ORLANDO THEATER REVIEWS

In six short years, Central Florida Community Arts, has grown from a small community choir to a much larger arts organization with a school of performing arts, multiple choirs, orchestras, and a theatre season. For their second season, they have taken on A Few Good Men, written by Aaron Sorkin and d...

One of the beautiful things about theatre is requires varying levels of involvement. Some shows allow you to sit back and be an inactive participant, while others require you to give up control and just watch a story unfold in front of your eyes. Constellations, by Nick Payne, is the type of play wh...

Research tells us that LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST could be Shakespeare's first comedies. It is also a Shakespearean comedy that stands the test of time with a plot that could be in any modern day romantic comedy film. While the verse is long winded, the plot is easy to follow and provides great belly laug...

          Looking at a somewhat bare, sloped stage, the audience is warned of gunshots, explosions, and other triggering scenes: Clearly, this won't be an evening of light-hearted fun. But rather than scenes of gore and violence, A Piece of My Heart invites audiences to experience the emoti...

Gatsby? What Gatsby? When you hear this charming protagonist's name, what images flash through your head?  Lavish parties dripping with elegance?  An atmosphere of abandoned care filled to the ceiling with social climbers?  Pearls, fringe, and feathers that drape over the silhouettes of danci...

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G B-E-E. Those 11 letters spell out 'spelling bee,' but in the Garden Theatre's production of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, those 11 letters spell so much more than that. Based on a fictional spelling bee in the fictional Putnam County, this hilarious and heartfelt t...

With a title like A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER, you could expect a darkly toned show like SWEENEY TODD. Or perhaps something sexy like CHICAGO; or even something historic like ASSASSINS. While murder musicals have been done, you probably haven't seen something quite like this....

Just in time for the dreaded Valentine's Day is Orlando Philharmonic's Opera program ELIXIR OF LOVE. This was my first trip to see Orlando Philharmonic and Opera Orlando. I was not disappointed and glad I found this local gem....

Picasso and Einstein meet at a bar, hate each other and then eventually become friends. Sounds crazy, right? Well, a little bit of crazy and a little bit of genius come together in Mad Cow Theatre's production of PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE in the best way possible. ...

Fridays are normally my bad movie night. I traded bad movie night in for bad musical night. (Not that THE TOXIC AVENGER was executed poorly.) I found it thoroughly enjoyable and well casted. This show doesn't take itself seriously and that made this bad movie into a bad musical totally work. I can s...

'Why Do Fools Fall in Love?' takes us back to the year 1966 to our protagonist, Millie's impromptu bachelorette party thrown by her friends Sally, Florence, and Dee Dee (who tags along, but is quickly adopted into the friend group).  The evening kicks off with alcohol, gossip, alcohol, junk food, a...

My mother is…. For many, these three little words evoke things such as "interesting," "crazy," or even "getting old." But when you hear "My mother is suffering - no not suffering - living with Alzheimer's disease," these three little words take on a whole new meaning. When your own mother start...

Benjamin Franklin: one of America's Founding Fathers and man on the $100 bill comes to life in Ray Flynt's BEN FRANKLIN: AN INGENIOUS LIFE. Known as a philosopher, inventor, signer of the Declaration of Independence and the guy with the kite and key in thunderstorm, Ben Franklin is the stuff of lege...

Paris is the city of love and this allure draws people to find themselves surrounded by art, light, and human connection. Set to the music of George and Ira Gershwin, the music of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS are instantly recognizable, but come with a twist in interpretation. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS harks bac...

From December 1 to 18, the beloved tale of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' comes to life at the Athens Theatre in Deland. This particular telling of the story is a musical version with singing and dancing numbers. While I'm not sure I particularly enjoyed the musical version of the show, I ca...

Christmas time is here, indeed, with A Charlie Brown Christmas at the Garden Theatre. Adapted for the stage by Eric Schaeffer, this live-action transfer is almost an exact carbon copy of the beloved television special....

Let's face it there are a lot of Christmas stories out there. From the moment Thanksgiving is over, the holiday movies begin to play non-stop and people begin blasting Christmas music. For theaters around the world Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL is that holiday staple sure to bring in audiences ...

The business side of Mad Cow Theater may be going through a rough patch, but you'd never know it by their recent production of Pygmalion, the beloved tale by George Bernard Shaw. On the Sunday afternoon that I attended the show, the theater was almost full and both the actors and the audience seemed...

Capitalism is encapsulated in Theater on the Edge's portrayal of AMERICAN BUFFALO. Written by David Mamet, AMERICAN BUFFALO sits among the best modern American plays. While the play is a microscopic look into the lives of three men just trying to make a buck, it draws parallels to the underlying g...

The rigidness of the acclaimed PBS show Upton Abbey and the unpredictability and overall silliness of improv theater. These things could never work together... or could they? While these two genres of theater couldn't be more different, they come together to form both a hilarious and heartfelt n...

The Winter Park Playhouse brings to life the musings and music of English playwright, composer, master-of-all-things theater Noel Coward. As a playwright, many of Coward's works still make their way into modern theater repertoire including BLITHE SPIRIT, PRIVATE LIVES and many more. A MARVELOUS PART...

In THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME, running through November 6th at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, the world is full of chaos, and one special boy named Christopher is intent on figuring it out. With a dizzying assault of sights, sounds, and information that over ...

As our presidential election (thankfully) moves into its final days, the Orlando Repertory Theatre is currently serving up a delightful injection of fun and patriotism that might just do the trick to get your spirits up about exercising your civic duty. Directed by Jeffrey M. Revels, ROCK THE PRESID...

Orlando Shakes' STUART LITTLE delights young audiences and keeps the grown ups entertained too. This play is filled with colorful adventure, limitless optimism, and easy laughs that is exactly the pick-me-up needed this time of year. While most of the performances are sold-out to school audiences, t...