Drew Eberhard

In 1991, American Novelist Bret Easton Ellis published the highly controversial novel American Psycho. Through the story, we dive headfirst into a greed, lust, and ego-filled world told through the eyes of Patrick Bateman. A man so narcissistic, so label-driven, money hungry, and at the root of it all the depths of his humanity lie in a blood lust. Sure, he dates, he sleeps around, and is sometimes very graphic regarding his escapades, but at the root of his very being, he can’t feel. He shows no emotion, claims to never have fallen in love, and yet what is it that drives him?

Let me start with a question, if you shall indulge me for a moment. What happens when one of the greatest storytelling musicians of modern times, and the master of horror/suspense and the downright weird, decides to form a partnership? What happens when you take a story, stretch the lore, change the pace, add in some elements of mystery, love, deception, intrigue, and perhaps murder? What then happens when you set the story to a gritty, no-holds-barred, blues/folk score that shakes you to the very being of your core?

A rarely done musical, Tell Me On a Sunday, features music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black. “...Sunday...” is primarily a one-woman show, and most notably made famous by Bernadette Peters and Marti Webb. In this 70-minute One-Act Song Cycle, we meet an ordinary English Girl who, from Muswell Hill, finds herself traveling to America in search of love. Her misadventures begin in New York City, see her traveling to Hollywood, and finally back to Manhattan, where it all began.

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is a jukebox musical featuring the vast songbook of one of the greatest singer/songwriters of a generation. The book by Douglas McGrath tells the story of Carole King’s early life and career.

James Hindman’s farcical comedy tour-de-force Popcorn Falls premiered at Theatre NOVA on January 20, 2017. The show’s next production took place in 2018 at the Riverbank Theatre, under the Direction of Christian Borle. Finally, in October of the very same year, James Hindman’s “little play that could...” finally made its Off-Broadway transfer to the Davenport Theatre, also directed by Borle.

Fat Ham is a dramatic play, and a modern adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. James IJames play received the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for 5 Tony Awards, including Best Play.

9 to 5: The Musical is a stage adaptation of the 1980 film of the same name, featuring music and lyrics by Dolly Parton. This outlandish musical comedy features a book by Patricia Resnick, and is based on the screenplay by Resnick and Colin Higgins.

Songs For A New World is a musical theater work often considered a song cycle with music and lyrics written and composed by Jason Robert Brown. Originally produced off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre in 1995, this is Brown’s first produced work. Director of the 1995 premiere Daisy Prince said this about the show and it sums up the interwoven narrative the best...

The Butterfly’s Evil Spell was the first play written by twentieth-century playwright and poet Federico Garcia Lorca. Drawing much of its inspiration from the works of Yeats and Maeterlinck, the plot of Lorca’s play deals with the journey of an injured butterfly who is temporarily stranded amongst other insects, but does indeed fly away despite the love of a cockroach.

Based on the 2005 British film of the same name, the musical features music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, and a book by Harvey Fierstein. Mostly inspired by true events, the musical tells the story of Charlie Price, a man who is down on his luck and has just inherited a failing shoe factory from his father. To help save the business, Charlie meets and eventually befriends Lola, a local Cabaret performer and Drag Queen. The two form an unlikely bond and produce a line of high-heeled boots for a certain “niche market.” Through the business venture and unlikely partnership, the two discover they are not so different after all.

“There are songs that come free from the blue-eyed grass, from the dust of a thousand country roads. This is one of them.” These are the first words stemming from the first line of the Foreword in Robert James Waller’s sweeping tale of love, passion, and the ability to see another, as if you have been waiting for them your entire life.

With book, music, and lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, SIX is a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII. The show is performed in a pop concert style, with each performer singing about their time with Henry and battling it out to see who suffered more, and can become the group’s lead singer. Therefore not making the plot overly complicated, SIX is a high-energy spectacle that is a good time from start to finish.

Into the Woods is a Tony Award-winning 1986 Musical written by Stephen Sondheim (Music/Lyrics) and James Lapine (Book), marking their second collaboration following Sunday in the Park with George (1984). Into the Woods premiered in 1986 at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre and then was followed by a Broadway transfer in 1987 which amassed three Tony Awards (Best Score, Best Book, and Best Actress. A year in which many know the “Great White Way,” was dominated by The Phantom of the Opera.

This evening, or rather last evening, during their “Final Preview,” I was once again regaled to my seat with baited breath as I waited for the lights to fall on McDonagh’s masterpiece and, forthrightly, my favorite play, The Pillowman.

A Beautiful Noise is a Jukebox musical centered around Neil Diamond’s life, times, and music. It celebrated its Opening Night on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on December 4, 2022. Garnering much acclaim, the musical grossed more than $1 million at the Box Office leading up to its official opening night performance.

MAD Theatre of Tampa proudly presents Rock of Ages, the high-energy, feel-good musical that takes audiences on a rock-and-roll journey back to the 1980s. Opening January 16 and running through February 2, 2025, this electrifying production will light up the Shimberg Playhouse at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts.

What did our critic think of USHERING IN THE HOLIDAYS WITH ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY at TampaRep?