ORLANDO THEATER REVIEWS

ONCE ON THIS ISLAND comes to life with mounds of sand, full-fledged shacks, an overturned boat that doubles as a platform, a wood-planked bridge, and a running stream of water that curls around the stage in a rock-lined canal. Let me repeat: they built a river that flows through the theatre. I...

Picture it, April 2018.  Encore Performing Arts has commandeered the stage at The Abbey, a swanky downtown Orlando lounge theatre, to convert it into their spring production of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE.  My friends and I meet up for the Bee, a nice way to finish off a birthday we...

DEATHTRAP gets off to a slow start, but by Scene Two - when the third of five characters enters the action - it's off to a fast-paced saga of twists, turns, and fatalities... Hilarity and homicide ensue, but in ways you won't see coming, with so many plot twists and misdirects that even an audience ...

Tonight's my first time in Historic Downtown Clermont. The small parking lot outside the Moonlight Players Theatre already filled up well before I arrived, so I settled on a very uncomfortable parallel parking space a couple blocks down. Fortunately, this allowed me a chance to walk along Minneola...

Late Spring.  Early Summer.  An Autumn Afternoon.  Am I describing the time periods of 2014's Orlando Fringe darling SEASONS or the seminal works of film director Yasujirō Ozu?  Ironically, I had watched Ozu's Late Spring a few days before heading out to Dr. Phillips Center to attend the openin...

For RAGTIME, director Mark Edward Smith and his crew have crafted one of the most appealing and stately sets I've seen at the Garden Theatre. The blocking is clever and thoughtful - important when you have a big ensemble cast on a small stage - and the lighting and costumes are on point. The vaudevi...

IF/THEN is a dramatization of the concept of opportunity cost. How different might your life be because you went to the park an hour later than you planned or lingered there a little longer? How much of life's trajectory is informed by choice as opposed to coincidence or what is 'supposed' to be? Ho...

For all my problems with GHOST: THE MUSICAL, Ghost remains an extremely compelling story. Its unusual blend of comedy, drama, horror, and romance is still striking on stage, and even though there were things I'd change, last night I texted a few friends and told them to be sure they see GHOST: THE ...

That the odds are against it underscores just what a tremendous achievement COME FROM AWAY represents. Almost two decades later, this still isn't easy ground to tread - not for creators and certainly not for audiences. But COME FROM AWAY rings true. It is reverent but not funereal, stirring but not ...

But lest you worry that this isn't the full-fledged Yankovic stage experience, rest assured: you aren't missing out one bit. I've always said a 'Weird Al' show is like a series of music videos brought to life on stage. True to form, nearly each new song in STRINGS ATTACHED brings an elaborate costum...

Thankfully, when ANASTASIA hit Broadway, it dispensed with anyone immortal or winged, replacing fantasy with the real-world politics that led up to the Romanovs' demise. The added historical context grounds this once-wacky story, and frankly, I would have welcomed even more of it......

There's terrific acting in the touring cast, even if the singing voices waver from Platt to flat. We get an incredibly convincing Evan in Ben Levi Ross (an understudy for the same role on Broadway). He interprets the character as nervous, nerdy, and unknowingly funny. It's an excellent performance.....

Effective parody isn't that common, it doesn't happen to every iconic TV show, and it IS a big deal!...

WILD PARTY is a showcase of everything I love about Theater West End: gorgeous lighting, creative set design, top-notch casting, and a willingness to stage shows that aren't being done somewhere else fifty times a year  - even if this particular musical, about a 1920s love rectangle that implodes d...

Those who know 1984 will anxiously await a big twist, and let me tell you, I couldn't have dreamed of a better execution. It was so startling and dramatic that I physically jumped in my seat, even though I knew what was coming......

This show is essentially what it was on Broadway: a gorgeous staging that marries stunning stagecraft with complex and rewarding material. But with so many of the cast members, the singing isn't where it ought to be......

At Theater West End, you've entered the world of WEST SIDE STORY before even taking your seat. Getting there requires walking across the blue-collar, gang-ridden streets of 1950s New York in the Upper West Side. There's graffiti on the floor beneath you and the walls all around. T-shirts hang out to...

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Not since Sondheim have we had a musical so complex in lyrics, so layered in rhetoric, so rich in motif, and so conscious of characters' competing perspectives on one another. It is a concert of overlap, interplay, meta-reference, and occasionally even time travel......

A fledgling Elvis impersonator reluctantly takes a secret gig as a drag queen in the Florida panhandle... and hopes to God his wife won't find out. That's the high-concept premise of THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE......

My mind kept turning these quotes over after I saw Riverside Theatre's spectacular production of Andrew Lloyd Weber and Time Rice's EVITA, running through Sunday, Jan. 27 in Vero Beach. With its supremely talented cast, phenomenal production values, and shining star, there is no doubt that the music...

Certainly, if you're looking for a festive night on the town with your family this holiday week, WHITE CHRISTMAS at Dr. Phillips Center is your ticket. There's something quaint about heading downtown for some simple entertainment to ring in the holiday. And to this production's credit, the set desig...

The traditional and beloved tale of greed, reflection, and redemption in the wake of the Christmas season recently hit the stage at Orlando Shakes this past weekend-and no, it's not the tale of the Grinch. Whether you're a seasoned Charles Dickens fan, entirely versed in his holiday classic, 'A Chri...

The grin hits your face early in HELLO, DOLLY! and stays there 'til the bows are done......

If the thing you love about musical theatre is its ability to express a character's emotions and inner struggles in song, BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY is the show for you......