Albert Gutierrez

Four years after first seeing SIX, I still remain impressed by how well the musical continues to work. What initially seemed like a clever gimmick – a pop concert starring the six wives of Henry VIII – has instead proven itself to be one of the most inventive pieces of musical theatre of the last decade.

The stage production does make a lot of strides that strengthens the endurance and popularity of this love story. It repeats iconic moments from the popular 2004 film, but isn’t aping the original screenplay in any way. A new libretto offers a fresh take that borrows the basic structure of the novel and memorable film moments, whilst breathing in new voices and new scenes that add different layers to these familiar characters.

There’s a strange dichotomy that exists in live theater. I may not like the material, but will still find reason to love its execution. And at Theater West End, they’ve culled together a company of players who help elevate the material of POTUS into a comedy that now exists thanks to their approach to the characters. They form a symbiotic relationship with the audience throughout the two acts to make us still care for them, for their arcs, and for their resolutions – no matter how far-fetched it may seem. This is where the production of POTUS shines.

We learn that the suburban fantasy is not sustainable, primarily because such a fantasy can only ever be a dream. The reality of suburban living, as told by Kimberly Akimbo, shows there is much more nuance to everyday life than the nuclear family with a white picket fence and a wholesome dinner at eight. If everyone got what they wanted, after all, they wouldn’t want for more.

Theater West End has once again delivered a hit with this production of COMPANY. Opening night was practically sold out, and the energy in the room reflected it – an audience eager to see how this beloved musical would unfold on the intimate Sanford stage.

Theater West End was wise to split Angels in America in the season as two separate performances, each with their own block in the schedule. Originally, I was concerned that the Part Two of it all might turn away prospective theatergoers. But upon watching both parts now, and bearing in mind my own familiarity for the characters, I can also see now how the original production’s 18-month gap would have also been enticing for an audience.

The reason the play works at all is because of the sheer strength of its production values and the commitment of its cast. When you look at all the design elements – sets, lighting, illusions, choreography – and combine it with performers who move through that space with the same ease as one breathes, it create a cohesive, immersive world that feels both magical and meticulously controlled.

While much of the dramatic weight of Angels in America undeniably stems from the specter of AIDS, it would do the play a huge disservice to reduce it to a story about disease alone. What Theater West End makes clear is that Kushner’s work is as much about identity, loss, and the human struggle to reconcile who we are deep down with who we present to the world.

If “& Juliet” works at all, it’s because it commits to the premise without apology: a Shakespearean remix told through the lens of pop music, meta-theatre, and a general belief that stories never really die, they just get re-written. This touring production of the still-running Broadway musical leaned into this ethos with a cast that understood the assignment – treating the material with enough sincerity to make it land, but enough wryness to make it feel like commentary.

One of the most effective things the musical gains by moving from page to screen to stage is permission to reframe the story without betraying it. By leaning harder into the Curtis brothers as the emotional spine, the musical clarifies a distinction that’s always been present in the text but rarely foregrounded this explicitly: Darry, Soda, and Ponyboy are family by blood, bound by obligation and grief; while the Greasers are family by choice, bound by loyalty and survival.

This new approach to the storytelling of Hadestown helped make me appreciate some of the compromises on the tour. And to further appreciate what they still maintained from the first tour and Broadway production. The set’s slightly modified (Hades’ door is more centered, for one), but we get to keep the band onstage. We get that dingy café feeling through the layout. We hold on to the iconic props – the rose, the candle, the guitar, the lamps – as well as the steampunk design of the costumes. The Workers are still a core five that inhabit both worlds and create their own, unspoken storylines through their movement and couplings. And the characters themselves are still the same, timeless figures that make Hadestown always feel like a new experience every time.

The 2024 production earned seven Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical, which I feel is an earned acknowledgment that speaks more to the craftsmanship, the ambition, and the emotional journey present in the show. The stage production’s direction, choreography, puppetry design, and ensemble synergy create moments of theatrical awe that are impossible to deny. What the songs lack in dramatic momentum, the production more than makes up for in its combination of narrative intimacy with large-scale visual storytelling.

The benefit of a stage production means it will always be malleable to change, always willing to look at how a story written in the past can still be relevant in the present, and remain timeless for the future. What follows in this new production of The Wiz is a recontextualization of our favorite characters. While the structure of the story is faithful to the Baum novel and MGM film, it comes with small, but noticeable details that reframe this familiar story not just as a fantastical quest, but as a bildungsroman and revenge tale at the same time.

Drag culture in La Cage aux Folles isn’t just the “bold face” of the gay community; it’s a celebration of visibility itself, a way of inviting even those on the periphery to understand more deeply what it means to live authentically, unbothered, and unashamed.

At its heart, Sister Act: The Musical is a celebration of sisterhood and the unexpected bonds formed in the most unlikely places. While Deloris Van Cartier begins her journey chasing fame, her time with the nuns reveals a deeper calling: not spiritual in the traditional sense, but rooted in connection, community, and self-worth.

For anyone who’s seen Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a lot of the familiar story beats remain here. However, this local production by Encore Performing Arts takes a unique approach to their mounting of this stage musical.

One would think a musical all about corn would be a one-trick pony with the same tired joke made again and again. Corny jokes about corny people in a corny town. That’s exactly what SHUCKED wants the audience to expect. The very first song, aptly titled “Corn,” extols the virtues of the vegetable, the expected jokes about how it can be used for anything and everything, and how this little town in the middle of nowhere relies so heavily on it that it literally becomes their entire identity. However, hidden within this opening number also lies the subversive nature of the musical itself. This is not just a celebration for all things corn. Rather, it’s a commentary on how small towns in this country suffer from preconceived notions of backwards values, of tradition over innovation, and of hyper-conservative rural voters who nowhere near as bright as a high noon sun on a summer day.

Life's greatest tragedy is the passage of time. It is a lesson we all must learn eventually. Within the proverbial circle of life, there is only a beginning and an end that occurs in the immediacy of our own lifetime. Yet, the cyclical nature of birth, death, and rebirth ensures that our spirit will carry on in legacy rather than in flesh. If we are loved, then we are remembered. And if we are remembered, then we live forever. Disney’s The Lion King transposes this message from screen to stage through an international collaboration of talent that supercedes the strength of the 1994 animated film from which it came.

When SOME LIKE IT HOT began on Broadway, it was celebrated for updating a classic film to modern audiences in ways and themes not readily apparent from the original source material. After having played a successful year-long run on Broadway, the show concluded on December 30, 2023. Nine long months later, it finally mounted a national tour within the greater United States. And now, for a spectacular pre-Christmas week, Central Florida gets to bear witness to the storied spectacle as Broadway visitors did. Much of what’s been seen on Broadway has been lovingly transferred to this touring production, making it a show not to be missed.