Drama Queen

Menzel, Esparza coming to Arsht Center

A pair of Broadway stars, Idina Menzel and Raúl Esparza, will give concerts this season at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

First up is Menzel, the Tony Award-winning star of Wicked -- she was the complicated green heroine Elphaba in the original Broadway production.  And she played Rachel's lookalike mom on Fox's Glee. 

With a full orchestra, Menzel will perform at 8 p.m. Dec. 3 in the Knight Concert Hall, singing rock, pop, jazz and Broadway songs.  Last spring, her hubby (Practice star Taye Diggs, whom she met when the two were in the original cast of Rent) performed his nightclub show at the Arsht's Prelude by Barton G.  Now it's Menzel's turn.

Also headed to the Arsht is Esparza, the Miami-raised star who stole the show in Babalu and performed at the Arsht's five-year anniversary celebration.  At his 8 p.m. concert Feb. 11, 2012, the four-time Tony nominee will perform the show that won him raves at Lincoln Center this past season, singing everything from Cuban music to Broadway songs.

Tickets for each concert range from $50 to $125.  They go on sale to Arsht Center members on Monday, to the public on Sept. 18.  The Arsht is located at 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami.  For information (starting Monday), phone the Arsht box office at 305-949-6722 or visit the center's web site.

Alternative theater takes the spotlight

Conundrum Stages has an ambitious, four-night festival -- On the Boards: Our Alternative Theater Festival -- kicking off on Wednesday at the Tamarac Theatre of Performing Arts, 7143 Pine Island Rd. in Tamarac.  And this festival is affordable:  a suggested $10 donation gets you into any night's program.

Designed to promote South Florida theater companies, the festival also features preshow-concerts by several actor-singers.

On Wednesday, singer Lisa Kerstin Braun kicks things off, followed by a sample of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues directed by and featuring Lea Roy, who is staging the play for a fall fundraiser at the Center for Creative Growth.  The second part of Wednesday's theater bill is The Honesty Project, a theater-music-dance piece drawn from questions answered by Florida Atlantic University theater students.  FAU grad Bradford Sadler directs.

On Thursday, Palm Beach County's Immeasurable Theatre performs Paradise Lost: Wings of War, adapted and directed by Ouida Williams from the poem by John Milton.  After that, The Alliance Theatre Lab presents The Lab Project, previewing new works by resident playwright David Sirois.

Friday's program begins with a concert by john Lariviere, followed by scenes from Thinking Cap Theatre's productions of MilkMilk Lemonade by Joshua Conkel and Death for Sydney Black by Leah Nanako Winkler. Then, Vanessa Garcia's The Charms of the Gifted and Wendy White's 7 Generations get read.

Saturday's program begins with Jeanne Lynn Gray in concert.  Fort Lauderdale's Infinite Abyss Productions will perform Bare: A Trip on Songs, a collection of music featuring six singers.  After that, Three Lefts Productions performs Little Men by Gary and Edmund Entin.

All of the festival programs begin at 7 p.m.  For information, call 954-673-5124, email conundrumstages@ymail.com or visit the company's web site.

Actor's illness, not zombies, zaps Promethean opening

In theater as in life, stuff happens. Matthew William Chizever, one of the best horror-musical-comedy leading men in South Florida (hey, it's a genre), has been battling strep/tonsilitis leading up to tomorrow's planned opening of Song of the Living Dead, A Zombie Musical, a Promethean Theatre production in the Black Box Theatre at Nova Southeastern University.  And no matter how funny/weird the show (Cannibal! The Musical, anyone?), the lead actor has to be able to sing.

So unfortunately, producing artistic director Deborah L. Sherman had to scrub this week's shows and push Song of the Living Dead to next week.  The musical will preview Aug. 18 and open at 8 p.m. Aug. 19 in the black box at the Don Taft University Center, 3301 College Ave., Davie.  The show runs through Sept. 4, with performances at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 5 p.m. Sunday.  Tickets are $25.  For info, call 786-317-7580 or visit the Promethean web site. Anyone holding tickets to this week's shows can call the Promethean number or Ovation Tix at 1-866-811-4111 to make new arrangements.

(Photo of Matthew William Chizever and Lindsey Forgey in Song of the Living Dead by George Schiavone)

 

For community troupes, challenging fare

As a general rule, community theaters do pay directors but don't pay their actors, some of whom may indeed mix paid professional work with their unpaid gigs.  But the line that separates the best community theater companies from professional troupes can be thin indeed, and community theater fare can be ambitious and challenging.  Lake Worth Playhouse, for example, is winding up its run of the John Kander-Fred Ebb Broadway hit Chicago this weekend.

This weekend through Aug. 14, two other community companies have shows worth checking out.

Opening Friday at the Main Street Playhouse in Miami Lakes is William Mastrosimone's intense play Extremities.  Skye Whitcomb is directing the Main Street Players production, which features Sabrina Gore, Daniel Nieves, Andrea Uzategui and Lucy Nuñez.  Extremities focuses on a woman who tries to take vengeance on a would-be rapist.  It is not, obviously, light summer fare.  But it is a genuinely absorbing play.

Extremities will run through Aug. 14 at the Main Street Playhouse, 6766 Main Street, Miami Lakes.  Performances are 8 p.m. Friday, 5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, with an additional show at 8 p.m. Aug. 11.  Tickets are $20 ($18 seniors and students).  Call 305-558-3737 or visit the company's web site for more info.

Also this weekend, you can catch a rare mounting of William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's The Gondoliers, directed by Peter Librach.  The Pembroke Pines Theater of the Performing Arts is doing the operetta, the pair's 12th (and their last great success), at the Susan B. Katz Theater at the River of Grass Arts Park, 17195 Sheridan St., Pembroke Pines.  Performances are 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.  Tickets are $20 ($15 for seniors, $13 for children).  For info, call 954-437-4884 or visit PPTOPA's web site.

 

'Suds' on the Beach, 'Joseph' in Spanish

Not much new cooking on South Florida stages this weekend, though you can still catch the world premiere of Michael McKeever's Stuff at the Caldwell Theatre Company in Boca Raton, the world premiere Maribeth Graham-Dana P. Rowe revue See Jane Run at Actors' Playhouse in Coral Gables, the Infinite Abyss production of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman at Empire Stage in Fort Lauderdale, Mamma Mia! at the Broward Center and/or Cirque du Soleil's Alegria at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise.

Next weekend, however, brings two very different new options.

Broward Stage Door Theatre, where co-founders Derelle Bunn and David Torres regularly fill their two side-by-side Coral Springs theaters, launch the Miami Beach Stage Door Theatre at the Byron Carlyle with the frothy musical SUDS.  When the show ran in Coral Springs, it was supposed to last six weeks; instead, it packed 'em in for six months.  The Baby Boomer-friendly show is built around more than 40 hits from the '60s.

SUDS starts performances on July 29 (with an official opening a week later) and runs through Sept. 4 at Miami Beach Stage Door theatre, 500 71st St.  Performances are 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday-Sunday.  Tickets are $38-$42.  For info, call 305-397-8977 or visit Stage Door's web site.

If you enjoy theater en español, consider José el soñador, a.k.a. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It's the first production from Teatro en Broadway, a company headed by former Seraphic Fire chief operating officer Lorenzo Lebrija.  The Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical will play Dade County Auditorium, 2901 W. Flagler St., Miami, July 29-31.  Performances are 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.  Tickets are $32-$45 ($30 for those over 65).  The Saturday matinee is a benefit for The Miami Foundation, with tickets priced at $20 (kids under 12 get in by making a small donation).

For info, call Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 or visit the Teatro de Broadway web site.

Promethean sets a summer show...and more

Continuing in the tradition of its summer hits Cannibal! The Musical and Evil Dead the Musical, Davie's Promethean Theatre is gearing up for another spoofy horror musical, this one Song of the Living Dead, a Zombie Musical.

Created at Atlanta's Dad's Garage Theatre Company, the show -- with music by Eric Frampton and Matt Horgan, and a cript by Horgan and Travis Sharp -- tells the story of a newly engaged couple stumbling into the midst of a zombie attack.  Margaret M. Ledford will direct, with Phil Hinton as musical director.  In the cast are Clay Cartland, Matthew William Chizever, Robert Coward, Mark Della Ventura, Lindsey Elizabeth Forgey, Mary Gundlach, Jaimie Kautzmann, Noah Levine, Joshua Olivares and Sharon Peoples.

Song of the Living Dead opens Aug. 12 and runs through Sept. 4 in the Black Box Theatre in the Don Taft University Center at Nova Southeastern University, 3301 College Ave., Davie.  Performances are 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 5 p.m. Sunday, and tickets are $30.  Call 1-866-811-4111 to order tickets, or get more info on Promethean's web site.

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Things happen when you're bringing theater companies from all over the world to perform at the International Hispanic Theatre Festival, and due to travel troubles, the Friday and Saturday performances of the Argentine production El Trompo metálico in the Adrienne Arsht Center's Carnival Studio Theatre have been cancelled.

Instead, Prometeo Theatre will offer two more performances of its show Mujeres de Shakespeare, written and directed by Neher Jacqueline Briceño.  The play is performed in Spanish wit English supertitles.  Perormances are at 8:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday at Prometeo's theater on Miami Dade College's Wolfson Campus, 300 NE Second Ave., Miami.  Tickets are $25.  For information, call 305-237-3262 or visit Prometeo's web site.

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Not much theater around on Mondays, but this coming Monday actor Chaz Mena will direct a staged reading of Rogelio Martinez's All Eyes and Ears at GableStage.

In his cast are Ken Clement, Alex Alvarez, Diane Garle, Laura Pons, John Manzelli and Deborah Sherman.  Martinez play is set in early '60s Havana, focusing on a family loyal to Fidel Castro's revolution, and the price the family pays for that loyalty.

The free reading is in GableStage's space at the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables.  For info, call 305-445-1119 or visit the GableStage web site.

 

Back at 'Camp'

Camp Kappawanna, the boisterous summer camp musical by singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb and playwright Marco Ramirez, has already played Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale and the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.  But if your out-of-school kids haven't seen it and are getting antsy for a special summer event, never fear.  City Theatre is bringing Camp Kappawanna to the Colony Theater on Miami Beach for one show only at 3 p.m. this Saturday.

The musical focuses on loney Jenny Jenkins, a 12-year-old who is going away for her first summer camp experience.  After some tough times for herself and the camp, Jenny finds fun, friends and herself.

In the show, directed and choreographed by Michael Leeds, are Melanie Leibner, Jameson Hammond, Zach Held, Anne Chamberlain, Lauren Tepper and Ryan Didato.

Tickets are just $10 and are available at the Colony box office, 1040 Lincoln Road., online or by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000.

(Photo of LIsa Loeb by Manny Hernandez)

'Memphis' moves from stage to screen

Memphis, with a book by Joe DiPietro and score by David Bryan, won the Tony Award as best musical almost a year ago.  It's still going strong on Broadway, and it will launch a national tour -- in Memphis, where else? -- in October.  But you don't have to go to New York or wait 'til the show makes its way to South Florida to see it.

National CineMedia Fathom and Broadway Worldwide are bringing four showings of an HD version of Memphis to more than 530 movie screens around the United States, starting this Thursday and ending May 3.  And many of those screens are in South Florida.

Much like the Metropolitan Opera's Fathom moviecasts, Memphis will bring its tale of a white DJ who falls in love with a powerful black singer in segregated 1950s Memphis to theater fans who don't mind paying $20 -- more than the price of a movie ticket, but considerably less than the charge for seeing the live show on Broadway -- for a visual experience that is a hybrid of film and theater.  And you'll get to see original stars Chad Kimball and Montego Glover do their dazzling thing.

Memphis is one of the earliest splashes in a gathering wave of stage-to-screen experiences.  This is not, it should be emphasized, a movie musical based on a Broadway hit, ala Chicago or Hairspray. Those are thoroughly reworked, recast and shot as movies. This Memphis is an HD version of the show as performed on Broadway.  Which raises the question:  Is it theater? A movie? Or that hybrid?

I vote hybrid.  Before writing a feature story on The House Theatre of Chicago's The Sparrow, which winds up its run in the Carnival Studio Theater at Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts this weekend, I watched a DVD of the piece shot during a Chicago performance.  Last Saturday, I went to see a live performance of it at the Arsht.  For me, that was a far superior experience -- more involving, more exciting, much more moving.  Part of the theatrical experience is the emotional give-and-take between actors and audiences, something that cannot happen in a movie theater, regardless of how strongly a moviegoer reacts to what he or she is watching.

But love it or not, the wave is coming, led by Memphis.  Screenings at various theaters are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Saturday and May 3, and at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.  For a list of theaters and to buy advance tickets, visit the Fathom Events web site.

Revues celebrate Herman, Gershwins

The sounds of great Broadway composers -- Jerry Herman and the Gershwin brothers, George and Ira -- will fill the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center and Fort Lauderdale's Parker Playhouse through Sunday.

First up is A Grand Tour: The Songs of Jerry Herman opening tonight at 8 in Aventura.  Part of the center's Melodies and Memories series, the show features Broadway performer Sal Viviano, guest starring alongside South Florida singer-actors.  The University of Miami grad and namesake of the school's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre is the only composer-lyricist to have had three musicals that ran more than 1,500 consecutive performances.  From his smash hits, which include Mame, La Cage aux Folles and Hello, Dolly, the cast will sing everything from the rousing Before the Parade Passes By and The Best of Times Is Now to the pensive If He Walked Into My Life and Time Heals Everything.

Performances of A Grand Tour are 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday and 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.  Tickets are $32, and the center is located at 3385 NE 188th St., Aventura.  Call 954-462-0222 (the Broward Center's box office handles phone sales) or visit the center's web site.

Beginning Thursday, the national tour of S'Wonderful brings the music of George and Ira Gershwin to the stage of the Parker Playhouse.  Through five "mini-musicals," the revue takes theatergoers from New York in 1916 to Paris in the '30s, Hollywood in the '40s, New Orleans in the '50s to the present day.  Songs in the show include Someone To Watch Over Me, Rhapsody in Blue, Shall We Dance and Let's Call the Whole Thing Off.

Performances are 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday at the Parker, 707 NE Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale.  Tickets are $29-$49.  Call 954-462-0222 or visit the theater's web site.

(S'Wonderful photo by Carol Rosegg)

Donna McKechnie takes another turn

Tony Award-winning actress-singer-dancer Donna McKechnie, the original Cassie in Michael Bennett's A Chorus Line, is performing her solo show My Musical Comedy Life at the PlayGround Theatre this weekend.

I chatted with this terrific, warm show biz survivor over lunch at Joe Allen last week.  Check out my story on the Miami Herald's web site.