Tag Archives: Patrick Fitzwater

A Last Look Back At 2017, A Fine South Florida Theater Season

One pleasure of a theater critic’s job are these year-end retrospectives that require looking back at reviews and be reminded, “Oh, yeah, that was really great. And right, there was that. And how could I forget that one?”

Posted on December 26, 2017 by Bill Hirschman

Posted in Features | Tagged Actors Playhouse, Anne-Marie Cusson, Area Stage Company, Bruce Linser, Cindy Pearce, City Theatre, Clay Cartland, Conor Walton, David Arisco, David Kwiat, Elena Maria Garcia, Elijah Word, GableStage, Greg Duffy, Gregg Weiner, Ground Up and Rising, Hannah Benitez, Island City Stage, J. Barry Lewis, Jean Josieu, Jessica E. Schulte, Jodi Dellaventura, Joseph Adler, Julie Kleiner, Karen Stephens, Kevin Black, Kevin Reilley, Kimberley Dawn Smith, Lindsay Bell, Main Street Players, Mallory Newbrough, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, Margaret M. Ledford, Michael Amico, Michael McClain, Michael Ursua, New City Players, Nicholas Richberg, Niki Fridh, outre theatre company, Palm Beach Dramaworks, Patrick Fitzwater, Shane Tanner, Slow Burn Theatre Company, Stuart Meltzer, Theatre Lab, Thinking Cap Theatre, Vicki Lewis, Wick Theatre, Zoetic Stage | Leave a comment

Slow Burn Hosts Lovely Swirling Visit To The Secret Garden

Be grateful that Slow Burn Theatre Company with its audacious affection for large scale challenging musicals has decided to mount The Secret Garden, that ode to rebirth, memorable for its lush unconventional score that resembles streams of music intertwining into an aural waterfall.

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Bill Hirschman

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged Aaron Bower, Alexa Lasanta, Ann Marie Olson, Anne Chamberlain, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Casey Sacco, Chris Robertson, Christo Joseph Amygdalitsis, Erin Pittleman, Johnbarry Green, Kimmi Johnson, Kyle Kemph, Leigh Shani Green., Lucy Simon, Marsha Norman, Matthew Korinko, Michael Cartwright, Michael Kreutz, Michael Ursua, Patrick Fitzwater, Rick Pena, Sahid Pabon, Slow Burn Theatre Company, Stephanny Noria, The Secret Garden | 1 Comment

Peter Still Refuses To Grow Up, Thankfully, In Starcatcher

Slow Burn Theatre Company’s rollicking race-down-the-hill production of Peter and the Starcatcher is a joyful hoot packed with more sight gags, puns, pratfalls, wordplay and even a bit of wistfulness than arguably any other recent work including the current The Play That Goes Wrong.

Posted on November 11, 2017 by Bill Hirschman

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged Ben Sandomir, Cameron Jordan, Clay Cartland, Corey Vega, Johnbarry Green, Jordon Armstrong, Joseph Pino, Krystal Millie Valdes, Matthew Korinko, Noah Levine, Patrick Fitzwater, Peter and the Starcatcher, Robert Fritz, Slow Burn Theatre Company | Leave a comment

Slow Burn’s Immersive Tarzan Is High-Flying Welcome To Jungle

Tarzan: The Stage Musical, by regional theater troupe Slow Burn Theatre plays just fine in the smaller, almost 600-seat Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, but, truth be told, it could have easily passed for a touring road show version that’s usually on stage next door in the more than double-the-size Au-Rene Theater. Yes, it’s just that good.

Posted on October 25, 2017 by Bill Hirschman

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged Casey Sacco, Christo Joseph Amygdalitsis, Christopher Alvarez, Dante J.L. Murray, Emily Tarallo, Eric Alsford, Jerel Brown, Jonathan Eisele, Kyle Ashe Wilkonson, Lindsey Corey, Michael Cartwright, Michael Kreutz, Michael McClain, Natale Pirrotta, Nicole Kinzel, Patrick Fitzwater, Phil Collins, Rick Pena, Sahid Pabon, Shinise Nunez, Shonda Thurman, Slow Burn Theatre Company, Tarzan the Musical, Thomas Porat | Leave a comment

Slow Burn’s Aida May Not Top Your Wish List, But The Pop Opera Burns Down The House

If American Idol produced a Broadway musical with choreography often found behind a diva in a stadium tour, the result would resemble Slow Burn Theatre Company’s production of Aida. The result is often entertaining and occasionally moving. But the entire effort is unapologetically drenched in a late ‘90s pop sensibility that is by turns earnest and kitschy, insightful and shallow, deft and manipulative.

Posted on April 25, 2017 by Bill Hirschman

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged Aida, Amy Miller Brennan, Elton John, Khalifa White, Patrick Fitzwater, Tim Rice | 1 Comment

Slow Burn’s Xanadu Skillfully Follows A Middling Muse

Slow Burn Theatre has certainly captured Xanadu’s vibe in the company’s spirited, stupidly happy revival of its own 2012 production, which opened last weekend in Aventura and which will soon tour Delray Beach and Fort Lauderdale

Posted on February 21, 2017 by Bill Hirschman

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged Conor Walton, Douglas Carter Beane, Elijah Word, Emily Tarallo, Larry Buzzeo, Lindsey Corey, Lisa Grossman Comess, Olivia Newton-John, Patrick Fitzwater, Rick Pena, Sabrina Lynn Gore, Sharyn Peoples, Xanadu | Leave a comment

Slow Burn’s Titanic Musical Compassionately Depicts Triumph Turned to Tragedy

The enduring genius of Titanic the Musical beautifully limned by Slow Burn Theatre Company is that while it arely nods at what’s to come, it relies on the audience viewing the initial paeans to progress and dreams with the knowledge that this optimistic vision will be swept away by fate, Nature or the very God being prayed to.

Posted on January 25, 2017 by Bill Hirschman

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged Alexa Baray, Ann Marie Olson, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Cameron Jordan, Casey Sacco, David Hyman, David Matthew Klein, Emmanuel Schvartzman, James A. Skiba, Jordan Wolfe, Justen Fox-Hall, Kate McGowan, Landon Summers, Mallory Newbrough, Matthew Korinko, Maury Yeston, Patrick Fitzwater, Peter Stone, Sahid Arnaud Pabon, Sean McClelland, Slow Burn Theatre Company, Steven Fuentes, Thomas M. Shorrock, Titanic, Troy J. Stanley | 1 Comment

What Kind Of Year Was It? Our Critics’ “Best Of” 2016 Lists

Critics and award judges have been talking about it for weeks: The sheer amount of high quality work has made evaluating the last 12 months unusually challenging, but also an opportunity to remember one of the most rewarding calendar years in recent memory. So here’s a supremely subjective stab by all three critics here at Florida Theater On Stage at recognizing the shows and performances that stood out from a pack of productions.

Posted on December 29, 2016 by Bill Hirschman

Posted in Features | Tagged A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney, Actors Playhouse, After, Alex Alvarez, An Act of God, Andre' L Gainey, Anna Lise Jensen, Arts Garage, Arturo Rossi, Avery Sommers, Aygemang Clay, Barbara Bradshaw, Bessie Smith: The Devils’ Music, Betsy Graver, Buyer & Cellar, Charlie Cinnamon, Chris Crawford, Clay Cartland, Conor Walton, Dan Knechtges, David Arisco, David Nagy, Deborah Zoe Laufer, Elizabeth Dimon, Evening Star Productions, Feeding The Bear, Florida Grand Opera, GableStage, Genie Croft, Gregg Weiner, Gretchen Porro, Ground Up and Rising, Hand To God, Helen Gregory, I Love A Piano, Island City Stage, James Brennan, Jeni Hacker, Jim Gibbons, Jodi Dellaventura, John Harden II, Joseph Adler, Julie Kleiner Davis, Karen Stephens, Keith Garsson, Kevin Black, Kristian Bikic, Larry Buzzeo, Laura Hodos, Lindsey Corey, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Louis Tyrrell, Lourelene Snedeker, Mad Cat Theatre Company, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Marco Ramirez, Margery Lowe, Maria Elena Garcia, Mark Duncan, Matt Loehr, Matthew Korinko, Maureen Anderman, Me and My Girl, Mia Matthews, Michael Aman, Michael McKeever, Million Dollar Quartet, Mud, Murdered To Death, New Theatre, Nicholas Richberg, Nicole Stodard, Niki Fridh, Our Lady of 121st Street, outre theatre company, Palm Beach Dramaworks, Parallel Lives Chris Crawford, Passion, Patrick Fitzwater, Paul Tei, Perfect Arrangement, Peter Galman, Peter Lovello, Putting It Together, Rapture Blister Burn, Ricky J. Martinez, Ron Hutchins, Roof, Rudi Goblen, Sarah Gracel Anderson, Shein Mompremier, Simply Simone: The Music of Nina Simone, Skye Whitcomb, Slow Burn Theatre Company, Smoke, Sondheim On Sondheim, Spring Awakening, Stuart Meltzer, The Flick, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Minister’s Wife, The Nether, The Passenger, The Realistic Joneses, The Royale, The Soul of Motor City, The Wick Theatre, The World Goes Round, Theatre At Arts Garage, Theatre Lab at Florida Atlantic University, Thinking Cap Theatre, This Random World, Three Sisters of Weekhauken, Toddra Brunson, Tom Wahl, Wesley Slade, West Side Story, William Hayes | Leave a comment

Slow Burn Takes A Welcome Return Trip Home To Avenue Q

Thomas Wolfe warned that you can’t go home again, but Slow Burn Theatre Company’s revival of its 2012 production of Avenue Q is a welcome and joyful return to the neighborhood and the ol’ gang.

Posted on November 12, 2016 by Bill Hirschman

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged Ann Marie Olson, Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, Avenue Q, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Christian Vandepas, Crest Theatre at Old School Square, Jayson Tomasheski, Juanita B. Green, Lissa Grossman Comess, Manny Schvartzman, Nicole Piro, Patrick Fitzwater, Rich Szczublewski, Rick Pena, Sean McClelland, Slow Burn Theatre Company | Leave a comment

Emotions & Sound Swell On Epic Scale In Slow Burn’s Hunchback

A near epic vision unfolds in Slow Burn Theatre Company’s brave, ambitious and dark The Hunchback of Notre Dame resulting in the one of the most powerful musicals seen in South Florida in recent years featuring two memorable performances, a hardworking ensemble and orchestra, evocative production values and an invaluable choir flanking the stage.

Posted on October 23, 2016 by Bill Hirschman

Posted in Performances, Reviews | Tagged Becky Montero, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Caryl Ginsburg Fantel, Landon Summers, Matthew Korinko, Patrick Fitzwater, Rich Szczublewski, Rick Pena, Sean McClelland, Shenise Nunez, Slow Burn Theatre Company, Stephen Schwartz, The Hunchback of Notre Dame | Leave a comment