Broward Center: The Book of Mormon (reviews)

The national tour of The Book of Mormon opened at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on November 26, 2013.

Ben Brantley of The New York Times calls it "the best musical of this century." Entertainment Weekly says it's "the funniest musical of all time." From South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, it's The Book of Mormon, winner of nine Tony Awards® including Best Musical. Jon Stewart of The Daily Show calls it "a crowning achievement. So good it makes me angry."

Trey Parker and Casey Nicholaw directed a cast that included Mark Evans, Christopher John O’Neill, Derrick Williams, Stanley Wayne Mathis, Samantha Marie Ware, and Grey Henson.

Christine Dolen reviewed for The Miami Herald:

…for the 85,000 or so people who will see The Book of Mormon during its Fort Lauderdale run, the show is likely to be one of the most entertaining experiences they’ll have in many a season.

The show is hilariously and beautifully crafted, so that even as you recoil from bits that seem to go too far — say the antics of Genghis Khan, Adolph Hitler, Jeffrey Dahmer and Johnny Cochran during the Spooky Mormon Hell Dream number, or the really gross parts of the offensive yet wildly funny Joseph Smith American Moses — you move on to the next gut-busting laugh.

The production is of a piece with the work by Parker, Lopez and Stone. Co-directed by Parker and Casey Nicholaw, with stellar choreography by Nicholaw, the show unfolds within a special proscenium arch by designer Scott Pask that’s made to look like a Mormon temple, with a moveable golden Angel Moroni at its apex.

The touring cast is superb, from the winsome Ware to the comically terrifying Williams, whose facial reactions when Elder Price decides to share the Mormon message with the general are priceless. As Elder McKinley, a way-gay missionary whose musical advice regarding non-Mormon impulses is Turn It Off, Grey Henson is irresistible. Most significantly, the vital and palpable chemistry between the square-jawed Evans and the goofy O’Neill gives the show its heart. And that, like laughter, is something The Book of Mormon has in abundance.

Bill Hirschman reviewed for Florida Theater On Stage:

Hallelujah, children! We are delivered from the bondage of political correctness, the oppression of reactionary repression and the tyranny of the status quo. Raise up your voice and praise the bringer of these blessings — the national tour at the Broward Center of the Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon.

For all its iconoclastic material, Mormon hews closely to the time-tested structure and conventions of a traditional well-made musical. Even the orchestrations by the versatile Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus sound like a traditional Broadway musical. Second and more telling, The Book of Mormon may skewer organized religion, but it’s actually sweetly supportive of the moral good that comes out of faith. It’s actually pro-faith in its own very backhanded way.

This first road company throws themselves into the show with an infectious pep and vigor that deliver the sense over the footlight that they are having a hell of a good time so you should too.

... Evans is less priggish and more rubber-faced than the role’s originator, Andrew Rannells. He does some wonderful slow burns and deer-in-the-headlights takes such as when he realizes what Hasa Diga Eebowai means. O’Neill is more adorably inept but less buffoonish that Josh Gad, the Broward resident who originated the role. Ware is also dead perfect in her portrayal of someone dreaming of a new life. Her lovely soprano caresses the ballads like “Salt Lake City,” but she has a mischievous gleam in her eyes. Henson is hilarious as the leader fighting to cope with is latent homosexuality, creating a sort of Paul Lynde/Charles Nelson Reilly vibe to the character.

Roger Martin reviewed for miamiartzine:

If you're cynical, fed up with political correctness, somewhat doubtful of the benefits of organized religion and you're absolutely delighted when you find people who are creative, imaginative, disciplined and witty then you're going to love this show. And it's a musical, wow, with twenty terrific song and dance numbers.

There's wonderfully sardonic innocence in The Book of Mormon, just as there is callous humor and the two are melded beautifully, but the strength of this show lies in its ultimate professionalism.  No weak links here in the crispness of the dancing, the imagination of the choreography, the brilliance of the lighting, the settings of heaven and hell, Utah and Africa. The two leads, Evans and O'Neill, are outstanding, and right there with them is Grey Henson as Elder McKinley.

Rod Stafford Hagwood gave up any pretense of skill, submitting a sophomoric “Ten Commandments” instead of a readable review for the Stunned-Senseless; the result is his usual torrent of sentence fragments;

Despite being profane, vulgar and sacrilegious, the musical is at its heart sweet and even old-fashioned, with a tap number, hokey backdrops and every cheap (but effective) theatrical trick imaginable.

Have faith in this heavenly cast. In the lead roles, Mark Evans (Price) has stage savvy, and Christopher John O’Neill (Cunningham) has cunning comedic timing.

The score by “South Park” duo Trey Parker and Matt Stone along with “Avenue Q” creator Robert Lopez pays demented homage to the Broadway form by suggesting everything from “Bye, Bye Birdie, “The King & I” and “Annie” to “Wicked”, “The Lion King” and “Spamalot.”

I remember when Fort Lauderdale had a newspaper worth reading.  Those days are gone.

Hap Erstein reviewed for Palm Beach ArtsPaper:

They call them musical comedies, but you can count on a couple of hands the stage shows that are truly, laugh-out-loud funny. Certainly on that short list is The Book of Mormon, fueled by humor that is irreverent and profane, sprung directly from the fertile brains of South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Evans has matinee idol looks, all the better to contrast with O’Neill’s slovenly, goofy appearance, but the two play off each other well and together have killer comic timing. Among the squeaky clean missonaries, Grey Henson is a standout as a closeted gay guy who thinks he is better at hiding his sexual orientation than he is.

The Ugandans amuse performing Nicholaw’s tongue-in-cheek tribal choreography and Samantha Marie Ware will win you over as name-mangled Nabulungi, as close as the show comes to a love interest. Unless, of course, you count the love of an audience for an anything-for-a-laugh musical that has more guffaws per square inch than any musical comedy of the past decade.

The Book of Mormon plays at the Broward Center through Sunday, December 22, 1013.

The Scene for November 29, 2013

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving; some of us were battling a fierce headcold, which not only deprived us of turkey, but also of the energy to keep up with the blog.  But we’re down to just a little bit of sniffling, so it’s back to work!

 

The South Florida Theatre League has announced the Remy Award recipients; they will be presented at the League’s Holiday Party on December 2nd at Stache; the party is free for League members, and $25 for non-members.  Come in and hob knob with the Remy winners, as well as the Silver Palm honorees – the Silver Palm Awards shares the League party.   The location? Right down the street from the Broward Center, at the former home of the Green Room, behind Club Revolution.  It’s the League’s 20th anniversary, so it’ll be a blowout.

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

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opening...
  

Showtime Performing Arts Theatre opens Nunsense, through December 15.

 

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you still haven't missed...

GableStage presents My Name is Asher Lev at its intimate space in the Biltmore Hotel, through December 22.

 
The Miami Theater Center brings back its production of The Red Thread.

 
The Miami Beach Stage Door Theatre bring back My Son, The Waiter – A Jewish Tragedy to the Byron Carlyle Theatre, through December 15.
 
New Theatre's production of My First, My Fist, My Bleeding Seeded Spirit plays at Artistic Vibes, through December 8; at least, as of this posting, they haven't announced plans to move the production back to the Roxy.

 
Broward Stage Door presents The Last Night of Ballyhoo, through December 31.

  
The Wick Theatre offers Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, through December 25th.  Note that they tend towards a 7:30 curtain!

 
Laffing Matterz is back for another season of dinner, music, and outrageous original comedy at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Thursdays through Saturdays, with some Sunday matinees.

---

passing through...

The National Tour of The Book of Mormon plays  at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.  While the run is nearly sold out, some tickets can still be had.  Better yet, they’ll be holding a ticket lottery before every show, where a few remaining unsold tickets can be had for $25 a pop.

 

The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts may not be honoring its legal obligations with the stagehands’ union, but they’re still finding the funds to bring in The Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the famed Rockettes through December 8th.

 

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last chance to see...
 

Island City Stage finally winds up its extended run of The Timekeepers at Empire Stage this Saturday, November 30!

 

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community/conservatory
 
Lake Worth Playhouse presents The Game’s Afoot through December 8.

 

Delray Beach Playhouse presents Driving Miss Daisy through December 13.

 

Area Stage has the kids doing Monty Python’s Spamalot through December 15.

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for kids...
 

Showtime Performing Arts Theatre presents Story of the Nutcracker through January 5.

 
Madeline’s Christmas returns to the Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theater through December 22.

 

Seussical the Musical is playing at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts: by kids, for kids.

The Scene for November 22, 2013

You can tell next weekend is Thanksgiving; a lot of shows are winding up their runs this weekend so their cast and crew can spend the holidays feasting on turkey.
 
That’s not to say there won’t be any plays next week; there will.  Chief among them will be the national tour of Book of Mormon, which loads in next week at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.  While the run is nearly sold out, tickets can still be had.  Better yet, they’ll be holding a ticket lottery before every show, where a few remaining unsold tickets can be had for $25 a pop.
 
The South Florida Theatre League has announced the Remy Award recipients; they will be presented at the League’s Holiday Party on December 2nd at Stache; the party is free for League members, and $25 for non-members.  Come in and hob knob with the Remy winners, as well as the Silver Palm honorees – the Silver Palm Awards shares the League party.   The location? Right down the street from the Broward Center, at the former home of the Green Room, behind Club Revolution.  It’s the League’s 20th anniversary, so it’ll be a blowout.
 
Here's what's playing on the scene this weekend.

---

opening...

GableStage opens its production of My Name is Asher Lev at its intimate space in the Biltmore Hotel, through December 22.

The Miami Theater Center brings back its production of The Red Thread.

The Miami Beach Stage Door Theatre bring back My Son, The Waiter – A Jewish Tragedy to the Byron Carlyle Theatre, through December 15.

---

you still haven't missed...

Island City Stage presents The Timekeepers at Empire Stage through November 24.has been extended through November 30!

New Theatre's production of My First, My Fist, My Bleeding Seeded Spirit plays at Artistic Vibes, through December 8; at least, as of this posting, they haven't announced plans to move the production back to the Roxy.
  
Broward Stage Door presents The Last Night of Ballyhoo, through December 31.
The Wick Theatre offers Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, through November 25th.  Note that they tend towards a 7:30 curtain!

Laffing Matterz is back for another season of dinner, music, and outrageous original comedy at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Thursdays through Saturdays, with some Sunday matinees.

---

last chance to see...
  
Zoetic Stage critically acclaimed production of Fear Up Harsh winds up its run at the Arsht Center through November 24, 2013.

The Alliance Theatre Lab’s Savage in Limbo  has wowed the critics, and this is the last weekend you can catch it at the Main Street Playhouse through November 24, 2013.
  
Broward Stage Door's production of Sophisticated Ladies plays through November 24.
 
Fingers & Toes plays at The Plaza Theatre  through November 24, 2013
 
The Theatre at Arts Garage  premiere production of The Longing And The Short Of It plays through November 24.
 
Boca Raton Theatre Guild presents They’re Playing Our Song at the Willow Theatre in Sugar Sand Park through November 24,
 

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community/conservatory
  
Down In Front Theatre Company opens Norman Is That You? at the Sunrise Soref JCC, through November 24.
 
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat open at the Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts, through November 24.
 
University of Miami’s Theatre Department offers She Loves Me at the Jerry Herman Ring theatre through November 23.
 
FAU offers The Importance of Being Earnest through November 24.
 
Cinderella plays at Area Stage Company through November 24.
 
Lake Worth Playhouse presents The Game’s Afoot through December 8.
 

---

for kids...
  
Showtime Performing Arts Theatre presents Story of the Nutcracker through January 5.
 
Madeline’s Christmas returns to the Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theater through December 22.

Mondays are Dark

Yes, we've been remiss keeping up with your Monday reading list.  But honestly, we meant to post every one of the last few Mondays.  It's just that we never seemed to find time to do it.

But we're back.

This week's "dark" theater isn't dark at all, tonight.  The Plaza Theater is presenting a reading of The Sniper's Nest, by Lisa Soland. And for the first time in over a year, you can cross the intercoastal right at Ocean Avenue in Lantana, instead of detouring through Boynton Beach or Lake Worth.

And now for your Monday reading list:

The Show Must Go On... Somewhere.
The Roxy Performing Arts Center sprung a leak, forcing New Theatre to find another venue to open its latest production, Megan Breen's My First, My Fist, My Bleeding Seeded Spirit. The Drama Queen and Florida Theater On Stage were both on the story.

But Not at The Kravis Center.
IATSE International reports that The Kravis Center still hasn't obeyed any of the court orders issued against it.  Before you start posting comments, understand that the Kravis Center has had its day in court THREE TIMES.  And lost ALL THREE TIMES.  We're not sure why management up there can't get its act together, but we are disappointed that they can't seem to comply with Federal labor laws.

Sightings: Rachel Bay Jones
In addition to appearing in the Broadway revival of Pippin, South Florida native Rachel Jones has been in the studio recording for the 2013 edition of broadway's Carols for a Cure.  Broadway World brought a camera to one of the recording sessions.

It's a Dog's Life
Where did Palm Beach DramaWorks find a dog for their production of Of Mice and Men?  Stage Manager James Danford, of course.  Catch the story on WPTV.

Louis is treated like a star.

He has his own driver, dressing room, and even gets paid.

"We do give him a little treat when he does come off stage, so he's always very anxious to come to work," said Beryl.

This is the 14 year old's first acting experience. He's a natural.

"He's an old actor with 4 legs," said James Danford.

Before he took to the stage, he was a service dog spending ten years guiding his owner around in a wheelchair.

Speaking of New Theatre
The Miami Herald's Christine Dolen reminds us that it's been 10 years since the small company became the first non-New York theater to commision a play that went on to win the Pulitzer Prize.

Ten years after his life-altering Pulitzer, Cruz is one extremely busy theater artist, one whose work has broadened to include opera, theatrical songs and screenplays.

On Thursday, a Cruz-directed Arca Images production of his 2001 play Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams (Hortensia y el museo de sueños) opens at Miami-Dade County Auditorium’s OnStage Black Box theater. On Nov. 22, the FUNDarte-Teatro El Público collaborative production of Anna in the Tropics (Ana en el trópico) begins a weekend run at Miami Beach’s Colony Theater, after winning acclaim during recent performances in Havana. Both plays will be performed in Spanish with English supertitles.

Quite a ride, and there's no end in sight!

New Theatre: My First, My Fist, My Bleeding Seeded Spirit (reviews)

.. New Theatre opened its production of My First, My Fist, My Bleeding Seeded Spirit at Artistic Vibes, a last minute venue change necessitated by a water main break at The Roxy. But open it they did on November 15.

Federico Garcia Lorca's strident mother character, Bernarda Alba, has
been murdered in a New Mexican desert - Or has she been murdered? Hersurviving daughters writhe with opposing sentiments and gut wrenchingphysical reactions to her mysterious death. One must preserve tradition;one must release deep desires; one must attain vengeance; one must omither wrath altogether; but all must deal with their mother's imprint.

Ricky J. Martinez directed a cast that included Gabriel Bonilla, Evelyn Perez, Nichole Quintana, Vanessa Thompson, Francesca Toledo, Amber Lynn Benson, Kevin Coleman and Susie Taylor.


Christine Dolen reviewed for The Miami Herald:

On Friday, a water-and-sewer leak at the Roxy Performing Arts Center where the company performs got New Theatre and the Roxy Theatre Group folks (who were winding up a run of Sweeney Todd) locked out of the building for the entire weekend. What to do?

Artistic director Ricky J. Martinez and managing director Eileen Suarez scrambled, and on Saturday, a bare-bones version of My First opened at Miami’s intimate Artistic Vibes space near The Falls shopping center.

What the audience saw was a stripped down version of director Martinez’s vision, performed on a raised platform in the middle of the Artistic Vibes black-box space. Amanda Sparhawk’s set, Samuel Deshauteurs’ lighting and most of K. Blair Brown’s costumes were locked away at the Roxy. Matt Corey’s original music and sound design were available via a laptop, but a glitch partway through the performance led to pre-recorded dialogue being read aloud, and other effects vanished. So the show, while extensively rehearsed in its original iteration, was rough-edged on opening night.

The physical theater aspects of the production are played out most powerfully by Quintana and Bonilla as Magdalena and Carlos metaphorically get it on. The dialogue seldom shows similar restraint, as Breen goes for the crude and lewd, letting her characters revel in their psychological unshackling from the force who kept them in line.

The humor supplied by Toledo and Benson brings welcome, albeit brief, respites from 100 intermission-free minutes of verbalized and physicalized lust, threats of violence, stomping, body-smacking and intermittent hysterical screeching. As restaged on the fly by Martinez, My First, My Fist, My Bleeding Seeded Spirit (an unwieldy title, to be sure) has sporadic moments of wit, clarity and dramatic power. But even with the bells and whistles of its intended production values, My First doesn’t begin to supply the thematic depth of the source material that inspired it.

Bill Hirschman reviewed for Florida Theater On Stage:

Before we go another phrase, let’s give props to New Theatre for persevering to mount the world premiere of My First, My Fist, My Bleeding Seeded Spirit even though its sets, costumes, sound and lights are locked up in their normal home at the Roxy Performing Arts Center due to a burst water main. They had to relocate to the Artistic Vibes space miles away in about day or so to bravely carry on.

Then, let’s give them credit for courageously undertaking a kind of highly stylized, impressionistic experiment rarely attempted by South Florida theaters.

And then let’s acknowledge that for a lot of audience members, this one included, that My First comes across as an overheated, self-indulgent, ham-handed, pretentious misfire that has nothing to do with the physical challenges of the emergency transfer.

Hardly the only problem, but emblematic, is that during the first hour of the 105-minute play, there are three artistically stylistic modes: loud, really loud and deafening with a lot of floor-pounding on a hollow floor and ear-splitting screeching. I mean for a solid hour. From the opening moments.

There are even a few qualified virtues here including Martinez’s skill at staging the entire show as a kind of Martha Graham dance piece with vibrant movement, including a barely clothed but expressive representation of a young woman’s initiation into sex that looks like an X-rated edition of Cirque du Soleil acrobatics. That’s meant as a compliment.

It’s very difficult to evaluate Breen’s script because Martinez has directed the actors to deliver the lines with all the declamatory subtlety of a Greek chorus or a Hialeah construction crew swinging sledgehammers at each other. But she goes on way too long, having made her points over and over. Yet she has some incisively observed lines such as one daughter missing her mother’s presence, “Oh, I loved how she hated us...”

Unfortunately, when you can understand the words through the actresses’ inconsistent enunciation, many of them seem ludicrous. A sister aching for sex says, “My mouth is not thirsty,” then points to her vagina. “How do you drink down there?” Others make little sense such as, “My books will burn brightly in the mountains.”

Point is: There is more to great art (well, most great art) than venting a cry of the heart. There is skill and craft to forge that cry into some kind of disciplined communication that can be comprehended even on some visceral level. Witness the work of the House Theatre of Chicago imported to the Arsht Center or Mad Cat Theatre’s best offerings.

But other than Benson and Coleman’s work, the acting style is so far over the top that it is never engaging, compelling or moving.

Hopefully, New Theatre and My First will be back home at the Roxy soon where the play will be enhanced by lighting (Artistic Vibes could only provide four weak lighting elements), a system that can handle the doubtless sophisticated soundscape, the costumes, the sets etc.  But the problems that need to be addressed run far deeper.

New Theatre's production of My First, My Fist, My Bleeding Seeded Spirit plays at Artistic Vibes, through December 8; at least, as of this posting, they haven't announced plans to move the production back to the Roxy.

Stage Door Theatre: Sophisticated Ladies (reviews)

The Stage Door Theatre opened its production of Sophisticated Ladies at its Broward venue on October 25, 2013.

The musical legacy of The Duke is celebrated in this stylish and brassy retrospective that has taken audiences and critics alike by storm throughout the world. Featuring "It Don't Mean a Thang", "Take the A Train", and "Satin Doll" to name a few. This is a great evening of theatrical entertainment from one of the great masters!

Christine Dolen reviewed for The Miami Herald:

At Stage Door, under the direction of Dan Kelley and with elaborate choreography by Chrissi Ardito, Sophisticated Ladies becomes a by-the-numbers song and dance show. Some of those numbers -- particularly those featuring the expert jazz vocals of Ziarra Washington -- are exquisite invitations to get lost in Ellington’s world. Others feel like filler, as one singer goes ever-so-slightly flat and another struggles with a melody that doesn’t lie comfortably in his range.

The lack of live musicians is a bit ironic, given Ellington’s history as a pianist and orchestra leader, and it makes the number-to-number transitions that much more difficult. Sophisticated Ladies is all start, stop, start, stop, with little flow.

The performers, dressed in a constantly changing array of colorful costumes by Peter Lovello, bring plenty of vocal and dance talent to the piece, leading to a number of memorable moments.

The standout singer, though not the only impressive one, is Washington. Slender, self-assured and adept at revelatory phrasing, she scats opposite the appealing Christopher George Patterson on Take the ‘A’ Train, delivers an aching In a Sentimental Mood, turns a duet with Stevanie Anita Williams (a blending of I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good and Mood Indigo) into one of the show’s highlights.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/03/3729309/sophisticated-ladies-celebrates.html#storylink=cpy

Led by lanky Gregory Omar Osborne, dancers Clint J. Hromsco, Marcus Davis, Walter P. Kemp II, Courtney Blackmun, Karma Jenkins and Shenise Nuñez turn Caravan into a demonstration of precision tapping. Brooke Martino brings vocal exuberance and high kicks to Hit Me With a Hot Note and Watch Me Bounce, and Patterson shines opposite Washington in the counterpoint number Don’t Get Around Much Anymore/I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart.

Sophisticated Ladies will seem a perfectly pleasant way to spend an afternoon at the theater. But musicians and smoother transitions would make for a better show.

Hap Erstein reviewed for the Palm Beach ArtsPaper:

Sophisticated Ladies, a 32-year-old revue of the tunes, dress and dance steps most associated with Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, is the latest offering at Broward Stage Door Theatre, and it brings us back to the lively jazz-and-jive scene of the Cotton Club era in hugely entertaining fashion.

...Dan Kelley does double duty as director and musical-staging artist. He uses velvet gloves to make sure the action is smooth, and his 11 performers respond with elegance.

One minor setback: The music is a pre-recorded track that has a tendency to sound tinny, though sometimes the actors overcome the flaw with terrific stage presence. A live orchestra, or maybe a smaller ensemble – one heavy on saxophone, clarinet and banjo – would have brought the show closer to perfection.

The women in the cast include talent-laden Tennessee native Courtney Blackmun, Oregon-born Karma Jenkins, Brooke Martino and Shenise Nunez -- in their Broward Stage debuts -- svelte and strong-voiced Ziarra Washington and torch-song specialist Stevanie Anita Williams.

Adding touches of humor with elegance are the guys, including familiar Broward Stage performer Marcus Davis, the returning Clint Hromsco, an excellent Walter Kemp II – a singer and a choreographer – Gregory Omar Osborne and Christopher George Patterson, who, whenever onstage, looks so darn happy to be there. Everyone seems equally adept at delivering the goods.

The well-disciplined troupe dazzles the audience all along the way..

Costumer Peter Lovello deserves extra credit for designing the colorful wardrobes that change from song to song. Plaudits also are in order for tailor Carman Guzman, whose fingers must have been flying to produce garb that stuns with the flash of a bygone era.

Choreographer Chrissi Ardito conjures up some magical steps, as the tap dancing is top-notch, and the high kicks, swirls, spins and other moves are certain crowd-pleasers.

Rod Stafford Hagwood Your Gay Boyfriend was there for the Stunned-Senseless:

“Sophisticated Ladies,” the celebration of composer Duke Ellington’s music now at the Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs, sounds as good as it looks.

And that is really saying something about the music, because thanks to Peter Lovello’s sparkly, spangly, shiny costumes and David Torres’ set right out of an Erte dream for Busby Berkeley, this show looks like a million bucks, which adjusted for inflation is more like a gazillion.

Ha Ha.  "Adjusted for inflation."  That's like humor, or something.

The show’s dream team of a cast includes 11 singers-slash-dancers, who belt out 24 numbers with husky razzle-dazzle. And what hits they have to work with...

Note to S-S editor: when you are writing it out, you don't have to WRITE the word "slash"; you just put in the "-".

So the show is performed with a recorded track, albeit an excellent one. Insert long sigh here. Ellington’s music keeps getting interrupted with brief dead spots between songs as the next track comes online. The cast has to work awfully hard, harder than we have the right to expect really, to keep revving the engine back up.

Sophisticated Ladies plays at the Broward Stage Door Theatre through November 24, 2013.

Boca Raton Theatre Guild: They're Playing Our Song (reviews)

The Boca Raton Theatre Guild opened its production of They're Playing Our Song on November 8, 2013.

Composer Marvin Hamlisch's energetic disco score, New York setting and funny script by Neil Simon is our first main-stage musical of the season.

They’re Playing Our Song will star Carbonell Award winners Margot Moreland and Oscar Cheda as fictional counterparts to the real-life romance between Hamlisch and  lyricist Carol Bayer-Sager.

Keith Garsson directed a cast that included Oscar Cheda, Margot Moreland, David Berry, Lindsey Johr, Jamie Leigh, Chelsea Lee, George Macia, and Micah Scroggins and Nate Lauar.
Bill Hirschman reviewed for Florida Theater On Stage:

You know what’s not fair? Speaking from a selfish audience point of view, it’s not fair that Margot Moreland and Oscar Cheda don’t get cast enough on South Florida stages. We deserve more.

Just watching these actors joyfully singing the title song – portraying a composer and lyricist recognizing their big hits playing on a restaurant’s loudspeaker – is the kind of entertainment that gives you a vicarious buzz. Cheda’s eyes pinch into a delighted squint and Moreland simply glows in a number that is infectious.

They’re Playing Our Song is a late entry in the category of old time musicals, a frothy frippery with a bit of heart and a lot of polish skillfully applied by experienced professionals. Other than the title tune, few people remember any of the score ten minutes after the curtain falls, other than a fond recollection of a procession of solid numbers wrought by talented tunesmiths.

What is essential with these shows, more than most, is that the lead actors must be engaging, winning people the audience can fall in love with. Fortunately, director Keith Garsson has wisely hired Moreland and Cheda.

Cheda has a full expressive sound that delivers these songs far better than the original actor on Broadway, Robert Klein. He has a slightly woebegone look that served him well in his Carbonell-winning performance as the nebbishy protagonist in GableStage’s The Adding Machine. But his Vernon does not exude a shred of being a victim or loser, just the host for a goodly dose of neuroses.

Moreland is blessed with both a powerhouse voice and an innate likability that charms anyone watching. Many will remember her from her frequent stands as the hairdresser in various productions of Shear Madness. But those with a good memory recall her dynamite turn as Mama Rose in the Fort Lauderdale Players’ Gypsy in the mid 1990s – a role we’d pay double to see her repeat.

Look, this is just cotton candy, but Moreland and Cheda make it awfully tasty.

Michelle F. Solomon wrote for miamiartzine:

The casting of Oscar Cheda as Vernon Gersch (based on Hamlisch himself) and Margot Moreland as Sonia Walsk (yes, you guessed it, based on Bayer-Sager) ensures there are actors who can sing the heck out of the songs, which, frankly in this show, is more essential than cracking Simon's comedy — although that can't be overlooked, either.

Keith Garsson's direction gives the show the snap it needs. This play takes off like a runaway train and keeping that pace is essential to its energy. It helps that he has his two stars who maintain that wattage throughout. When Cheda sings the title song — Vernon hears his hit playing in the restaurant — he lights up. And Cheda, who doesn't look like he'd have the moves, breaks out, swinging his hips and hitting every note while he grins from ear to ear.

Moreland's Sonia is a bit less infectious. While the character's clinginess could be endearing, her Sonia borders on manic. But all clears to calm when Moreland sings, which is where it really matters.

Speaking of the ensemble, David Berry, Lindsey Johr, Jamie Leigh, Chelsea Lee, George Macia, and Micah Scroggins are charismatic and add a wonderful liveliness to the show. Upping the ante in the lively department is a great group of musicians led by pianist Caryl Fantel, with Karen Nagy on synthesizer, Martha Spangler on bass, and Roy Fantel and Destin Johnson alternating performances on drums.

(Definitely worth a mention is Nate Lauar, who has a few funny bits at the end of the show in a brief appearance as Phil, the Engineer.)

Rod Stafford Hagwood hacked some words together for The Stunned Senseless:

...the Boca Raton Theatre Guild has a very fine production of “They’re Playing Our Song” running through Nov. 24 at the Willow Theatre at Sugar Sand Park.

Lucky for us, director Keith Garsson has found two leads who know exactly what they’re doing. They know when to caress a lyric like a violin, and when to belt it like a cornet. Both Oscar Cheda (as Vernon Gersch) and Margot Moreland (as Sonia Walsk) settle into their songs nicely, he with his richly luxuriant timbre and she with her rafter-rattling sonic boom. And they have some nimble comic timing, to boot.

Fortunately, this production has a live band, and that goes a long way to making things better because — aside from being a rarity these days due to prohibitive costs — this four-piece ensemble really swings, with a synthesizer filling in the score’s blank spots.

The Boca Raton Theatre Guild production of They're Playing Our Song plays at The Willow Theater at Sugar Sands Park through November 24, 2013.

Theatre at Arts Garage: The Longing And The Short Of It (reviews)

Theatre at Arts Garage opened its production of The Longing And The Short Of It on November 1, 2013.

The Longing and the Short of It is an evening of catchy, thrilling, and unpredictable theatre songs in a variety of delightful musical styles, written and composed by acclaimed composer/lyricistDaniel Maté (2013 Kleban Prize for Most Promising Musical Theatre Lyricist.) Six actors play a multitude of relatable characters, all struggling to find love and acceptance, or the nearest available substitute. Whether acting out lustily at a party, running into an ex in a public place and saying all the wrong things, pleading insanity to keep a relationship from ending, or simply enjoying a nice, quiet self-pity party at home, these people all long to feel, in the words of the opening song, “something like okay”.

Max Friedman directed a cast that included John Herrera, Liz Lark Brown, Elizabeth Dimon, Henry Gainza, Alix Paige, and Noah Zachary.

Bill Hirschman reviewed for Florida Theater On Stage:

Like a reporter, Daniel Maté holds up a mirror so we can examine ourselves more clearly in his new musical The Longing and The Short Of It at the Theatre at Arts Garage. But his vision has such incisive clarity that he is more a chronicler whose work decades hence will enable our descendants to see, as Wilder suggested in Our Town, this is how we lived in the early part of the 21st Century.

It’s a collection of songs with no book, no plot and perhaps the faintest wisp of developmental arc, unified by the author’s vision and a loose theme. Yet, that doesn’t undercut the effectiveness of the individual pieces nor their accumulated weight at the end of the evening.

To physicalize those portraits of very ordinary and thereby recognizable people, Arts Garage has gathered six engaging and winning performers, most with local ties: Liz Lark Brown, the local favorite Elizabeth Dimon, Actors Playhouse stalwart Henry Gainza, Broadway vet John Herrera, Alix Paige who was Aldonza in Dramaworks’ Man of La Mancha, and Noah Zachary.

Visiting director Max Friedman moves his players around unobtrusively through solos, duets and group numbers while musical director Paul Reekie guides the cast through challenging twists in the melody lines as well as the choral arrangements by Maté. Both men encourage their performers to find the emotional core of the songs and deliver the
sentiments fully and cleanly without begging for sympathy.

It’s a thoughtful offering for adventurous audiences as the third season opener for Tyrrell’s venture whose artistic vision echoes that of his defunct Florida Stage. If there’s any justice, these songs and Maté’s voice will be heard across the country.

Hap Erstein reviewed for Palm Beach ArtsPaper:

While the industry already knows Daniel Maté — the recipient of this year's Kleban Prize for most promising new lyricist and other awards — it is Tyrrell who has given Maté his first fully staged professional production. But judging from the abundant quality of the song cycle in The Longing and the Short of It, it is inevitable Maté’s work will become widely known and acclaimed.

Director Max Friedman has a nimble company of six performers, divided into pairs of 20-somethings, 30-ish folks and a couple representing the 50s, though ultimately little is made of the age differences or the pairings. A standout in the cast is Elizabeth Dimon, either because she was dealt two of the better solos (Starting S..t With You and When I Get Enlightened) or she delivers them so well. Also above par are Broadway veteran John Herrera, the slyly comic Henry Gainza (negotiating the shoals of a first encounter on We Don’t Have to Date) and the throaty, bespectacled Alix Paige who, among other things, takes the leads on a hip throwaway number about Facebook.

The Sun-Sentinel once again inexplicably buries a review of a mainstream theatre piece in their Gay Boyfriend blog: on second thought, it IS Rod Stafford Hagwood, who has yet to completely master the art of complete sentences.

The song cycle by Daniel Mate is akin to telepathically listening to the inner dialogue of various people as they negotiate the dry humor that often helps one to swallow the bitter pills of big-city life: paralyzing insecurities, existential crises and feeble loneliness.

It’s either that or the therapy sessions from Jerry Seinfeld, Elaine May and Woody Allen transcribed and set to music, somewhere between coffeehouse strumming and showtune-cabaret cleverness.

If anything can keep the performance buoyant, it just may be this cast of six singers supported by four musicians (the piano player, in particular, added plenty of sass here and there). Mate may have won the 2013 Kleban Prize for the Most Promising Musical Theatre Lyricist, but the 10 people on stage have to make the musical magic work for 90
minutes with a 15-minute intermission. And they do.

Yeah, we're glad we let our subscription lapse.  Jack Zink must be spinning like a top.

The Theatre at Arts Garage production of The Longing And The Short Of It plays through November 24, 2013.

The Scene for November 15, 2013

The theater season is in full swing, as you can see from our chock-full listings below.  We’re running a little behind on the reviews, but we’re working hard to catch up.  

 

In other miscellaneous news, City Theatre has named Mcley Lafrance as Assistant Artistic Director – congratulations! Teatro Promoteo turns 40 – the longest running theatre company you’ve never heard of!  This Spanish language company is based on the Miami-Dade County downtown campus. 

Island City Stage has extended The Timekeepers another week at Empire Stage.

 

But the best news of all, at least for The Plaza Theatre, is that the Lantana Bridge is scheduled to open this Sunday.  No more scenic drives along A1A – unless you WANT to! 

 

Monday, Broadway World reports that the Arts and Business Council is hosting a forum about The Affordable Care Act.  You can register to attend at the Life is Art website.

 

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

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opening...
 
The Wick Theatre opens Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, through November 25th.  Note that they tend towards a 7:30 curtain!
 
Broward Stage Door opens The Last Night of Ballyhoo, through December 31.
 
The New Theatre opens My First, My Fist, My Bleeding Seeded Spirit, which will play through December 8th.
 
Laffing Matterz is back for another season of dinner, music, and outrageous original comedy at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Thursdays through Saturdays, with some Sunday matinees.
 

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you still haven't missed...
  

Zoetic Stage presents Fear Up Harsh at the Arsht Center through November 24, 2013.

The Alliance Theatre Lab presents Savage in Limbo at the Main Street Playhouse through November 24, 2013.
 
Broward Stage Door's production of Sophisticated Ladies plays through November 24.
 
Fingers & Toes plays at The Plaza Theatre  through November 24, 2013
 
The musical revue All That Jazz – The Music of Kander and Ebb, also plays at The Plaza Theatre, but on Mondays and Tuesdays through November 26.
 
The Theatre at Arts Garage  premiere production of The Longing And The Short Of It plays through November 24.
 
Island City Stage presents The Timekeepers at Empire Stage through November 24.has been extended through November 30!
 
Boca Raton Theatre Guild presents They’re Playing Our Song at the Willow Theatre in Sugar Sand Park through November 24,
 

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last chance to see...
Outré Theatre Company’s Much Ado About Nothing winds up its run at Black Box Studio at Mizner Park through November 17.
 
Knowledge and Noise is an original play at the Miami Theatre Center that closes this Saturday, November 16.
 
Palm Beach Dramaworks’ hit production of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men plays through November 10, 2013  finishes its extended run this Sunday,  November 17th.
 

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community/conservatory
Down In Front Theatre Company opens Norman Is That You? at the Sunrise Soref JCC, through November 24.
 
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat open at the Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts, through November 24.
 
University of Miami’s Theatre Department offers She Loves Me at the Jerry Herman Ring theatre through November 23.
 
The University School at NSU offers Completely Hollywood Unabridged, through Saturday.
Sleeping Beauty plays at FIU through Sunday.
 
FAU offers The Importance of Being Earnest through November 24.
 
Maltz Jupiter Theatre offers Through The Looking Glass as part of its Emerging Artist Series this Friday and Saturday.
 

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for kids...
 
Shrek the Musical plays at Showtime Performing Arts Theatre through November 16.
 
Actors’ Playhouse presents Miss Nelson is Missing through November 15.

Plaza Theatre: Fingers & Toes (reviews)

 The Plaza Theatre opened its production of Fingers & Toes on November 7, 2013.

It’s a love triangle that keeps you guessing all while snapping your fingers and tapping your toes! Tap dancer Dustin “Toes” MacGrath and pianist Tristan “Fingers” St. Claire have dreams of putting on a major Broadway show. They sell the idea to a producer with a grand tale of a show stopping boy meets girl dance spectacular that’ll be finished in two weeks. Unfortunately, they haven’t written it yet,…

Robert Moss directed a cast that included Aaron Berk, Rick Faugano, and Nili Bassman.

Michelle F. Solomon wrote for Florida Theater On Stage:

There are bits and pieces to love in what Plaza Theatre is billing as a tap comedy musical, Fingers and Toes.  This throwback draws its breath from musical theater naiveté and recalls a time when talent was about the love of tap dancing and the hard-knock life of the Great White Way when the competition wasn’t impersonating Glee kids or Who’s Got Talent? wannabes.

Much of the script is clichéd and hackneyed and, more than once, the same device that gets a laugh in one scene is repeated to obtain the same result again and again. Mostly they are time-travel yuks about musicals that have yet to appear in the American songbook. “We could set a show in Oklahoma, says Toes to which Fingers replies: “That would be the worst musical ever…you might as well set is on a tropical island.”

Medland’s original score isn’t catchy enough and it probably would fare better if audiences could sing along with a musical revue of songs they knew instead of “sound-alikes.”

A bigger problem still is this: There just aren’t enough Toes in Fingers and Toes. The stage and performers light up during some intricately choreographed tap numbers. And talented terpsichorean Faugno mesmerizes each time he glides across the stage. But things slow down to a lull when dialogue interrupts to spell out the boy-meets-girl, another boy meets the same girl, and boy-loses-girl story.

Bassman as Molloy keeps up with Faugno in the dance department (almost – he’s just that good!), but they both seem to be struggling to bring life to the limp script. Berk hammers away at Fingers’ sad-sack story, but he can’t overtake the limited dimension the character is given.

Robert Moss’s direction uses the one-setting space well and he has an understanding of what’s needed to keep the tuner merrily rolling along, whereas in different hands it could easily become uneven (the divide between the book and the music creates this disparity).

David Wanstreet’s choreography is the life of the show and is the reason to see this musical. He’s created beautiful silhouettes, twists, turns and sensual nuances. An a capella tap number that finds Toes playing out his moods dramatically on a short staircase is magically designed by Wanstreet and orchestrated so masterfully by Faugno, it becomes a piece of tap art.

The Sun-Sentinel continues its practice of denigrating live theatre by sending its fashion editor to cover it for the paper’s gay blog.  You don’t have to be gay to enjoy theater.  Honestly.  Theatre reviews belong in the Arts section directly, and it’s stupid decisions like this that drive readers away.

The production at the Plaza Theatre in Manalapan seems more expansive than its one location and three-member cast. But mega-massive talent has a way of doing that, and this performing triumvirate has some serious gifts.

…showbizzy joking goes on in the production. Toes loses a job to some new kid named Gene Kelly. Themes for their musical — like something centered in “Oklahoma” or maybe in “South Pacific” — are thrown out for being unworkable. “Annie Get Your Gun” and “Singin’ in the Rain” are punch lines.

Of course, the songs are nowhere near as memorable as any of the ones in those iconic musicals, and “Fingers & Toes” has to float somewhere between campy and reverent. So what? In the balance, the cast erases the script’s deficiencies with well-versed stagecraft. Faugno’s tap dancing is nothing short of a revelation, and Berk reminds us that the piano is also a percussive instrument.

Fingers & Toes plays at The Plaza Theatre  through November 24, 2013.

Alliance Theatre Lab: Savage in Limbo (reviews)

The Alliance Theatre Lab opened its production of  John Patrick Shanley’s Savage in Limbo at the Main Street Playhouse on November 7, 2013.

John Patrick Shanley (Doubt) sets his of-Broadway comedy-tragedy in a slightly seedy neighborhood bar in the Bronx, where a group of regulars (who all happen to be the same age—thirty-two) seek relief from the disappointments and tedium of the outside world. It explores the hopes and dreams of a group of rootless young “losers” who congregate in an anonymous Bronx bar, hoping to find respite from the drabness of their lives.

Adalberto Acevedo directed a cast that included Shira Abergel, Curtis Belz, Valentina Izarra, Christian Vandepas and Breeza Marena Zeller.

 

Christine Dolen reviewed for The Miami Herald:

Stick five people in a bar, introduce conflict, keep them there for 90 minutes or so, and you have any number of plays. One of those is John Patrick Shanley’s Savage in Limbo, the quirky yet abundantly watchable 1984 dark comedy Alliance Theatre Lab has chosen to kick off its season at Main Street Playhouse in Miami Lakes.

Director Adalberto J. Acevedo, who also designed the set (Howard Ferré did the sound and lighting), gets intricately detailed, impressive performances from his young cast.

Vandepas has the toughest challenge, given the fact that Murk is about as ebullient as Clint Eastwood, but the actor shows the caring man within during a scene in which he tries to rescue April from her drunken despair. Zeller’s character is pretty much loaded, start to finish, but the actress artfully cuts through the alcoholic haze to reveal the hurts that propel her to that barstool night after night.

…as Denise, that Savage in limbo, Abergel is a tightly wound, funny wonder. Her performance drives the production, and it holds up alongside the best work in any early-vintage Shanley.

Bill Hirschman reviewed for Florida Theater On Stage:

With crackling electricity and an earnest sincerity, the Alliance company conquers a script that is both lovely in its lyricism and risks wearing out its welcome by endlessly running full out in a hamster wheel getting nowhere (which may be the point). It’s a testament to the pyrotechnics and energy of the cast and the director that the audience willingly stays with it.

…the performances and direction are the best we’ve seen any of these folks deliver. Abergel, who has worked for several small theaters in the region, is a tireless bunch of nerve endings on a hunt compelled by a life-and-death hunger. She is matched stride for stride by Izarra… who just barely sidesteps the cartoon that Shanley has written, an accomplishment requiring considerable skill. Belz… has the same challenge and somehow triumphs over the Saturday Night Fever character that Shanley has written. Zeller, one of Alliance’s veterans, often sounds like a sitcom drunk and yet she manages to make credible April’s emergences from an alcoholic haze to vent her touching loneliness and pain. Vandepas, too, makes plausible Murk’s willingness to emerge from his shell when April is threatened. Each gets at least two solos to express their loneliness and their fear of the specter of a living death that faces them.

Acevedo’s physical staging is some of his best and his set design of a claustrophobic but homey haven is note perfect on a tiny budget…  this production, even with its flaws all laid at Shanley’s feet, is one of the most solid shows they’ve mounted.

Roger Martin reviewed for miamiartzine:

Producing Artistic Director of Alliance, Adalberto J. Acevedo, knows exactly what he's doing.

The five actors Acevedo has directed are flawless. They handle the loneliness, the desperation, the stupidity, the humor with passion and truth. When voices are raised they're not just shouts and screams, they're voices from the heart.

This is not a piece that's all woe and damnation. There's tenderness seldom seen. It will be a long time before you forget the Christmas scene between April (she wanted to be a nun; she's a drunk) and Murk, the belligerent bar tender. Or Linda winning back Tony. Savage, of course, finds no one.

Founded in 2005 by Acevedo and a full season theatre since 2009, the Alliance Theatre Lab has consistently produced good theatre. Savage in Limbo is one of its best.

John Thomason reviewed for the Miami New Times:

…while the play is always intellectually stimulating, it's also emotionally aloof. There's something missing in Savage in Limbo, something to viscerally connect audiences to Shanley's vision.

I'm convinced that this disconnection is present in the text and not in Alliance's superb production; this is quite simply one of the best-produced plays I've seen on its stage.  It's a bar-setting work (no pun intended) for ensemble acting in this region, perhaps the most cohesive team of actors assembled in a play since Zoetic Stage's All New People, back in January. Even the occasional mistakes and line flubs feel so real that they should be included in Shanley's script. As a result, the 90 minutes fly by.

The three women are especially outstanding. Izarra and Abergel are expert sparring partners, cut from similar cloths but clashing in texture. Both can speak a mile a minute, and both erect protective fronts and expose hidden vulnerabilities; the major difference is that Izarra's performance springs from the heart and Abergel's from the brain, choices that resonate deeply with their characters. Zeller's performance, meanwhile, springs from her Brandy Alexanders. She's a crushingly sad April, a permanently soused role that could easily have spiraled into parody. But she keeps it grounded, finding her character's illness and arresting us with just about every word.

The Alliance Theatre Lab presents Savage in Limbo at the Main Street Playhouse through November 24, 2013.

Zoetic Stage: Fear Up Harsh (reviews)

Zoetic Stage opened its world premiere of Christopher Demos-Brown’s Fear Up Harsh at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing arts on November 7, 2013.

"Fear Up Harsh" is a term used by the military to designate "enhanced interrogation" techniques. It's also the title of a searing new drama about a marine Medal of Honor Winner hiding a past that's anything but honorable, by Zoetic Stage co-founder and 2010 Carbonell Award winner, Christopher Demos-Brown.

An Iraq War Medal of Honor recipient's perfect life begins to unravel when a former comrade-in-arms comes to call in this play that shines a light on the corrupting effects of awards and commendations.

Stuart Meltzer directed a cast that included Karen Stephens, Jessica Brooke Sanford, Shane Tanner, and Stephen G. Anthony.

Christine Dolen reviewed for The Miami Herald:

Glory and shame, truth and secrets, the ongoing price of valor: Miami playwright Christopher Demos-Brown explores those notions and more in Fear Up Harsh, an engrossing new play now getting its Zoetic Stage world premiere at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

Incisive, amusing, sardonic and finally deeply affecting, the play underscores strengths Demos-Brown demonstrated in his earlier Carbonell Award-winning When the Sun Shone Brighter and the tart comedy Captiva. This is a playwright who crafts smart, insightful dialogue and memorable characters in service of compelling, engagingly theatrical stories.

Zoetic artistic director Stuart Meltzer keeps the production’s in-the-moment storytelling simple and clear, so there’s no confusion as a good man’s myth begins to unravel.

Brechtian make-believe, in which the audience becomes complicit, is always in evidence on Jodi Dellaventura’s malleable set, a rubble-surrounded platform that becomes Rob’s home, the battlefield, military and other offices.

In bringing the play to life for the first time, each actor communicates the complexities and contradictions of Demos-Brown’s richly written characters. Tanner, a real-life Army veteran, brings a military bearing, discipline and self-control to Rob, yet he lets Rob’s softening love for his daughter fleetingly transform his face. Sanford is persuasive as a girl whose desire to please her dad trumps a scarcely explored rebellious streak. Anthony is funny, foul and always effective as a variety of military men, a cop and a bullying Pentagon aide.

Stephens, who basks in loud cheers during the curtain call (and deserves every one), is superb as the fierce, broken Mary. Demos-Brown crafted the role for her, and one of the region’s best actors makes every quip, every comeback, every moment of confessional heartbreak her own.

Bill Hirschman reviewed for Florida Theater On Stage:

While paying all due respect to those who serve our country, Christopher Demos-Brown’s Fear Up Harsh is a mercilessly penetrating interrogation of how our need for heroes — a need even among the heroes themselves – can trump the very values of truth, honor and loyalty that they fought to preserve

The universally terrific cast directed by Stuart Meltzer features a world-class performance, no exaggeration, by Karen Stephens who invests truth and life into the familiar trope of a physically and mentally scarred veteran who can no longer find home back home.

Stephens delivers Mary Jean’s curse of knowing the truth and being unable to escape its permanent blowback. She also creates the tragic division between the world of warfare and the world back home, a disconnect so massive that the sometimes facile sentiment “Thank you for your service” cannot bridge it.

Tanner, often erroneously pigeonholed as a musical theater actor, nails the difficult task of melding Wellman’s ambivalence, pride, love for his daughter, fear, guilt and half-dozen other warring qualities. Tanner and Demos-Brown make it clear that Wellman is, indeed, literally in deed, a hero, but also an imperfect human being.

Newcomer Sanford, a recent New World grad, is fine as the teenager who adores her father and shares many of his traditional values, but who harbors a secret desire to be a punk rock musician.

Anthony plays a half dozen military types up and down the command chain, making each one different from the other and yet obviously all cut from the same cloth of bureaucracy.

Roger Martin reviewed for miamiartzine:

Christopher Demos-Brown's world premiere, Fear Up Harsh, playing now at the Arsht Center, knocks the props from under the concept of honor. It's a brutal, cynical story of inter-service rivalry, the weakness of heroes and the trauma of war. The acting is terrific, the story is explosive, the dialogue of the very best, yet Zoetic Stage's presentation is unfortunately flawed. Blame the director, blame the writer.

The playing area is surprisingly small; a three quarter thrust raised stage representing Iraq, Wellman's home, various Marine and Army offices, with steps leading up on both sides from the theatre floor. Some of the action, however, is on the floor and almost impossible to see. The at times problematic blocking leaves actors facing upstage with consequent loss of dialogue.

This is a play of flash backs and it is within these that Stephen G. Anthony produces an outstanding, seemingly endless, stream of characters. He's a President, a Pentagon PR flack, a captain, a colonel, a general, a surgeon, an enlisted man and a townie cop. Perhaps more. Each character completely his own entity. Impressive.

I was fortunate enough to see the original reading of the play at the Arsht some months ago and it was enthralling. Christopher Demos-Brown presented a first script that was exceptional in its power and crispness. Obviously there were many rewrites between then and opening night and just as obviously they were not all to the good, the prime example being the enlargement of the part of Shawn, Wellman's daughter. She is not a driving character in the piece, the story plays out with or without her and it seems at times we are watching two completely different tales, the one sucking the power from the other.

With all that being said, this is still a piece that should be seen; its worth outshines its faults.

Zoetic Stage presents Fear Up Harsh at the Arsht Center through November 24, 2013.

Off Stage Conversations

Hi, I'm Andie Arthur, executive director of the South Florida Theatre League and I am here with Off Stage Conversations, where I take a look at what's being discussed in the national and international theatre communities.

The Latino/a Theatre Convening

HowlRound has a social media roundup of the Latino/a Theatre Convening. And if you want to feel as if you were there (in case you, like me, missed the satellite event in Miami), they also have a collection of articles and videos.

The Dramaturgy of Stage Combat

Meron Langser writes for HowlRound on fightaturgy or how to be deliberate and thoughtful with all stage combat.

Stop. Just Stop.

Publisher's Weekly has banned the words unique, compelling and poignant from their reviews as they are so overused as to be meaningless. Dear Playwrights and Publicists -- what would you do if those three words were banned from your blurb vocabulary? How much more evocative could your wording be? I would add heartfelt, uproarious, ground breaking, cutting edge and thought provoking.

Should Arts Institutions Fail?

The Wall Street Journal makes the argument that arts institutions should be allowed to fail.

Tony Kushner on Writing

Kushner has a charming piece on why he is not great at giving advice to writers.

The Scene for November 8, 2013

Jupiter Theatre unveiled its renovated theater this week, while the Broward Center celebrated the topping off if its new banquet facilities. It’s a good sign that theatre is healthy in South Florida.

We don't usually plug opera on The Scene, but we want to remind you that Florida Grand Opera’s very rare staging of Mourning Becomes Electra, a fifty year old opera whose previous productions could be counted on one hand, plays at the Broward Center starting this week. You can read up on it at Florida Theater On Stage, and  Broadway World.  And having peeked in on rehearsals, you don’t want to miss it.

 

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

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opening...

Zoetic Stage opens Christopher Demos-Brown’s Fear Up Harsh at the Arsht Center, through November 24.  You can read about it on The Miami Herald.

 

The Alliance Theatre Lab opens Savage in Limbo at the Main Street Playhouse this week.  We can’t remember any other local staging of this John Patrick Shanley play, which means it’s been a long time since it’s been done here.

 

Fingers & Toes opens at the Plaza Theatre in Manalapan this weekend.

 

Boca Raton Theatre Guild opens They’re Playing Our Song at the Willow Theatre in Sugar Sand Park this weekend.

 

---

you still haven't missed...

Outré Theatre Company’s Much Ado About Nothing plays at Black Box Studio at Mizner Park through November 17.

The Theatre at Arts Garage  premiere production of The Longing And The Short Of It plays through November 24.

Knowledge and Noise is an original play opening at the Miami Theatre Center this weekend, through November 16.

Palm Beach Dramaworks’ hit production of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men plays through November 10, 2013  has been extended though November 17th!

Island City Stage presents The Timekeepers at Empire Stage through November 24.

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last chance to see...

Slow Burn Theatre Company's critically acclaimed production of Next To Normal plays its final weekend at the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center on November 7. 

 

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community/conservatory

Down In Front Theatre Company opens Norman Is That You? at the Sunrise Soref JCC, through November 24.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat open at the Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts, through November 24.

Dreyfoos School of the Arts is offering Lend Me A Tenor through November 10.

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for kids...

Shrek the Musical plays at Showtime Performing Arts Theatre through November 16.

Actors’ Playhouse presents Miss Nelson is Missing through November 15.

Sol Children's Theatre Troupe offers New Clothes for the Emperor through November 10.

Off Stage Conversations

Hi, I'm Andie Arthur, executive director of the South Florida Theatre League and I'm here with Off Stage Conversations, where I take a look at what's being discussed in the national and international theatre community.

Diversity in Administration

Lily Janiak writes an in-depth article for Theatre Bay Area on diversity in hiring practices for regional theatres. It's an incredibly well researched article, hitting up viewpoints from a lot of people in our field. My personal favorite quote is from Mica Cole, "If you’re not tackling this issue, you’re not thinking strategically about how your institution will remain relevant going forward.”

Theatre for Young Audiences Matters

The Guardian has a piece on how we should place more value on theatre for young audiences.

Balance in Style

Nina Simon has a great piece on how museums balance the needs of vastly different constituencies. I think it would be great for South Florida theatres to translate this into their own terms as they think about audience development. How do we reach out to those who may be turned off by the traditional theatrical experience, while not making our long term donors and subscribers feel unwelcome? And what biases do we have about what is the right way to experience theatre?

Something Small That Is Awesome

Foundry Theatre's Production of The Good Person of Szechuan doesn't hand programs to patrons before the show. Instead, they hand specifically printed programs to patrons after the show that include the entire budget for the production. It's a gesture that is so overwhelmingly well tailored for that play that I love it to pieces.

While I doubt South Florida is going to see any Brecht any time soon outside of educational theatre -- I would LOVE to see our theatres tailoring every aspect of their theatrical experience to the play that they are producing.

I'd also be excited to see some Brecht.

QR Codes are Dead

QR Codes were heralded as the next big marketing with smart phones thing. Not anymore.