By HARRY DUKE Musicals are the bread and butter of community theatre. They’re usually crowd pleasers and, with their large casts, can bank on a crowd of family and friends to fill a good portion of the house. They require a certain amount of space and a certain level of talent. Directors often cast for […]
By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out“) What truly establishes War Paint as one of the most unusual Broadway experiences is that rarely are two Tony Award winning actresses allowed to share the stage with one another and stand strongly pound-for-pound, song-by-song next to each other and sing and act their hearts out. It […]
By AARON KRAUSE PALO ALTO, Calif. — Award-winning Bay Area playwright and composer Min Kahng thought his discovery several years ago was “fascinating” and “unique.” It would be “fun and interesting” to adapt for the stage, he further believed. Kahng has done that. His adaptation of one of the first-ever graphic novels has opened for […]
By AARON KRAUSE POMPANO BEACH — There’s no question “Big Brother” is staring at us in Outre Theatre Company’s production of the disturbing, thought-provoking George Orwell classic 1984. It runs through July 30 at the Pompano Beach Cultural Arts Center. Several images on stage show an elderly, cross, if not outright intimidating man looking straight at us. This […]
By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out“) When composer and lyricist Marc Shaiman and his writing partner Scott Wittman opened Hairspray: The Broadway Musical 15 years ago, there could not have been an expectation as to how well-received and how pervasive the musical, based on the same-titled 1988 John Waters film, would become. Summer […]
By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out“) During the summer months, New Orleans is a city beset in its defense from raging storms. But the mystical literary storm that approaches it now via the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane University – The Tempest – has much to be admired, not feared. Director and […]
By AARON KRAUSE FT. LAUDERDALE — Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is classified as a comedy, and for good reason. There’s plenty of mischief and merry making, which merge to form a frolicking night of theater. It ends (mostly) happily. But there’s a darker side to the play involving mourning, unrequited love and a resultant lovesickness. If you dig […]
By AARON KRAUSE MIAMI SHORES — A “hurricane party” hardly refers to a celebration involving University of Miami sports teams in the new, clever, satirical comedy Firemen are Rarely Necessary, set partly in Miami in a not-too-distant future. Normally when a mammoth hurricane is about to make landfall in a state, you’d expect to hear […]