Comedian Jackie Mason’s daughter Sheba stars in a musical about the relationship between her mother and father in The Jackie Mason Musical running now through January 22 at Empire Stage in Fort Lauderdale.

The late comedian, who died in 2021 at age 93, never publicly acknowledged that he had a daughter until he was forced by a judge to pay child support for Sheba until she was 18. 

Written by: Mindy Leaf

I often wistfully recall living in NYC in the 1980s and attending specially priced pre-show dinners at restaurants around Broadway that guaranteed you’d be served and out the door a half hour before showtime. It was always nice to join friends, or even just your partner, for a meal before seeing a play. But this was something I figured simply could not happen in South Florida — what with unpredictable traffic, searching and paying for parking at two locations, not to mention our current restaurant staffing crisis sinking the best-laid timing plans. Who needs all that stress?  

Gablestage scores again with a haunting production of We Will Not Be Silent, which tells the true story of Sophie Scholl. In 1943, Scholl was a young college student in Germany who stood against the horrors of the time by becoming a leader of the White Rose, a non-violent resistance group opposed to Hitler’s regime. 

And, indeed, it doesn’t take long for the high stakes to set in after Scholl and her brother are arrested for distributing protest pamphlets. Thus, we meet her in the care of interrogator Kurt Grunwald, who tries to convince her first to betray her co-conspirators and later to confess and renounce her actions. 

Written By Christine Dolen

Originally published on artburstmiami.com 

The stunning play that altered the course of Nilo Cruz’s life began with a commission from the 104-seat New Theatre in Coral Gables.  Supported by a national grant, the company led by Rafael de Acha asked the Cuban-American playwright, whose work was being produced by significant regional theaters throughout the country, for a new play.

Cruz delivered “Anna in the Tropics.”

Boca Stage kicks open the 2023 segment of its current season with one of its best performances – if not the best – an intense, mind-probing examination of two people trapped in solitary confinement – one by choice, the other by circumstance – and whose lives become increasingly difficult to bear. As they spiral toward a loss of self-existence, a totally unexpected event brings a measure of solace and newfound relief to their painful realities.

The last time I wrote something about Hadestown, in reference to the original Broadway production, it was when I found myself harnessing the show’s themes to attempt to make sense of the pandemic’s earliest, most terrifying days. Thus, I am pleased to report that it is under rather less dire circumstances than I find myself now contemplating the show once more after seeing the touring production of the musical this past Tuesday at the Kravis Center, where it is now playing until this January 8th.

Slow Burn Theatre Company’s latest foray into high quality musical theatre is with a production of Footloose. This 1998 musical was based on the well-known 1984 film, which achieved popular success despite being dismissed by many of the time’s major critics as, for instance, “trashy teenage cheese.”

Based on the 1992 Disney film of the same name, the musical Aladdin follows the titular orphan, who finally gets the chance to transcend his life as a starving “street rat” after ending up in possession of a magical genie and strives to win the heart of the beautiful princess Jasmine, who is being pressured to find a husband by her father but forbidden to marry below her station.