In All New People, Zach Braff Presents More of the Same Scrubs

At 37, actor Zach Braff can identify with the Millennials. But as a creative type, his persona is pure Generation X: neurotic, psychically wounded, emotionally adrift, numb to the malaise of adulthood. That said, he’s not averse to wacky meet-cutes, nimble verbal patter, and puns so bad they’re good, often…

Hamlet at GableStage: Shakespeare for the Twitter Generation

If you sat through all 242 minutes of Kenneth Branagh’s unabridged Hamlet movie, masterly as it may have been, chances are there were times when you just wished Shakespeare would get to the damn point already. In Miami wunderkind Tarell Alvin McCraney’s condensed edit of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy, which he…

Tarell McCraney’s Hamlet, Now With Explosions

Like a show opening with a band’s greatest hit, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s radical edit of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet begins with the master’s most famous phrase of his most famous soliloquy: “To be or not to be.” And off we go, into a 90-minute, one-act version that gets right to the…

Cat Lady: Mad Cat’s Manic Comedy Not the Pick of the Litter

Cat Lady may be the first show from Mad Cat Theatre Company to showcase an actual mad cat. This pussy is positively vehement: Played by Ken Clement in a black feline costume, Oliver the cat rails against his owner, Kristina (played by the show’s creator, Kristina Wong). He’s fed up…

Les Miserables On Christmas Day: Barricades, Passion and Oh The Tears

For fans of the epic, enduring stage spectacular Les Miserables, a movie version worth watching has been a long time coming. And because of the play’s enduring popularity, the movie’s all-star cast and the preemptive Oscar buzz – the hype for its Christmas Day opening was undeniably huge. But realistically,…

The Ten Best Miami Theater Productions of 2012

It was a difficult year for theater in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Plantation’s Mosaic Theatre, whose sudden closure was announced this month, was the third quality company to shutter for various reasons, after the Caldwell in Boca Raton and the Promethean in Davie. Luckily, Delray’s Theatre at Arts Garage…

Shaq Pranks Finesse Mitchell, Goes Laser Crazy at Comedy Jam Party

Shaq went on a laser blasting rampage at the upscale Fontainebleau club Arkadia Saturday night. The guy’s a prankster, and no one can stop him.His platinum selling All-Star Comedy Jam was in the house with Courvoisier to celebrate a successful year of touring.Comedians Lavar Walker, Capone, and Finesse Mitchell cracked…

Love Burns and Chills at Actors Playhouse’s The Last Five Years

The minimalist musical The Last Five Years is a dead relationship’s post-mortem. Using his own failed nuptials as inspiration, composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown channeled his universal frustration into this ingenious, 15-part, one-act song cycle charting both the ascent and descent of his relationship with his wife — at…