By ALAN SMASON, WYES Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Playwright Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu has said the concept of Pass Over is similar to that of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and that it was born out of the communal mourning over the death of Trayvon Martin. But it is much more than that. It is a simultaneous […]
By LOU HARRY Craig Lucas’ play Prelude to a Kiss reached Broadway in 1988, the same year that “Big,” “Vice Versa,” and “18 Again” were hitting movie theaters. Yes, all were body-switching stories, but Prelude was something different. Yes, it involved people’s personas suddenly inhabiting the bodies of others, but much of its focus was […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) When Girl from the North Country premiered on Broadway, there were a number of ebullient reviews trumpeting the musical for its inventive reimagining of Bob Dylan’s music and its tautly written book by Conor McPherson. The ensemble nature of this work is at its very heart. Lead […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critc (“Steppin’ Out“) Whether you loved the board game “Clue” when growing up or, perhaps, enjoyed the Paramount Pictures movie of the same title, the murder mystery genre that catapulted Agatha Christie to fame has proven to be a major draw to its success. The simple board game developed during […]
By ANNE SIEGEL Just in time for Halloween, Beetlejuice, the Musical arrives as the first offering in the Marcus Center’s 2024-25 Broadway season. The musical plays though October 6 in the Marcus Performing Arts Center. In fact, Beetlejuice seems to be on everyone’s minds these days. The sequel to Tim Burton’s popular 1988 film, starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) Several noted plays assign multiple roles to single actors in order to emphasize how clever and talented the actors are. Not only do they perform different roles for as many as 40 separate characters, but they are required to feed themselves their own lines. It’s not unlike […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was first mounted in the fall of 1879, so there is little debate that the work could use a bit of timely updating. The original language is also outdated in that Dano-Norwegian is hardly ever employed and translating it into modern English […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) It’s been said that the third time’s the charm. Previously, two earlier iterations of Hairspray have graced local theaters. Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carré produced the regional premiere in September 2010 and Jefferson Performing Arts followed with their production two years later in 2012. Both of […]
By ALAN SMASON For the past several weeks, I’ve been promoting this weekend as a way for the local theatre community to give back to Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carré, the historic theater founded in 1916 and nestled in the heart of the French Quarter. Friday night, September 6, was Le Petit’s annual fundraiser, […]
By AARON KRAUSE While summer camp is over for kids, a different kind of camp is in session for adults at Island City Stage (ICS). There, the side-splitting camp comic classic Die, Mommie, Die!, which is not for children, is keeping the laughometer as high as current temperatures in hot and humid South Florida. In its intimate black […]