In Miami the chances of a low-budget theater company finding a permanent home are as good as discovering a ramshackle HUD house in ritzy CocoPlum, but seven-year-old, Spanish-language troupe La Má Teodora has done just that. It opened La Magagna, a 150-seat warehouse space off Bird Road and SW 74th…
Shouldn’t have said yes, couldn’t say no. The deal was simple, and those who chose to accept it had made their own private pact with the showbiz-journalism devil. “You will spend an hour with Tom Cruise and an hour with Steven Spielberg,” said the publicist, a lovely woman from 20th…
When a historical play has done its work, one can expect to hear one of two exclamations from audience members as they file out: the ever-popular “My, how times have changed!” or the unforgettable “Oh, how history repeats itself!” GableStage’s production of Russell Lees’s Nixon’s Nixon might inspire both utterances…
A recent e-mail inquiry sent to “fine art landscape photographer and natural history author” Jeff Ripple — as he bills himself — triggered the automatic response: “In the field. Please leave a message at … ” Hardly a surprise, since the Gainesville-based Ripple, camera and notepad at the ready, has…
Beware of backhanded compliments. If you heed the critics and the advance press, you might have heard that the Stage Door Theatre’s Our Sinatra, the long-running musical imported from New York, is a stylish cabaret revue. This is true and that’s good, and it’s also not so good. Our Sinatra…
Artist Cesar Trasobares is the co-curator of “That Place,” an exhibit-installation involving paintings, photographs, and multimedia culled from prominent local collectors, and some site-specific works by local artists. Like a number of shows over the past few years, the art was picked and arranged to fit with a particular space,…
The plot of The Bourne Identity is astonishingly straightforward. It is bereft of twists (instead we’re offered tangible explanations), free of the gaping plot holes that swallow confused viewers, and absent the cynical machinations of filmmakers who believe that to entertain it’s necessary to also bamboozle. This adaptation of Robert…
The opening-credit sequence of Windtalkers — a montage of Monument Valley — instantly invokes memories of the opening of John Woo’s immediately previous film, Mission: Impossible 2, in which Tom Cruise was dangling off a rock. It is the last moment of similarity between the two. Windtalkers is a World…
It’s tough being a dad in this world of uncertainties and expectations. Alimony keeps the ex-wife at bay, and tuition payments keep your ungrateful offspring from dissing you outright 24/7. But there is one little loved one in your life who will always consider you the supreme daddy numero uno,…
The seemingly endless cycle of arts events, though slowing, has yet to cease. As one festival (the International Hispanic Theatre Festival) ends, another (the Florida Dance Festival) begins. For the next seventeen days expect this town to be overrun with hardbodied, expressive types when dancers of all kinds begin to…
In the end is a beginning, as the saying goes. And so it is with Apartment 3A, a romantic comedy with a Hollywood ending that marks a Hollywood beginning: the Acting Studio Stage Company’s new space on Hollywood Boulevard. While there are certain drawbacks to this production, plenty of encouraging…
It’s no surprise that the Louisiana-born novelist Rebecca Wells has seen her wildly popular books translated into eighteen languages, with no less than six million copies in print. She’s no deep-thinking stylist, but she has an unfailing gift for injecting Southern sentimentality, low-grade neurosis, and mischievous charm into stories that…
The plot of The Importance of Being Earnest, for those unfortunates who’ve missed it these past 109 years, goes something like this: A dandified London wastrel by the name of Algernon (Algy) Moncrieff (portrayed in this adaptation by Rupert Everett) welcomes into his chambers his friend and ally, Ernest (Colin…
“It’s not like I’m going to be sitting there and balancing eggs on spoons,” says actor/playwright Bill Spring about his new performance piece Miss Vanilla and the Hustler, debuting this weekend on Miami Beach. “It’s accessible material.” Set on South Beach, where the Atlanta native has resided for the past…
A few famous artists on regret: “I Regret Nothing,” proclaimed French chanteuse Edith Piaf in what came to be known as her signature song. “Miss Otis Regrets,” wrote composer Cole Porter about a woman who murdered her lover and politely canceled a social engagement owing to the dire consequences she…
When this column debuted at the beginning of 2000, readers and editors scoffed at its occasional subject matter, the comic book. Kids’ stuff, they growled, junk food for adults who still live in their parents’ basements. And maybe they were right back then. The industry was dying; the art form…
Big is sometimes better. For instance South Florida has become home to the largest Hispanic theater festival in the United States, which this year will host thirteen companies from seven other countries (Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Slovenia, and Spain). Almost all of the companies have been presenting theater…
Once again reels from Rio will screen on the sands of Miami Beach to kick off this year’s festival, which includes 24 films and visits by a number of actors and directors. The big treat: For the first time ever, the opening film (A Dog’s Will, reviewed below) will be…
For true South Florida-style diversity, look to Coconut Grove. Located on Biscayne Bay, a few miles south of downtown Miami, the lushly landscaped area is perhaps this city’s most eclectic neighborhood. Over the years it has boasted bratty college kids carousing and cruising around in their cars on weekend nights,…
It is often said, this town is going to the dogs. Nothing could be more apt this weekend when the South Dade Kennel Club holds its eleventh annual All Breed Conformation Show and Obedience Trials. Close to 700 canines will jump through hoops, run through tunnels, pose, and obey commands,…
What a difference a week makes. In the last issue of New Times, Florida Stage in Manalapan was lauded as the Best Theater in South Florida. Now along comes its final show of the season, Women Who Steal, which is, to be very blunt, the worst show of the stage’s…
The sudden cancellation of Cesar Beltrán’s “The Centennial” exhibit at Maxoly Art Cuba gallery, two weeks before its closing date, is a sad and depressing reminder of how a mix of blatant ignorance, scare tactics, and inflated claims of patriotism can crush artistic freedom in Miami. This is a loose…
