THEATER

Playwrights planning 24 hours of magic at Actors' Playhouse

Andie Arthur, Christopher Demos-Brown, Elena Maria Garcia, Lucas Leyva, Michael McKeever, Andrew Rosendorf, Juan C. Sanchez and Mark Swaner are getting ready to pull an all-nighter.

'Hope Blossoms': About 30 artists will assemble to sing, dance, paint, drum -- and help women and children in need

Art doesn't just happen, but in the right environment, creativity can blossom in many forms -- painting, sculpture, photography, video, light, words, food, sound, dance and other performance.

THEATER

Review | Topol carries on the tradition with aplomb

You don't really want the latest tour of Fiddler on the Roof to crack open that ol' chestnut-of-a-musical and reveal something new.

'In Development' premieres at New Theatre

In Development, a new work by former Miamian David Caudle, kicks off a world premiere-filled season at New Theatre this weekend.

THEATER

Review | Humor tempers tension in 'El Método Grönholm'

What would you do for one of the most high-paying, prestigious jobs in the world? If it sounds like a faux-tanned Donald Trump should be posing this question with his trademark squint from the far end of a conference table, you're not completely mistaken.

THEATER

Topol's a role model

Chaim Topol does, as you see, have a first name. But professionally, the Tel Aviv-born actor is best known simply as Topol. And though his eclectic resumé includes everything from Othello to the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only, his signature role is a character dreamed up by Sholom Aleichem decades before Topol was born: Tevye, the Russian-Jewish dairyman who became the central character in the 1964 Broadway musical smash Fiddler on the Roof.

THE THEATER SCENE

Local actor fiddles around

Un-traditional casting: Miami Springs native Sean Patrick Doyle plays the role of Fruma Sarah -- the butcher's dead wife -- in the national revival of Fiddler on the Roof running Tuesday through Oct. 18 at Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

THEATER

Review | 'Wonderettes' comes close to marvelous

The Marvelous Wonderettes couldn't have found a better home than Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre on Coral Gables' Miracle Mile.

THEATER

'Monologues' unveils the Muslim-American experience

Growing up in Davie, Sahar Ullah remembers the awkward interactions, confused looks and frequent questions from friends and strangers alike about her hijab, the head cover she chooses to wear, and her religion: Islam.

THEATER

Review | 'Chamaco' resonates

An empty park, a dead body, a pool of blood. Cuban playwright Abel González Melo's Chamaco may sound like a murder mystery, but the play, currently on stage at Teatro Trail in Coral Gables, is more of a moral interrogation than a whodunit.

Fall's extra hot this year -- on Broadway and off

Generally when we go to Broadway, it's to savor the work of stage stars, escape into the world of lavish musicals, maybe take in the odd pithy British play. But sometimes, when the celestial stars align just right, we get a bonus, as a Hollywood hunk or two decides it's time to try theater again.

THEATER

Powerful drama explores the underside of Havana

When Cuban playwright Abel González Melo's Chamaco (Boy at Vanishing Point) opens Saturday at Coral Gables' Teatro Trail (in Spanish with English supertitles), it will be the first time in seven years that director and scholar Alberto Sarraín has presented a play in Miami.

STAGE PICK

'The Marvelous Wonderettes' at Actors' Playhouse

Nostalgia as big as the cast's petticoat-plumped skirts is on the bill as Actors' Playhouse kicks off its season with the current Off-Broadway show The Marvelous Wonderettes. Julie Kleiner, Tiana Checchia, Lisa Manuli and Amy Miller Brennan play members of a girl group who sing at their 1958 high school prom, then gather for the 10-year reunion, older and arguably a bit wiser. Dream Lover, Rescue Me, Respect and a host of golden oldies are on the show's playlist.

THEATER

Review | Young troupe takes on Italian classic 'Así es'

Así es (si así os parece) -- So It Is (If You Think So) -- an ingenious parable about the nature of truth and mankind's curiosity, is among the best-known creations of Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello. Since its 1917 debut in Milan, the play has continued to surprise people from all walks of life because of its confrontational spirit and acute satirical humor.

Sarasota's Ringling festival boosts town's arts scene

Sarasota is an arts-crazy place, a Florida Gulf Coast city justifiably proud of its cultural riches.

STAGE PICK

'Rock 'n' Roll' at Mosaic Theatre

The personal and the political intersect in Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll, the smartly engaging season opener at Mosaic Theatre. Laura Turnbull plays both the wife and the daughter of Gordon McConnell as Max, a Cambridge University professor who refuses to acknowledge that the Communist philosophy he so ardently supports is playing out badly in the real world. The play runs through Oct. 4 at the American Heritage Center for the Arts, 12200 W. Broward Blvd., Bldg. 3000, Plantation. Performances are 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $37 ($31 for those 65 and older, $15 students). Call 954-577-8243 or visit www.mosaictheatre.com.

THEATER REVIEW

Review | `Rock 'n' Roll' delivers tension, tenderness

Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll, an intellectually challenging yet undeniably engrossing play, opens at Mosaic Theatre in Plantation.

THEATER

Ambitious Mosaic Theatre recreates challenging Tom Stoppard play

Tom Stoppard's smart, provocative plays are magnets for audiences who crave theater that sparks both thought and emotion -- and for artists who relish the bottomless challenge of bringing the playwright's rich worlds to life.

VISUAL ARTS

Give sister act a whirl

The TM Sisters have always occupied a precarious perch somewhere among video-game culture, fashion, nightlife, pop, performance art and nightlife, and the recent launch of WHIRL CRASH GO! at the alternative gallery Locust Projects in the Design District accordingly had all the earmarks of a profoundly groovy club opening, an only-in-Miami cross between storming the Bastille and, well, Day of the Locust.

THEATER

Review | Dark 'Pony' reflects corruption, greed and hope

Good theater has a way of stoking the spectator's desires. We desperately want Shakespeare's Hamlet to avenge his father's murder. Against all odds, we hope Blanche DuBois' beauty will alter her tragic course.