Jasmine Forsberg News

It's the season of graduations and as high schoolers head off to college, it great to look back on all they've accomplished. Two local theater teens, Jasmine Forsberg and Tony Moreno are moving on to the next steps in their training and theater careers, but before they do they will perform in a Winter Park Playhouse Spotlight Cabaret. I had a chance to catch up with Jasmine and Tony as they prepare.

Jasmine Forsberg and Tony Moreno command the cabaret stage as they perform a new cabaret Rising Stars: Broadway Bound which will showcase the two graduating High School seniors performing a host of Broadway tunes and standards.

Dr. Phillips Center Florida Hospital School of the Arts announces the 2017 recipients of the Applause Awards, boasting a range of students and talent from 32 schools in Central Florida.

THE FANTASTICKS, a well-loved, classic musical, professionally produced by The Winter Park Playhouse, will extend the run of its production due to popular demand. Additional performances are Thursday, June 16? at 2 p.m., Friday, June 17 at 7:30p.m. and two performances Saturday, June 18 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. ?

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.

The Breakthrough Theatre of Winter Park presents their monthly Cabaret Sunday series with 'Songs From Animated Films', on Sunday, January 24, at 7 p.m.

There are few shows in the American Musical Theatre cannon that are as intriguing as CARRIE THE MUSICAL. From it's legendary Broadway flop in 1988 to the re-worked Off-Broadway revival in 2012, despite its rocky history, CARRIE fascinated theatre-goers. Last week, Clandestine Arts opened the musical's Central Florida premiere at the ME Theatre, and will run through through August 30th (BroadwayWorld Orlando's review will come out on Thursday). Recently, I chatted with Clandestine's founder and CARRIE's co-director Derek Critzer about the process of choosing and producing this unusual musical.

There is something noble about earnestly attempting to do good, despite the overwhelming evidence that what you are embarking upon is almost certainly doomed to disappoint. Not only is that sentiment at the center of CARRIE THE MUSICAL, which Clandestine Arts is premiering in Central Florida through August 30th at the ME Theatre, but it also accurately describes the undertaking of performing this infamous piece of musical theatre history. Like Carrie's senior prom, unless everything goes unbelievably perfectly, the musical is likely going to be a substantial let-down. While Clandestine has put together an impressively talented group of young performers, especially in the show's four leads, the uneven and sloppy production undermines whatever power the piece might otherwise have had.

That's a wrap for this year's knock-out Garden Theatre season and it finishes with possibly the best musical theater production seen this year. The toe tapping Broadway/Movie Musical HAIRSPRAY is easy to love and cross-generational.

The Garden Theatre presents Hairspray showing April 25 - May 25, 2014, Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm & 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm (160 W Plant Street). The presenting sponsors of Hairspray are Bob and Dianna Duffy. Hairspray is also sponsored Duke Energy, Insight Credit Union and Toole's ACE Hardware. The Garden Theatre's 2013-2014 Season is presented by CenturyLink. Several performance dates will feature celebrity walk-on roles. Directed by Rob Winn Anderson, Hairspray has a cast of over 30 actors, singers and dancers from across the Central Florida area.

The kids will delight with the crazy antics of the Cat who run Sally and Boy amok while mother is out. Young and young-at-heart audience members were rolling in their seats as the Cat's and his crazy sidekicks, Thing 1 and Thing 2, wreck the house.

A review of Orlando's Theatre Downtown cabaret benefiting local stage manager, Carla Young.