Miami, FL – December 28, 2022 – Zoetic Stage (@ZoeticStageMIA) and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County (@arshtcenter) are proud to present the world premiere of AMERICAN RHAPSODY, an epic yet intimate exploration of the evolution of one family throughout the last half of the 20th century into the turbulence of today and well beyond. Written by five-time Carbonell Award winner and Miami-based playwright Michael McKeever, the play continues the Arsht Center’s Theater Up Close series for the 2022-2023 season.
Tickets to AMERICAN RHAPSODY are $55 and $60*. Tickets may be purchased at the Adrienne Arsht Center box office by calling (305) 949-6722, or online at arshtcenter.org.
PNC Bank is the presenting sponsor of the 2022-2023 THEATER UP CLOSE series. WLRN is the media sponsor. The Arsht Center’s THEATER UP CLOSE series gratefully acknowledges the founding support of Adrianne and Jerry L. Cohen. Zoetic Stage would like to acknowledge Robin Ellen Meyers and her generous support for American Rhapsody.
“American Rhapsody is a wonderful homecoming for Michael McKeever, and I can’t think of a better play for that to happen other than this one,” said Zoetic Stage Artistic Director Stuart Meltzer. “American Rhapsody is complex, effortless, funny, inspirational but mostly, hopeful. Its structure and themes are what Michael enjoys writing about most- family, the American landscape, history, and hope. I expect audiences to walk away reflective and reminded of the power of theatrical storytelling…and maybe even eager to hug someone.”
Over the course of some 60 years — starting in 1969 and ending in 2032 — the Cabot family tries to keep up with the world as it evolves around them. Epic in scope yet intimate by nature, American Rhapsody weaves the lives of its main characters through the ever-changing landscape of the American zeitgeist as it speeds through the last half of the 20th century into the turbulence of today and well beyond: civil unrest, the feminist movement, the greed of the ’80s, the horrors of 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, same-sex marriage, the COVID-19 pandemic. As the family evolves into a new America, so does its cultural identity as members of other races and sexual orientations marry into and redefine what the family thought it was.
AMERICAN RHAPSODY is the sixth full-length play written by Miami native Michael McKeever for Zoetic Stage and the Theater Up Close series. McKeever has written 35 full-length plays throughout his career, many of which have been produced off-Broadway and internationally. He is the recipient of the prestigious George Abbott Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement and has won numerous Carbonell and Silver Palm Awards, in addition to three Florida Individual Artist Fellowships. McKeever and his husband, Stuart Meltzer, are co-founders of Zoetic Stage. Since its inception in 2010, the company has won numerous honors and citations and has become a leading force in the region’s artistic landscape. Several plays developed at Zoetic Stage have gone on to receive celebrated productions around the world.
AMERICAN RHAPSODY features a local and nationally recognized cast, including Alex Weisman, a Ft. Lauderdale native who recently starred on Broadway in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and currently stars as Frank, the first LGBTQ+ character on Sesame Street; Miami native and two-time Carbonell Award winner Lela Elam who has appeared in Zoetic Stage’s productions of Moscow and Clark Gable Slept Here; Lindsey Corey, a Carbonell Award winner who was recently in Million Dollar Quartet Christmas at Actor’s Playhouse; Aloysius Gigl, whose previous Zoetic Stage credits include Sweeney Todd and Side by Side by Sondheim; Stephen Trovillion, who was recently in the Actor’s Playhouse production of Now and Then, as well as part of City Theatre’s Summer Shorts festival; and Miami natives Laura Turnbull, Carlos Alayeto and Stephanie Vazquez.
The creative team for AMERICAN RHAPSODY is led by Zoetic Stage Artistic Director Stuart Meltzer and includes scenic design by Robert Wolin; lighting design by Rebecca Montero; sound design by Matt Corey; costume design by Marina Pareja; video direction by Delavega; and projection mapping by Steve Covey.
