“Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you” goes the old song lyric. In the topsy-turvy world of playwright Charles Busch, that’s not a charming sentiment — it’s a direct threat. The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, now running at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, is a modern fable…
Where do ideas for musicals come from? Time was, most of them were adaptations of plays or books (My Fair Lady, Guys & Dolls, South Pacific). Nowadays, though, inspiration for shows comes from all sorts of sources. Take, for example, Bat Boy: The Musical, which began as a “real life”…
Life certainly has its daily struggles, but these tend to distract from the really big issues that sooner or later we all must face: Why are we here? Why do we have to die? And what should we do with the time we’ve got? Playwright Michael McKeever addresses the Big…
Having your share of woes in the dating wars? Consider yourself lucky you’re not one of the characters in Beyond Therapy, the scathing, hilarious comedy receiving a stylish revival at Palm Beach Dramaworks. The New York hit from the 1980s takes aim at an array of contemporary targets, among them…
The Design District’s striking yet desolate Buena Vista building is the perfect site for Cuban director and playwright Victor Varela’s first Miami-based creation, Nonato en Utero, a disturbing piece of Spanish-language theater that explores cloning, immigration, and the regeneration and destruction that make up the birth process. A sterile woman…
Ongoing •A Gift of Murder: President Fred Fink of Fink’s Family Fruitcakes gets a deadly dose of his own dessert. Did his disgruntled employees do him in, or was it his feuding family? 8:00 p.m. Saturdays, through November 22. Dave & Buster’s, 3000 Oakwood Blvd., Hollywood; 954-923-5505. •Ain’t Misbehavin’: A…
Whew! Be careful what you wish for. If you have seen as many bland South Florida shows as I have, you may start hoping to find something really provocative, something so mind boggling you won’t forget it ten minutes after you leave the theater. If that is your quest, prepare…
The Actors’ Playhouse has a serious personality conflict. The Coral Gables company is known as a purveyor of cheerful, lightweight entertainment that’s rather like the upscale chain restaurants sprouting near its Miracle Mile location: The fare is uncomplicated and consistent, no challenges and no surprises. AP has had considerable success…
Talk about counterprogramming. South Florida playgoers tired of lightweight modern plays and musicals can find some heavy — really heavy — drama at the New Theatre in Coral Gables. The tiny troupe often takes on gargantuan projects and its latest, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, is a monster. This three-hour-long…
You wouldn’t think it nowadays, but there was a time — not so long ago — when Sam Shepard was the king of American theater. His vision of America as a metaphysical and spiritual desert haunted by dark ghosts of violence was preeminent in the restless 1970s and ’80s as…
War may be hell but we humans love to hear stories about it. Think back on the history of theater, of movies, of literature. The war story is central to them all. The Iliad still stirs the imagination. So does Shakespeare’s Henry the Fifth, Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Hemingway’s For…
One of the lamentable aspects of modern American society is the absence of political discourse in public life. “Never talk about politics or religion” goes the old saw, and Americans don’t, as a rule, do so in social contexts, and they often go ballistic when artists get political. Apparently being…
Local theater fans have often griped about the state of the stage here in South Florida, and readers of this column will recognize me as one of that disgruntled crew. Despite the wide array of local theater companies, the choice of shows tends to run a narrow gamut from lightweight…
What a difference two years can make. It has been that long (that short, really) since the Sol Theatre of Fort Lauderdale made its debut with a lively but rather shallow production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, an opening gambit that was brave if overly ambitious. Since then the Sol has…
One of the intriguing aspects of the South Florida stage scene is the “branding” of the many resident companies here. Instead of cherry-picking specific plays from various theaters, audiences tend to stick with certain troupes, regardless of what programming they offer. And theaters that thrive here do so in part…
Having breakfast with theatrical producer Jay H. Harris is like taking a quick trip to Broadway. We are noshing at Lester’s, a retro diner in Fort Lauderdale, but Harris’s rapid-fire delivery and wide range of show-biz subjects makes the place feel more like the Edison Hotel coffee shop on West…
If plays were drinks, the New Theatre’s Twelfth Night or As You Will would certainly be a New Age smoothie. Rafael de Acha and company have whipped up a colorful froth of a show that’s a decided departure from their sober Othello, the first half of the company’s two-play Shakespeare…
An artist is always alone — if he is an artist. — Henry Miller At first glance it would be easy to think the most recent production at the Miami Light Project is standard Mad Cat fare — smart, glib twenty- and thirtysomething actors playing smart, glib twenty- and thirtysomethings…
Bar trivia: What Miami watering hole boasts a bed center stage instead of a band? Forget the prissy canopies of South Beach. We’re talking stained Sealy Posturepedic sans headboard or box spring, an amplifier and mike in one corner, with Sears catalog, crusty take-out boxes, and empty bottles of Jack…
Part of the trick of producing plays is deciding not only what to stage but when. Some shows work better in the fall than the summer, some are hurt by financial bad times, others are helped by same. But all attempts to time a play’s opening are still subject to…
One thing you have to say about the New Theatre: It’s not afraid to take on gigantic plays. Rafael De Acha’s troupe has assayed such monsters as Angels in America, Electra, and Hamlet in recent seasons. Now the New brings two more Shakespeares, termed “The Shakespeare Project,” running all summer…
In South Florida summer shows, like summer clothes, tend toward lightweight informality. So it’s not surprising that the Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs opted to present The Affections of May, a casual comedy that’s as unpretentious as a seersucker suit and just as traditional. Canadian playwright Norm Foster’s well-structured,…
