By AARON KRAUSE LAUDERHILL, FL. — “…So hold this moment fast…and make this moment last.” Surely, these lyrics from La Cage Aux Folles are apropos for Stage Door Theatre’s great production of the beloved Harvey Fierstein-Jerry Herman musical, based on a French play. Unquestionably, we want to hold each moment fast and make each moment…
By AARON KRAUSE MIAMI LAKES — Five Women Wearing the Same Dress may not be the most original play in the feminist/female power/sisterhood genre. But if you’re a woman who feels limited due to society’s expectations of females, this Alan Ball piece will embolden you and make you laugh frequently. One might think of Ball’s character-driven, ensemble…
By AARON KRAUSE CORAL GABLES, FL. — Our desire for affirmation that others value us is sometimes as strong as our hydration needs on a sweltering day. Playwright Halley Feiffer illustrates this with penetrating insight in I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard. But praying may not be enough when others reject us. Such rejection…
By AARON KRAUSE FT. LAUDERDALE — It’s funny how someone buying a white painting can nearly destroy long-lasting friendships. If you want to experience how funny, then New City Players’ intense, engrossing production of Yasmina Reza’s Tony Award winning dark comedy, Art,is required viewing. That’s partly because director Jessica Schulte skillfully finds a balance between…
By AARON KRAUSE WILTON MANORS, Fla. — You don’t have to be gay to find resonance in Mr. Parker, a funny, touching play receiving its world premiere at Island City Stage in an all-around strong production. Mr. Renaissance Man has penned and stars in the piece. More seriously, the prolific, versatile and immensely talented South…
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 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 Playwright Lauren Gunderson is officially the first repeat winner of a prestigious award from a group of theater critics. Four years after she received a top award from the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) for her play I and You, the writer recently won the same honor. This time, Gunderson’s play, The…
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 AARON KRAUSE FT. LAUDERDALE — The lyrics resonate chillingly in the wake of the recent mass school shooting in South Florida, leaving 17 dead – and another shooting about a month later in Maryland, leaving two dead: Change don’t come easy You gotta believe me It ain’t gonna happen overnight. Change don’t come quickly,…
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…
