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.

There’s no business like show business – especially when the show envelopes you in a floor-to-ceiling, multi-screen Immersive Experience highlighting the greatest musical dance numbers of all time. The Wick Theatre and Museum Club of Boca Raton is now offering summer specials of their latest spellbinding and highly informative romp through musical history called DANCING FEET: The Experience. Held at the luxuriously appointed Museum Club section of the theater complex, the 360-degree video projection installation is complemented by what only Marilynn Wick – owner of Costume World, the nation’s largest theatrical wardrobe collection – can provide: original outfits worn by star dancers on Broadway.

“Propaganda Machine”, an annual sketch comedy show, is proving to be an ideal showcase for a cast of 15 comedians who have the flair and energy to perform in 20 hilarious sketches over 90 minutes through June 29 at the Villain Theater in the Little Haiti district of Miami.

South Florida’s larger theater companies follow the northern tradition of taking a seasonal break during the summer. But smaller companies have known for years that full-time residents far outnumber the cultured snowbird class of days of yore. Happy to fill the gap – and encourage those who exclusively patronize national touring troupes at massive arenas to give the locals a try – are our many talented smaller theaters. Where you can catch a star of tomorrow before they become a household name. And see a world premiere or quirky older play you might never have heard of, and are unlikely to encounter anytime soon.

Sometimes, the Broward Center features a double-header of entertainment: one show coming from a national touring cast through Broadway; one coming from our very own local company right in South Florida. To close out its 2023-24 season, Slow Burn Theatre Company, based out of Ft. Lauderdale and winner of the Bill von Maurer Award for Theatrical Excellence at the Carbonell Awards, is currently premiering The SpongeBob Musical until this Sunday, June 23. What better way to beat the heat than to splash down in Bikini Bottom?

The 27th anniversary of City Theatre’s “Summer Shorts”, running now through June 23 at the intimate Carnival Studio Theater of the Adrienne Arsht Center in downtown Miami features the annual salute to the ten minute short play, but with a significant difference this year.

Even though South Florida has experienced a record amount of rainfall this week, enough to cause substantial flooding, the show must go on. To end the 2023-24 Broadway season, the Broward Center and Broadway Across America presents Clue, a new comedy play based on the beloved Hasbro game and Paramount Pictures movie. The classic whodunnit game comes to life in the best way possible, full of thrills and laughs and murder.

If you choose to venture to under the radar West Palm Beach theatre Actor’s Rep this weekend, you’ll find an unexpected gem in their moving production of A Song For Coretta by playwright Pearl Cleage. The title of the play refers to Coretta Scott King, who first came into the public eye as the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. and became a powerful activist in her own right and a leader of the civil rights movement after his passing. When Scott King herself passed away in 2006, thousands of mourners gathered outside the Ebenezer Baptist Church to pay their final respects.