Since performing the music of The Carpenters with her seven member “Top of the World” band in 2017, singer Debbie Taylor of Coral Springs has been so popular that she sold out each of her annual Aventura Arts and Cultural Center shows over the years and has toured across the United States as often as 40 weeks annually.
Taylor and “Top of the World” will again perform a tribute to the music of The Carpenters next Saturday October 25 at Aventura Center before another anticipated sold out concert.
Wrapping up its opening weekend at the Arsht Center in Miami, Miami City Ballet’s Peck: Miami in Motion offers an evening devoted entirely to the work of Justin Peck, one of the most visible choreographers exploring contemporary ballet. The program features three of his ballets: “Year of the Rabbit,” “Chutes and Ladders,” and “Heatscape.” These trace more than a decade of Peck’s creative output. An homage to the choreographer, the performance on opening night was both beautiful and forgettable; I was left thinking on certain moments, already losing trace of the awe that usually lingers after the final bow.
Would you kill for a hit? With my mom, South Florida Theater’s own wonderful Mindy Leaf
Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art? That eternal question slinks across the boards in Deathtrap, Ira Levin’s devilishly clever thriller now playing at Empire Stage courtesy of exciting new theatre company on the block, Upstage Productions. Directed by DK Kondelik, this new staging takes the classic four-Tony nominated 1978 play—a wicked satire of ambition, authorship, and ego—and gives it fresh voltage, its twists snapping like trapdoors underfoot. What begins as a witty drawing-room mystery unfurls into a gleeful study of human deceit, Clue meets hall-of-mirrors fever dream.
At Wednesday’s matinee, Kimberly Wick’s (production supervisor/costumes/properties manager) upbeat words of welcome to The Wick Theatre & Museum Club’s 12th Season confirmed their highly successful formula of providing audiences with the best “Oldies but Goodies.” What better show to personify this mission than staging the world’s longest running musical! THE FANTASTICKS is an off-Broadway legend that ran for 42 successive years at the same theatre, since 1960, was awarded the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 1991, then took off across the country (boasting some 250 new productions yearly), including a 2006-2017 off-Broadway revival. Based loosely on the 1894 play “Les Romanesques” by Edmond Rostand, the musical boasts a Book & Lyrics by Tom Jones and Music by Harvey Schmidt.
The 48th annual Carbonell Awards, South Florida’s Theater & Arts Honors, will be hosting a glittery ceremony at FAU’s University Theatre in Boca Raton on Monday, November 17, at 7:30 pm.
Rosemary Clooney was one of the first stars who introduced me to the magic of Golden Age Hollywood, before I even really knew who she was. White Christmas was one of the first classic movies I saw growing up, and Clooney’s charming personality and melodious singing voice immediately endeared her to me and so many other viewers. However, if you want to know more about this talented star, beyond the glitz and glamour on the surface of her career, Tenderly is the show for you. Written by Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman, and directed by Jim Tyminski, Tenderly tells the comprehensive story of Rosemary Clooney’s life. Set in 1968 in a psychiatrist’s office at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills, where Clooney is making visits due to her mental health struggles, the musical constantly flashes back and forth in time to paint viewers a picture of this icon’s life and career—whether it’s the highs, the lows, or everything in between.
A new original musical, WoodWork, will debut on Sunday, October 26 from 7:30 to 8:30 PM at Paradigm Theaters in Fort Lauderdale. Written by 14-year-old playwright and producer Elai, the 25-minute performance offers a powerful look at the early life of Abraham Lincoln, from humble beginnings to his rise as a leader. The showing also invites audience feedback to help shape a future full-length production.
Just in time for the spooky season, Lake Worth Playhouse dares to feed their ambition by showing a mightily-portrayed production of Little Shop of Horrors. With a number of notable improvements, including a PhD director in Christy Rodriguez de Conte, Lake Worth is having a meteoric rise, and they welcome plantlike aliens into their ranks on that ascent. Little Shop captures the camp, the laughs, and the terror that make this quirky musical one of the best ever.
They say “truth is stranger than fiction” but if the plot of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN: The Musical were a work of fiction, it would never fly. I’m also using “fly” here literally for that’s how we are introduced to the young high-flyer who posed as a pilot and was ultimately caught at an airport, about to board a plane. From the age of 16 to 18 (early 1960s, in our storyline), he was the youngest, most prolific, and genius conman to ever have gotten away with two years of multiple professional identities (Pan Am co-pilot, surgeon, lawyer – though he did later study and pass the bar exam) along with printing millions of dollars-worth of counterfeit checks.
History Fort Lauderdale, proud steward of our community’s past by making our heritage accessible and engaging to residents and visitors, will present “Night at the Museum: Porch Party” on Wednesday, October 29, 2025, from 5 to 8 p.m. Guests are invited to enjoy an evening under the stars featuring self-guided access to museum exhibitions, light bites and beverages on the museum’s iconic porch.
