http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/index.html http://media.miamiherald.com/images/logos/rss_sitelogo.gif http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/index.html 140 25 News, sports and entertainment from MiamiHerald.com en-us Copyright 2008 MiamiHerald.com Christine Dolen | Theater Critic 60 Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:48:18 EDT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's PubSys miamifeedback@miamiherald.com http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/662168.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/662168.html Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT Ah, crazy love. William Shakespeare's As You Like It is full of it, as would-be lovers find their passions frustrated -- until, finally, all's well that ends well. In New Theatre's season-opening production, Elise Girardin is such an altogether radiant Rosalind, even when disguised as a boy, that the fascination she holds for Cliff Burgess' Orlando is perfectly understandable. The play runs through Sept. 14, with performances at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 1 and 5:30 p.m. Sunday (no late... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/656646.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/656646.html Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:23 EDT The great problem in the theater world, the thing that gives artistic directors ulcers as they gaze upon one Baby Boomer-and-up audience after another, is this: How do you get kids raised on 24/7 cable, the Internet, instant-access movies and the like to understand that going to the right play can be interesting, entertaining, even thrilling? http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/655311.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/655311.html Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT After a mostly silent summer, New Theatre is back in business with some season-launching Shakespeare. As You Like It, adapted by artistic director Ricky J. Martinez and staged by Roberto Prestigiacomo, features a cast of 14 (huge by small regional theater standards), some nicely detailed performances and an array of colorful costumes that almost make up for a barren shell of a set. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/652954.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/652954.html Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT New York's Psycho Clan, a company that produces everything from theater to site-specific entertainment, thinks horror movies are for wimps. At least that's what you might conclude if you check out Nightmare: Ghost Stories, New York's Most Horrifying Haunted House, a blood-curdling interactive experience that will take up residence in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood Sept. 25-Nov. 2. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/651786.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/651786.html Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT In his 2005 play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, provocative New York playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis imagines the man who betrayed Jesus caught between Heaven and Hell as lawyers battle to send him one place or the other. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/647250.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/647250.html Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT Jack Zink, longtime critic and cultural affairs reporter who covered the arts in South Florida from 1969 until illness forced him to step away from the work he loved, died Monday at age 61. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/641463.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/641463.html Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT Among the many victims of the ongoing war in Iraq, as journalist-turned-playwright George Packer sees it, are the young Iraqis who risked everything to aid American forces. Packer's play Betrayed gets its regional premiere at GableStage on Saturday, with a powerful cast featuring Todd Allen Durkin, Antonio Amadeo, Todd Allen Durkin, Ceci Fernandez, John Manzelli, Bill Schwartz and Ricky Waugh. The provocative play runs through Sept. 14 at the Biltmore Hotel. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/632034.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/632034.html Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:01 EDT The gals in blue get their due in True Blue, a world premiere play by Marj O'Neill-Butler that debuts this weekend at the Women's Theatre Project. Pamela Roza, Patti Gardner, Angie Radosh, Laura Turnbull and Jacqueline Laggy play undercover cops whose lives and personal challenges are intertwined. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/624051.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/624051.html Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT Miami Libre tries to be many things: a sexy Vegas revue, a classic musical with a love story, a feel-good immigrant-makes-good drama, a political and musicological screed on Cuba and Miami. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/619997.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/619997.html Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT If a Samuel Beckett devotee were to create a piece for Cirque du Soleil -- which, depending on your view of Waiting for Godot, may not be utterly unimaginable -- the result might look a lot like Slava's Snowshow. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/619060.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/619060.html Sun, 27 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT Just as the XXIII International Hispanic Theatre Festival winds up its three-week run, another theater festival -- shorter, but more geographically expansive -- is about to begin. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/618576.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/618576.html Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT The XXIII International Hispanic Theatre Festival, built this year around a tribute to Spain, draws to a close this weekend with a disquieting, starkly beautiful production from the company run by festival founder Mario Ernesto Sánchez. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/618583.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/618583.html Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT What: XXIII International Hispanic Theatre Festival Where: Carnival Studio Theater, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; Prometeo Theatre, Miami-Dade College Wolfson Campus, 300 NE Second Ave., Miami http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/615791.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/615791.html Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT Russian clown Slava Polunin, who aims to blow audiences away with Slava's Snowshow at Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, experiences his own wintry blizzard as his Yellow Clown encounters one challenge after another. The popular show is in the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., through Aug. 17. Performances are 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday (additional shows 8 p.m. this Tuesday and Wednesday). Tickets are $55. Call... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/612520.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/612520.html Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT Laila Ripoll's El día más feliz de nuestra vida (The Happiest Day of Our Lives) examines the lives of triplet sisters at two meaningful points for the siblings and their country. Part of the ongoing tribute to Spain at the XXIII International Hispanic Theatre Festival, the play was presented in Spanish by the Alquibla Teatro of Murcia. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/609435.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/609435.html Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT Remember Let It Snow? The vintage Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn tune conjures a wintry frozen world outside, a warmly cozy one inside. Slava's Snowshow, which will begin previews at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, flips that script. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/607323.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/607323.html Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT That knowing laughter you'll hear through mid-August at Actors' Playhouse is coming from Baby Boomers who are going through the catharsis of seeing their lives onstage. Not their lives, precisely, but actors Margot Moreland, Wayne Steadman, Allan Baker, Maribeth Graham, Barry J. Tarallo and Lourelene Snedeker get close enough to universal truths that Mid Life! The Crisis Musical should seem very familiar to those between 40 and 60 -- or to anyone who loves them. The show runs through Aug. 10 at the... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/606026.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/606026.html Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT Just over a century ago, Jacinto Benavente surprised audiences in Madrid with the premiere of Los intereses creados (The Bonds of Interest), a ''comedy of buffoons'' that pays homage to Italian Commedia dell'Arte and playwrights such as Carlo Goldoni, as a mocking satire of society at the time. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/604853.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/604853.html Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT Tupac Shakur's 25 short years of life were a study in extremes. On the one hand, as a prodigiously talented teenager of modest means, he attended a performing arts high school and appeared in everything from Shakespeare to The Nutcracker. Though he dropped out of school, he was a voracious reader, a young man with wide-ranging intellectual curiosity and a poet. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/601545.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/601545.html Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:58 EDT The XXIII International Hispanic Theatre Festival is up and running through the end of July at the Carnival Studio Theater in the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Prometeo's space on Miami Dade College's Wolfson campus and several other locations throughout Miami-Dade County. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/599577.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/599577.html Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT In Claire Chafee's Why We Have a Body, Erynn Dalton, left, plays a private investigator whose specialty is catching cheating husbands. But her most ardent mission is to capture the attention and heart of Monica Garcia's Renee, right, a paleontologist who is, rather inconveniently, married. With its run extended to Aug. 9, the poetic and funny play is packing 'em in at the Sol Theatre Project, 1140 N. Flagler Dr., Fort Lauderdale. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, with tickets priced... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/597120.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/597120.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT Claire Chafee's Why We Have a Body isn't a new play (it premiered at San Francisco's Magic Theatre in 1993), but as the new production by Fort Lauderdale's Sol Theatre Project so amply demonstrates, the laughs it generates are fresh and genuine. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/593058.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/593058.html Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT n the surface, slain rapper Tupac Shakur and the deeply alive actor Meshaun Labrone Arnold would seem to have little in common. Shakur's mother was a member of the Black Panthers when he was born in 1971, later becoming a crack addict and welfare mom as she struggled to raise her son. Arnold's father, Elder Frazier Arnold Jr., is pastor of Miami's Mt. Olive Primitive Baptist Church; his mother Ruby is the former director of a Head Start center. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/592899.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/592899.html Sat, 05 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT When Mario Ernesto Sánchez thinks about putting together another International Hispanic Theatre Festival -- this year's edition is his 23rd -- he thinks back to the mule that hauled garbage to the town dump in the years before he left Cuba at 15 on a Pedro Pan flight. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/592017.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/592017.html Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT Elizabeth Dimon is a fine actor and singer; Florence Foster Jenkins was not. But sometimes it takes a person of great talent to portray someone whose ''gifts'' were modest in the extreme. Dimon, above as Jenkins, will portray the delusional coloratura soprano in Souvenir, Stephen Temperley's play-with-music opening Saturday at Palm Beach Dramaworks, 322 Banyan Blvd., West Palm Beach. Tom Kenaston is featured as Jenkins' long-suffering accompanist. The show runs through Aug. 2, with performances at... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/586117.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/586117.html Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:37 EDT Those without a deep knowledge of the civil rights movement might not recognize the name Fannie Lou Hamer. The granddaughter of slaves, Hamer was both a leader and a soldier in the push for voting rights, a woman who inspired her fellow 1960s activists through both word and song. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/585133.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/585133.html Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:01 EDT Showbiz history is littered with the ghosts of partner acts that sizzled, then splintered. Think Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Robert Goulet and Carol Lawrence, Sonny and Cher. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/583622.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/583622.html Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:01 EDT Florida Stage turns musical in the summer, and this year's offering is, well, groovy. Dream a Little Dream, The Nearly True Story of the Mamas and the Papas, cowritten by original ''Papa'' Denny Doherty and Paul Ledoux, charts the success and disintegration of the famous 1960s folk-rock group. The actors playing the famous singers are, clockwise from left, Michael Sample as John Phillips, Alisa Schiff as Cass Elliot, Kyle Harris as the young Doherty and Christine Hope as Michelle Phillips; Stephen... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/576799.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/576799.html Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:01 EDT Celia Cruz was such an enthralling and beloved musical icon that it was natural to want to know more about her. But her very private life, whose great drama was being separated from Cuba, made her an elusive figure. What we got from Celia was music and energy. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/575620.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/575620.html Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:01 EDT In Conor McPherson's mysterious Shining City, grief mingles with hope as several residents of Dublin try to cope with shattered lives and the aftermath of death. Deborah L. Sherman and Ricky Waugh are featured, along with John Bixler and Gregg Weiner in GableStage's new production of the play, which opens Saturday and runs through July 20. Performances are 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday at the theater's space in the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables.