This past year saw a decline in the number of productions mounted by small and mid-sized troupes, so it’s only natural that our countdown of 2013’s best regional productions is dominated by three of our most consistently rewarding companies. Here it is:…
They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. That was certainly true for Dave Chappelle last night, who opened his two-night, four-show series of Miami performances to a hyped-up, sold-out crowd at The Fillmore. As we overheard one fan say, “I never thought I’d see him live in my…
“Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality… One can’t possess reality, one can possess images — one can’t possess the present, but one can possess the past.” — Susan Sontag Each of the four scenes in Sean Grennan’s play Making God Laugh ends in a family photograph that’s meant to…
“Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality… One can’t possess reality, one can possess images — one can’t possess the present, but one can possess the past.” –Susan Sontag Each of the four scenes in Sean Grennan’s play Making God Laugh ends in a family photograph that’s meant to immortalize…
The city of Miami is fully saturated in Art Basel madness this week. But if there’s any news that can cut through the haze of champagne hangovers and celebrity cameos, it’s this: It’s Dave Chappelle, bitch! Update: After Chappelle’s first show sold out, a second, later show has been added…
My Name Is Asher Lev is a memory play about religious orthodoxy, modern art, and the incompatibility of these two concepts, adapted by Aaron Posner from a best-selling tome by the author and rabbi Chaim Potok. Asher (Etai BenShlomo) narrates the action from his perch as a young artist from…
The PlayGround Theatre’s name may have changed to Miami Theater Center, but the mission, in part, remains the same: the production of intelligent, sophisticated, uncompromising children’s theater that adults can appreciate too. With this MO in mind, the PlayGround Theatre in 2011 premiered The Red Thread, a motley and artful…
The last time we left The House of Bernarda Alba — Federico Lorca’s haunting 1936 tragedy about a domineering Spanish mother and her five daughters — one of Bernarda’s offspring was dead by a self-inflicted hanging. The saga lives on, more than 70 years later, in the form of Megan…
Get your mind out of the gutter; the NBA Penis Monologues isn’t a joke. Unlike what the name suggests, it’s about more than genitalia. It’s about celebrity life, relationship troubles, friendship, and the journey of manhood. The NBA Penis Monologues, written by Joe Brown, first appeared on Broadway. Now, the…
You probably never thought you’d hear the words NBA Penis Monologues discussed in a serious fashion. But here we are, in a space in time where the latest original play that’s wowing audiences is, in fact, NBA Penis Monologues. The play has made waves in New York for its special…
What happens when you get two of the most sarcastic and vulgar writers in television together, then sprinkle in a little music, some choreographed dancing, and organized religion? Hello, the most amazing musical is born: The Book of Mormon. This musical will change your life…
Nobody, apparently, is too big for Kickstarter. Public figures such as Spike Lee, Zach Braff, and Marina Abramovic have all taken to the crowdfunding website recently, where they’ve raised up to $3 million for their offbeat artistic ventures. But the site wasn’t exactly created with the whims of eccentric millionaires…
If GableStage’s production of My Name is Asher Lev is a triumph – and this weekend’s opening-night reaction seemed to suggest it is – then it’s a subtle victory, a slow creep toward transcendence. The atmosphere is often low-lit and lugubrious. There are occasional moments of levity, but the tone…
“The comedian I am now is not the comedian I started out being,” Eric DaSilva told me in the middle of a Starbucks in Kendall while reflecting on his career. “I thought I would be like a Bill Hicks… then I had my first kid and I started talking about…
The setting of John Patrick Shanley’s Savage in Limbo is a seedy bar in the Bronx, circa 1986. As interpreted by the Alliance Theatre Lab’s set designer, Adalberto Acevedo, we’ve all seen this bar before, usually when we’ve had nowhere else to go. It’s not a place of entertainment —…
The setting of John Patrick Shanley’s Savage in Limbo is a seedy bar in the Bronx, circa 1986. As interpreted by the Alliance Theatre Lab’s set designer, Dennis Lysniak, we’ve all seen this bar before, usually when we’ve had nowhere else to go. It’s not a place of entertainment –…
Balé Folclórico da Bahia aims to give an authentic taste of Afro-Brazilian history and culture with every high kick and undulation that unfolds onstage. Using drumming and religious chanting as part of its soundtrack, the company’s repertoire explodes with high-energy folkloric movement, electric sambas and lightning-fast capoeira moves exchanged between…
You guys, we’re so jealous of Nature right now! Sure, getting fracked is totally lame, but how awesome would it be to have Nikki Glaser as one of your besties? “I would say I’ve been friends with Nature since, god, since I bought a Gap shirt that said ‘Save the…
Coconut Grove’s long-standing comedy club, Miami Improv, is no more. The spot is shuttered and all future shows are cancelled, a representative told Cultist. The spot, tucked away at 3390 Mary St., wasn’t doing well financially, according to the rep, so the owners decided to shut the doors. “We are…
The opening scene of Fear Up Harsh may be the closest a theater audience can get to the bowels of a war zone. It’s set in Muqdadiyah, a hellhole that American soldiers affectionately called “the nastiest town in Iraq” during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Marines and Army corporals are battling a…
Inspired by sources as far flung as Amsterdam’s Red Light District and the women’s quarters of India’s Hawa Mahal (a royal palace in Jaipur), The Manganiyar Seduction promises to plunge concertgoers into the music and song of an ancient musical tradition and Sufi poetry. The Manganiyar are an all-male caste…
The opening scene of Fear Up Harsh may be the closest a theater audience can get to the bowels of a war zone. It’s set in Muqdadiyah, a hellhole that American soldiers affectionately called “the nastiest town in Iraq” during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Marines and Army corporals are battling a…
