To evoke the famous opening of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina: while happy families may all be alike, there are countless ways in which each unhappy family is uniquely dysfunctional. Thus, it isn’t altogether surprising that playwright Tom Dugan has discovered a hilarious and original play by bringing together a few quirky family members in Cemetery Pub. Pigs Do Fly’s production at Wilton Manors venue Empire Stage is only the second of this new play, which has only been produced once before at a makeshift venue in the playwright’s backyard. 

To only solidify its place as the one of, if not the one, most recognizable musicals in the history of musicals, Wicked found its way to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the fourth time. Beginning February 16, and running until March 5, the infamous Elphaba and the famous Glinda share the stage to melt your hearts alongside your best friend’s. South Florida Theater Magazine was there for the run during the last days of February to see how the classic fared in 2023, and it did not disappoint.

When the curtain opened to the cast on stage tap dancing to the song “Audition”, the enthusiastic audience started clapping, knowing they were in for a delightful night of memorable songs and dancing in the musical 42nd Street, running now through March 5 at Lauderhill Performing Arts Center in Lauderhill.

Written By: Mindy Leaf

The Willow Theatre at Boca Raton’s Sugar Sand Park is the perfect-sized, up-close venue to enjoy Curtain Call Playhouse’s (CCP) 2023 opener of THE SAVANNAH SIPPING SOCIETY by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, Jamie Wooten. Skillful direction by Carla Zackson Heller alongside nostalgic, old-Savannah set design by founder/artistic director Kris Coffelt and striking musical interludes and slide projections by Bill Heller instantly bring us into the world of four colorful, middle-aged women who live (or recently landed) in Savannah, Georgia. Each one, in her own way, has suddenly had the rug pulled out from under her comfortable, predictable life. A major reset is in order, with alternate roads to happiness waiting to be explored.  Are they ready to change?

After presenting a couple of light-hearted musicals earlier this season – Jersey Boys and Sweet Charity – the Maltz Jupiter Theater kicks off the second half of its production year with a hard-hitting drama, David Lindsay-Abaire’s gritty, Tony Award-nominated play, Good People. 

Written By Christine Dolen

Originally published on artburstmiami.com

Miami’s venerable M Ensemble Company was founded in 1971, the year before Joseph A. Walker’s “The River Niger” had its off-Broadway premiere. That first production by the Negro Ensemble Company won a best play Obie Award, transferred to Broadway in 1973, then captured the best play Tony Award in 1974.

Playwright Bess Wohl made it to Broadway in 2019 with a play festooned with systematic observations and offbeat family reactions to an elderly couple’s desire to divorce after a half-century of marriage.

Called Grand Horizons – named after the independent living community that  senior citizens Nancy (Lourelene Snedeker) and her husband, Bill (Michael Gioia) call home — the show is a cauldron of complexities that mixes laughable situations with sharp one-liners, family interactions that often go awry and plenty of self-examination by all parties concerned with their parents’ proposed demutualization.

Though it’s been a while since I attempted to address two shows in the space of one review, the fact that both Actor’s Playhouse’s Escape To Margaritaville and Slow Burn Theatre Company’s Honeymoon In Vegas revolve around the exotic destinations referred to in their titles seemed to suggest an almost too-obvious angle for comparing these distinct theatrical staycations. 

Based on the 1982 movie, the musical Tootsie, which is currently playing at the Kravis Center, actually might be one of the more interesting musicals I’ve seen recently, or at least a more nuanced one than I might’ve at first expected given the rather ridiculous central premise. After having alienated every director in town with his difficult behavior, flailing actor Michael Dorsey takes a fairly desperate tactic—he creates a female alter ego, Dorothy Michaels, who gives him a chance to start over and is an improbable, immediate success. 

Written By Michelle F. Solomon

Originally published on artburstmiami.com

While it may have been fitting for Actors’ Playhouse to celebrate its 35th anniversary by presenting the musical the company started with, it certainly wouldn’t have been as much fun.

It was Feb. 3, 1988, when its first production, “Man of La Mancha,” opened in a converted Kendall movie theater – a space where the company would perform for its first seven years until its move to the Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables in 1995.