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.

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

Tri-county lineups include almost every genre

From Broadway blockbusters to intimate plays meant to rock an audience's world, the many professional theaters in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties will present almost every genre of theater throughout this challenging season.

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.

STAGE PICK

Caldwell Theatre Company extends 'The Whipping Man'

Matthew Lopez's The Whipping Man was supposed to end its run at the Caldwell Theatre Company last weekend, but great reviews and strong demand won the intense, involving play a well-deserved extension. So this holiday weekend brings a final chance to catch the play about a gravely wounded Jewish Confederate soldier and two of his family's former slaves.

THEATER REVIEW

Review | Baseball star comes out in 'Take Me Out'

Richard Greenberg's Take Me Out, winner of the best play Tony Award and a finalist for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize, is an entertaining, artfully written play. Its premise -- a superstar baseball player casually comes out, and all hell breaks loose -- is, unfortunately, still all too believable.

THEATER REVIEW |THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

Review | 'Taming of the Shrew': Wild silliness no laughing matter

New Theatre has become a company that takes its name literally: Under artistic director Ricky J. Martinez, the intimate Coral Gables theater has shifted its emphasis to new work, with three world premieres on its schedule for this season.

THEATER REVIEW | `THE HARDER THEY COME'

Review | 'The Harder They Come' has potent music with Jamaican touch

To twist an old ad slogan, you don't have to be Jamaican to love The Harder They Come. But truth be told, in order to absorb all the cultural resonances in the stage version of Perry Henzell's famous 1972 movie, you almost have to be Jamaican.

CRITIC'S PICK

'The Taming of the Shrew' at New Theatre

William Shakespeare's most pointed battle of the sexes happens in The Taming of the Shrew, the comedy that kicks off the season at Coral Gables' New Theatre this weekend. Rusty Allison, Israel Garcia and Stephen Neal play members of a traveling theater company who serve up a Commedia dell'Arte-style Shrew.

THEATER

Jamaican classic: You can see it if you really want

Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff was in a Kingston recording studio when Perry Henzell, a Jamaican director whose company made commercials, came into the session to meet him.

THEATER REVIEW

Theater Review | Humor in `Cannibal! The Musical Live on Stage' at Nova Southeastern in Davie is sophomoric yet effective

`South Park' co-creator Trey Parker's musical at Nova Southeastern University about a real-life Colorado cannibal is gross -- but great.

CRITIC'S PICK

'Cannibal! The Musical' at Promethean Theatre

Back in his college days, South Park co-creator Trey Parker made a weird-but-hilarious movie titled Cannibal! The Musical. Based on the true story of Alferd Packer, whose ill-fated 1873 expedition in search of gold led to an infamous incident of American cannibalism, the stage version sends up several musical classics. Jeffrey Bower, Matthew Chizever, Lindsey Forgey and Andy Quiroga are among the many actors in the Promethean Theatre's production of this musical with bite. The show runs through Sept. 6 in the University Center Black Box Theatre at Nova Southeastern University, 3301 College Ave., Davie. Performances are 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Tickets are $25 ($15 for seniors 65 and over, $10 for students under 25). Call 866-811-4111 or visit www.theprometheantheatre.com.

THEATER

Review | Mamet's 'Speed-the-Plow' a crude classic at GableStage

Madonna famously made her Broadway stage debut in David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow more than 20 years ago, but both the Material Mama and Mamet's script have hardly aged at all. The playwright's canny evisceration of the movie business remains a deliciously entertaining, crudely potent, testosterone-fueled romp.

THEATER

Review | Caldwell Theatre's Civil War drama 'Whipping Man' dense, dark

By the end of the first scene in Matthew Lopez's taut, 90-minute play The Whipping Man, a Confederate soldier is getting his gangrenous lower leg amputated by two of his family's former slaves.

CRITIC'S PICK

'Speed-the-Plow' at GableStage

Speed-the-Plow, David Mamet's entertaining evisceration of the movie business, opens this weekend at GableStage with a pair of Carbonell Award-winning actors delivering the acid-laced dialogue. Paul Tei, left, and Gregg Weiner go mano-a-mano over which script to pitch to studio heads, with Amy Elane Anderson as the not-so-innocent temp who becomes a player in the drama. The show begins at 8 p.m. Saturday at GableStage in the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables, where it runs through Sept. 13. Performances are 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday (no evening show this Sunday). Tickets are $37.50 on Thursday and Sunday evenings ($35 for seniors), $42.50 other shows (students $15). Call 305-445-1119 or visit www.gablestage.org.

THEATER

Review | 'Speaking Elephant' has much to say

Playwrights, novelists and other creative types observe the world differently. Looking at elephants shifting in the confined space of an old-fashioned zoo or being prodded to perform in a circus, most folks feel anything from fascination to outrage.

STAGE PICK

'Speaking Elephant' premieres at Women's Theatre Project

The Women's Theatre Project has scored a world premiere with Terry Lawrence's Speaking Elephant, opening this weekend at Sixth Star Studios, 505 NW First Ave., Fort Lauderdale. The play features two of South Florida's most compelling actors, Angie Radosh, left, and Sally Bondi, as Wanda and Winky, a pair of aging Asian elephants who are to be moved from the Detroit Zoo to a sanctuary in California. The South Florida-based Lawrence raises multiple issues, both animal and human, in her inspired-by-fact play. Performances are 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, and the play runs through Aug. 30. Tickets are $25 (some $10 student tickets available). Call 866-811-4111 or visit www.womenstheatreproject.com for information.

THEATER

Mad Cat's French twist features Elvis, Jackson

If you heard that a South Florida theater was getting ready to open Molie`re's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (The Bourgeois Gentleman), you might wonder which crazy company would be taking a chance on a large-cast classic in the middle of summer.