by Jan Davisson
The fall months bring the start of the 2018/19 season… and what an exciting season it’s going to be!
MNM Theatre Group, Rinker Theatre
MNM Theatre Company production of My Way, a musical tribute to Frank Sinatra stars, Mark Sanders, Hannah Richter, Laura Plyer and Clay Cartland. Now through October 14 at the Rinker Playhouse, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. Photo credit Tom Tracy
Still time to catch My Way, the opening MNM Production currently on stage through November 14 at the Rinker Theatre in the Kravis Center for Performing Arts. My Way, is a musical tribute to Ol’ Blues Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra. For all of you Legends radio listeners, you’re going to love this. A total of 56 songs are included.
Directed by Dominick Ruggierto My Way features 56 songs recorded by Sinatra including All of Me, Chicago, High Hopes and Fly Me to the Moon. Caryl Fantel is the musical director.
The show features Clay Cartland, a South Florida actor appearing in his fourth show with MNM production. He has won a Carbonelll Award for Best Ensemble in The World Goes Round. He has also been honored with three Silver Palms Award. He’s appeared at the Actors’ Playhouse, Palm Beach Dramaworks and other South Florida theaters from here to the Gables Stage in Coral Gables.
The cast also includes three actors making their MNM debut. New York veteran Mark Sanders spent 15 years in NYC and has appeared in some of the top Northeast theaters including the Lincoln Center and Goodspeed Opera House, as well as other theaters around the nation before coming to make Florida his home.
Laura Plyer, an FSU graduate, has appeared in numerous shows in North Carolina. She last appeared at the Wick Theatre in Boca Raton in the musicals Singin’ in the Rain and She Loves Me.
Last saw Hannah Richter at the fantastic Palm Beach Dramaworks production of Sweeny Todd. She also has Off-Broadway credits in addition to regional credits.
Grease at the Rinker Playhouse stars Laura Plyler as Rizzo and her famous “Look at me I’m Sandra Dee.”
Ending the 2018 season and running from November 16-December 2 is one of the most popular movies about life in the fifties. Set in 1959, it’s Grease and who doesn’t remember Rydell High School with a cast of unforgettable characters, including Caiti Marlowe as Sandy, Jonah Robinson as Danny, Laura Plyler as Rizzo, Domenic Servidio as Kenickie and Jim Ballard as Vince Fontaine/Teen Angel.
Tickets online at www.kravis.org; by phone at 561.832.7469; or at the Kravis Center box office, 701 Okeechobee Blvd. in West Palm Beach. For Group Sales, please call 561.651.4438 or 561.651.4304.
PALM BEACH DRAMAWORKS, WEST PALM BEACH
Palm Beach Dramaworks opened the season on October 19-November 11 with Indecent by Paula Vogel. A play within a play featuring a Klezmer trio of Yiddish music to provide the backdrop for lots of wonderful folk dancing. Pictures is Cliff Burgess and Dani Marcus in one of several roles each actor performs. Photo credit Samantha Mighdoll.
Always on the cutting edge of presenting the best that theater has to offer, Palm Beach Dramaworks has opened their season with the Broadway hit, Indecent by Paula Vogel and Rebecca Taichman (now through November 11.). It’s a play within a play and follows the drama surrounding the 1923 Broadway opening of Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance, when the cast of the original production of God of Vengeance was arrested on the grounds of obscenity. Brilliantly directed by J. Barry Lewis and featuring a top notch cast including Kathleen Wise, Laura Turnbull, Dani Marcus, Anna Lise Jensen, Jay Russell, Matthew Korinko, Glen Rovinelli, Spiff Wiegand, and Cliff Burgess. Indecent is nothing like I imagined it to be. I expected heavy drama, which it has but it also has humor and lighthearted moments and numerous messages about prejudice and hypocrisy directed at Jews and same-sex love plus censorship. It covers different time frames starting in the early 1900’s and ending in the early fifties. This includes the Depression and World War II. It also takes you through the time frame during the late thirties when the Jews were trying to get away from Germany and encountered a strict immigration policy against Jews.
The opening scene has a row of Jewish men and women sitting on a stark stage. The story teller is Lemi (Jay Russell). He’s the only truly fictional character in the production. Assisting Lemi in getting the story across is a klezmer band with musical director, Glen Rovinelli playing the clarinet, the amazing Anna Lise Jensen as the fiddle player and Spiff Wiegand on the accordion. The band provides the change in time frames with its music. During the opening dance and dialog from each actor, a steady stream of dust falls from their jackets. It isn’t until the end that you realize that it denotes the dust of the concentration camps of WWII. When you finally make the connection, it takes your breath away. On a scale of 1-10, I’d give it a 10. It’s done as a one act play so the continuity is not broken.
Next up is the world premier of House on Fire by Lyle Kessler. It runs from December 7-30, 2018.
Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis Street, West Palm Beach FL 33401 Tickets: 561.514.4042 Ext. 2; www.palmbeachdramaworks.org
MALTZ JUPITER THEATRE, JUPITER
Local award-winning actress, Kim Cozort Kay, appears in Steel Magnolias at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre as Truvy, owner of Truvy’s Beauty Salon.
Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling opened the 2018/19 season at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre from October 28-November 11, 2018. It shows life in a small Louisiana town where a woman’s life centers around their weekly hair appointment and the latest gossip at Truvy’s beauty salon. Loaded with sarcastic quips and funny one-liners, it also demonstrates a heartwarming story of how six women come together to help their friend when her daughter becomes ill. Local professional actress, Kim Cozort Kay, herself a North Carolina southern belle, portrays the beauty salon owner, Truvy. Others in the cast include Crista Moore as M’Lynn, Alison Fraser as Clairee, both Tony Award nominees and Paige Silveste, who recently was seen in the national tour of both The Sound of Music and Evita, who has been cast in the heart wrenching role of Shelby. The cast also welcomes back some of South Florida’s most talented award-winning actors, Barbara Bradshaw as Ouiser, Taylor Jackson as Annelle and Kim Cozort Kay as Truvy. “The hardest part of this production has been learning how to be a hair dresser,” said Kim. “We have to practice how to actually shampoo and wrap rollers and comb outs so that the action coincides with the scene. We’re so fortunate to have Amber Jasmin Morrow, an Emmy Award-winning wig designer. She has been amazing.
Steel Magnolias is a show about amazing women and also features an outstanding all-female creative team, including Narelle Sissons, Set Designer; Marcia Madeira, Lighting Design; Robin L. McGee, Costume Designer; and Tony Award-nominated director Marcia Milgrom Dodge.
Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Rd, Jupiter. Tickets: 561.575.2223; www.jupitertheatre.org
KRAVIS ON BROADWAY, WEST PALM BEACH
Kravis on Broadway gets off to a rockin’ start for the 2018/19 season with Rock of Ages.
The Kravis on Broadway Series brings in the best of the national touring companies. Seems like every year, Kravis competes against itself to create an outstanding season. This year, for the 2018/19 season, the schedule caters to all age groups. Opening on November 6 – 11 with Rock of Ages, celebrating its 10th anniversary. The national tour of the five-time Tony Awards nominated musical is set on Hollywood famous Sunset Strip where a small-town girl meets a big city rocker, and, of course, they fall in love. The action takes place at one of L.A.’s most famous rock clubs. Great time to relive the rock hits of the eighties!
From rock music in the eighties to the charm of the turn of the century costumes and songs such as Hello Dolly, Betty Buckley stars in Hello Dolly December 11-16.
Les Miserables is slated for February 12-19 and the Andrew Lloyd Webber, School of Rock, will have the Palm Beaches rocking. Topping this list of winners is The Lion King. I didn’t even mention On Your Feet and Waitress. With a lineup like this, it’s time to order your tickets or miss out!
Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach Tickets 561.832.7469 or 800.572.8471; www.kravis.org
THE WICK THEATRE, BOCA RATON
The Wick Theatre in Boca Raton starts off with a swashbuckling musical, The Pirates of Penzance. The show received a Tony for Best Revival. How can you go wrong with Gilbert & Sullivan’s story of buccaneers and beautiful maidens. Pirates of Penzance opened on October 18 and runs through November 11, 2018.
The Wick Theatre, Boca Raton. www.TheWick.org 561.995.2333
ACTORS’ PLAYHOUSE, CORAL GABLES
Coming to the Actors’ Playhouse in Coral Gables is the Pre-Broadway World Premiere of a musical and book by Richard Kagan. The perfect theater to hold the premiere of Havana Music Hall. The musical traces the family of two Cuban musicians, Rolanda and Romona, through the past 50 years, beginning in Cuba 1958 just as the Revolution begins. The show opened on October 10 and runs through November 18, 2018.
The Actors’ Playhouse is located in the old Miracle Theatre that opened around 1947-48. It’s a slice of “old Miami.”
The Actors’ Playhouse, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables Tickets: 305.444.9293
STAGE DOOR THEATRE, LAUDERHILL
Just coming off a fantastic production of La Cage aux Folles, the Broward Stage Door is presenting Dirty Rotten Scoundrels opening October 12th – November 4th at the new Lauderhill Performing Arts Center. Based on the 1988 film of the same name, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels centers around two competing con men, living on the French Riviera, and having a contest to see who will be the first one to con some sweet little old lady out of $50,000. Let the laughs begin.
Broward Stage Door Theatre at the LPAC, 3800 NW 11th Place, Lauderhill, Florida 33311 Tickets: 954.344.7765