By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Three years ago, Jim Parsons donned the heavenly robes of the Almighty and made comedy history at Studio 54 when he starred in the Broadway premiere of An Act of God, the irreverent David Javerbaum-penned vehicle. A year later in 2016, Sean Hayes, revived the show at […]
By AARON KRAUSE WILTON MANORS, FL. — A current South Florida co-production of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning musical Next to Normal is nearly next to perfection. The performers earn every tear, sniffle, gasp and laugh. That became clear during the opening night performance Thursday of this heart-shattering, drily humorous, touching production. This co-mounting between Infinite Abyss Productions and Measure […]
By LOU HARRY After operating from a converted church for decades, Indiana’s most prominent professional producer of contemporary work, the Phoenix Theatre, opened its new two-stage space with Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. While the choice doesn’t exactly fit the Phoenix’s rep for presenting new work (the musical first saw […]
By ROY BERKO Disney, whether it’s their theme parks, cruises or Broadway-style shows, has a special approach that excites kids as well as adults. Disney’s Aladdin, which is now on stage at the Key Bank State Theatre, is no exception. The two tweens sitting next to me gushed after the show that they “loved it” […]
BEST PLAY MORE INFO The Children The American premiere of a new play by Lucy Kirkwood. Author: Lucy Kirkwood MORE INFO Farinelli and the King Mark Rylance stars in this new play with music by author and composer Claire van Kampen about a Spanish monarch on the brink of madness who finds unexpected solace in the […]
By AARON KRAUSE MIAMI — The people who birthed us can seem the most familiar and foreign individuals…at the same time. But what if you could make better sense of this and more with a special ability you possess? If you’re someone with cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s talent, you’re lucky in that way. Art’s power to […]
By AARON KRAUSE Playwright Lauren Gunderson is officially the first repeat winner of a prestigious award from a group of theater critics. Four years after she received a top award from the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) for her play I and You, the writer recently won the same honor. This time, Gunderson’s play, The […]
GLENN LONEY, a Renaissance man of arts journalism who interviewed hundreds of major artists of the 20th Century around the world and across genres, died April 16, at his home in New York City at age 89 after battling brain and lung cancer for a year. His lifetime as a critic and feature writer spanned […]
By ROY BERKO Stephen Karam is one of a new breed of contemporary American playwrights. His The Humans, the Tony Award-winning Best Play of 2016 (and a Pulitzer Prize finalist) is now on stage at the Connor Palace Theatre. The young Lebanese-Irish-American writes plays about the human experience that should not be as funny as they […]
By AARON KRAUSE WILTON MANORS, Fla. — In a way, The Radicalization of Rolfe is to The Sound of Music as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is to Hamlet. Consider: In Rosencrantz and Radicalization, the playwrights imagine what minor characters might be talking and thinking about when we don’t see or hear them in the […]