Fun Home at Carrollwood Players Theatre

BWW Review: Politically Incorrect with Nazi Musical THE PRODUCERS is Hysterical at Carrollwood Players Theatre

At the close of the performance, my face hurt from laughing, but what else would you expect from a musical with the name Mel Brooks attached. This over-the-top and exquisitely offensive masterpiece, with everything from the producer's casting couch, grossly stereotypical ultra-sexy foreign female secretary/actress, sex-crazed old ladies to syrupy-sweet gay characters to literally, singing and dancing Nazis, this show is the antithesis to today's political correctness. The Producers at Carrollwood Players has something to make everyone do a little squirm in their seats and I loved every purposely-uncomfortable minute of this madcap story that revels in Mel Brook's irreverent humor.

BWW Review: THE JUNGLE BOOK, A MUSICAL IS ENTERTAINING, IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE at Carrollwood Players Theatre

Seldom does a reviewer get to see 'behind the curtain,' the director's enthusiastic vision of the set carefully sketched in a notepad long before it becomes an actual intricate tiered wooden platform or the director painstakingly folding pieces of paper together that would eventually be black lit painted, lighted and turned into the faces of the animals that would be called the jungle home. On Friday, the painted paper puppets that I saw months ago from director Drew Eberhard came to reality on top of the heads of the actors. Besides Jekyll and Hyde, the set of The Jungle Book Musical at Carrollwood Player is one of my favorites to date.

BWW Review: THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS a High-Energy, Fun Escape at Carrollwood Players Theatre

Like Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper radiating adoration and raw sexual chemistry, singing "Shallow" at the Oscars, as Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd's hand roved up Miss Mona Stangley's lace stockings while they nuzzled on the couch, Angel Tuider Frale and Michael c De Baca scorched the stage at Carrollwood Players. The yearning for something more, an unrequited love was palatable. That's called great acting.