Drama Queen

More holiday laughs

Solo performer Steve Solomon explores the best (or most stressful) of both holiday worlds in My Mother Is Italian, My Father's Jewish and I'm Home for the Holidaysthis weekend in the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

Solomon plays not just himself but myriad members of his extended dysfunctional family in Holidays, which features a family dinner, plenty of funny bickering and 35 not-so-shy people fighting to use one bathroom.

Performances are at 7:30 pm. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.  Tickets are $25 and $35.  The Broward Center is at 201 SW Fifth Ave. in Fort Lauderdale.  Call 954-462-0222 or visit the center's web site.

Theater shorts

No, this isn't a post about a festival of short plays.  It's a collection of brief items about theater -- an edgy play, a benefit raffle, a rock musical premiere, enhanced Broadway touring performances -- from around South Florida.

*  Unhinged Theatre, a company of Florida International University theater grads and students, is putting on a brief run of Stephen Adly Guirgis' Den of Thieves.  Jose Grau directs Ashley Alvarez, Zunyer Garcia, Yesenia Iglesias, Michael Leon, Matthew Mur, Paul Perez and Ryan Rodriguez in a play about people who plot to steal $750,000 in drug money, only to find themselves in a life-and-death battle.

The show goes on for two weekends, at 8 p.m. this Saturday-Sunday and Nov. 21-22, at the Alper Jewish Community Center's Robert Russell Theater, 11155 SW 112th Ave., Miami.  Tickets are $15 (students $10).  Call 305-785-7377 or go to the Unhinged web site for more info.

* This Friday, Plantation's Mosaic Theatre is partnering with its host institution, The American Heritage School, to raise funds for the ongoing medical treatment of teen burn victim Michael Brewer.  The theater and school are selling raffle tickets at $2 each or three for $5, and the prizes are 45 "gently used" eMac computers and 45 tickets to Mosaic shows.  Send a check made out to American Heritage School, with "Michael Brewer" on the memo line, to Mosaic Theatre, 12200 W. Broward Blvd., Suite 3121, Plantation, FL 33325 -- but remember, the drawing is this Friday.

*  In Broward Center news, 100 Years of Broadway composer Neil Berg is world premiering a new piece called The 12 on April 1, 2010, in the center's Au-Rene Theater.  Berg's rock-style score, set to a story by Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan (The Kentucky Cycle), will be performed by Broadway/rock performers including Rob Evan, Danny Zolli, Lawrence Clayton and Patti Russo.  The show is described as "the musical that begins where Jesus Christ Superstar left off."  Tickets are $25-$55 and are on sale at the box office (954-462-0222) and on the Broward Center's web site (but you have to search for it by typing in The Twelve -- it doesn't show up if you try The 12 or Berg's name).

* Also at the Broward Center, the center has joined with Broadway Across America to offer both signed and open-captioned/audio-described performances of this season's touring Broadway shows.  Signed performances communicate dialogue, lyrics and sound effects to those who understand American Sign Language.  Audio-described narration allows visually impaired theatergoers to listen to descriptions of a show's visual elements on special head sets. Open captioning provides a text displayof dialogue and lyrics to the side of the stage.

The center's current show, Legally Blonde the Musical, will ahve a signed performance at 8 p.m. Nov. 20 and an open-captioned/audio-described performance at 2 p.m. Nov. 21.  Similar performances will take place during the runs of The Phantom of the Opera, The 39 Steps (at the Parker Playhouse), In the Heights and The Color Purple.  Get tickets to the special performances by calling the box office at 954-462-0222 or calling via TTY at 954-468-3283.

Tango gets (even more) theatrical

Tanguera -- The Tango Musical got mixed reviews (some adoring, some not) during its recent New York run, but given the born-again popularity of dance on television thanks to shows such as Dancing With the Stars, you can bet that tango fans will turn out when the 30-plus actor-dancers of Tanguera hit the stage at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts this Wednesday through Sunday.

The Argentine show has toured the world and in telling its story features such classic tangos as La Cumparsita, Derecho Viejo, Danzarin and El Choclo, along with new tangos.

Performances are 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday at the Broward Center, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Tickets are $25 to $75.  Call 954-462-0222 or visit the Broward Center's web site for information.

Meltzer out as City's Shorts streamlines

Stuart Meltzer just wrapped up his second season as the artistic director of City Theatre, the company that presents the popular annual Summer Shorts festival at Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and the Broward Center.  As he found out after he went to work on Wednesday, that second season will be his last:  He was let go by Stephanie Norman (City's executive director and one of the company's three founders) and Alan Fein (board chairman and spouse of Susan Westfall, another City founder who also sits on the board).

Norman (she's in the middle in the photo, with Meltzer to the left and general manager Kerry Shiller to the right) explains that the company has a $50,000 deficit, a burden made worse by shortfalls in projected ticket sales in both Miami-Dade and Broward.  Worst hit during the recently ended 14th annual Shorts Fest was the Shorts 4 Kids program, which drew 76 percent of capacity last summer but fell below 30 percent this year -- probably, Norman guesses, because recession-related cutbacks brought far fewer school and camp groups to the theater.

Looking at the deficit, disappointing ticket sales and fundraising challenges, and anticipating a loss of $15,000 to $20,000 in grant money for next season, Norman, Fein and the board weighed numerous options and made the choice to go back to a seasonal festival coordinator rather than a year-round artistic director.

"The reviews and response from the audience were strong [this year],'' Norman says, "but we didn't hit our numbers."

So one major savings, it seems, will be Meltzer's salary.  The South Florida native, former head of theater at Gulliver Prep and a former full-time faculty member at the New World School of the Arts, was shaken by the news of his sudden unemployment but has chosen to take the high road.

"The board hired a young, energetic, creative person who was going to shake things up, and I tried to do that.  City Theatre has a terrific board in both Miami-Dade and Broward -- they care a lot,"  he says.  It's just bad luck that the economy is what it is."

Fein says that founders Norman, Westfall and Elena Wohl "did a great job taking the organization to the next level and the next.  After the 10th year, we asked whether we should just declare victory and wrap it up."  Because of support from the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Carnival Cruise Lines, the Arsht Center and numerous other companies, foundations, individual donors and government grants -- and because of the festival's popularity -- it stuck around and kept growing until the economy shriveled. Fein says that he's determined to make sure the 15th Summer Shorts starts $50,000 in the black and is hoping the company's artistic process "gets more collaborative again."

Norman says of Meltzer, "He's a charming, bright, articulate, wonderfully creative soul.  Working with him has been a pleasure.  I like him very much personally...Do we agree on everything?  No. When you put on art, disagreement is just human nature.  This model didn't work.  For better or worse, it has to change."

Carbonell Awards become a "theater prom"

The 33rd annual Carbonell Awards were handed out Monday night in a moving, entertaining, raucous and altogether memorable ceremony in the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.  Countless talented South Florida theater folks were involved, but the mind and vision that shaped this year's show belong to Executive Producer/Director Amy London, who did a spectacular job.  (That's Amy at left with playwright/actor/Carbonell program designer Michael McKeever.)

London's Carbonells weren't as flashy as those in recent years.  No orchestra, no Vegas/cruise ship production numbers, no out-of-town "celebs" without connections to (or knowledge of) South Florida theater.  Instead, the show was by, of and for the region's theater artists.  And it was also both more meaningful and more memorable.

Thanks to the magic of Power Point, when nominees in each category were announced, a production photo or picture of the artist at work reminded everyone of the richness of the talent that graced South Florida Stages in 2008.  Instead of random Broadway musical numbers, London's show featured a number from each of the productions vying for the best musical Carbonell.  After a terrifically witty opening number by Laura Hodos and Maribeth Graham (Carbonell-skewering lyrics set to the tune of Stephen Sondheim's Getting Married Today from Company) and the presentation of four design awards, the entire cast of GableStage's Adding Machine (except for Ken Clement, who didn't sing in the show) emerged to demonstrate why London's musical-highlighting notion was such a fine idea.

Oscar Cheda, Jim Ballard, Stacy Schwartz, Graham -- all of whom won Carbonells for their work in the show -- and the stellar "chorus" (Irene Adjan, Erik Fabregat, Lisa Manuli and Barry Tarallo) sang the heck out of one of the musical's devilishly complex numbers, as their Carbonell-winning musical director Erik Alsford accompanied them on the piano.  Later, director Joseph Adler and the show itself won Carbonells.  That musical moment was a vivid demonstration of how artistic risk can bring rewards and of how deep South Florida's talent pool has become.

  Because of the dominance of Adding Machine, GableStage had a great night. So did Mosaic Theatre, the company that American Heritage School grad Richard Jay Simon started at his Plantation alma mater and built, with amazing speed, into one of the region's powerhouse companies.  Mosaic's production of Conor McPherson's The Seafarer brought it multiple Carbonells, including best production of a play and best director for Simon.  Gregg Weiner (at right in photo with Seafarer cast mate and fellow nominee John Felix) was named best actor.  Dennis Creaghan, who beat out Felix for best supporting actor, acknowledged his cast mate by musing that maybe there should have been a recount, Felix hollered good-naturedly from the audience, "I want one."

Among the evening's other high points:  When Actors' Playhouse artistic director David Arisco received the George Abbott Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts, he actually spoke about the honor's legendary Broadway namesake, recalling how much it had meant to have Abbott in the audience at Actors' when he staged Damn Yankees (a show Abbott co-authored and directed on Broadway in the year Arisco was born).

Among low points:  award recipients who took advantage of London's decision not to put a time limit acceptance speeches by gushing and babbling endlessly; "artists" who seem unable to speak into a microphone without dropping f-bombs; one obviously alcohol-powered actor-director who kept yelling another director's name from the audience.  The Carbonells may have turned into a happy "theater prom" this year, but they're a celebration of a professional community, not a time-trip back to high school.

The theater community will, inevitably, do plenty of Tuesday-morning quarterbacking about who did/didn't win Carbonells.  But the show itself?  London did herself and South Florida theater proud.

Broward Center rolls out magic

The Broward Center is turning to circus theatrics and an illusionist couple to conjure up some diversion during these hard times.

First up, at 8 p.m. March 20-21, is Cirque Mechanics' Birdhouse Factory.  Chris Lashua, who originated the German Wheel act in Cirque du Soleil's Quidam, devised and directs a piece inspired by Diego Rivera's industrial murals and Charlie Chaplin's movie Modern Times.  In the 90-minute show, the performer/athletes transform a gloomy factory into a place full of spirited fun.  Tickets to Birdhouse Factory are $25 to $65.  The show goes on in the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale.  For information, call 954-462-0222 or visit the center's web site

The following weekend, the center brings The Spencers: Theatre of Illusionto the Miramar Cultural Center, 2400 Civic Center Place in Miramar.  Husband and wife illusionists Kevin and Cindy Spencer turn to both theater and magic to apparently walk through walls, levitate, vanish and reappear.  Their show happens at 8 p.m. March 27, 1 p.m. March 28.  Tickets are $15.50-$35.50.  For information, phone the box office at 954-602-4500 or visit the cultural center's web site..

Interactive theater slays me

If given the choice of going to an interactive theater production or getting a root canal, I have to say that in my case, the dentist might win out.  Sure, I know craft and effort are involved in the shows, and I know some folks have a ball at faux weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs and the like.  So call me crazy, but II prefer to participate in the ceremonies of life when I actually know the people being celebrated or mourned.  And if I want to see a great show, I'll buy a ticket to one; if I want a great meal, I'll go to a restaurant.  The interactive theater combo, for me, seldom delivers.

But anyone who would heartily disagree might want to know that another interactive show opens next week, joining the already-running The Boychick Affair: The Bar Mitzvah of Harry Boychik, at which you can have a laugh and a nosh through March 8.

The Broward Center for the Performing Arts, which has already played host to Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding (at least twice -- though I've stopped counting), has invited a bunch of wannabe wise guys over for Murdered by the Mob.  The premise is that a newly anointed Godfather is throwing a little celebration dinner, and youse all are invited. 

The show runs Feb. 19 to March 1 in the Abdo New River Room at the Center, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale.  Tickets are $59.50, and the tab includes an Italian dinner.  Performances are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 6 p.m. Sunday, 1 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.  Call 954-462-0222 or check the web site, so you shouldn't have to sleep with the fishes.  Me? I'll be at the dentist.

A Broadway diva sings; long-lost love returns

The ageless, inimitable Bernadette Peters comes back to South Florida next week, dipping into the Broadway songbook under the musical direction of Marin Laird.  Though she has lately become a children's book author (Broadway Barks is hers), she is a celebrated singer-actress whose talents have won her two Tony Awards, and whose credits include Gypsy, The Goodbye Girl, Annie Get Your Gun, Mack and Mabel, On the Town, Sunday in the Park With George, Song and Dance -- well, it's a long list.

Peters performs at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale.  Tickets are $39.50-$99.50 -- Broadway divas don't come cheap.

Want to go? Call the Broward Center at 954-462-0222 or visit the web site.

***

Spanish-speaking audiences in Miami are getting more and more theatrical options of late (Defendiendo al cavernicola at the Arsht Center, Se quieren at TeatroAreaStage, Enema at Teatro en Miami Studio).  Friday brings another:  Que cuarenta años no es nada at Teatro 8 in Little Havana.  The Argentinian comedy by Alicia Muñoz stars Marcos Casanova as a guy reunited with the woman (played by Martha Picanes) he has loved for 40 years.  Will he get the courage to confess his feelings this time?

The Hispanic Theatre Guild production is at 8:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through March 14 at Teatro 8, 2101 SW Eighth St.  Tickets are $25 (students and seniors get discounts).  Call 305-541-4941 or visit the web site.

Music permeates a pair of Jewish-themed works

Two shows -- one a musical by Montreal's Yiddish Theatre, the other an original music-theater work by the New York-based Nine Circle Chamber Theatre -- arrive in South Florida this week for brief runs.

Those Were the Days by Zalmen Mlotek and Moishe Rosenfeld runs Tuesday through Sunday in the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale.  The nine cast members (including Karen Karpman, Aron Gonshor and Michelle Heisler, shown in the photo) perform song-and-dance numbers that take the audience on a journey from turn-of-the-century Europe to New York in the 1930s.  Performed in a mixture of English and Yiddish (projected translations are shown during Yiddish portions of the show), Those Were the Days has performances at 3 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday and Saturday-Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday and Saturday.  Tickets are $34.50.  Call the box office at 954-462-0222 or visit the Broward Center web site.

The music-theater piece Falling Bodies: When Galileo Met Primo Levi has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it performance at 7:30 p.m. this Thursday only at the Jewish Museum of Florida, 301 Washington Ave., Miami Beach. Written by Jonathan Levi with music by Bruce Saylor, the Nine Circles Chamber Theatre production imagines a meeting between two persecuted Italian scientist-poets from different centuries:  Galileo Galilei and Primo Levi, the latter sent to Auschwitz during World War II.  Tickets are $20, and they include admission to the museum's exhibitions.  For information, call 305-672-5044, ext. 3175, or visit the Jewish Museum web site.

Bringing back Baltimore

John Waters' Hairspray is the movie that became a Broadway musical that became a movie musical. The bubbly, tongue-in-cheek stage version is headed back to South Florida.  Winner of the 2003 Tony Award as best musical, Hairspray has been here before, and it's not part of the official touring Broadway lineup at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

But its short run (Oct. 17-19) does usher in a season's worth of big Broadway musicals coming to the Broward Center, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami and the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.  Will star Brooklynn Pulver (pictured here with hairspray-wielding dancers) will be a memorable Tracy Turnblad?  We'll see. But one thing is for sure: You can never hear Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman's homage-to-the-'60s score too often.

Performances are 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.  Tickets are $25-$65.  The Broward Center is at 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. For information, call the box office at 954-462-0222 or visit the center's web site.