Everything’s coming up musicals nowadays … and no subject is taboo.  Almost feels like the more outrageous the premise, the more likely it is to become a huge hit. Take joyfully murderous “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” or Mel Brooks’ Nazi-themed comedy, “The Producers,” featuring “Springtime for Hitler in Germany” as examples. A few weeks ago, even the universally beloved Star Trek brand has seen fit to choreograph an entire episode as a musical. (Check out S2 E9 “Subspace Rhapsody” of the “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” series on Paramount+. I consider it both thematically and choreographically out of this world!) In this episode, original musical numbers are weaponized to save the known universe – but not before presenting one of the best and briefest explanations for the art form, i.e., a song reveals the singer’s deepest, true emotions.

Perhaps the fact that I find myself genuinely conflicted as I try to assess David Mamet’s Oleanna is actually something of a mark in its favor. After all, as opposed to the many perfunctory crowd-pleasers that do little to challenge convention, this script offers plenty of food for thought, ensuring an intellectually stimulating experience for practically all audience members regardless of what they come away thinking about the work.

 Since the biblical story of Adam and Eve, differences between men and women have been personified in many plays, as South Floridians have seen in recent years with the numerous performances of playwright Rob Becker’s “Defending the Caveman” for many decades.

New initiative Women of Wilton (WOW)—a project of Ronnie Larsen of Plays of Wilton and Nicole Stodard of Thinking Cap Theatre—is getting off to a great start with a seriously wow-worthy production of Last Summer at Bluefish Cove. Written during the late 70s and first produced in 1980, this play by openly lesbian playwright Jane Chambers was considered monumental for its time. This is primarily due to the fact that it was one of the first commercially successful works to portray gay women as full-fledged, well-rounded human beings as opposed to tortured by self-hatred or as stereotype-ridden caricatures. 

“Wonder” might be an understatement of just how awestruck I was by Alice in Wonderland: A Musical Cirque Adventure. Conceived and directed by Deena Marcum Selko and featuring an original score by Quentin Chiappetta, this acrobatic extravaganza recently blew into the Adrienne Arsht Center courtesy of Moth Entertainment, a company that “creates live stage shows designed to connect with audiences of all ages.”

Before there was man, there was boob. Or at least that’s the way that Defending the Cavewoman retells the creation myth in its opening few moments, positing that Eve originally had a third such appendage out of which God then formed her a companion. It’s a clever enough feminist revision of the original story, and an engaging way to introduce audiences to the show’s amusing irreverence and basic concerns.

Lake Worth Playhouse, a staple in the community of Palm Beach County, located in downtown Lake Worth, began its 2023-2024 season this past week with a rendition of “West Side Story,” the classic musical retelling of Romeo and Juliet. In the musical, the story takes place in a slum of New York where two rival gangs are warring over dwindling territory, but there are racial implications in this aggression, as well. The youth actors and actresses that made up the ensemble and cast brought their characters to life in a way that made this production feel different, special in a unique way that only local theater can give you.

Originally published by: ArtburstMiami.com
Written by: Christine Dolan
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The taking of wedding vows is one of the many topics with a sardonic tone in “Defending the Cavewoman” getting its U.S. premiere at Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables through Aug. 6. (Photo courtesy of Alberto Romeu)

Since time immemorial – way, way back when cavemen went out hunting and cavewomen did the gathering, or so we’re told – the differences between men and women have inspired a certain kind of theatrical fare.

John Gray’s monster best seller “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus” was adapted by Eric Coble into a solo show. Rob Becker’s one-person “Defending the Caveman” took its laughs and gender observations to Broadway.  The musical “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” by Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts had an Off-Broadway run of more than 5,000 performances and has been done all over the country – Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables has produced that show four times.

Now the company is aiming to add to the genre with “Defending the Cavewoman,” a solo show starring Carbonell Award winner Lindsey Corey.

Running in the Balcony Theatre at the Miracle through Sunday, Aug. 6, the 2000 comedy by South African playwright Emma Peirson has had a little work done (theatrical Botox?) for its United States premiere, with the hope that this piece might become another much-produced success like the ones referenced above.

At this point, it’s not clear how aspirations for the show might play out (the producers who licensed it to Actors’ Playhouse are Theater Mogul and GFour Productions).

Theater fans who like their entertainment light and relatable go for shows like “Defending the Cavewoman” because men and women often do see things differently.  We are all individuals, of course, and behavior isn’t clearly tied to gender or hormones.

But that hunter-gatherer stuff seems pretty hardwired.

“Defending the Cavewoman” at Actors’ Playhouse features Lindsey Corey in a solo show serving up a contemporary woman’s point of view. (Photo courtesy of Alberto Romeu)

“Defending the Cavewoman,” which was created by Peirson and Vanessa Frost, runs a brisk 85 minutes, with the script incorporating myriad influences.  Nature documentaries, bombastic Oprah Winfrey-style TV, scenes of 10th anniversary domestic discord and the rhythms of standup comedy are all folded into “Cavewoman,” though they don’t always coexist smoothly, despite the imaginative efforts of director David Arisco, the design team and the abundantly impressive, irresistible Corey.

The play’s prologue flips the script on the Adam and Eve story.  God (voiced Oprah-style by Kareema Khouri who, along with Carlos Alayeto and Laura Turnbull, supplies brief interludes of recorded lines) creates Eve first, only to leave her feeling lonely in the lush Garden of Eden.

She asks for a companion and God complies, but as it turns out, this sequence is a setup for the play’s first big woman-to-man shot.  Revealing that here would be a spoiler, and spoilers are bad.

Then “Defending the Cavewoman” gets down to contemporary business.

Corey, who flips into and out of more than a dozen characters, chiefly plays Evelyn, a wife and mother who the day before celebrated her 10th anniversary with her husband Chris. The special day, she notes, was marked by one crisis after another as she frenetically tried to rally her troops – Chris and the kids – to get the house ready for a celebratory family brunch.

Among the crises:  She forgot to order food from the caterers (yes, she says defensively, she can cook – well, maybe that’s not quite true).

By half measure, full measure—actually, by virtually any measure—Measure for Measure as produced by the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival is a triumphant excavation of one of the bard’s less-produced works that here proves itself to be just as engrossing as his most popular ones. 

Those who are unfamiliar with the show may want to consult at least a summary beforehand to help make up the distance of the 17th century language, or, as I did, to skim through the script beforehand so as to develop a kind of road map for the events that will unfold. However, combined with crisp direction by Trent Stephens and the cast’s energetic performances, I imagine the fairly straightforward story is likely comprehensible to seasoned Shakespeare fans and newcomers alike. 

Towards the end of A CHORUS LINE, FAU Festival Rep’s final production of the summer, a question is posed about whether musical theater will even survive. It made me smile knowing that this musical written by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, with music and lyrics by Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban, not only survived from April 1975 to April 1990 (the first Broadway show to exceed 6,000 performances!), but also won a Tony in 1984 for being Broadway’s Longest-Running Musical. In addition to Tonys for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score and more, a Pulitzer for Drama and a Best Musical Olivier Award to boot. So it’s hardly surprising that this American classic remains a favorite regional production choice to this day – embraced for its impressive dance numbers, memorable songs, and the raw revelations of its “chorus line” cast.