Gabe Hammad, David Sirois, Mark Della Ventura             David Michael Sirois has the happy facility to find humor in the most mundane things; someone closes a door and the house rocks with laughter. And it's like this for all of the hundred minute run of Brothers Beckett, written by Sirois and starring himself and his real life best friend, Mark Della...

One might think that Giuseppe Verdi would have picked up on Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables as the story-line for one of his operas. After all, his massively successful Rigoletto was based on a Hugo play (Le roi s'amuse), as Verdi had a pension for stories packed with “characters brimming with passion and scenes rich in drama.” Hugo’s 1862 epic novel would have to wait 118 years for Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil to transform it into a musical.

Premiering in 1980, Schönberg and Boublil’s through-sung musical (resembling opera!) gripped Paris audiences and has not let go since. It...

Stefanie Powers             It's difficult not to wonder how Valerie Harper interpreted the role of Tallulah Bankhead in Matthew Lombardo's play Looped watching Stefanie Powers, who stepped in at the last minute, perform the role. It was Harper who originated the role on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for it. But, at the end of January, Harper, who had a bout with lung cancer, was advised by her doctors to take a medical leave and not go on with the tour of the show that would kick off in Fort Lauderdale at the Parker...

            Mark Duncan, Scott Douglas Wilson, Noah Levine If your lexicon includes lascivious, lecherous, lewd, libidinous, licentious and lustful you're not only stuck in the Ls but you're also going to laugh out loud pretty much all night long if you catch The Rover at Empire Stage.

It was...

LAURA KEENE - Elena Maria Garcia and Casey Dressler           Michael McKeever is a gift to South Florida. He's consistently recognized nationally and internationally as South Florida's most prolific playwright, so the opportunity to see seven of his short plays under one roof shouldn't be missed.

The Whole Caboodle, presented by Parade Productions...

Christina Groom, Barbara Sloan, Pamela Roza - photo Marj O'Neill-Butler            Don't doubt for a minute that there's soul in theatre. It's just damned hard to find. Too often we see, and sometimes enjoy, the sprawling commercial productions with the very professional actors and direction. They're fine, but ultimately forgettable. Not so with Agnes of God, just starting a short run at New Theatre. A small play, a small cast in a small theatre, but with a limitless theme. It's all about God. And it...

David Sirois, Stephen G. Anthony            Israel Horovitz has described his plays as having such an “abundance of real fact that it’s almost abstract,” which succinctly describes his play, Gloucester Blue, about murder and a whole lot of double crossing.

Gloucester Blue

Antonio Amadeo, Barbara Bradshaw, Erin Joy Schmidt, J Kenneth Campbell, Lourelene Snedeker            A clever chap somewhere once said: “An argument isn't theatre”, and that thought was hard to dislodge watching Other Desert Cities, the 25th season opener at Actors' Playhouse and finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer.

Playwright Jon Robin Baitz' plot: depressed liberal literary daughter writes tell all book about...

            Amy McKenna, Nicholas Richberg, Todd Allen Durkin, Betsy Graver Zoetic Stage is quickly taking the lead in presenting the best and most interesting theatre in South Florida. Zoetic's latest, All New People, led by Artistic Director Stuart Meltzer, is now playing at the Arsht Center in downtown Miami and it's a funny and endearing...

Larry Buzzeo, Angel Perez, Jobe Anderson            Beyond the comical exterior of Chris Weikel's fractured fairy tale, Pig Tale, there's plenty of soul searching. Obviously influenced by Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros and Franz Kafka's Metamorphasis, the age old question remains: do we maintain the same relationships with the people close to us even if they end up becoming another...