By AARON KRAUSE If you search Emily Dickinson on Google, one of the photos you’ll find is that of an austere-looking woman dressed in black. The famous poet from Amherst, Massachusetts (1830-1886) appears to be a no-nonsense, severe woman, rigid in her thinking. But the Emily Dickinson one encounters in William Luce’s one-woman, 1976 Broadway…
By AARON KRAUSE A problem with online theater, especially a taped production, is that performers cannot take bows. In addition, the actors cannot bask in bravos, cheers, and sustained applause. Certainly, cast members of New Normal Rep’s inaugural production of the dramedy Jericho deserve high praise. They are offering impressively natural, nuanced performances. And New Normal…
Ann Reinking, a Tony Award-winning choreographer who performed on Broadway for 30 years, making a name for herself particularly through her work in the musical Chicago, has died at age 71. Reinking died in her sleep in a hotel room near Seattle, while visiting her older brother, said her sister-in-law, Dahrla King. Authorities have not yet…
By AARON KRAUSE Certainly, six years ago, “This too shall pass” carried the same meaning as it does today. But oh, how we yearn to believe a speaker of those words in this age of COVID-19. And so, when a character from Stephen Karam’s award-winning play, The Humans, utters the aforementioned phrase in a reassuring tone, the…
By AARON KRAUSE What are some “gifts” that you’ve brought to dark, anxiety-inducing times, places, or situations? Perhaps you smiled brightly while visiting a lonely, scared person forced to spend quarantine alone because she has no family or friends. Maybe another gift was your warm, re-assuring voice. Or, perhaps your gift was as simple as…
By AARON KRAUSE FT. LAUDERDALE — A man with much physical difficulty tries to reach the love of his life. Naturally, she seems overjoyed that hubby is approaching. And so, she cheers him on. Surely, he wants to make love to her. Or, at the very least, share a long, passionate kiss. And so, with…
By AARON KRAUSE FT. LAUDERDALE — Whoever said “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” obviously had never heard of Phil Connors. Certainly, the quote’s originator had no way to know that Connors would receive a myriad of chances to make that all-important first impression. And, after all those tries, he triumphed….
By AARON KRAUSE FT. LAUDERDALE — The musical Aladdin might transport us to a “whole new world,” but the show also presents a familiar one to modern-day audiences. Certainly, MeToo advocates applaud loudly when Princess Jasmine proclaims, “I am not a prize to be won! I will not be auctioned off to some self-centered show-off.” And in…
By AARON KRAUSE BOCA RATON — There isn’t necessarily an art to dealing with difficult life situations. Rather, different people have their own way of coping with, for instance, a void in their existence. Some individuals might pretend everything is just fine. Admitting that something valuable or someone dear to them is missing might prove too…
By AARON KRAUSE NEW YORK, N.Y. — Dorothy Michaels is unstoppable. We learned that much in the Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical adaptation of Tootsie. It is based on the popular Academy Award-nominated 1982 movie with the same title. So it comes as no surprise that, even though the musical will close on Jan. 5 after 293 performances…
By AARON KRAUSE NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. — The wording on the Playbill at Circle in the Square Theatre does not deceive your eyes: It really does say Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! Now, the sights and sounds onstage might make you think you need an appointment with your eye and/or ear doctor. But what’s transpiring on that…
By AARON KRAUSE WEST PALM BEACH — Brutal reality shatters sensitivity, fragility and illusion with the force of a monster hurricane in the professional, non-profit Palm Beach Dramaworks’ highly intense, heartfelt and heartbreaking production of A Streetcar Named Desire. To be sure, in this first-rate mounting of Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, Stanley Kowalski (an…
