Although known largely for her comic roles, actress Jeni Hacker conveys anger, laughter and sadness as the quirky mother “Anne” in playwright Florian Zeller’s one act drama with comic overtones titled “The Mother”, running now through Sunday, Nov. 23 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami.
From the moment I set foot on Florida Atlantic University’s campus, I knew Monday, November 17 was going to be an unforgettable night. After all, for one glittering evening, the University Theatre was home to South Florida’s version of Broadway’s Tony Awards, the Carbonell Awards. This marked the 48th year of South Florida’s Theater & Arts Honors, and to make things even more exciting, this ceremony was the first to be held in Palm Beach County since 1997. Named for acclaimed sculptor Manuel Carbonell, who designed the bronze and marble award that is given to the winners, the Carbonell Awards aim to recognize excellent theater in the region, spanning Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties. Their mission is to “foster the artistic growth of professional theater in South Florida by celebrating the excellence and diversity of our theater artists, providing educational scholarships, and building audience appreciation and civic pride by highlighting achievements of our theater community.” Needless to say, this awards ceremony was a beautiful encapsulation of that mission!
What happens when you get a group of our most talented local divas together in a musical that’s notorious for skewering the very genre that made their name? You get a mind-blowing explosion of show-stopper applause moments, that’s what, in a show that couldn’t get any better if it tried.
Most of the highly experienced, award-winning actors that Island City Stage’s artistic director Andy Rogow assembled for his 14th season opener, RUTHLESS! The Musical, have performed together before. So they’re old hats at tapping into extra creative energy from one another. And I could sense them having the time of their lives when they let it all rip – reaching for a personal vocal best when they burst into song. Winning still more “energy” and applause from their audience.
Lake Worth Playhouse’s production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town leans into the melancholy that makes the play endure. It is not sad in a showy or theatrical way. Instead, it captures the quiet desperation of the masses, the accumulation of moments that Frankenstein a life. This staging understands that Wilder meant the play to be honest. What emerges here is a gently depressing but deeply humane portrait of love, time, and loss. It succeeds because it lets the world of Grover’s Corners be as bare or full as a memory.
One thing is for certain: Kimberly Akimbo is unlike any musical you’ve ever seen before. Family secrets, vibrant (and, sometimes, quite possibly toxic) personalities, anagrams, and check fraud schemes abound…yet while its plotlines are unique, the show’s message is truly universal. At the heart of the story lies high schooler Kimberly Levaco (Ann Morrison), a young girl growing up in 1999 New Jersey with a rare, unnamed genetic condition that causes her to age four to five times as fast as usual. Kimberly longs for connection, belonging—and maybe even a trip to Six Flags Great Adventure. Still, it isn’t so easy for Kim to follow her dreams when she’s also dealing with parents (Brandon Springman and Laura Woyasz) who wish she were someone different, along with the impending arrival of a baby sister who could be the “normal” child they’ve always wanted, an aunt (Sarah Lynn Marion) who’s trying to rope Kim and her friends into her criminal plans, a crush on Seth (Marcus Phillips), her project partner from biology class—and the project itself, where he’s managed to convince her to present on her disease. Can Kim truly make the most out of life when not even time might be on her side?
Puppet shows for adults, anyone? You bet! Just ask Broward Centerfor the PerformingArts whose Au-ReneTheater has been taken over by puppets of late. And not just any puppets – realistic-looking animals usually found in zoos – life size, often ferocious or regal, sometimes friendly and kind. Still, I wouldn’t rush to introduce them to the Sesame Street set.
Anthony Nunziata, the popular Brooklyn-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter and frequent performer at clubs throughout Palm Beach County and South Florida, has released a new Christmas album and will celebrate the classic musical assemblage with a 17-city holiday tour — including a show Dec. 2 at Café Centro in West Palm Beach and Dec. 20 at Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale.
If there was ever a musical that managed to be both gut-busting and heartbreaking in the same breath, Kimberly Akimbo is it. Now playing at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, this Tony Award–winning gem tells the story of Kimberly, an optimistic, dreaming teenager despite her rare genetic condition that causes her to age four times faster than normal. As she navigates this marked life, having a 50-year-old body as a 16-year-old, she tackles a first love and dysfunctional family dynamics headfirst. Kimberly’s story becomes a poignant meditation on time, mortality, and the beauty of simply being alive.
Pompano Player’s matinee production of Steel Magnolias on Saturday, November 8, was poignant and witty, with plenty of southern charm. Before researching Robert Harling’s play, several thoughts came to mind. Does this script stand the test of time? The answer is a resounding yes. Steel Magnolias premiered on Broadway in 1987. The original movie, with its amazing cast, hit theaters in 1989 and received three Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. The story reappeared on the big screen again in 2012 with an African American cast featuring Queen Latifah and Alfre Woodward. What gives this heart-wrenching drama its unique durability? Maybe its unique name, Steel Magnolias, contributes to its attraction. The contradiction of terms doesn’t match until you look at it from the perspective of these strong women: women as delicate and fragile as magnolias and as tough as steel at the same time. This cast took both aspects to heart, showing their own unique strengths, with grit and vulnerability.
On Halloween night, a perfectly spooky occasion for a family of delightful misfits, South Florida Theater caught the opening performance of The Addams Family at the Kravis Center. It was a truncated run, but the enthusiasm of the audience, with the charisma of the cast, made the evening worthwhile. The show, directed by Antoinette DiPietropolo, and featuring Rodrigo Aragón as Gomez and Renee Kathleen Koher as Morticia, found its stride in moments of humor and physical play but faltered in its true resonance, at no fault of the director or actors.
