Performing Arts

Bird in the Handat New Theatre Through April 7

Baseball season is upon us, but here in Miami, there might be more fans singing “Take Me Out to the Ballet.” That’s because legendary catcher (and former Florida Marlin) Mike Piazza will take the stage with Miami City Ballet next month. Yes, really. He’ll portray the Gangster in Miami City…

“I’ve wanted another one of these for so long,” a gracious Lela Elam said last night as she accepted the Carbonell Award for Best Actress in a Play for her work in GableStage’s Ruined. “I think they just look better as a set.”For Elam, who won a Carbonell in 2008 for GableStage’s…

Sexy. Seductive. Sweaty. These are three S’s not typically associated with opera, the favorite pastime of the monied elderly. But times have changed, and this ain’t your grandma’s opera anymore. On second thought, judging by the audience at last night’s Tango double-bill at The Stage, maybe it still is your…

GableStage’s 4000 Miles Is Almost Perfection

Fela Kuti, the pioneering Nigerian Afrobeat musician, activist, presidential candidate and polygamist (at one point, he had 28 wives) seems an unlikely subject for an American musical. But that’s exactly why the show Fela!, based on a biography of Kuti’s tumultuous life, is so special. Like the musician himself, it’s…

Last weekend, Miami Theater Center’s Sandbox Series presented the first of a three-weekend run of Pie Solo, Pioneer Winter’s “quarter-life” reinterpretation of the one-man show. The multimedia event is an autobiographical foray into Winter’s personal, family, religious, and queer history told in stages with contemporary dance, tap, a sax solo,…

After smoking some weed with her 21-year-old grandson, a 91-year-old matron matter-of-factly discusses the intimate facts of her life. She’s sitting on an old couch in her Manhattan apartment while a solemn Karl Marx photo hangs on the wall behind her. “Neither of my husbands ever satisfied me,” she says…

When Destiny’s Child reunited during the Super Bowl, the resulting snark almost preempted the performance itself. Jokes about Beyoncé’s diva swagger and dismissive treatment of the other two members of the group flooded the Internet. Perhaps nobody felt the sting more than Michelle Williams. No, not the Dawson’s Creek and…

In 2012, things weren’t looking so great for the Coconut Grove Playhouse. The Grove community rallied against its board of directors for what they say was negligence to treat the building properly. Companies such as the Aries Group, to whom the playhouse owed money, squabbled over exactly how much the…

When a character in the play you’re watching describes his incipient bowel movement as a “turtle head” poking out of his butthole, you know you’re in for some refined theater.Of course, playwright and co-star David Michael Sirois never intended his reprisal of Brothers Beckett, originally presented at the cozy Alliance…

Afro-Caribbean folklore entered Peter London’s soul at age six, and never left. In the hilly Trinidadian countryside, the then-youngster would take part in religious ceremonies often led by his family members, who were strong keepers of the Yoruba-derived faith and drumming. From there, his love for dance sprouted into classical…

Since the Super Bowl, pop-culture chatter has essentially revolved around Beyoncé — her HBO special, her world tour, her GQ cover. But let’s not forget about the other members of Destiny’s Child — especially the one who’s starring in a Broadway show, planning a new reality TV show, and dealing…

Early first adopters of the Second Saturday Art Walk who complain about the “CocoWalk-ification” of the narrow NW Second Ave corridor will have to complain a little louder this Saturday. Otherwise, their voices could be lost beneath the impressive vocals of Florida Grand Opera.  Following its stints at Wynwood art…

It’s been a good year for Tarell Alvin McCraney. The Miami playwright kicked off 2013 with his own punched-up, truncated version of Hamlet, which opened at GableStage in January to favorable reviews (including ours). Next, he’s working with London’s Royal Shakespeare Company and the New York Public Theatre to produce…

Brothers Beckett at the Arsht: Sibling Rivalry and Revelry

Do you miss 30 Rock? Wish Lorne Michaels would give Weekend Update its own spinoff? Find chicks who talk about poop undeniably sexy? If so, this year’s South Beach Comedy Festival was made for you. The fest announced the lineup for its April run this morning, and there are plenty…

Neil Hamburger is more than just “America’s Funnyman.” He is the absolute best worst comedian of all time. Between you and me, Mr. Hamburger doesn’t actually exist. He’s a figment of comedian Gregg Turkington’s wild imagination. However, Turkington is known for his Andy Kaufman-like devotion to becoming immersed in his…

Alvin Ailey Dance Theater’s performance at the Arsht Center last Friday night began and ended with a prayer — or rather, with an electrifying, raging, shimmering, sassy, full-bodied reminder of what prayer can mean. A work by choreographer Garth Fagan, of Lion King fame, opened the show. Fagan has often…

It was one of the most memorable moments from the Super Bowl earlier this month. Calvin Klein’s Concept black and white ad is centered around a dark male figure whose body is nothing less than perfect. Set to a mechanical electronic track, the commercial is like a scene out of…

This coming Saturday at Just the Funny in Coral Gables, local comedy promoters the Have-Nots assembled a group of nine up-and-coming Florida comics to represent Miami in a taping for L.A.-based comedy content provider ComedyTime.tv. Nestled among some local favorites, such as Jessica Gross and Daniel Reskin, is New York transplant Dougie…

Miami Made Festival 2013: Arsht Center Shows Off Local Talent in Free, Daring Stage Shows