Sometimes life really does imitate art. In a parallel universe, the New Theatre’s artistic director, Rafael de Acha, could be a world-famous Hollywood studio chief, renowned for his skill at ferreting out new works of genius. In our own less-judicious universe, de Acha isn’t well-known outside of South Florida. But…
On the face of it, Jolson and Company, the latest biographical musical presented by the Coconut Grove Playhouse, should be dead on arrival. Its subject, Al Jolson, became a star before World War I, died more than a half-century ago, and hardly registers in the contemporary Zeitgeist. He was reputed…
Watching Florida Stage’s new production of The Drawer Boy is a bit like observing a bumblebee in flight. Based on the evidence, it shouldn’t fly, but there it goes. Michael Healey’s 1999 script is riddled with implausibilities and secondhand ideas. Still, it offers some gentle humor and soul, and audiences…
Want to know my definition of good theater? It’s when you take a seat, see a show, and go home a changed person. That’s what you can expect from the M Ensemble’s new production of Strands, now on dazzling display at the venerable company’s North Miami theater. Strands is one…
If you’re looking to see theatrical craft in action, I suggest you get over to the Coconut Grove Playhouse’s carefully wrought production of The Chosen, which features an array of fine acting talent and one world-class performance by Theodore Bikel. In a modern world that relies on fast-paced glibness for…
Producing theater is something akin to surfing. Hard work and talent don’t always make for success — you gotta catch the right wave. Most of the time, shows roll in and out of production with unremarkable regularity and less impact. But once in a while, a tsunami hits. That’s a…
Watching the Hollywood Playhouse’s new, energetic production of Beau Jest: The Musical is like attending two shows in one. As entertainment, this musical version of the popular comedy offers some sprightly tunes while retaining the original show’s humor and offering a fine performing ensemble. The play draws dramatic strength from…
There is much to savor and even more to contemplate in Nilo Cruz’s new play, Beauty of the Father, now receiving a visually compelling world premiere at the New Theatre, the third world premiere of a Cruz play at the Coral Gables space in as many seasons. The production offers…
Those who choose writing as a career often face many sorrows — poverty, public indifference, and critical contempt, to name but three. But whatever woes must be endured in a literary life, the writer has one secret weapon: the chance to turn life experience into a story and, by so…
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of GableStage’s current production, Joe Orton’s silly, sexually provocative farce What the Butler Saw, is the cultural change that has occurred since Orton’s cheeky sex farce was a scandalous coup de theatre in its 1960s premiere. Orton, a gay writer with a penchant for provocation,…
Uh oh. When I learn that a screenwriter has just written a play, I usually look for a place to hide. Many, no, most successful writers fall into the trap of hubris: If they thrive in one medium, they assume they will triumph in all. The result is often abysmal…
Change is a funny thing. Some of it is dramatic, embodied in single moments — a wedding, a birth, a terrorist attack. But a whole lot of change happens incrementally, so slowly that it isn’t noticed until after the fact. These thoughts may come to mind when contemplating the Coconut…
The holidays are upon us, and with them comes the annual choice of whether to surrender to or resist their cheery traditions. Clearly intent on your surrender, the Actors’ Playhouse in Coral Gables is presenting Annie, a big traditional musical staged in a big traditional way. But whereas past holiday…
The past is prologue,” goes the old saying, but for much of the theater, ancient and modern, the past isn’t even past. Many plays have been constructed about past crimes that have risen to disturb the peace of the present. It’s an ongoing trend that’s particularly interesting in contemporary America,…
Music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe. Presented through November 23. Call 305-751-0562.
Life certainly has its daily struggles, but these tend to distract from the really big issues that sooner or later we all must face: Why are we here? Why do we have to die? And what should we do with the time we’ve got? Playwright Michael McKeever addresses the Big…
Having your share of woes in the dating wars? Consider yourself lucky you’re not one of the characters in Beyond Therapy, the scathing hilarious comedy receiving a stylish revival at Palm Beach Dramaworks. The New York hit from the 1980s takes aim at an array of contemporary targets, among them…
Whew! Be careful what you wish for. If you have seen as many bland South Florida shows as I have, you may start hoping to find something really provocative, something so mind-boggling that you won’t forget it ten minutes after you leave the theater. If that is your quest, prepare…
The Actors Playhouse has a serious personality conflict. The Coral Gables company is known as a purveyor of cheerful lightweight entertainment that’s rather like the upscale chain restaurants that are sprouting near its Miracle Mile location: The fare is uncomplicated and consistent, no challenges and no surprises. AP has had…
Talk about counterprogramming. South Florida playgoers tired of lightweight modern plays and musicals can find some heavy — really heavy — drama at the New Theatre in Coral Gables. The tiny troupe often takes on gargantuan projects, and its latest, Long Day’s Journey into Night, is a monster. This three-hour-long…
You wouldn’t think it nowadays, but there was a time — not so long ago — when Sam Shepard was the king of American theater. His vision of America as a metaphysical and spiritual desert haunted by dark ghosts of violence was preeminent in the restless 1970s and ’80s as…
War may be hell, but we humans love to hear stories about it. Think back on the history of theater, of movies, of literature. The war story is central to them all. The Iliad still stirs the imagination. So do Shakespeare’s Henry the Fifth, Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and Hemingway’s…
