ORLANDO THEATER REVIEWS

After a week a heartache and pain in The City Beautiful, going to the theatre to see a whimsical show is exactly what the doctor ordered....

It seems unimaginable that a single work of art can both hysterically mock and lovingly embrace some of our fondest childhood memories. However, as the 'AVENUE Q Theme Song' transitions into the first official song of the musical (one of modern musical theatre's most effective opening numbers) it be...

Almost, Maine, the unincorporated village in the rural wilderness in New England's northernmost state, is a cute, quant town filled with residents that have each gone a teensy bit stir-crazy after years of snowed-in winters spent staring out at miles and miles of shimmering snow and sparkling stars....

THE FANTASTICKS opened for the first time in a small Off-Broadway theater in Greenwich Village in 1960. It has enjoyed astonishing popularity and is still running Off-Broadway to this very day. Recently, the Winter Park Playhouse opened this timeless show to close out its 2015-2016 season....

Unsurprisingly, the crowd at Orlando's Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts for the Opening Night performance of the Tony-winning musical BEAUTIFUL, the final show of the 2015-2016 Broadway in Orlando season, was filled with baby boomers. Not only does that age group line up with traditional ...

As a kid I was obsessed with elephants and if you took a look at my desk today, you would think that I still am. I wish that the 'Elephant and Piggie' books were around when I was a kid, but alas, author Mo Willems didn't create them until 2007. Since then, these books have been a hit with kids beca...

For community theatres, producing a musical can be ambitious for any number of reasons; the difficulty of the music, the complexity of the dramatic content, the number of settings required, the size of the cast needed, but it is difficult to imagine a more ambitious project than the Wayne Densch Per...

I recently read that unless material comes out of living experience, it does not live. The truth of this premise resonated clearly when I attended preview night for Orlando Shakespeare's final play of its regular season, VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, a show with an unmistakable heartbeat. ...

Since the dawn of the genre, stage shows have been adapted from various sources; books, other plays, poems, historical events, and, increasingly over the past two decades, movies. The best projects based on movies take what is special from the source material and use that as inspiration to form a fr...

Eugene O'Neill's epic LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT is undoubtedly one of the most venerated works of the American theatre. With a star-studded Broadway revival set to open in April, it is a show that is never far from the theatergoing public's consciousness. While that can be a blessing for theatre...

For most people, it is extremely difficult to watch another person struggle, especially when it comes to doing the most mundane of tasks. That could be why it is so challenging to watch Beth Marshall Presents and the Garden Theatre's jarring production of THE WHALE, directed by Rob Winn Anderson and...

STOMP is one of those shows I've heard about, seen the advertisements, seen the commercials, but have never experienced in person. If you're like me then it's time to see this show, if you haven't. STOMP was a concept devised in the UK by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas in 1991. It came to the U...

Last Thursday night, 1,079 miles apart, two different casts celebrated triumphant openings of the classic Bock and Harnick musical SHE LOVES ME. In New York City, the Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway revival opened with a cast of Tony winners and TV stars, while here in Central Florida, Theatre...

The music of legendary Broadway composer Jerry Herman comes together in Winter Park Playhouse's revue, SHOWTUNE. This musical journey showcases what Winter Park Playhouse does best, bringing quality musical theater performance in its simplest form to audiences who appreciate great music. Combining a...

Ladies and gents, do you think you know your Tupperware? Well, if you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Dixie, I'd think again. For the next two weeks, Dixie Longate will be gracing Orlando, home of the Tupperware headquarters, with her presence at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts t...

It isn't often that an experience touches the complete range of emotions that we are capable of feeling as human beings. We buy a ticket for a show and think we might laugh at a comedy, shed a few tears in a drama or perhaps fall in love with a romance. But, is it possible to thoroughly feel all of ...

'Last scene of all,/ That ends this strange eventful history,/ Is second childishness and mere oblivion,/ Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.' PAINTING CHURCHES, running through March 20th at the Mad Cow Theatre, is a memory play, but not in the way that THE GLASS MENAGERIE is. Inste...

We've all heard the saying, 'They don't make 'em like they used to.' Now, thanks to Theatre UCF's REELING, running through February 28th, they actually do still make 'em like they used to, complete with banana peels, pratfalls, and not a single spoken word. This one-of-a-kind play recreates the zany...

I have a confession to make; when the 2015-2016 Broadway Series was announced for Orlando's Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, KINKY BOOTS was not one of the shows that I was most excited to see. Yeah, I knew that the show had won six Tony Awards including Best Musical; yeah, I knew that i...

There is simply no overstating how fortunate Central Florida theatre fans are to have quality collegiate theatre programs in the area. While ticket sales are obviously still important for Theatre UCF and the Annie Russell Theatre at Rollins College, ultimately, their mission is not to produce the m...

A tale of mysticism, betrayal, love and the ultimate choice. THE TEMPEST is arguably one of Shakespeare's most cohesive works, with its central plot all taking place on the same day in one location. The storyline is easier to follow than some of the Bard's earlier plays, which is brought to light by...

Let's get this out of the way first, the 'hardbody' in the title is a truck, a Nissan pickup truck to be exact; and while the name of the musical, HANDS ON A HARDBODY, might sound a teensy bit risque, it is filled with encouraging messages and life-affirming themes set to a high energy modern score....

Do you have a prized piece of art hanging above the mantle in your home? Above the sofa? In your bedroom? What does the choice to invest in a particular work of art say about you? What does your best friend's choice in art say about him or her? Does your friend's choice say something about you? Thes...

Ambition can be a dangerous thing, whether you are a guitar-playing drifter in early Twentieth Century Orlando, or a playwright attempting to recontextualize an outdated work. In SPUNK AND THE HARLEM LITERATI, running through January 31st, UCF Theatre professor Be Boyd attempts to take an existing p...

Tony Bennett is an icon.  He has helped write music history and manages to reach generation after generation of fans. So, what is his secret?  Why is his music still relevant today and how do audience members continue to connect with him after all these years? I LEFT MY HEART: A SALUTE TO THE MU...