Last week we brought you a review of Twain and Shaw do Lunch, at New Theatre, by Bill Hirschman from Florida Theater On Stage. Now we have a review by Christine Dolan from the Miami Herald. Her take on the play seems to be the same. Fine acting, lack luster script.
Solidly researched and crafted in part from the literary giants’ own words...It is easy to imagine that Samuel Clemens and George Bernard Shaw shared some fascinating conversation over a meal one day long ago. But imagining that their interaction even vaguely resembled what we see in Twain and Shaw Do Lunch is much, much harder.
Also last week we brought you a review of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, at The Maltz Jupiter Theatre, from Florida Theater On Stage. This week we have two more. The first one one is by John Lariviere from the Talkin Broadway: South Florida Edition.
The production features imaginative costumes, colorful sets, carefully executed lighting, sound and music, and an extraordinarily strong supporting cast.
The second review is by Hap Erstein of the Palm Beach Arts Paper.
Back in 1968, as an exercise for a prep school, Andrew Llyod Webber and Tim Rice devised a frothy entertainment from an Old Testament yarn, full of tongue-in-cheek songs in anachronistic pop styles. The show eventually get inflated with spectacle and star power on Broadway. But the Maltz Jupiter Theatre gets the scale just right -- a bit of glitz and flash, offset by winking, puckish charm.
Zoetic Stage presents The SantaLand Diaries, David Sedaris' blisteringly funny evocation of Christmas Hell, at the Adrienne Arsht Center. First up we have Christine Dolan's review from the
The SantaLand Diaries isn’t for those who revere Christmas, nor is it suitable for the kiddies. But if you can laugh at the idea of parents art directing their childrens’ Santa photos, a lusty older elf coming on to all those mommies or kids who have to hurl before they even get close to Santa’s lap, well, SantaLand may just be your cup of spiked eggnog.
The next review is by Bill Hirschman from Florida Theater On Stage.
The satirical monologue of a would-be actor slaving as an elf in Macy’s SantaLand is a wry, acerbic riff on the desensitizing corporate commercialization not just of the holiday, but of genuine sentiment as well. Michael McKeever, one of the region’s most popular thespians, is inspired casting, not just because of his slight stature, but because of his blend of genial charm and beleaguered helplessness at the absurdities that the temp job heaps upon his sensibilities.
And we have Chris Joseph reviewing for the Miami New Times
The Santaland Diaries, is the perfect antidote for the saccharin-filled Holiday themed cheeriness that bombards our every day existence in movies, television, plays, parks and, most of all, the cathedral of mawkish X-Mas merriment: The Shopping Mall...with tongue prsssed firmly in cheek.
Last, but by no means least, we have 2 reviews for Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol at the Actor's Playhouse. The first review is by Bill Hirschman from Florida Theater On Stage.
Both narrator and stand-in for the 17-member cast of characters, Clement is a master storyteller enthralling us around an invisible campfire with playwright Tom Mula’s 90-minute alternate take on Charles Dickens’ classic that many people have grown weary of.
The show was also reviewed by Christine Dolan from the Miami Herald.
Tom Mula’s one-man play takes something familiar and comes at it from fresh directions. So while the work is resonant and easy to grasp, it’s never boring. Much of the credit for that “never boring” assessment goes to actor Ken Clement, now on stage at Actors’ Playhouse as Scrooge’s 7-years-dead business partner and 17 other characters — 18, if you count his contribution as the show’s storytelling narrator.
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