By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out“) Sometimes a brave decision by a director or a dramaturg can enhance or expand the original intent of a playwright’s work. Blind color casting works in many instances for classic works by Shakespeare and Moliere, for example, because the color of the actor’s skin has nothing to […]
By AARON KRAUSE CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The two characters with opposing views in “Dry Powder,” a scorching, relevant, riveting and unpredictable comic-drama set in the high-stakes world of big-city finance, might as well wear protective helmets and faceguards. There’s enough verbal combat to leave the combatants bloody and bruised if the power of the […]
By AARON KRAUSE FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Ft. Lauderdale-based Slow Burn Theatre Company demonstrates why it received 12 Carbonell Award nominations this year through its strong production of “Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” It’s easy to gloss over the musical’s flaws with the talent on display on the Broward Center for the Performing […]
By ALAN SMASON Call it a sign of the times or call it the end of an era, but The Fantasticks, the world’s longest-running musical, has announced its closing date of June 4, 2017. The show with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics and book by Tom Jones had originally opened in Greenwich Village in […]
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — You might have seen the 1977 Italian, Academy Award-nominated film “A Special Day” (“Una Giornata Particolare” in Italian). But you likely haven’t seen it performed on stage in the ingenious manner Miami New Drama is presenting the comic, touching story. You have four more chances to do so, and if minimalist, […]
By AARON KRAUSE An author who penned a play about a couple’s grief following the disappearance of their 7-year-old adopted son has won a prestigious honor bestowed upon an emerging female playwright. Lauren Yee won the 2016 Francesca Primus Prize for her play “In a Word.” The award is jointly sponsored by the American Theatre […]
By AARON KRAUSE FT. LAUDERDALE — If you need extra incentive to advocate for arts funding in the wake of the proposed elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities as part of President Trump’s budget, what better way to receive that added drive than by experiencing the Renaissance? […]
By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out“) In 1999 the Walt Disney Animation Studios released “Tarzan,” which would be its final major animated film during the Disney Renaissance era that began a decade earlier with “The Little Mermaid.” Based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel “Tarzan of the Apes,” told the story of the […]
By ALAN SMASON, THEATRE CRITIC, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out“) One of the funniest comedic sketches on Saturday Night Live entailed the reading of the secret Nixon Watergate tapes in which the serious Nixon is seen to be fully cognizant that there are people listening in and he is playing to the audience. “A million? We could […]
By ANNE SIEGEL Broadway isn’t the only place currently producing Williams’ early play, The Glass Menagerie. The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre just opened an excellent production in the largest of its three theaters, the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater. The theater got part of its name – Powerhouse – from the fact that the complex resides in a […]