New show reviews for the week of Dec. 26

Rod Stafford Hagwood from the Sun-Sentinel gives us his impressions on Cirque Dream Holidaze
 

As everyone knows, circus music sounds like a calliope.  You would no longer listen to it than you would try to Google the title of that peppy tune you once heard on a carousel. Jill Diane Winters wants to change that. The Wellington-based composer has been writing music and lyrics for the last five Cirque Productions, including "Cirque Dreams Holidaze" coming to Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Tuesday through Jan. 1.

And heres Bill Hirschman's review of Cirque Dream Holidaze

They have a formula or recipe: take classic circus acts (heavy on the acrobats, tumblers and clowns) clothe them in as much new age music, lush costumes, spectacular sets and quicksilver light changes as possible, all barely unified by an amorphous theme. All of the performers double and triple as the background in other acts giving you a sense of community.

Howard Cohen from the Miami Herald reviews the touring show Million Dollar Quartet

Million Dollar Quartet, named for an off-hand comment made by Sun’s visionary founder, Sam Phillips, about the gathering on Dec. 4, 1956, features some of the world’s greatest rock and roll: Blue Suede Shoes, Folsom Prison Blues, Brown Eyed Handsome Man and 18 more classics of the era, played live by the four lead actors. The cast is joined by an exceptional rhythm section featuring Chuck Zayas on bass and Billy Shaffer on drums.

Bill Hirschman at Florida Theater On Stage also has a review Million Dollar Quartet

Certainly, this jam session is a glorified jukebox musical with all the inherent weaknesses of the genre....But from the opening notes of “Blue Suede Shoes “(One for the  money, crash; two for the show, slam; three to get ready, slap; now, go, cat, go) Million Dollar Quartet is usually an express train joyously running out of control.

Bill Hirschman also has a review of Mad Cat's "Macbeth and the Monster"

Mad Cat Theatre Company is quite right to warn that their new production of Macbeth & the Monster is not children’s theater, although children may enjoy the nonsensical anarchy.  It’s theater about being children, trying in theatrical terms to tell a story with a child’s delightful disregard for the constraints of logic, convention or even common sense.

Have not been able to find any reviews of Broward Stage Door's production of Annie yet.  We shall include them in next weeks review round-up.

Posted in: Reviews