For the next few weeks, the Wick Theatre in Boca Raton can boast that it has assembled a crack ensemble of folks with intimate ties to the Great American Pastime – baseball – and who are truly worth their weight in rosin and chewin’ tobacco. The reason? The popular big league hit from the mid-1950s, the musical comedy, Damn Yankees, has come to the Wick stage with its plethora of idiosyncrasies – a dominant husband and wife romance theme, lots of devil-may-care antics and a terrific musical score.

Given its generally negative reception and outdated premise,  I was not particularly expecting to have much fondness for Pretty Woman: The Musical, which you’ll find at West Palm Beach’s Kravis Center for only the rest of this week. But, first off, I’ll admit; at least while under the influence of swoon-worthy vocals, romantic allusions to destiny, and overpriced champagne, it was surprisingly easy to feel myself taken in by the show’s fairytale charms. 

Island City Stage scores again with I Wanna F#%*king Tear You Apart, a show far more tender and nuanced than you might expect based on its violent title. Though the ugly emotions the name implies do rear their head throughout, the subject of the play could probably be more accurately described as friendship than anger—though it also ultimately implies that the need for someone’s love and the desire to destroy them may not be as far apart as they sometimes seem. 

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.