Current Productions for the week of July 23, 2012

Cabaret Verboten
At The Arts Garage Until July 29
In the face of the Nazi machine’s insidious advance, Germany’s Weimar era art-scene was a hotbed of music, theatre, and art that used satire and irony to expose the affected bourgeois morality of the time. While “decadent” and “degenerate” were terms Hitler used to describe whatever he found objectionable, the cabaret of the day reflected the social degeneracy, dripping in decadence and menace, as a response to what their world had become.


Hairspray
At The Lake Worth Playhouse Until July 29
Hairspray sweeps you away to 1960’s Baltimore where the 50’s are out and change is in the air! Loveable plus-size heroine, Tracy, has a passion for dancing, and wins a spot on the local TV dance program. Overnight she finds herself transformed from an outsider to teen celebrity.  Can a larger-than-life adolescent somehow manage to vanquish the program’s reigning princess, integrate the television show, and find true love all without mussing her hair?


Baby GirL by Kim Ehly
At Empire Stage in association with
The Kutumba Theatre Project Until August 5
What if you were conceived twice in one lifetime: once by the illegitimate passionate sex of a young couple and then by a "missionary position" lovemaking, conservative couple who long to have a child.  What if you were adopted by the married couple, only to find out you are everything they can't stand...I mean, understand? After being coming out as a lesbian and being alienated by her adoptive family, Ashley, a spirited young daydreamer, goes on an extraordinary journey to find love and a place to call home.


Race
At The Gable Stage Until August 5
Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards. This probing work about the resilience of the human spirit during times of war is a searing variation on Brecht's Mother Courage, translated to a brothel in the conflict-torn Congo. By the author of Intimate Apparel, a GableStage hit in 2006.


Hair
At The Andrews Living Arts Studio Until August 5
Hair tells the story of the "tribe", a group of politically active, long-haired hippies during the "Age of Aquarius" living a bohemian lifestyle in the City of New York; fighting against the Vietnam War and the traditional values of the “Establishment”. Claude, his good friend Berger, their roommate Sheila and their friends, Woof Hud, Jeanie Crissy along with other “Tribe” members struggle to balance their young lives, loves and the sexual revolution while rebelling against the war, their conservative parents and society. 


The Turn of the Screw
At The Naked Stage Until August 5
A young governess journeys to a lonely English manor house to care for two recently orphaned children.  Her predecessor, Miss Jessel, drowned herself when she became pregnant by the sadistic valet, Peter Quint, who was himself, found dead soon after the mysterious circumstances.  Now, the new governess has begun to see the specters of Quint and Jessel haunting the children.  She must find a way to stop the fiends before it is too late.  But are the ghosts real?


The Fantasticks by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt
Palm Beach Dramaworks Until August 5
In this captivating love story about a boy, a girl, two fathers and a wall, the narrator, El Gallo, creates a world of moonlight and magic, then pain and disillusionment, until the boy and girl find their way back to each other. The score, which includes "Try to Remember," is as timeless as the story itself!


REAL MEN SING SHOW TUNES...and play with puppets
At The Actors Playhouse Until August 12
GET REAL! And GET READY for a song-filled adult comedy about Real Men behaving like, well...REAL MEN. Get an inside glimpse of what it takes to be a man in a modern world shared with women, children, and yes, even puppets. Real Men, who make a habit of juggling their balls every day; fatherhood, mid-life crisis, dating, marriage, potency, sexuality, and the lack of it. REAL MEN answers the one pertinent question that’s on everyone’s mind... “Do Real Men sing show tunes and play with puppets?”.


The Donkey Show
At The Adrienne Arsht Center Until August 12
In the spirit of Studio 54, come party on the dance floor to all the '70s disco hits you know by heart as the show unfolds around you! Get the bouncer's attention—and you'll hustle right in! Get down and boogie with the star-crossed lovers, or watch from the sidelines - if that's the way you like it. And don't stop til you get enough! You can party into the night and live out your own fabulous disco fantasy.


Closer by Patrick Marber
At The Main Street Players Until August 12
This play is a brutal anatomy of modern romance, where a quartet of strangers meet, fall in love, and become caught up in a web of sexual desire and betrayal.  It was one of the best plays of the 1990’s and won the Olivier Award for best new play as well as the New York Drama’s Critic Circle Award for best foreign play.  It is one of the best plays of sexual politics in the language.
CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE & ADULT CONTENT.


The Hamlet Dog and Pony Show by Jessica Farr and Paul Tei
At the Mad Cat Theatre Until August 12
The Hamlet Dog and Pony Show is an abbreviated and psychedelically exaggerated sample of the Hamlet tragedy.  A layered semi-musical deconstruction that touches upon Heiner Muller’s HamletMachine and his use of sampling, Prince’s Purple Rain, OFWGKTA, fear of death, the seeds of hate, depression and the implications of current day political and social figures in America, more specifically, on the campaign trial.


Divorce Party: The Musical
At The Kravis Center Until Aug 19
Still reeling from her divorce, Linda is rescued by her three friends who have come to turn her despair into a weekend of hilarity. Using popular songs with clever new lyrics, the ladies sing and dance their way through the wildest divorce party ever. From the Producer who brought you the off-Broadway hit Menopause the Musical, it’s the ultimate Girls’ Night Out, coupled with a healthy dose of comic mayhem and a touch of “naughty.”

Posted in: Current Productions