Back with another rockstar production, Lake Worth Playhouse’s “The Prom” is a testament to love, acceptance, and the magic that prom night can bring. As the second production in their 72nd season, “The Prom” is another facet in cultivating the next generation of theater-goers that this playhouse and so many others like it are doing. Lake Worth is giving performing opportunities to students, and few do. Students and adults alike who haven’t seen “The Prom” are going to love it.
A person’s wardrobe can evoke just as many memories as their camera roll or scrapbook can. My own closet still boasts the cozy zip-up hoodie I gave my bat mitzvah guests as a party favor, the classic floor-length black dress I wore to my senior prom, and the chunky orange-and-green beads my university handed out at graduation. Love, Loss, and What I Wore takes this idea of one’s closet being a time capsule and brings it to life onstage, kicking off the Pompano Players’ inaugural season at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center in the most unforgettable, relatable, and of course, hilarious way possible.
The Wick Theatre in Boca Raton has just kicked off its 11th season with a praiseworthy comic production – a side splitting one-man show that lets audiences re-experience the feisty spirit, delightful mirth and wild merriment of the funnyman we called “the one, the only – Groucho.”
We appear to still be in the midst of a Stephen Sondheim revival. While tributes and accolades have increased exponentially since his passing at age 91 in 2021, the American composer and lyricist – regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th century musical theater – has never been out of fashion. How could he be? After all, he’s the theatrical elder credited with reinventing the American musical!
It ain’t easy being second fiddle. Even for TV’s most famous and beloved “second banana” Ethel Mertz who played Lucille Ball’s frumpy, housecoat-wearing neighbor for nine seasons of “I Love Lucy” and related TV comedies from 1951 through 1965. Everyone loved Vivian Vance’s portrayal of Ethel which won her the first Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in 1953. But when fans begged for her autograph and Vivian signed her real name, they’d ask for a redo as “Ethel.”
Whether or not you remember the famous “Golden Girls” situation comedy television series about the everyday antics of four senior women living together in a Miami home, audiences will laugh heartily as five actors team to recreate the nostalgia of the series in “Golden Girls The Laughs Continue” running now through September 29 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Ft. Lauderdale.
Everyone knows and loves the story of The Little Mermaid. Maybe the centuries-old fairytale was your favorite childhood bedtime story. Or perhaps you loved the Disney animated version (I may have watched it so many times when I was little that I somehow damaged the VHS tape in the process). Or you might have tuned in for the star-studded live-action remake last summer. Regardless, one thing is for certain: when it comes to the brand-new adaptation currently being performed at Florida Atlantic University’s Theatre Lab, you’ve never seen The Little Mermaid quite like this before.
Imagine theater’s longest-running show ever, Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap,” turned inside out and upside down into a nonstop laugh riot of bumbling incompetence by a hapless yet determined amateur troupe known for choosing their plays based on their member numbers. But even then things don’t exactly work out. Earlier Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society productions came with revised titles such as “Two Sisters,” “The Lion and the Wardrobe,” “Cat,” and “James and the Peach.”
If you’re in the market for a thought-provoking new play that’s as effortlessly entertaining as formally innovative, then you’d be much remiss to skip Miami company LakeHouseRanchPNG’s premiere of playwright Robert Kerr’s Have You Seen Boomer. This crisp and compelling piece follows the evolution and devolution of the romantic relationship between its only two characters, a woman named Jess and a man named Mark. As is immediately apparent thanks in part to sparse but effective set design from Indy Sulliero, we meet the two as they are moving in together, on day 1 of their new lives in a new apartment.
What better way to top off a blockbuster 12th season than for Island City Stage(ICS) to gift us with Charles Busch’s notoriously famous and hilarious camp comedy DIE, MOMMIE,DIE! Playing now through September 22. The fabulously productive drag icon, and award-winning actor/director/novelist and cabaret performer, first played the leading role in his own killer melodrama comedy that skewers “Grande Dame Guignol” horror films of the 1960s (featuring aging stars like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Lana Turner) and Hollywood in general. Busch’s stage production proved so popular, it too was made into a film, with Busch starring and winning a Best Performance Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
