It’s the best time of the year: theater season-opening time. On Tuesday, October 29, the Kravis Center began its 2024-2025 season of Kravis on Broadway with the hilarious musical adaptation of “Mrs. Doubtfire.” The beloved role of Robin Williams takes the theatrical stage with new characters, a litany of songs, and removes the layer of transphobia present in the movie’s side characters. It expands on the plot, providing more context while modernizing things with hidden caller ID on cell phones and emails, and what is left is an incredible piece of art retelling one of your favorite childhood movies.
MJ The Musical is set to revive its beloved annual Halloween tradition on October 31, featuring a spectacular finale performance of Michael Jackson’s iconic “Thriller.” This event promises an unforgettable experience with the original choreography from the legendary music video, enhanced by unique one-night-only costumes, stunning lighting, and captivating projections.
Forget about Halloween Fright Nights. Nothing can compete with scary reality. Last night my Holocaust survivor parents (deceased for over two decades) suddenly appeared in my dreams. Not all that surprising as I’d just returned from FAUTheatreLab’s opening of THE LAST YIDDISH SPEAKERbyDeborahZoe Laufer. The last time I’d heard so much Yiddish – my first/only language till the age of 3 – was when they were still alive. My father also often quoted an Aramaic saying from the Talmud (we are a people schooled in many tongues), “Girsade-yankuta girsa,” which basically translates to “Lessons learned as a young child are lessons learned for life.”
Remember sitting around a campfire listening to ghost stories? For me, it was the pitch black of the forest of the Pocono mountains, each storyteller trying to top the one before them with a yarn even more horrific. Zoetic Stage’s season opener provokes a similar feeling with its in-the-round production of British playwright Martin McDonagh’s “The Pillowman” running through Sunday, Nov. 10 at the Carnival Studio in the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami.
With a grand statement, Miami City Ballet opens their 2024-2025 season with George Balachine’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” For those connecting the dots, Balanchine choreographed a ballet inspired by William Shakespeare’s ethereal play of the same name, scored by Felix Mendelssohn’s music also titled after the play. What Miami City Ballet has premiered before, they bring back with vigor and polish. Their own take on the woodlands of the Fairie Kingdom? An underwater, coastal plane, nodding to their Florida roots.
Audience members of all stripes are likely to find much to love in Island City Stage’s charming production of The Fantasticks. After first premiering off-Broadway in 1960 to mixed reviews, this little-show-that-could shocked even its investors by proceeding to run for a record-breaking 42 years. It has since had one major off-Broadway revival, during which it ran 11 more, and continues to be one of the most performed musicals around the world.
If anything, Broward Center-based Slow Burn Theatre Company knows how to pick their musicals and put on a spectacular show. They chose the perfect opener for their exceptional 15th Anniversary Season in THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK: A Musical Comedy, with book and lyrics by John Dempsey and music by Dana P. Rowe. The musical features a trio of sexy, unfulfilled women who discover their supernatural powers together, claim their right to happiness, then join in extinguishing the evil “influencer” they’d inadvertently conjured up to fulfill their deepest desires.
No less impactful for its understated nature, Thinking Cap Theatre’s current production of playwright Abi Morgan’s Lovesongis a beautifully bittersweet journey through one heterosexual couple’s 40 year marriage. Somewhat more down-to-earth than some of the company’s more experimental ventures, the play features the aforementioned couple as the only onstage characters. But, adding a stirring spark to what would otherwise be a fairly conventional domestic drama, the play intersperses scenes of the couple in their youth with snapshots of them in their old-age.
Back with another rockstar production, Lake Worth Playhouse’s “The Prom” is a testament to love, acceptance, and the magic that prom night can bring. As the second production in their 72nd season, “The Prom” is another facet in cultivating the next generation of theater-goers that this playhouse and so many others like it are doing. Lake Worth is giving performing opportunities to students, and few do. Students and adults alike who haven’t seen “The Prom” are going to love it.
Noted South Florida legends Avi Hoffman and Klezmer Company Jazz Orchestra Director Aaron Kula team with many dancers to perform in “Yiddish Tangos” on Saturday, October 19 at 8 p.m. at the Aventura Arts and Cultural Center in Aventura.