The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts opened its 2025–2026 Broadway season on Tuesday, October 21, with The Wiz, a spirited revival of the beloved 1975 musical that reimagines The Wizard of Oz through a distinctly Black cultural lens. Anticipation filled the Dreyfoos Hall as theatergoers settled in for what promised to be a dazzling start to the season. With its mix of soul, funk, and gospel influences, The Wiz has long been celebrated for its exuberance and affirming message of courage and self-discovery. Yet, despite a strong start and a promising premise, opening night was hindered by significant technical difficulties that disrupted the performance’s rhythm and energy.

The natural order of popular theater tends to follow this formula: Find a best-selling book, turn it into a hit film, then get a top lyricist and composer to create the score for a smash Broadway musical. Yann Martel’s uniquely philosophical treatise/adventure story of a novel, Life of Pi, became a worldwide sensation in 2001 (with sales of over ten million). A successful, visually striking film, directed by Ang Lee, followed in 2012. But the three-Tony-winning theatrical version of LIFE OF PI, which opened on Broadway in 2023 to enthusiastic acclaim by critics and audiences alike, and whose National Tour is now playing at the Au-Rene Theater of Broward Center (only from October 21 – 26), is no musical. 

Wrapping up its opening weekend at the Arsht Center in Miami, Miami City Ballet’s Peck: Miami in Motion offers an evening devoted entirely to the work of Justin Peck, one of the most visible choreographers exploring contemporary ballet. The program features three of his ballets: “Year of the Rabbit,” “Chutes and Ladders,” and “Heatscape.” These trace more than a decade of Peck’s creative output. An homage to the choreographer, the performance on opening night was both beautiful and forgettable; I was left thinking on certain moments, already losing trace of the awe that usually lingers after the final bow.

Would you kill for a hit? With my mom, South Florida Theater’s own wonderful Mindy Leaf 

Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art? That eternal question slinks across the boards in Deathtrap, Ira Levin’s devilishly clever thriller now playing at Empire Stage courtesy of exciting new theatre company on the block, Upstage Productions. Directed by DK Kondelik, this new staging takes the classic four-Tony nominated 1978 play—a wicked satire of ambition, authorship, and ego—and gives it fresh voltage, its twists snapping like trapdoors underfoot. What begins as a witty drawing-room mystery unfurls into a gleeful study of human deceit, Clue meets hall-of-mirrors fever dream.

At Wednesday’s matinee, Kimberly Wick’s (production supervisor/costumes/properties manager) upbeat words of welcome to The Wick Theatre & Museum Club’s 12th Season confirmed their highly successful formula of providing audiences with the best “Oldies but Goodies.” What better show to personify this mission than staging the world’s longest running musical! THE FANTASTICKS is an off-Broadway legend that ran for 42 successive years at the same theatre, since 1960, was awarded the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 1991, then took off across the country (boasting some 250 new productions yearly), including a 2006-2017 off-Broadway revival. Based loosely on the 1894 play “Les Romanesques” by Edmond Rostand, the musical boasts a Book & Lyrics by Tom Jones and Music by Harvey Schmidt.

Rosemary Clooney was one of the first stars who introduced me to the magic of Golden Age Hollywood, before I even really knew who she was. White Christmas was one of the first classic movies I saw growing up, and Clooney’s charming personality and melodious singing voice immediately endeared her to me and so many other viewers. However, if you want to know more about this talented star, beyond the glitz and glamour on the surface of her career, Tenderly is the show for you. Written by Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman, and directed by Jim Tyminski, Tenderly tells the comprehensive story of Rosemary Clooney’s life. Set in 1968 in a psychiatrist’s office at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills, where Clooney is making visits due to her mental health struggles, the musical constantly flashes back and forth in time to paint viewers a picture of this icon’s life and career—whether it’s the highs, the lows, or everything in between.

Just in time for the spooky season, Lake Worth Playhouse dares to feed their ambition by showing a mightily-portrayed production of Little Shop of Horrors. With a number of notable improvements, including a PhD director in Christy Rodriguez de Conte, Lake Worth is having a meteoric rise, and they welcome plantlike aliens into their ranks on that ascent. Little Shop captures the camp, the laughs, and the terror that make this quirky musical one of the best ever.

They say “truth is stranger than fiction” but if the plot of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN: The Musical were a work of fiction, it would never fly. I’m also using “fly” here literally for that’s how we are introduced to the young high-flyer who posed as a pilot and was ultimately caught at an airport, about to board a plane. From the age of 16 to 18 (early 1960s, in our storyline), he was the youngest, most prolific, and genius conman to ever have gotten away with two years of multiple professional identities (Pan Am co-pilot, surgeon, lawyer – though he did later study and pass the bar exam) along with printing millions of dollars-worth of counterfeit checks.

Leave it to New City Players (NCP) to find the perfect “new” (to South Florida audiences) play to open their milestone Tenth Anniversary Season. The ambitious young theater company, which began with bold idealistic dreams of making a difference in the community through “must-attend-live” creative theatrical engagement and performances, has definitely arrived! By presenting both classics and originals, along with lesser-known fantastic finds, they’ve reaped dedicated followers of all ages and walks of life, prestigious local awards, and ongoing critical acclaim.