Like most writers worth their salt, I’m at least somewhat familiar with the work and life of extraordinary essayist Joan Didion. But even the extraordinary among us are by no means immune to the ravages of ordinary human tragedies, or to ordinary human grief, as both her book The Year Of Magical Thinking and her theatrical adaptation of the same name can attest.

Fefu and Her Friends is a 1977 play by María Irene Fornés that’s almost as well-known for being unconventional as it is for being remarkable. But the thought-provoking iteration that marks Thinking Cap Theatre’s post-pandemic return to full-fledged productions proves that this is a play as excellent as it is experimental, and one that deserves its lasting place in the American canon.

If the last 24 years of City Theatre’s Summer Shorts have been anywhere near as excellent as this year’s 25th anniversary edition, then the South Florida theatre community certainly has a lot to celebrate. This year’s program offered a roster of ten short pieces, three of which were world premiere works submitted to the company’s national short playwriting contest, four greatest hits returning from previous Summer Shorts iterations, one commissioned piece, and two other new pieces by well known playwrights.

The arrival of the fiftieth anniversary tour of Jesus Christ Superstar at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center is perhaps the perfect occasion to reflect on the fact that the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber have become such an established part of the modern musical theatre canon that it can be easy to forget just how damn weird they are. Case in point: a rousing rock musical that takes as its subject the persecution and eventual execution of the claimed son of God. Undeniably a bold move, especially for an era when rock opera itself was still a relatively young genre, and one that invited criticism from Jews and Christians alike— with the Christians accusing the show of blasphemy in its ambiguous portrayal of its central figure and Jews up in arms about the portrayal of those of their religion as mostly villains.

In a way, the fact that “The Belle Of Amherst” is even being performed in its full glory is a triumph to be celebrated, a welcome indication of live theatre’s return after a long intermission in which an earlier incarnation of this production was relegated to streaming. And there’s certainly much to enjoy in Palm Beach Dramaworks’ in-person rendering of this one-woman show by William Luce, which stars accomplished area actress Margery Lowe as acclaimed poet Emily Dickinson.

When thinking about what might make for a rousing night of comedy, “murder” may not exactly be at the top of your list. But while Actors’ Playhouse’s production of Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of Murder On The Orient Express maintains enough of the suspensefulness of the Agatha Christie original to make for a compelling evening, it also makes for a surprising amount of good plain fun.

The biographical jukebox musical, which tell the life story of a famous musical artist or group using their well-known songs as a score, has become a relatively popular mini-genre in recent years. However, it isn’t actually one that I have terribly much experience with, since the aura of conventionality surrounding these shows isn’t typically one that attracts me. In fact, prior to getting invited to Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, which is currently playing at the Kravis Center after its initial winter run was delayed due to the Omicron outbreak, I probably wouldn’t have even recognized the name Donna Summer, despite her status as an incredibly influential artist whose hits landed her the moniker “disco queen.” 

Written By Christine Dolen
Artburstmiami.com

The characters in Pearl Cleage’s “Blues for an Alabama Sky” are caught somewhere between the creative, hopeful heaven of the Harlem Renaissance and the hellish economic collapse of the Great Depression.

By turns humorous and harrowing, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord is a relatively new play by Alexis Scheer currently making its South Florida premiere at Zoetic Stage—and it’s a play that its audiences are pretty damn unlikely to forget. It’s also a play that somewhat recalls Zoetic’s 2019 offering The Wolves in its sometimes overlapping mile-a-minute-dialogue and its focus on the sometimes messy reality of teenage girlhood.

Though it’s a question of aesthetics that sets off the action in the play Art by Yazmin Reza, Empire Stage’s current offering, the debate between friends that then ensues seems to have less to do with the meaning of art than with the absurdities of human ego. When dermatologist Serge buys what appears to be a completely white painting (though, as is repeatedly discussed to great comedic effect, it apparently also features some “fine white diagonal lines,”) his best friend Marc simply cannot make sense of how this action is in accord with the person he thought he knew.