Balm in Gilead: Lanford Wilson was a master of realistic dialogue in which monologue, conversation, and direct address to the audience overlap. Written in 1965, this work was the playwright’s first full-length play. The drama takes place in Frank’s Café, a seedy all-night diner in New York City’s Upper Broadway…
Ed Bullins is one of the most influential and controversial names in African-American history. Spike Lee may be more familiar; Denzel Washington and Halle Berry are undoubtedly more bankable. And in modern literary circles, Toni Morrison’s moniker might spark more interest. But Bullins, a prize-winning African-American playwright who dominated the…
In the evil galaxy of schadenfreude where theater resides, nothing is better than a darkly funny play about hopeless wankers full of big talk and even bigger dreams that will never be realized because of their cycles of obsession and addiction. In the case of Patrick Marber’s Dealer’s Choice, onstage…
Educating Rita: With this tale of upper-crust English professor Frank mentoring lower-class literary wannabe Rita, Dramaworks’ director Nanique Gheridian sends us into a supposedly well-recognized Pygmalion paradigm. But for those of us who shied away from seeing the 1983 Michael Caine film version of the play, it is not as…
Mad Cat’s latest adventures in the wonderland of new plays have landed the scruffy Miami troupe in a good place. William Donnelly’s Painted Alice, now onstage at the Light Box, may not be especially profound, but it is very funny. And it also gives the Mad Catters a chance to…
Educating Rita: With this tale of upper-crust English professor Frank mentoring lower-class literary wannabe Rita, Dramaworks’ director Nanique Gheridian sends us into a supposedly well-recognized Pygmalion paradigm. But for those of us who shied away from seeing the 1983 Michael Caine film version of the play, it is not as…
For most of us, combining the words dance and Miami Beach in a sentence conjures up the same image: a self-esteem-shrinking battle with a member of the ubiquitous velvet-rope squad. You attempt to persuade the very important door personnel that you are attractive, thin, and/or cool enough. He or she…
Day of Reckoning: The sad and seamy underbelly of the mythical American dream is not a place of hope, though this production makes a scattered attempt at embracing quite a bit of America’s historical landscape: Ku Klux Klan rallies, slavery and its aftermath, burning crosses, forbidden love, shameless hate, interracial…
The first question many people ask about The Full Monty at the Miracle Theatre is not if the play is any good, but if the male performers actually bare their tackle. The answer is yes. This Broadway musical — showing at Actors’ Playhouse through April 9 — is based on…
And Then She Moved the Furniture: The Public Theatre presents the first production of Miami playwright Manny Diez’s chilling tale of army base domestic abuse, a fictional telling of a true story out of Fort Bragg during the summer of 2002. Four soldiers murdered their wives, and two of them…
The sad and seamy underbelly of the mythical American dream is not a place of hope. Nor is it a world that is easily described, though New Theatre’s powerful production of Day of Reckoning makes a scattered attempt at embracing quite a bit of America’s historical landscape: Ku Klux Klan…
What is it about gangsters that we find so fascinating? From the real-life Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel to the fictional Tony Soprano, mobsters have become as much a part of American culture as Apple Computer. But as rich as our nation’s history is with tales of organized crime, it’s unlikely you…
America/America: One Nation, Many Stories: The Dance Now! Ensemble is set to premiere its newest work. Drawing on the company’s trademark fusion of contemporary Western dance, ballet, modern, and contemporary jazz, the show will spotlight the nine-person troupe performing a dazzling display of athleticism and art. Set to a haunting…
The town of Plantation recently seems to have become a womb for young male violence, with the most recognized wickedness to come out of this pseudo-Fitzgerald West Egg lately being the alleged bashing of homeless men in January by baseball bat-wielding teen lads. Bad, sad news all around. But Plantation…
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men: Some things mature with age, others don’t. Almost 40 years after Ceremonies premiered off-Broadway, it still offers a powerfully rich portrayal of a disenfranchised African-American family in crisis. But it also projects such a clichéd, outdated, and stereotypical image of black men that it begs…
To most people, food sustains life. But to the culinary celebrities converging on Miami February 24 through 26 for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, food is life. And they’re set to nourish the hungry crowds with shows of sustenance. “You can call me a lot of things,” quips…
Few things are more difficult to describe than childhood molestation. But Paula Vogel’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning controversial play, How I Learned to Drive, now onstage at the University of Miami’s Jerry Herman Ring Theatre, does just that. Set in Maryland largely during the Sixties, this 90-minute dark comedy moves in…
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men: Some things mature with age, others don’t. Almost 40 years after Ceremonies premiered off-Broadway, it still offers a powerfully rich portrayal of a disenfranchised African-American family in crisis. But it also projects such a clichéd, outdated, and stereotypical image of black men that it begs…
Slam is the World Wrestling Entertainment of the literary universe. It’s a sport like Fox’s Survivor. There’s competition. Someone wins. Someone loses. And that makes Will “Da Real One” Bell, a six-foot five-inch, 36-year-old Liberty City native, the main draw at Miami Art Central for the Invitational Poetry Slam February…
Some things mature with age, others don’t. Almost 40 years after M Ensemble’s latest show premiered off-Broadway, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men still offers a powerfully rich portrayal of a disenfranchised African-American family in crisis. But Lonne Elder III’s classic tale also projects such a clichéd, outdated, and stereotypical image…
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka topped the charts with a slew of hits during the late Fifties and early Sixties; many of them are now considered golden oldies. The twenty-odd Sedaka classics Breaking Up uses to narrate its predictable plot will lure baby boomers and doo-wop…
Eclectic by design and multicultural with a vengeance, Miami Light Project’s Here & Now: 2006 is the riskiest and most ambitious edition yet. This innovative performance, multimedia, and film festival — produced in collaboration with the new Miami Performing Arts Center — is a hothouse for local talent. Through February…
