Ella: It’s ten years this month since songstress Ella Fitzgerald died. Fitzgerald, whose romantically distinctive voice has gently passed from generation to generation since her first recordings in 1936, didn’t so much have her own songs but rather made anything she sang an Ella experience. In the past year, Florida…
The only large thing about the M Ensemble company and its latest production, a gospel musical titled Mahalia, is Charlette Brown-Seward’s voice. And honey, it is a big ‘un. Despite the theater’s physical limitations — its seating capacity is approximately 60, and the stage is maybe seven feet deep —…
Ella: It’s ten years this month since songstress Ella Fitzgerald died. Fitzgerald, whose romantically distinctive voice has gently passed from generation to generation since her first recordings in 1936, didn’t so much have her own songs but rather made anything she sang an Ella experience. In the past year, Florida…
Ella: It’s ten years this month since songstress Ella Fitzgerald died. Fitzgerald, whose romantically distinctive voice has gently passed from generation to generation since her first recordings in 1936, didn’t so much have her own songs but rather made anything she sang an Ella experience. In the past year, Florida…
Early on in This Is How It Goes, Neil LaBute’s savage one-act play showing through July 23 at the Biltmore Hotel’s GableStage, the lead character confesses that he is an unreliable narrator and that the story about to unfold may not have happened quite as he says. And then he…
First let’s suck the marrow out of the matter: Some of the members of the London-based CandoCo Dance Company have one arm or one leg. Others use wheelchairs or canes. The label alone — mixed-ability, disabled, integrated, or inclusive, depending who you ask — is enough to distinguish the troupe,…
Beehive: The ’60s Musical Sensation: Even as the fine band warmed up the crowd with an “It’s My Party”-infused medley, deep in my gut the pain began. It was the same pain that accompanies all such musical reviews, and it sharpened with the play’s first chipper hit-parade memory, “The Name…
Beehive: The ’60s Musical Sensation: Even as the fine band warmed up the crowd with an “It’s My Party”-infused medley, deep in my gut the pain began. It was the same pain that accompanies all such musical reviews, and it sharpened with the play’s first chipper hit-parade memory, “The Name…
In the world premiere of Leslie Ayvazian’s new miniature play, Rosemary and Elizabeth, there is a moment as tender as it is brief, when two widows hold hands and sigh. Lovingly directed by Margaret Ledford and acted with exquisite delicacy by Elizabeth Dimon and Kim Ostrenko, Rosemary is a triumph…
Five Course Love: One night, five restaurants, and fifteen characters sum up this tasty yet not entirely filling new musical onstage in the Miracle Theatre’s intimate upstairs room. Directed by David Arisco, the ensemble of Oscar Cheda, Janet Dacal, and Christopher A. Kent is the hardest-working trio in show biz…
One night, five restaurants, and fifteen characters sum up Five Course Love, the tasty yet not entirely filling new musical onstage in Miracle Theatre’s intimate upstairs room. Directed by David Arisco, the Actors’ Playhouse ensemble of Oscar Cheda, Janet Dacal, and Christopher A. Kent is the hardest-working trio in showbiz…
The Impressionists: In the 2000 movie Pollock, a crucially transformative scene places Jackson Pollock breaking through his previous conventions to slap paint on canvases. When wife Lee Krasner comes around to see what would forever after be recognized as his signature groove, she proclaims, “You’ve done it, Pollock. You’ve cracked…
The Impressionists: In the 2000 movie Pollock, a crucially transformative scene places Jackson Pollock breaking through his previous conventions to slap paint on canvases. When wife Lee Krasner comes around to see what would forever after be recognized as his signature groove, she proclaims, “You’ve done it, Pollock. You’ve cracked…
Watching M Ensemble’s production of Seven Guitars is like sitting in your neighbor’s back yard on Sunday: Although there’s not a lot going on, simply being invited generates a feel-good sense of belonging. But after spending an hour listening to strangers jabber about their lives without any real story line,…
Carmen: We know her, we love her, and we can’t get enough of her. People who have never been to an opera house could probably recognize Carmen within a few notes. And those who love opera remain fascinated by this sexy creature. Florida Grand Opera, which began its relationship with…
We know her, we love her, and we can’t get enough of her. People who have never been to an opera house could probably recognize Carmen within a few notes. And those who love opera remain fascinated by this sexy creature. Carmen was the heroine of Prosper Mérimée’s 1845 novella…
What do you get if you combine eight musicians, forty-two singers, and one fast-talking con artist? Answer: “Seventy-Six Trombones.” Huh? Those good in math might be scratching their heads, wondering what the heck we’re talking about, but this was exactly the formula Meredith Willson used to create his legendary Broadway…
Family Secret: Edge Theatre, which last year served up Men on the Verge of a Hispanic Breakdown, now offers Family Secret, written and directed by Jim Tommaney. God smiles on roaming bands of small theater troupe experimentalists. One week they might be playing in an art gallery, the next a…
John Beauregard was 39 years old when he fell from a construction site and broke his neck. In one awful moment, the builder who loved to ski became a C7 quadriplegic, largely paralyzed from the neck down. “I remember when I first got hurt and for all those many years,…
The Sunken Living Room: This is one instance when the story behind the scenes upstages the action in the play. David Caudle’s family drama was scheduled to open in New Orleans last summer, but Hurricane Katrina hit. The play is about a 24-hour period in the life of a dysfunctional…
This is one instance when the story behind the scenes upstages the action in the play. David Caudle’s family drama The Sunken Living Room, now receiving its world premiere at New Theatre, has been through quite a real-life saga. It was scheduled to open at the acclaimed Southern Rep in…
Umoja should be presented with two disclaimers. The first: May cause serious fatigue. Meaning this 36-member troupe emanates more energy than a hyperactive four-year-old hooked up to an intravenous caffeine drip. And during Wednesday’s electric opening-night performance at the Gusman Center, an enthusiastic crowd barely kept up. From tribal snake…
