Parade’s The Whole Caboodle: Clever Plays & Talented Cast Dragged By Confusing Concept
Parade Productions’ collection of short plays by Michael McKeever, The Whole Caboodle, has the makings of a terrific evening of theatre, but an added conceptual element prevents the show from fulfilling its potential.
FGO’s Offbeat Magic Flute As Funny As It’s Beautifully Sung
In a classic opera depicting the battle between intellectual enlightenment and romanticism with allusions to ancient Masonic rituals, you don’t expect a character to exclaim, “Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?” But this is director Jeffrey Marc Buchman’s whimsical take on Mozart’s The Magic Flute, one of the most popular operas of all time, in part, because its inherent irreverence begs to be enhanced with goofball humor and imaginative re-interpretations – both of which mark the Florida Grand Opera’s edition.
Broward Stage Door’s Damn Yankees Is Just A Base Hit
With the upfront caveat that we saw an early preview, Broward Stage Door’s Damn Yankees is a base hit but no triple. The cast needs to pitch with a little more spin on the ball, even with talent in the dugout plus a delightful score that qualifies as a solid run batted in.
Gloucester Blue At Arts Garage Melds Sex, Murders, Laughs
Israel Horovitz’s Gloucester Blue, getting a gleefully mischievous world premiere at the Arts Garage, is a black comedy with all three Aristotelian verities – beer, blackmail and blood. The internationally honored playwright has penned an offbeat tale rooted in blue collar rage against the one-percenters as two workmen and two Brahmins interact in wildly varying ways that will leave dead bodies in their wake.
Neil Simon’s Chapter Two Masters The Meld Of Wit And Pathos At The Plaza
Director Michael Leeds and a solid cast at the Plaza Theatre in Manalapan have mastered Neil Simon’s challenging meld of witty comedy and throat-choking heartache, and make both perfectly plausible facets of life in Chapter Two.
Agatha Christie’s Radio Plays The BBC Murders Intriguing, Entertaining, But Not Riveting
There’s the canny germ of an idea in producer Zev Buffman’s pet project to fuse radio, theater and modern technology into a hybrid exemplified in his latest production, Agatha Christie’s The BBC Murders at the Parker Playhouse. The end result is undeniably entertaining in a quiet smile kind of way, although this is clearly an early foray into this genre and, arguably, not the most enthralling material to do it with.
A PaperStreet Web Design
