By AARON KRAUSE FT. LAUDERDALE — Chances are, you’re familiar with The Sound of Music. But you’ll rediscover this classic musical anew once you’ve witnessed three-time Tony Award-winning director Jack O’Brien’s fresh, vital take on the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein show. The production, which has been on the road since 2015, is playing the Broward Center […]
By AARON KRAUSE MIAMI — Exactly two years after the bio-musical On Your Feet! The Emilio & Gloria Estefan Broadway Musical opened for previews on Broadway, the first national touring production of the electric show about the Miamians opened – where else? – in Miami recently. And what a reception the large crowd gave the famous […]
By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out“) Like his American contemporary counterpart, author L. Frank Baum, James M. Barrie was a London playwright, who spun a tale that enchanted children so much that his creation is still a part of the popular lexicon of children’s fare. In the case of Barrie, his creation had […]
By AARON KRAUSE MIAMI — “The King and I,” to borrow King Mongkut’s words, is a puzzlement. How can two people who’ve irritated each other so much, two people who seemingly have nothing in common, have such a profound effect on each other? That surprisingly strong, life-changing effect is at the heart of Richard Rodgers […]
By ANNE SIEGEL The bling and glamour of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Cinderella was met with cheers, oohs and ahhs – mainly by youngsters – who attended a recent opening of this fabled fairy tale musical in Milwaukee. No wonder. This version, which was adapted for Broadway in 2013, started out as a modernized […]
By AARON KRAUSE FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — You can associate any one of many ferocious animals with the formidable, fiendish, she-devil of a school headmistress, Agatha Trunchbull, in renown author Roald Dahl’s beloved tale “Matilda.” But it’s safe to say we all become mother bears whenever we watch adults – particularly of the immature, bratty, […]
By AARON KRAUSE Their music has become so well-known and popular that a song barely begins before thunderous clapping fills the auditorium. During a recent performance, the audience’ clapping was so loud and sustained at various points that hands, no doubt, turned as red as roses offered with love on Valentine’s Day. Roughly 13 years […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) It would be tantamount to treason to suggest that the amazing Whitney Houston, with her long string of hits from the 1980s and 1990s, was anything less than a pop superstar. Indeed, the musical horizon was shaped by platinum- and gold-certified charted songs such as”Saving All My […]
By ALAN SMASON, Theatre critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out“) In 2014 when “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in New York, critics and pundits were applauding Jessie Mueller for what seemed an impossible role to fill. Not only did the actress have to emulate the singing style of an iconic American […]