When a Jewish family of parents and grown up children gather for a vacation together in the Caribbean resort in Turks and Caicos, the beautiful sunny skies soon change into a dark, wet and windy storm that is escalating into a hurricane.

The setting is the principle scene of playwright S. Asher Gelman’s two act drama “The Zionists: A Family Storm”, a Miami New Drama world premiere production that is running now through May 10 at Colony Theatre in Miami Beach.

As a new play making its East Coast premiere in Island City Stage’s current can’t-miss production, Everything Beautiful Happens At Night isn’t a piece that I went into with any real knowledge or notions about. And it’s an unusual compliment to the show that the first thing that I have to say about it is that this Sunday’s matinee confidently disproved its own otherwise striking title. 

I was blown away by Conversa (part 1 of Joanna Castle Miller’s autobiographical trilogy) and couldn’t wait to see part 2, INFERNA, another Theatre Lab world premiere that’s now also the featured opener of Forida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Owl New Play Festival. Once again, I was struck by the playwright’s originality, performance talent (she also acts in both plays), and breakaway message for the masses who are complacent about our bible brainwashed, sexist, and brand-manipulated society. Also, don’t worry if you missed Part 1 (which Castle Miller occasionally references, in jest, as “my other play”). My theater partner only saw this one and can confirm its standalone power to entertain, enlighten … and end with an emotional kick in the gut!

Does a bull belong in a China shop?  Well, when that “China shop” is actually “the patriarchy” and that “bull” is actually a woman ahead of her time, the takeaway from the standard cliche is actually far less obvious. For playwright Bryna Turner, the proverbial bull is early feminist Mary Woolley, whose bull-headed ways butt against glass ceilings in a way that makes for a compelling script’s worth of drama. 

Miami City Ballet’s Your Perfect Golden Hour, presented at The Parker in Fort Lauderdale on April 11 and 12, brought together four works from the company’s existing repertoire. The program paired Amy Hall Garner’s “Resplendent Fantasy,” José Limón’s “Chaconne” and “The Moor’s Pavane,” and Alonzo King’s “Following the Subtle Current Upstream,” a lineup that asked the company to shift rapidly between contemporaries. It was also my first time at The Parker, and it felt like an ideal room for ballet. So much dance in South Florida is experienced in spaces that emphasize scale and grandeur, at the cost of distance. The Parker offers something else. The stage never feels small, but the theater does feel intimate and personal. That closeness served this particular program well because Your Perfect Golden Hour was all about texture and tension.

Many of us recall watching John Waters’ groundbreaking 1988 hit film Hairspray at movie theaters, on TV, or in some other fashion. And everyone recognizes “Good Morning Baltimore,” the opening number that’s become part of America’s musical theater lexicon. But fewer people had seen the Broadway musical adaptation that went on to win eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in 2003. Shall I tell you now that there were Slow Burn Theatre Company patrons who’d attended the original Broadway show and/or various revivals and said Slow Burn’s was the best!!

Our local production and the takeaway message of five Tony Award-winning KIMBERLY AKIMBO (including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score) – whose National Touring Company opened Tuesday for a very short run at Broward Center – are perfectly aligned. Namely: Life’s short. Make the most of every day while you can.

Executive Director Bari Newport of “GableStage” presented a more than three hour, two intermission  production of playwright Joshua Harmon’s “Prayer For The French Republic” that, even with an outstanding 2025-26 season of Jewish-themed plays at GableStage ,stood out as the standout play of the season that one should not miss because of its gripping contemporary look at the consequences of contemporary anti-Semitism and its common ties with anti-Semitism 60 years earlier.

Who could predict when playwright Ted Malawer’s (co-writer of Emmy-nominated “Red, White & Royal Blue”) latest play was selected two years ago for Palm Beach Dramaworks’ new play reading festival run by Bruce Linser, the award-winning South Florida writer/actor/director would go on to direct the East Coast premiere (and only second staging) of EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL HAPPENS AT NIGHT at Island City Stage (ICS). The ideal LGBTQ-friendly venue. But I’m so glad he did!