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 AARON KRAUSE MIAMI BEACH — Is it possible to write and stage an August Strindberg play adaptation that’s #MeToo friendly? Playwright Hilary Bettis and Miami New Drama have succeeded admirably in doing so. Patrons who enter the Colony Theatre on Miami Beach through May 6 will encounter a vastly re-imagined version of Strindberg’s naturalistic […]
By AARON KRAUSE WEST PALM BEACH — What’s a casket doing in poetess Emily Dickinson’s bedroom on a cold, snowy night in January, 1864 Amherst, Mass.? And why is it empty – or is it? You need only look on Palm Beach Dramaworks’ stage to receive the answer. There, along with Dickinson, stands Edgar Allan […]
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 ROY BERKO George Bernard Shaw’s views on religion may be summarized by his statement, “People believe anything that amuses them, gratifies them, or promises some sort of profit.” He showcased his anti-organized religion and doubt of God in his The Adventures of a Black Girl in Her Search for God,” a novella he wrote […]
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 […]
By ROY BERKO Noted for her witty and compassionate prose, Paula Vogel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Oldest Profession, is now on stage at convergence-continuum. She writes with warmth about subjects which are often the object of repulsion. In probably her best play, How I Learned to Drive, which was recently staged at Cleveland Play […]