Mondays Are Dark

Mondays are actually not dark this summer; South Florida Theatre League member companies are hosting free readings of plays by playwrights who are also League members.  Tonight, you'll have to choose between The Death of Kings: An Encyclopedia by Vanessa Garcia at PAXMiami, or Outre Theatre's offering of Flashing Lights by Edward G. Excaliber at The Studio at Mizner Park.  One of these events is preceded by a cocktail party, but you'll have to click through to see which one. 


As you must know by now if you read The Scene, The South Florida Theatre League has built an entry for The Great Coconut Grove Bed Race, which you won't actually see anywhere this week, because this Thursday it WOULD have been Slava's Snowshow at The Arsht Center, and someone on the school board down there seems to think that "Get in Bed with the Arts" has a sexual connotation of some sort.  So, the South Florida Theater League WILL have a presence at Thursday performance of Slava's Snowshow, but the bed will not. We've heard something about an ersatz beach scene for "summer fun." Sounds like beachy-weachy-fun in sunny.

Speaking of the South Florida Theater League, they're holding Unified Auditions for its member companies on August 12.  Contact the league for details.

Anyway, here's your Monday reading list:

Mad Times at Mad Cat
Florida Theater On Stage reports that Mad Cat Theatre Company must be a madhouse, with all that they've got going on at the moment; they've just announced the winners of their first scholarship program, and are now working on opening their first productionat the Miami Theater Center, the world premiere of Jessica Farr's Blow Me, which she's expanded from her one-act play Charming Acts of Misery.

What's the Rush?
Butts In Seats ponders the problems with rush ticket programs.

Where Art and Marketing Meet
Mission Paradox points out that Hollywood's marketing stategy is different that live theater's, and probably makes more sense.

Mom Gets To The Point
Moms Miami gets right to the heart of the Coconut Grove Playhouse saga:

Excuse me if I don’t leap to my feet to applaud Miami-Dade County approving a deal to “save” the Coconut Grove Playhouse.

My oldest daughter was a toddler when the storied playhouse closed in 2006. This fall, she’ll be a freshman in high school.

Kinda puts it in perspective, doesn't it?

Meanwhile...
...in tony Palm Beach, The National Arts Institute has applied for a lease to the storied Royal Poinciana Playhouse, and The Palm Beach Daily News digs into the heart of the mystery facing the South Florida theatre scene: who the heck is the National Arts Institute, anyway?

Whatever
the historical definition, it is abundantly clear that many theaters in
New York reflect the values—and the struggles—of regional theaters. -
See more at:
http://www.howlround.com/is-new-york-city-part-of-america-off-broadway-and-the-regional-theater-tony-award?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HowlRound+%28HowlRound.com%27s+Journal%2C+Blog%2C+%26+Podcasts%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo#sthash.o0lTe1mC.dp

The Scene for July 26, 2013

Hope you're not tired of rain yet, because it looks to be another wet weekend. Which means it's a great time to see a show in a nice, dry theatre.  Lots of good stuff this week.

As you ought to know by now, The South Florida Theatre League has built an entry for The Great Coconut Grove Bed Race.  Your next chance to see it will be at the July 25th performance of 1,000 Years, playing at Florida Atlantic University.

Monday, Theatre League member theatres will be hosting free readings of plays by playwrights who are League members.  This coming Monday, you'll have to choose between The Death of Kings: An Encyclopedia by Vanessa Garcia at PAXMiami, or Outre Theatre's offering of Flashing Lights by Edward G. Excaliber at The Studio at Mizner Park.

Here's what's playing on the scene this weekend.

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you still haven't missed...
  

The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode plays at Empire Stage through August 4.

Actors' Playhouse offers the musical Rated P for Parenthood at the Miracle Theater through August 11.

Jim Brocchu returns to South Florida with Character Man at the Stage Door Theatre through August 11.

   
Good People plays at Gablestage, through August 18. 

The Theatre at Arts Garage offers Beyond the Rainbow, through August 11. And for once, it's not a drag show.

 

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last chance to see...

 

Palm Beach Dramaworks winds up the extended run of its concert version of Man of La Mancha this Sunday, July 28! 

 

Teatro Avante presents the 28th Annual International Hispanic Theatre Festival through July 28 at various locations.

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community and conservatory...

 

FIU's Alternative Theater Festival offers A Thousand Years, through Saturday.   

Andrews Living Arts Studios presents Jekyll & Hyde through July 28.
   

The venerable Lake Worth Playhouse presents In The Heights through July 28.

 

Storycrafter Studio offers its original production of Flesh and Blooders through August 11, 2013.

 

Main Street Players presents David Lindsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole through August 11, 2013.

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for kids...

  
Sol Children's Theatre Troupe offers You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown through July 28.

Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theater offers The Pied Piper through August 3.

Theater at Arts Garage: Beyond the Rainbow (reviews)

Theatre at Arts Garage opened its production of Beyond the Rainbow on July 19, 2013

An unforgettable musical portrait of a child actor turned Hollywood star who captivated a nation with her spectacular talent and tumultuous life.

Featuring 24 of Garland’s greatest hits, including “Get Happy,” “That’s Entertainment,” “The Trolley Song,” and of course, “Over the Rainbow.”

Ron Peluso directed a cast that featured Jody Briskey, Norah Long, Clark A. Cruikshank, Peter Moore and Peggy O'Connell.

Hap Erstein reviewed for Palm Beach ArtsPaper:

Why would Lou Tyrrell bring to his Theatre at Arts Garage a play that he presented at Florida Stage seven years ago?

“We are really more in audience development mode than we are in play development mode,” he says of his fledgling Delray Beach operation. And if ever there were a show to attract and expand his audience, it is surely Beyond the Rainbow, a well-crafted biography of the legendary Judy Garland with two stellar performers as the self-destructive singer-actress.

Like Garland, Briskey’s vocal talent is evident from the first time she opens her mouth. Her mimicry skills — the slurred diction, the flat Midwest cadences and the nervous tics and gestures — are a welcome bonus.

While Briskey dominated the earlier production in Manalapan, Long has become a confident stage presence in her own right since then, turning Beyond the Rainbow into a compelling duet. Early on she appears in Dorothy Gale pigtails and pinafore, a child-woman caught in the cogs of the Hollywood machine. Long is not only the soul of the show, but a very credible singer as well.

Ron Peluso... attempts to use the cabaret space of the Arts Garage, wending his cast in among the tables environmentally. It is the only false step of the production, working against the recreation of Carnegie Hall and diffusing the focus of the show, as the audience is forced to keep looking around instead of viewing in at once the onstage images and memories.

Still, Beyond the Rainbow is a compelling piece of show business lore, an unflinching portrait of one of the 20^th century’s towering entertainers, wrapped around a concert of Garland’s many signature songs.

Michelle F. Solomon wrote for miamiartzine:

If you missed Judy Garland's performance in 1961 at Carnegie Hall, no worries Judy's back and in Delray Beach. At the Theatre at Arts Garage, Beyond the Rainbow: Garland at Carnegie Hall puts audiences smack dab in the middle of the action.

Usually performed in proscenium, director Ron Peluso uses the cabaret area (three tables specifically) for much of the dialogue action, reserving the stage for Judy's Carnegie Hall performance. It's utterly magical.

Briskey, who looks like a cross between Garland and Liza Minnelli, captures the ticks and idiosyncrasies of the singer circa 1961, plus she's got the voice. While the first act shares songs and behind-the-scenes stories equally, the second act focuses more on the concert performance, allowing an opportunity for Briskey to show her stuff... Briskey's interpretation of Garland... is just that — not so much an impersonation, which gives it dimension instead of drag-queen parody.

Long as the younger Judy has the heady task of playing the star from a little girl in pigtails to a suicidal pill addict in her 30s. To her credit, Long is able to convey the character's time travel convincingly as we see her age, especially magical since many of the young Judy's scenes are in such close proximity to the audience.

The supporting cast is spot on and are all masters of characterization as they leap believably from one role to another.

Beyond the Rainbow plays at Arts Garage through August 11, 2013.

GableStage: Good People (reviews)

GableStage opened its production of David Lindsay-Abaire's Good People on July 20, 2013.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright pays his respects to his old South Boston neighborhood, with this tough and tender play about the insurmountable class divide between those who make it out of this blue-collar Irish neighborhood and those who find themselves left behind. Is it strength of character or just a few lucky breaks that determines a person's fate?   

Joe Adler directed a cast that featured Laura Turnbull, Barbara Bradshaw, Elizabeth Dimon, Clay Cartland, Stephen G. Anthony, and Renata Eastlick.

Roger Martin reviewed for miamiartzine:

If you believe anything today, believe this. There is great pleasure to be had right now at GableStage... Five of this area's finest actors are playing the desperate residents of South Boston and Chestnut Hill with such skill that the audience gasps of oh no and waves of nervous laughter fill the house as seemingly innocent jokes mask the pain in almost every line of dialogue.

Laura Turnbull is listed at the top of the program with an “and” separating her from the other actors. It's easy to see why. Good People is a two-act play, about two hours long and Turnbull is on stage, brilliantly, for all but two minutes of the second act... Turnbull hits every nuance in Lindsay-Abaire's portrait of a tired woman at once pitiful, arrogant, meanly demanding and bolstered with principles that are of little use.

Director Joseph Adler, who doesn't allow a slow moment on stage, has chosen a fiery cast, veterans who sell the show magnificently: Stephen G. Anthony as the boy who breaks out of the streets through his own cleverness and rises to a mansion with a black, well-educated and wealthy wife, Renata Eastlick, who must face the secrets of his past. And there's the inimitable Beth Dimon, staunch friend of Margaret and constantly feuding with Barbara Bradshaw, landlady, sometime baby sitter and bunny rabbit maker, and Clay Cartland, the store manager whose dead mother was also a classmate of Margaret's.

And I’ll say it again, there’s great stuff going on in Good People.

Mia Leonin reviewed for The Miami Herald:

...director Joe Adler’s top-notch cast offers a searing look at class divisions in the U.S.

Dottie (Barbara Bradshaw) is funny as Margie’s wacky landlord, and Elizabeth Dimon is hilarious as Jean, Margie’s outspoken, foul-mouthed friend. The comedy and camaraderie of Good People’s first half make the play’s intense second act all the more hard hitting.

Joe Adler directs Good People with a sharp ear for the play’s riveting dialogue, which strikes a balance between deadpan, deeply sarcastic barbs and uninhibited insults and rants. Turnbull and Anthony exhibit spot-on timing and an explosive, antagonistic chemistry.

Renata Eastlick rounds out the cast as Kate, Mike’s young, attractive wife who happens to be black. Kate’s role as a young intellectual professional gives the play a more contemporary feel, and her status as an outsider — she’s not from Southie — lets the audience see the play’s conflicts through a wider lens.

Michelle F. Solomon goes four paragraphs of exposition before she starts her review for Florida Theater On Stage:

Director Joe Adler has assembled an all-star cast for Gablestage’s Good People. Laura Turnbull as Margie understands the depths of the character’s struggles. By the end of the play, you’ve been thrust through Margie’s psyche from every angle, due mostly to Turnbull’s total immersion.

Stephen G. Anthony evolves the character. It’s a complex performance, especially in the second act when the essence of the former Southie emerges at one point like the Incredible Hulk.

Barbara Bradshaw as Dottie plays Margie’s rent-obsessed, crafty landlady with a ditzy appeal... Elizabeth Dimon as the no-nonsense, Jean, could have been plucked from the ‘hood. Her best moments are when she’s carping at Bradshaw’s Dottie — delivered with just the right snap and timing.

Clay Cartland, who is becoming one of South Florida’s busiest actors, shows the right reserve with Stevie. Renata Eastlick rounds things out as Mikey’s wife, playing Kate with a cool detachment that eventually gives way to compassion.

Adler’s skillful direction pulls everything together as he invites the audience in to this slice of life, playing up the underlying nature vs. nurture of Good People.

B. Kaplan reviewed wrote for The Miami New Times:

One of the most sublime pleasures of this Miami summer comes just before the intermission in GableStage's new production of Good People, when Jean, a track-suited Bostonian played by Elizabeth Dimon, takes to her feet in a bingo hall and bellows, "Cocksucker!"

If Miami is thirsting for a seasonal tradition to rival Santa and the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, perhaps this is it. Picture Dimon astride LeBron James' shoulders during the annual Heat championship parade while screaming into a megaphone...

Hmm.  I wonder... New Times.  "B. Kaplan."  "Brandon K."  Coincidence?

The first act is mired somewhat by an uncertain tone that teeters at times toward mockery of Margie and her friends. This is partly because the landlady Dottie is both a venal grotesque and the most vocal character onstage. Bradshaw plays Dottie with gluttonous zeal; her wolf-like, frothy jaw leaves Margie no choice but to invite her in. Turnbull's Margie is revealed to be a witty, brassy dame whose uncommon grace could, with a better wardrobe and set of opportunities, easily land her in a position of power and wealth. Dimon rolls her eyes with the agility of a boxer's feet and gloves, heaping snark on the proceedings from the comfort of her plastic chair.

The second act is... where the play really hums. The scene draws on many of the finer theatrical traditions, well-timed entrances and exits, constantly shifting interpersonal dynamics, and the offstage cries of a child. There's even a bar cart off to the side. At times, the tension threatens to break into incredulous caricature, but like Margie herself, it is able to hold itself together and transcend its circumstances to reach a subdued if unsteady triumph.

Director Joseph Adler introduced the opening-night performance by calling the show "a piece that resonates for our time." Margie's story, though, is not one of a downturned economy but of a downturned society. It is not bound to any particular moment but to a cycle in which good people suffer when educational opportunities aren't evenly distributed and familial obligations come before personal advancement.

GableStage presents Good People through August 18, 2013.

Mondays are Dark

Mondays are actually not dark this summer; Theatre League member theatres are hosting free readings of plays by playwrights who are League members.  Tonight, the Lost Girls Theatre is reading The Secret of the Biological Clock, written by Andi Arthur, CEO of the South Florida Theatre League.  It happens at the Deering Estate tonight at 7:30pm.


As you must know by now if you read The Scene, The South Florida Theatre League has built an entry for The Great Coconut Grove Bed Race, and this week you will find it at Florida International University's performance of 1,000 Years, a new play by Kenny Finkle, directed by Michael Yawney.  It's part of their Alternative Theatre Festival.



And by the way, you're not just looking at the thing; you have a chance to climb aboard, to literally Get In Bed With The Arts.

And now for your Monday reading list:

Reviews to Follow
Gablestage just opened Good People, and The Miami Herald spoke with director Joe Adler about it last week.

“It’s not an accident that [Lindsay-Abaire] put a cheese plate in the play. People with money can afford to have 17 kinds of bulls**t cheese that smell up the house,” he says. “When you’re living from day to day, you don’t have time to worry about cheese.”

The Problem with "Donated Salaries."
Butts in Seats talks about an often neglected problem facing arts organizations; salaries being waived by executive staff to help the company make ends meet.  It sounds like a nice gesture.. until they step down...


Homegrown Children's Book Adapted to Stage
Broadway World tells us how the book series The Little Mouse Solomae makes its way from the children's library to the stage of The Roxy Performing Arts Center.

Wick's World
Florida Theater On Stage talks with Marilyn Wick about the ongoing transformation of the old Caldwell space into  The Wick Theater.  Wick owns and operates Costume World, the world's largest supply house of theatrical costumes.  Over the years, they've bought up their competition, acquiring actual Broadway inventory along the way.  Those costumes will be on display in the museum she's building in what used to be the rehearsal hall.  No mention is made about where they'll be rehearsing, but since the sets are coming in from Tampa (from what appears to be a graphic design firm), perhaps the scene shop. 

We wish them the best, because another professional theater producing large musicals is something we desperately need in South Florida. Time was, area actors could work a full year by working a circuit consisting of Actors' Playhouse, Jupiter Theatre, Florida Repertory Company, Hollywood Playhouse, the Ruth Foreman Theater, and The Royal Palm Dinner Theater.  With only two theaters left on that circuit, we've lost a lot of talent to other markets. 

But we admit we have our doubts about the viability of this project; she's already on her third artistic director, and while she talks about  "a quality experience", the music won't be played by a live orchestra. Top-tier theaters don't use pre-recorded music.  That's like going to a fine dining restaurant and getting canned tomatoes on your salad.


Speaking of Women in Theater
Broadway World fills us in on Madcat Theatre Company's next offering, Jessica Farr's Blow Me, featuring an all-star cast of South Florida favorites.

The Scene for July 19, 2013

Hope you're not tired of rain yet, because it looks to be another wet weekend. Which means it's a great time to see a show in a nice, dry theatre.  Lots of good stuff this week.

As you ought to know by now, The South Florida Theatre League has built an entry for The Great Coconut Grove Bed Race.  Your next chance to see it will be at the July 25th performance of 1,000 Years, playing at Florida Atlantic University.

Monday, Theatre League member theatres will be hosting free readings of plays by playwrights who are League members.  This coming Monday, the League's CEO shows her stuff when Lost Girls Theatre reads her play The Secret of the Biological Clock at the Deering Estate in Miami.

Here's what's playing on the scene this weekend.

---

opening...

   
Good People opens at Gablestage, through August 18.  If you've been following the news, you'll know that this is the company slated to become the next Coconut Grove Playhouse.

The Theatre at Arts Garage opens Beyond the Rainbow, through August 11.  It's subtitled Garland at Carnegie Hall.

Area Stage might be opening something, but their overwrought Flash website won't load for us.  That's a hint, Jon.

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you still haven't missed...
  

The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode plays at Empire Stage through August 4.

Actors' Playhouse offers the musical Rated P for Parenthood at the Miracle Theater through August 11.

Palm Beach Dramaworks stages a concert version of Man of La Mancha through July 21 has been extended through July 28!

Jim Brocchu returns to South Florida with Character Man at the Stage Door Theatre through August 11.

Teatro Avante presents the 28th Annual International Hispanic Theatre Festival through July 28 at various locations.

---

community and conservatory...

   
Andrews Living Arts Studios presents Jekyll & Hyde through July 28.
   

The venerable Lake Worth Playhouse presents In The Heights through July 28.

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for kids...

  
The Delray Beach Playhouse offers School House Rock LIVE through Saturday.

Sol Children's Theatre Troupe offers You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown through July 28.

Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theater offers The Pied Piper through August 3.

Empire Stage: The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode (reviews)

. Empire Stage opened its production of The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode on June 27, 2013.

Inspired the the ‘80s sitcom, Facts features an all-male cast as the girls of Eastland High.  The girls’ dorm, and Mrs. Garrett’s job is in jeopardy due to the budget cuts.  The evil schoolmaster wants to take everything away from them and get into Mrs. G’s pants.  Blair, Tootie, Natalie and Jo will not allow this to happen, and they are willing to do anything, and I mean anything, to forbid this.  The girls turn to prostitution to raise all of the money that they will need to keep their cozy dorm and Mrs. G.

Christopher Kenney directed a cast that featured Jamie Morris, David Tracy, Shawn Burgess, Brooks Braselman, and Charles Logan.

Michelle F. Solomon wrote for miamiartzine:

"You take the good, you take the bad. . ." Those are the opening lyrics of the theme song from the long running television sitcom The Facts of Life. The NBC show did have its share of good and some bad, and so does its alter ego stage comedy The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode now playing at Empire Stage.

Morris as Mrs. Garrett is just plain cheeky, with the sing-song delivery of dialogue hitting vocal octaves that are downright acrobatic. Braselman as the pleasingly plump, perpetually grinning Natalie steals the show more than once or twice playing a number of different characters... There isn't a weak link in the ensemble. Morris, Braselman and Logan have toured with the show previously, while Burgess and Tracy were cast in SoFla for the Empire Stage production.

Christopher Kenney directs the show with fast pacing. It's much more effective in the episodic first act than when the story begins to get more linear in the second act. Three musical numbers with lyrics by Braselman and Morris are too similar and never really hit the same heights as the rest of the comedy. In fact, they seem like filler and interrupt the show's comic tempo.

John Thomason reviewed for The Broward/Palm Beach New Times:

There is a place in the Western theater canon for Pinter, O'Neill, and Shakespeare, and there is also a place for shows with lines like "When I was your age, I was as moist as a Sara Lee pound cake."

Jamie Morris' The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode is one of the latter shows...

(Jamie Morris) takes on the plum role of Mrs. Garrett, his wig a towering, ginger bird's nest over gaudy makeup and endless pearls, a sense of trashy couture maintained by a trilling, hyperbolic vocal pattern.

Braselman is terrific in two roles, conveying Natalie's brusqueness in a performance that conjures barking drill sergeants and Chris Farley's mall girl from Saturday Night Live. She doubles as the show's villain and headmaster...

As Jo, Logan is perhaps the most skilled performer at channeling the wide-eyed, simple emotionality of '80s sitcom acting, and Tracy offers a more-than-capable Blair, a far cry from his history of Shakespeare festivals. Despite a game effort, Burgess may be the show's weak link as Tootie, simply because, unlike the rest of the ensemble, you can practically see the cerebral gears grinding toward his decisions. Acting rather than being, he tends to underplay when everyone around him overplays, and subsequently, many of his lines fall flat.

Everything in this show cycles back to "the old in-and-out," and to the show's credit, its crudeness never gets tiring: It's funny and subversive all the way to the end. Considering that the original TV series' example of edgy humor was its Asian character, Miko, saying, "What do I know about math — I use an abacus!," a little bit of dirty talk goes a long way.

The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode plays at Empire Stage through August 4, 2013.

Actors' Playhouse: Rated P for Parenthood (reviews)

Actors' Playhouse opened its production of Rated P for Parenthood at The Miracle Theater on July 10, 2013.

Rated P for Parenthood is a new musical revue chronicling the 21st century joys and frustrations of raising children, from bleary-eyed late night feedings and private school kindergarten interviews, to nail-biting driving lessons and prom night. Whether in the midst of those parenting years or if those days are a distant memory, Rated P for Parenthood is sure to touch a chord with audience members of all ages, eliciting chuckles of recognition and maybe even a tear or two of remembrance.

David Arisco directed a cast that included Jim Ballard, Henry Gainza, Amy Miller Brennan and Julie Kleiner, with musical direction by Manny Schvartzman.

Bill Hirschman reviewed for Florida Theater On Stage:

I was in such a rotten mood Friday night that cartoon thunderclouds circled overhead...within minutes of the opening of Actors Playhouse’s sweet and silly vaudeville of skits and songs, I realized I was grinning, then chuckling and then laughing out loud.

This entry is a little stronger and more polished than most of these summer throwaways because the script by Sandy Rustin goes a step beyond the required scenes of teaching a kid to drive or facing a huge orthodonture bill. She throws some mildly inventive curve balls such as two gay dads trying to cope with their triplet sons simultaneously entering puberty by seeking out naked breasts on the Internet.

What makes this work at all is the enthusiastic, uninhibited performances by Amy Miller Brennan, Henry Gainza, Julie Kleiner and Jim Ballard playing a multitude of disparate characters under the inspired direction of David Arisco. All five have worked together before and their trapeze work here is enhanced by a palpable chemistry.

...Brennan is best known for her gorgeous soprano in musicals like Oliver and Joseph and the Amazing You Know What, so it’s a revelation to see her strut her well-honed comedy chops.

Any parent or former teenager for that matter will recognize Ballard as the manly father trying to keep cool as his lovely daughter prepares to leave for prom night. Kleiner morphs effortlessly from a concerned parent in one scene to your standard rebellious teen a few seconds later. Gainza tries to sidestep explaining to his young daughter what was really going on when a friend saw “Dad doing push-ups on top of Mom.”

 Civilians may not be able to identify precisely what Arisco does other than keep this intermissionless evening sliding by as smoothly as a baby’s bottom. But regular patrons of Actors Playhouse will recognize his style that blends in scores, probably of hundreds of little bits of comedy  — a tilt of the head, a double take, the timing of a line — that elevate the laugh level. His staging of the musical numbers is so fluid that you’ll look in vain for a choreographer’s credit in the program.

Don’t expect too much from the last show in the Playhouse’s 25th season.  It is no more than it wants to be: a less-than-challenging diversion. But it sure dispelled those thunderclouds.

Christine Dolen reviewed for The Miami Herald:

Arisco, whose direction is smart and comically adroit without going over the top, made his smartest decisions in the casting process...

Ballard and Gainza strut their versatility... Miller Brennan and Kleiner are just as adept at embodying a broad range of characters.

Naturally, parents will dig the resonant situations in Rated P for Parenthood, but those who are childless by choice or chance can enjoy it too. This is one summer musical revue that should be rated G for “gem.” 

 Roger Martin reviewed for miamiartzine:

Get by the awkward title: Rated P For Parenthood, and you'll find four terrific actors playing a cast of thousands in a funny, good natured and ultimately charming musical.

Each of the actors gets moments and it's a wonderful thing to discover the truly comic chops on stage. See Jim Ballard, the hunky soccer coach, with Amy Miller Brennan and Julie Kleiner drooling over his attributes. And as a distraught father on prom night, and a gay father with partner Henry Gainza as they worry about their triplet sons obsessing over breasts. Amy Miller Brennan gives birth with the delightfully graphic Push It On Out, and she's a nervous mom trying to get her child into a far too exclusive school. She suffers hilariously with her son at the wheel of their car. Henry Gainza takes hip hopping to a new level at the PTA and he's the gay father getting it that his sons may be straight. With his ditsy wife, Julie Kleiner, they embarrass their daughter at her first job. Kleiner gets a tad upset that her “hoo hah” is showing on social media, and she's the wonderfully slithering teenager with a condom. And these four can sing. And move. Oh, boy.

Directed at rocket pace by David Arisco with musical direction by Manny Schvartzman, Parenthood never stumbles as it covers partum to prom with wit, understanding and high five performances.

Actors' Playhouse presents Rated P for Parenthood through August 11, 2013.

Mondays are Dark

Mondays are actually not dark this summer; Theatre League member theatres are hosting free readings of plays by playwrights who are League members.  This coming Monday, Actors' Playhouse hosts a reading of Women Always Win, a collection of plays by Marj O'Neill-Butler and Roger Martin.

As you must know by now if you read The Scene, The South Florida Theatre League has built an entry for The Great Coconut Grove Bed Race, and this week you will find it The Lake Worth Playhouse, where they are presenting In The Heights.

And by the way, you're not just looking at the thing; you have a chance to climb aboard, to literally Get In Bed With The Arts.

We've been out of town since the Fourth of July, so we're a little behind on reviews, but we're back, so look for a lot of activity in the next couple of days.  In the meantime, here's your Monday reading list.


Brochu's Back at Broward Stage Door
Florida Theater On Stage tells us about Jim Brochu's latest project, Character Men, now playing at Broward Stage Door.  Reviews will be up in a couple of days.

Like The Proverbial Bad Pennies
Grab your wallets, folks: The Sun-Sentinel reports that the infamous Gary Waldman and Jamison Troutman are producing a play in South Florida.  They've secured The Studio Theater at Mizner Park to present the latest iteration of The Sounds of Simon, which up until now has been a revue of Paul Simon Songs.

Waldman says the show is now a proper musical with a narrative told by a male lead, four principal actors and six dancers.

“Now there are characters … people with a story to tell,” he explains. “It’s more of a pop-rock opera. It’s not a revue. We use his lyrics to drive the story along.”

We hope that they've secured the correct licensing to use Paul Simon's music in this manner.  We also hope that the Mizner Park CAC collected its rent up front.

Meanwhile...
... in Coconut Grove, Channel 10 reports that the Miami-Dade County Commission has approved a plan to "revive" the Coconut Grove Playhouse.

The peeling, rusted and shuttered decay of the Coconut Grove Playhouse has Florida International University in the wings with a plan for theater education, and a regional theater run by GableStage's veteran director, Joe Adler.

One step forward... and we're hopeful the momentum continues in that direction.

The Scene for July 12, 2013

Summer kicks up a notch this weekend, as several theaters open new shows; they didn't want to compete with Independence Day celebrations.  But from new musicals to Shakespeare in the Park, there's a lot to see this weekend on The Scene.


 The South Florida Theatre League has built an entry for The Great Coconut Grove Bed Race.  Your next chance to see it wil be at Lake Worth Playhouse on July 18.



Monday, Theatre League member theatres will be hosting free readings of plays by playwrights who are League members.  This coming Monday, Actors' Playhouse hosts  readin of Women Always Win at 7:30 pm, a collection of short plays by Marj O'Neill-Butler and Roger Martin.

Here's what's playing on the scene this weekend.

---

opening...

Actors' Playhouse opens Rated P for Parenthood- The Musical at the Miracle Theater through August 11.

Palm Beach Dramaworks stages a concert version of Man of La Mancha through July 21.

The Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival offers Coriolanus at the Seabreeze Ampitheatre in Jupiter's Carlin Park.

Jim Brocchu returns to South Florida with Character Man at the Stage Door Theatre; there's a great story about the man and his play at Florida Theater On Stage.

Teatro Avante presents the 28th Annual International Hispanic Theatre Festival through July 28 at various locations.

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last chance to see...

Miami Theatre Center's limited run of RED closes this Saturday, July 13.

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community and conservatory...

Florida International University's Alternative Theatre Festival continues with Reverse Psychology, through Saturday.


The venerable Lake Worth Playhouse presents In The Heights through July 28.

Pembroke Pines Theater of Performing Arts presents Hairspray through July 12.

 

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for kids...

Sol Children's Theatre Troupe offers You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown through July 28.

Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theater offers The Pied Piper through August 3.

Mondays are (not so) Dark

Mondays are actually not dark this summer; Theatre League member theatres are hosting free readings of plays by playwrights who are League members.  This coming Monday, Palm Beach Dramaworks offers up The Timmins Children by Mark Perlberg, while New Theatre presents Heavenly Hands, by Ricky J. Martinez. 

It might almost count as an additional day to New Theatre's Miami 1-Act festival, which officially closed yesterday. 


As you must know by now if you read The Scene, The South Florida Theatre League has built an entry for The Great Coconut Grove Bed Race, and this week you will find it at Actors' Playhouse for the final preview of Rated "P" for Parenthood on Thursday.

And by the way, you're not just looking at the thing; you have a chance to climb aboard, to literally Get In Bed With The Arts.

We expect there will be photos taken. 

Anywho, here's your Monday reading list.  Bring it with you to the Playhouse, read it in The Bed.

Speaking of Actors' Playhouse and "P" for Parenthood
Broadway World fills us in on Rated P for Parenthood opening Friday at The Miracle Theater.

Not So Impossible
The Shiny Sheet interviews William Michals, who will be performing Don Quixote in the upcoming Palm Beach Dramaworks concert presentation of Man of La Mancha this week.

Jupiter Rising
BroadwayWorld reports that a Maltz Jupiter Theatre student has been selected to cover several of the girls' roles in the Broadway revival of Annie.

Jupiter resident Skye Alyssa Friedman, 11, has been cast as a standby in the Broadway revival of the beloved show. Skye, who is a sixth grade home-schooled student, will travel to New York City in July to begin rehearsals and spend the next six months performing in the show. She will cover four roles in the show.

She's in good company; in 1996, a young Ryan Hopkins was cast to play Louis Leonowens in the Broadway revival of the King and I.  He had performed in a few Jupiter Theatre musicals during the Richard Akins years; Mame, The Secret Garden, and The Music Man. 

Donna Murphy, who performed at the Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theater in 1989 in the lost musical Dangerous Music, played the leading role of Anna Leonowens, opposite Lou Diamond Phillips as the King.

That's What We've Been Saying
The Examiner reports that South Florida can count excellent plays and musicals along with sunlit beaches and gin-clear ocean.  Which reminds us, we need to clean up our Theatres list.

We Thought it was TWENTY Questions
miamiartzine asked Clay Cartland 28 questions about himself.

The Scene For July 5th, 2013

July rolls in, and the summer rolls along, and so does Summer Theatre Fest, sponsored by WLRN and The South Florida Theatre League.  And what better way to celebrate than with FREE theatre tickets.

 The South Florida Theatre League has built an entry for The Great Coconut Grove Bed Race.

Monday, Theatre League member theatres will be hosting free readings of plays by playwrights who are League members.  This coming Monday, Palm Beach Dramaworks offers up The Timmins Children by Mark Perlberg, while New Theatre presents Heavenly Hands, by Ricky J. Martinez.
 

Here's what's playing on the scene this weekend.

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opening...

New Theatre offers its Miami 1-Acts Festival.  Apparently they're serving beer and sangria before the show, part of a happy hour that starts one hour prior to curtain.

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you still haven't missed...
   

Red plays at Miami Theatre Center a limited run through July 13.

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last chance to see...

  

The Plaza Theatre presents 8-Track: the Sounds of the 70's; they finally have it up on their website, and with a little digging, we've been able to discover the secret ending date of July 7.

 

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community and conservatory...
  

 FIU offers Bachelorette as part of its Alternative Theatre Festival, through Saturday.

 

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for kids...

Sol Children's Theatre Troupe offers Disney's The Little Mermaid this weekend.
 
Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theater offers The Pied Piper through August 3. 

Off Stage Conversations

Hello, I'm Andie Arthur, the executive director of the South Florida Theatre League, and I'm here with Off Stage Conversations, where I take a look at what's happening in the national and international theatre community. It's a little light this week with the holiday -- by the way, if you want to be a last minute rock star volunteer, please come support the League's Get In Bed With the Arts Bed in the Key Biscayne 4th of July Parade -- look for the bed in the staging area. I will give you a t-shirt and my undying gratitude.

Production Photos as Art

The Stranger has a piece on LaRae Lobdell, a Seattle photographer who decided to "reinvent the visual landscape of theatre culture." She started doing pro-bono shoots of local theatre artists because she was dismayed at the sterility of marketing photos. Lobdell's work is now being shown in an exhibition.

An Open Letter to President Obama

Howard Sherman writes a letter on why the president should move forward in nominating a new chair for the National Endowment of the Arts.

More Online Giving

Online giving went up by 14% last year. The Chronicle of Philanthropy teases out specifics.

Devised Theatre Explained (Slightly)

A piece on the continuum of collaboration.

Mondays are Dark

It's a Not So Dark Monday, since Parade Productions is staging a reading of The Gift at The Studio Theater in Mizner Park, while The Red Barn Theater in Key West is reading Moment of Grace. 

From Parade Productions' website:

Parade Productions will present a premiere reading of award-winning South Florida playwright/director Michael Leeds' new work, The Gift. The reading will take place on July 1st at 7:30 p.m., at the Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center's Studio Theatre in Boca Raton and will feature actors Clay Cartland and Lindsey Forgey.

From Red Barn Theater's website:

In a One Night Only event, MOMENT OF GRACE, the new play by Key West’s Bob Bowersox (author, producer, and director of last fall’s hit play at the Red Barn, PERSON OF INTEREST), will be read by 8 of Key West’s top actors.

It's all a part of Summer Theatre Fest, sponsored by the South Florida Theater League and WLRN.  As you should know by now, the Theatre League has built an entry for The Great Coconut Grove Bed Race, and has been showing it off all over South Florida.  It's next appearance is July 4th, in the Key Biscayne July 4th Parade. And you still have just under a week to try for free theatre tickets.   Speaking of Monday performances Ground Up and Rising has re-appeared, and it's doing Danny And The Deep Blue Sea tonight and tomorrow at O Cinema.  miamiartzine made it out last week.   Learning to Watch The Minnesota Playlist shares the story of a parent introducing their child to theatre.    

Worth a Thousand Words, and Then Some  

The Stranger brings us the story of a Seattle photographer who got tired of all the crappy promo shots.  

Red Backstory  

The Miami Herald fill us in on the story that inspired RED, currently playing at Miami Theatre Center.

The January 1964 Look magazine centerfold is iconic: Norman Rockwell’s painting depicts a small African-American girl, wearing a white dress and walking resolutely, flanked by four U.S. marshals, all caught mid-stride against a tomato-splattered wall upon which “K.K.K.” and a racial epithet are scrawled.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/26/3471491/dance-theater-piece-evokes-

6-year.html#storylink=cpy

Red plays at Miami Theatre Center through July 13.  

  

And Company Makes Two 

  The Shiny Sheet reports that Palm Beach Dramaworks will be peforming Company as well as Man of La Mancha in its concert series.    

Meanwhile... 

 ...the Coconut Grove Grapevine reports that the city has slapped a coat of paint on The Coconut Grove Playhouse.  There are photos showing the workers replacing the rotten plywood that's been covering the braces that are holding up the south end of the building.         .