Monday, June 7, 2010

Mondays are Dark

Summer is here!  The heat has rolled in, and the summer rainstorms are back.  I caught Unreasonable Doubt at Actors' Playhouse on Saturday - and got drenched by the storm that ended ten minutes after the show started. There was a good sized contigent from Palm Beach; Louralene Snedeker, Wayne Steadman, and Heidi Harris made the trek through the afternoon squall.  Joe Adler and Mark Durso were there, as was David Jay Bernstein. 

The weather was nicer and crowd thinner when I saw Godspell at Andrews Living Arts Studio;  director Bob Nation's cast of teens did an admirable job with his fresh staging.  Bob is a homey of mine; we're both from South Jersey, and he brought some folks down with him, and it was fun tossing names back and forth.  He was a player up there, and I expect we'll being seeing more of him as he makes local connections.

Anyway, here's your Monday reading list; enjoy!

Monthly Visit
Well, not that kind of visit.  The calendar has turned so The Sun-Sentinel posts its grudging once-a-month theatre article by Bill Hirschman.  Highlights: summer theater, some other South Florida connections to the Tony Awards, and Andrew Kato's musical Academy - which went on to success at the New York Musical Festiva - is headed overseas; to the Daegu International Musical Festival in South Korea.  Kato, co-creator John Mercurio, and the entire New York cast will go with it.

A. Sebastian Fortino spoke with Andrew Kato about Academy, and his role in producing the Tony Awards, for the South Florida Gay News.

A Quarter-Century Success Story
The Drama Queen reminds us that the International Hispanic Theatre Festival turns 25 this year, and gives us the rundown of what's playing.

Special Shakespeare
Never doubt The Bard's ability to connect to audiences and actors; that may well be the moral of The Miami Herald story about The Learning Experience School's production of Romeo & Juliet.  Cast members are from the school's "special needs" student body: Down Syndrome, Autism, and other disabilities.  But this production is proof that we should consider them "differently-abled" as opposed to "dis-abled."

Don't Get Left Behind
If you've missed Lela Elam in her critically acclaimed performance in No Child at GableStage, you're in luck: BroadwayWorld.com reports that GableStage is presenting her star-turn on Sunday, June 13.  It's one show only, at 3pm, at the Lou Rawls Center for the Performing Arts, which I've never heard of until just this moment.  It's at Florida Memorial University, in Miami Gardens.  Best of all, it's FREE.

Hair at Caldwell
I've had a few inquiries about "that non-union production of HAIR at the Caldwell Theatre."   No, Caldwell isn't going the way of Stage Door; the musical is being produced by a new company called Entr'ACte Theatrix, and you can read all about it in The Palm Beach Post and  BroadwayWorld.com.  It's being done AT the Caldwell, not BY the Caldwell.  But if you're worried about the Caldwell going non-union (which they are not), buy tickets to see their next production, Secret Order, starring the venerable Gordon McConnell.

And don't think Gordon's not going to make me pay for calling him "venerable."

The Play is not the Film
Rod Stafford Hagwood struggles through an article about Mary Poppins for the Sun-Sentinel.  Stringing the fragments together, his interview with Julian Fellowes outlines the changes from PL Traver's original novels, to the Disney Film, and to the stage version.

No Need for Nanny
Mary Damiano interviews Jeffery Solomon for The South Florida Gay News.  He's performing his show Mother/Son at Rising Action Theatre June 10 - 27.

More Upcoming Shows
The South Florida Sun-Times  lets us know that Curious George is coming to the Kravis Center, Bjorn Again to Parker Playhouse, and Tap Dogs to the Arsht Center

Meanwhile...
...the Royal Poinciana Playhouse is still closed.
Patrick Flynn's latest plan to save the Royal Poinciana Playhouse from demolition touched off a healthy but polite debate at Thursday's Palm Beach Civic Association symposium.

About 30 people attended the symposium on a referendum to require voter approval before any public or private group use structures could be stripped of landmark status and razed. Those structures would include the landmarked Playhouse, shuttered since 2004. The referendum would not apply to private residences that are landmarked.
It's always interesting to read the comments on these articles.  It amazes me how people simply assume that opening the doors to the theatre will result in a viable business, even after local theater producers have walked away from the Playhouse.  There is actually a reason it's closed: it's no longer the right space in the right place.

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