What better way to top off a blockbuster 12th season than for Island City Stage(ICS) to gift us with Charles Busch’s notoriously famous and hilarious camp comedy DIE, MOMMIE,DIE! Playing now through September 22. The fabulously productive drag icon, and award-winning actor/director/novelist and cabaret performer, first played the leading role in his own killer melodrama comedy that skewers “Grande Dame Guignol” horror films of the 1960s (featuring aging stars like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Lana Turner) and Hollywood in general. Busch’s stage production proved so popular, it too was made into a film, with Busch starring and winning a Best Performance Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
For audiences that are looking for a comic look at Miami Latina families and their traditions, you will laugh heartily at the two act comedy “Sweet 15”, written by screenwriter Rick Najera and directed by Jesus Quintero. The play is running now on Saturdays and Sundays only through September 22 at The Hub at Temple Beth Am in Pinecrest.
Audiences will be thrilled with the musical and comic talents of eight actors who command the stage in the True Mirage Theater production of “Ride The Cyclone”, a one act musical written in 2008 by Canadian playwrights Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richardson, running now through August 18th at Main Street Players in Miami Lakes.
There are big, no HUGE things happening on a little strip of Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors. The excitement, quality and professionalism of two neighboring black box theaters – Island City Stage and The Foundry – just keeps on growing. New City Players’ sold-out sensation, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” recently closed at Island City. Meanwhile, Sunday, August 11, was supposed to be closing day for POW!’s (Plays of Wilton) world premiere of A SHONDA: The Musical at The Foundry. But that’s been extended through September 1, having played to sold-out crowds for weeks.
Originally posted on Artburstmiami.com | Written by Michelle F. Solomon
It may take one hundred days to fully realize all that’s happening on the Balcony Theatre stage at the Miracle Theater with Actors’ Playhouse’s season closer. And while the unusual musical theater concept “Hundred Days” may not be for everyone, it is an experience that should not be missed.
To “unofficially” start its 2024-2025 season, Lake Worth Playhouse is putting on a rendition of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s School of Rock at their historic venue in downtown Lake Worth Beach. For a seasonal community like South Florida, where the more wealth-affluent demographic leaves during the sticky summer, Lake Worth chooses to celebrate the year-round community with their first production of the performance season. Prized for its century-old facility, black box theater, and the showings of excellent indie films, the organization has something for everyone.
I’m one of those people who love being surprised – especially happily so. When ACT ofDavie (our best and only local community theater) promoted their first musical, playing for only two nights, I knew it was too short a run for a review. But then thought: if I’m free, I just might go and enjoy the rare note-taking-free experience.
In 2023, Area Stage Artistic Director Giancarlo Rodaz became the youngest director ever to win the Carbonell Award (at age 26) as the youngest director with “Beauty and the Beast” and created another immersive theatrical experience with his production of the Disney musical “The Little Mermaid”, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami which was highly praised by audiences and critics alike.
If you’re someone who spends a lot of time seeing theatre in South Florida, then you may have already run across the work of actress Elizabeth Price, who is also a proud ensemble member of New City Players. But though the Silver Palm winning and Carbonell nominated performer has no shortage of impressive credits, it’s only in the company’s current production of A Streetcar Named Desire that she’s finally gotten the chance to play her ultimate dream role: the fading southern belle Blanche Dubois.
We’re jolted awake, and into an alternate reality as soon as we take our seats at Island City Stage in Wilton Manors. That loud crashing sound (could it be coming from the train tracks on Dixie Highway?). But then there are clangs and whistles and, ah yes, we realize we are here to see New City Players’ (NCP) production of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. And while ten minutes remain till showtime, we’re already immersed in the world of 1947 New Orleans’ French Quarter. Where a trio of women sit languidly fanning themselves onstage or burst into jazz songs and dance. Meanwhile, the sporadic rumble of the loud streetcar will continue, along with musical interludes, to punctuate the drama or breaks between scenes.
