By AARON KRAUSE WILTON MANORS, Fla. — The curtain opens, revealing a cheery, brightly-colored home sporting Christmas decorations. Soon, a woman of 55, but who could pass for 20 years younger, enters. She betrays an equally cheery, almost child-like disposition. She is full of energy. The woman’s husband is clad in clown make-up. If you […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown has won multiple Tony Awards for his brilliant compositions and, most especially, for his tender ballads. First noted for his 1995 production of Songs for a New World, Brown later received critical acclaim for Parade, which told the story of convicted […]
By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out“) There is no doubt that Neil Simon is one of the great comedic geniuses in American theatre. With an innate understanding of what is funny, steeped in his early days as a writer when he penned classic skits for people like Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca on […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) There is an adage to which many critics adhere that there is only one “i” in review; ergo, critical analysis which employs the first person should be similarly limited. But the current production of Caroline, or Change, co-produced by Loyola University and the Jefferson Performing Arts Society, […]
By AARON KRAUSE MIAMI BEACH — Birth isn’t one of the major life cycles at the center of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic Our Town. Of course, someone is born during the play — and the result is the heartbreaking ending that has flooded audience seating areas with tears since the classic play premiered in 1938. […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Bill Johnson has made a career out of portraying the late, great Bob Hope in several stage productions in his hometown of Las Vegas, on the international stage and in recent years at a recurring production – “Thanks for the Memories: Bob Hope and His All-Star Tour” […]
By AARON KRAUSE FT. LAUDERDALE — There are lighting effects galore (some overdone, some mood-enhancing by Thomas Shorrock) in Slow Burn Theatre Company’s mostly commendable, high-flying production of Tarzan: The Stage Musical. It runs through Nov. 5 on Broward Center for the Performing Arts’ intimate Amaturo Stage. Fortunately, director/choreographer Patrick Fitzwater doesn’t forget to highlight […]
By ALAN SMASON Scott Joplin wrote only two operas in his brief, but productive musical career. His first, A Guest of Honor is presumed lost to the trashbin of history, the victim of Joplin’s inability to pay his lodging bill. Joplin, who called himself “The King of Ragtime,” fared only slighty better with a partial […]
By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic (WYES-TV, “Steppin’ Out”) Based on the graphic novel by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, the 2015 Best Musical Tony Award winner – Fun Home – was the first Tony Award-winning production to boast an all-female creative team, featuring the sumptuous music of Jeanine Tesori and insightful lyrics and a riveting book by […]
By AARON KRAUSE CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Creepy, foreboding music leaves a chill in the air at the beginning of GableStage’s practically flawless Southeastern premiere production of The Humans, about a middle-class family gathered for Thanksgiving. Such music that produces slight shivering is usually reserved for films by the likes of Stephen King or directed […]