No matter who you prefer to be President of the United States, be prepared to laugh heartily at the over the top performances of seven actresses in Selina Fillinger’s comedy “POTUS”, a Zoetic Stage production running now through January 26 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami.

If you live in South Florida and love theater, you are doubly blessed. Not only can you enjoy a variety of finely curated and produced world premieres, you can also revisit (or initially experience) award-winning, timeless classics that every serious theater-goer should see at least once in their lifetime. 

A cold front might be working its way through South Florida, but there’s no need to worry—The Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s production of Frozen is guaranteed to warm your heart even on the chilliest January day. Directed by Tony nominee John Tartaglia, the story (based on the beloved 2013 Disney film) follows sisters Elsa (Tristen Buettel) and Anna (Brooke Quintana), princesses whose once-unbreakable bond is now on thin ice, severed by isolation.

Prolific, award-winning and long-lived (he died in 2020 at the age of 81) American playwright/writer/actor/director Israel Horovitz boasts over 70 produced plays in the US and internationally. He’s also the most produced American playwright in France, ever, (where he often directed French versions of his work). Not all that surprising, given that he divided his time between France and the States for most of his life.  

  It is not only nostalgia, but a salute to the art of songwriting and the ability of making anecdotes come alive through melody that is most appealing of the South Florida premiere of “Both Sides Now’, starring singers Robbie Schaefer and Danielle Wertz, running now through January 5 at GableStage in Coral Gables.

For a special Christmas and New Year’s run, Slow Burn Theatre Company is in the midst of its 15th Anniversary Season, and their current production of “Anastasia the Musical” is perfect for December. A take on the beloved animated Disney movie from 1997 with the same name, the production features a wintery Russia and an aristocratic Paris; snowy and cozy both are general feelings with which you leave. Taking fairly major diversions from the movie musical with which we all fell in love with Anya and Dimitry, the musical encapsulates the feeling of family and December, but ultimately misses on the magic from the film.

Oh Anastasia – the last, lost princess of Imperial Russia’s Romanov dynasty. Is her story a legend?… A fairy tale?… A wish?… A dream? 

A maddened leader surrounded by flattering sycophants and slipping into senility. Betrayal, backstabbing, a nation under siege. No, I’m not describing King Lear, though the similarities are by no means coincidental. I’m describing The Dresser, a 1980 play by Ronald Harwood that revolves around a dysfunctional British theatre troupe’s performance of the aforementioned tragedy—in January of 1942. 

Written By Michelle F. Solomon

Originally published on artburstmiami.com.

Two stuffed chairs with a guitar leaning against one of them; a small table between with a large retro ceramic lamp with a white shade; two microphone stands; at stage right is a baby grand piano; Oriental rugs of different sizes are underneath. This is the atmosphere that sets the scene for GableStage’s “Both Sides Now: The Music and Lives of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen.”