To end out the 2023 year, Slow Burn Theatre Company is currently performing one outstanding production through New Year’s Eve: The Little Mermaid at the Amaturo Theater, Broward Center, wows and amazes its audience through its production value and uncanny ability to stir up some nostalgia. South Florida Theater Magazine was there on opening night to catch a glimpse of a life under the sea, and I was pleased to have a kids’ musical bring me as much joy as those kids around me in the audience.
Our holiday season may be coming to a close but “Tom Dugan season,” in what’s fast becoming a regular feature of South Florida theater, lives on. The popular, LA-based playwright/actor who critics describe as “a national treasure” is best known for his breakout, multi-award-winning, one-man show Wiesenthal, where he portrays the life and ideals of the world’s most famous Nazi hunter. I saw Dugan play the lead in an awe-inspiring performance years ago. But you can still catch the play periodically (last seen at Miami’s GableStage, featuring David Kwiat, in 2019). And it’s coming up next month at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center, with Dugan again in the starring role. (Wiesenthal’s mission lives on, as well, through The Simon Wiesenthal Center, dedicated to fighting “the ever-morphing scourge of antisemitism” in the US and abroad.)
It’s no longer an insider secret that Slow Burn Theatre Company, the resident professional theater company of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, has been delivering outstanding, often family-oriented musicals, for the past nine years. In addition to multiple local awards, the company recently garnered a major Carbonell (South Florida’s Tonys) in the category of Theatrical Excellence. Which they well deserve. For just when you might think they’ve reached the pinnacle in stagecraft and acting expertise, they come out with a new, blockbuster winner.
Though Tyler Johnson Grimes hasn’t always been the biggest fan of A Christmas Carol, he also didn’t find it hard to start getting excited about putting his own spin on the classic story. After his successful, Carbonell-nominated turn as the sound and Foley designer of last season’s radio play version of It’s A Wonderful Life, Grimes was tapped by New City Players’ team of artistic leaders to write an original adaptation of Charles Dickens’ famous holiday tale, a task for which his extensive background in playwriting left him exceptionally well prepared.
If you can remember Elvis Presley’s teen-traumatizing entry into the Army after being drafted in the late 1950s, you’ll no doubt feel a strong tug of déjà vu at the Wick Theatre in Boca Raton where Bye, Bye Birdie – a musical comedy based on a singer’s soldierly stint, but which blazes a circuitous story of its own, is now playing.
Starting on December 1, and running though December 10, the new, experimental theater company out of Miami, Lakehouseranchdotpng, premiered its solicited version of “Enter, Grapefruit.” The show is a one-woman performance, with the silent help of another cast member, and it is an ode to Gilda Radner, a comedian famous for her work in the early days of Saturday Night Live and who died in the late 80s after a surprising cancer diagnosis. The writer, Charisma Jolly, also performs the show. For me, it was an experience quite unlike any I’ve come across, so far. Before I discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the performance, I’d like to take a moment to broach the subject of the company’s venue and the setup of the stage. First off, Lakehouseranchdotpng is only in their second year of programming, so their performance venue is nothing special. In fact, it is so small, I was surprised. “Enter, Grapefruit” was held at Artistic Vibes in Kendall, and it was a difficult space to find.
Pretty Woman: The Musical is back on tour across the country, and it is currently staged at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami. The musical is based on the beloved 1990 movie starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, growing the want for a musicalization of the nostalgic moment in cinema. South Florida Theater Magazine was there on opening night, and it was a fun time, watching the movie come to life on stage in such a satisfying way. Vivian (Ellie Baker) stole the show from her first note.
The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse is the first play written by a Native American playwright to make it to Broadway – and there’s no surprise as to why it did. It is a satirical comedy that shines light not only on the ignorance of the majority in the country, but it also shines a light on the unfortunate truth within the education system when it comes to the Thanksgiving mythos. The GableStage production, directed by artistic director Bari Newport, brings this much needed piece to the South Florida community in a way that easily could’ve fallen flat, but instead stands proudly on two feet running in the right direction.
There’s the saying, “Everything old is new again.” To which I’d add, “only if it speaks to a new generation.” Radio programs spoke to generations of listeners in the twentieth century, to be surpassed by film and TV, only to be resurrected in exploding popularity under the guise of “podcasts.” As humans, we’ve always felt the need to see stories, read stories, hear stories … often all together. And our best stories, those that speak most deeply to our shared humanity, challenges and aspirations, tend to survive through the ages. Like the timeless works of William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.
‘Tis the season for family, traditions, and celebrations that bring one back to more innocent times. The sweet scent of nostalgia can nourish the most troubled soul. And I can’t think of a better place to rekindle that holiday spirit than joining the perfume and cosmetics shoppers at Maraczek’s Parfumerie in 1934 Budapest, Hungary.
