Monday, December 14, 2009

Mondays are Dark

Tradition!
Mary Damiano of MiamiArtzine.com asks the folks in our theatre community about their holiday traditions.  In that vein, I will say that my family Christmas tradition is to put the Christmas tree up on Christmas Eve.  When I was a child, "Santa" would decorate it when he dropped of the toys; it was magical to come down the next morning to find the tree all decorated and lit up, surrounded by presents.  When I was older, I was drafted to help make Santa's magic happen.

Meal Ticket
BroadwayWorld.com reports that Rising Action Theatre has setup a dinner deal if you come to see their production of Eyecons.

Storyline
Jan Sjostrom of the Palm Beach Daily News gives us a peek into The Storytelling Ability of a Boy, now playing at Florida Stage.

Center Stage
Leslie Gray Streeter of the Palm Beach Post takes a look at Burt Reynold's new project, a staged reading of Barrymore. It played this weekend, but sold out about a month ago.

New Staffer at Actors' Playhouse
BroadwayWorld reports that Hannah Hausman Greaux has been named the latest Associate Director of Development.  Good luck!

Orphans Father
Alliance Theatre Lab gives us a biography of playwright Lyle Kessler, whose work includes Orphans, which Alliance will mount later this season.  He's from Philadelphia, like the author of the production that follows Orphans, Bruce Graham.  Hey guys, if you interview Bruce, get him to tell you about "that Hollywood Party."  Totally worth it!

Melt and the North Pole; (Not A Global Warming Story)
The Drama Queen reports that playwright Michael McKeever's Melt will be coming back to South Florida, at Actors' Playhouse.  She also tells us about Michael McKeever the actor, and his upcoming gig in The Santa Land Diaries at The Burt Reynolds Under-The-Bridge Players

Now Everyone's a Playwright.

Well, not everyone, but the Drama Queen reports that some Miami celebrities are taking a hand at it at New Theatre.

Miami Herald goes to Tampa
Christine Dolen made the trip to Tampa to write about Wonderland: Alice's New Musical Adventure for the Miami Herald.  As frequent Scene readers know, it was composed by Frank Wildhorn, and stars Janet Dacal, both natives of South Florida.

It seems the creative team appreciates Dacal's work, which has been lauded on area stages for several years:
"She wowed us,'' Wildhorn says. "She's like [dancer] Cyd Charisse, [comedian] Lucille Ball and [singer] Donny Hathaway, and nobody else looks like her.''

Director Boyd agrees.

"It was clear Janet is a true triple threat,'' he says. "She's a great singer, a great dancer and a great, beautiful, funny actor. . . . She has all the virtues.''
As she'd made the trek to the Gulf Coast, Dolen took in the show, and reviewed it:
Composer Frank Wildhorn's score is an eclectic collection of pop tunes, power ballads, numbers permeated with jazz and salsa, almost all of them keepers. Jack Murphy's lyrics incorporate plenty of wit and whimsy in defining characters and serving the story. But the show's book, by Murphy and director Gregory Boyd, needs lots of attention, as does the musical's structure.
Which is to be expected in the first staging of a new musical.  Oh, and the cast - particularly Dacal - get great write-ups.
Dacal is a beguiling Alice, adept in all the vocal styles the score demands, immensely watchable when she's performing Marguerite Derricks' wondrous choreography, possessed of a radiant and likable stage presence. And she's surrounded by talent that mostly shines when it's time to move into the spotlight.
If you make the trip to see it, it plays through January 3.

Meanwhile, in Palm Beach...

The Royal Poinciana Playhouse is Still Closed.

No comments:

Post a Comment