Tag Archives: Michael McKeever

Zoetic’s Cabaret a game changer

  By Oline Cogdill When the John Kander/Fred Ebb musical Cabaret opened on Broadway in 1966, it was a gamechanger in its staging, tone and story. Certainly, other musicals tackled politics in specific eras—such as Sound of Music (1959) and …

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Zoetic Stage presents Wicked Child

By Oline H. Cogdill Family get-togethers can be fraught with underlying disagreements, resentments augmented by past histories. But in the case of the extended family in Zoetic Stage’s solid production of the intelligent Wicked Child, it is love and respect …

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Like the Country It Unravels, ‘American Rhapsody is Complicated, Ambitious & Flawed

American Rhapsody, Michael McKeever’s sprawling premiere at Zoetic Stage, is a history play, a bildungsroman, a tribute to fluid families, a cautionary tale about where the zeitgeist might be headed. It spans more than 60 years and feels, perhaps like the American experiment itself.

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Cast of Region’s Top Actors Triumph in 12 Angry Men

A baker’s dozen actors we’ve seen in myriad roles over the past decade or more submerge themselves so deeply in their characters that they are nearly unrecognizable. An unequalled assemblage of A-list talent and accumulated skill merge into a single ensemble in Palm Beach Dramaworks’ vibrant revival of the classic jury room drama 12 Angry Men.

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Hollywood’s Homophobic Hypocrisy Examined in The Code

The soul-killing inherent in the film dream factory’s deconstruction and then sanitized reconstruction of its icons has been a popular topic, from 1932’s What Price Hollywood to four versions of A Star is Born. But Michael McKeever’s incisive world premiere The Code at The Foundry attacks it from a different fresh angle that is painfully topical.

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Dickens Nailed It: South Florida Theater Two Years In Review

If Dickens’ opening line in A Tale of Two Cities has become a trite cliché through overuse it has become a painfully accurate truism about theater over the past two years, especially South Florida theater. Crippling loss and inspiring resurrection. Surrender and perseverance. And , now, the Covid threat has reasserted. But looking back on those two years delivers a testament worth celebrating and learning from.

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Growing Fear In The People Downstairs Is All Too Familiar

Theater is often political: but sometimes, like The People Downstairs, Michael McKeever’s harrowing world premiere at Palm Beach Dramaworks, the relevancy of the Dutch people hiding the Anne Frank family only magnifies as current events overtake them.

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Courage Among Ordinary People Honors The People Downstairs

Secretly, we wonder if we could be heroic in real life, whether we could find the courage to risk our lives to protect or rescue someone else. The question is at the heart of Michael McKeever’s The People Downstairs premiering at Palm Beach Dramaworks, focused on the people who hid Anne Frank’s family for two years.

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2021-22 SoFla Theater Will Be A Season Of Asterisks (Part 3 of 3)

The show will go on for SoFla theater, but 2021-2022 will be a season of asterisks, what ifs and when. In a three-part series, we talk to artistic and managing directors about why this season will be unlike any other: from COVID to diversity. While local theaters survived the past 17 months the coming season may determine whether every Florida company will still be here a year from now.

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2021-22 SoFla Theater Will Be A Season Of Asterisks (Part 2 of 3)

The show will go on for SoFla theater, but 2021-2022 will be a season of asterisks, what ifs and when. In a 3-part series, we talk to artistic and managing directors about awhy this season will be unlike any other: from COVID to diversity. While local theaters survived the past 17 months the coming season may determine whether every Florida company will still be here a year from now.

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