It's a wild romp with elements of so many Alfred Hitchcock movies: the bewildered yet resourceful man on the run; the desirable, uncooperative blond; ruthless spies up to no good; the claustrophobia and happenstance of stranger danger on a train.
For its high-profile Black History Month slot, M Ensemble had planned to present a provocative recent play, but rights negotiations didn't work out. So, instead, the company has returned to Mahalia, a piece that it presented not quite four years ago.
The great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson gets the theater biography treatment when M Ensemble presents Mahalia: A Gospel Musical through Feb. 21. Christina Alexander stars as Jackson, with recording artists Johnny Sanders and Francine Ealey Murphy lending their voices to the story. Performances are 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday at M Ensemble Actors Studio, 12320 W. Dixie Hwy., North Miami. Tickets are $25 ($20 for students and seniors). Call 305-899-2217 or visit www.themensemble.com.
At Florida Stage in Manalapan, `Sins of the Mother' by Israel Horovitz is dynamic with keen observations about human nature.
Playwright Ronnie Larsen on his 1995 comedy-drama Making Porn: ''The first preview was sold out. The reviews were horrible. More sold-out shows. Every time a bad review came out our ticket advance grew.''
Prolific playwright Israel Horovitz has also played director for the newest production of his Sins of the Mother, opening this weekend at Florida Stage.
As with the course of true love, the journey of a play from idea to fully staged world premiere seldom runs smoothly.
Offstage, gay Filipino-American poet Regie Cabico is a soft-spoken romantic. Onstage, he's an angry man. ''I'm always battling,'' Cabico says. ''I'm on the edge. I try to see how far I can get -- how far I can go without falling off the edge.''
The Hour of the Tiger, an American woman in Japan tries to conquer her fears as she considers rescuing a geisha from her money-hungry master. Gwendolyn Lai plays the geisha in the world premiere piece by Riley, a South Florida playwright and author who has written a number of works on the Bahamas.
Del Shores' Sordid Lives has built up a cult following during its evolution from stage work to indie movie to TV series. A soap opera spoof with a Texas twang and a gay point of view, the show features a collection of deliberately out-sized good ol' boys (and gals), a semi-closeted hunk whose therapy sessions bridge the scenes, and an institutionalized transvestite who identifies deeply with the sorrowful trials of country queen Tammy Wynette.
Jennylin Duany, a theater artist and arts administrator well known in the South Florida arts community, died early Sunday of liver failure. Duany's death was a harsh surprise to those who loved her warm personality and ardent commitment, whether as a performer or the power behind education and residency programs for Miami Dade College's Cultura del Lobo program. Duany was 39, the happy mother of a 9-month-old daughter and was about to start creating her next theater performance.
Parading its raunchiness and redneck sensibilities as proudly as its gifted stripper wears her sky-high, see-through ''dancing'' shoes, The Great American Trailer Park Musical is bringing a heaping helping of yee-haw to lah-dee-dah Coral Gables.
He plays a Cuban father who sacrifices everything for the sake of his precious son. She's herself (as child, teen and woman), and everybody else in her Cuban-American family.
The Great American Trailer Park Musical is bringing a heaping helping of yee-haw to lah-dee-dah Coral Gables. Actors' Playhouse, which will next take on the far greater artistic challenge of Miss Saigon, approaches Trailer Park the way its raven-haired stripper treats her hootin', hollerin' audience -- put on an entertaining show that flirts with being trashy, rake in some cash, then do it all over again the next day.
A raunchy and raucous ode to folks whose homes are made of metal, The Great American Trailer Park Musical brings its redneck-glorifying attitude to the stage of Actors' Playhouse. Christopher A. Kent, Margot Moreland, Stephen G. Anthony and Kelli Atkins help stir up the R-rated action at `exclusive' Armadillo Acres in the Off-Broadway musical hit. The show runs through Feb. 7 at Actors', 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables. Performances are 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday (additional matinee this Wednesday). Tickets are $48 Friday-Saturday, $40 other shows (10 percent senior discount, $15 student rush tickets available except Saturday-Sunday). Call 305-444-9293 or visit www.actorsplayhouse.org.
Adapting a classic can be a perilous tightrope walk between drawing on the brilliance of the original and creating a work that will have an identity of its own. Director Rolando Moreno's La Ultima Parada (The Last Stop), based on Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire, boldly walks this fine line.
Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a novella published in 1886, has provided a creative spark for generations of artists. The story of a too-curious scientist who disastrously brings his evil side to life has spawned dozens of movies and theatrical interpretations, including Frank Wildhorn's Jekyll & Hyde, the prolific composer's longest-running Broadway musical.
Liv Ullmann has played many roles: actor, director, activist, muse, writer, lover, wife, mother, grandmother. As the Miami-based National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts prepares to kick off its YoungArts Week honoring some of the country's most talented young performers, writers and artists, the Norwegian star with the luminous blue eyes will add yet another role -- master teacher -- to her arts-and-life resumé.
Robert Louis Stevenson penned a horror classic in his 19th century novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Playwright Lauren Wilson takes the familiar split personality story and remakes it into a Grand Guignol farce in Chemical Imbalance: A Jekyll and Hyde Play, now at the Caldwell Theatre Company. Tom Wahl plays the good doctor and his bad alterego; Lindsey Forgey, left, and Laura Turnbull (pictured above) are two of the many Londoners scared out of their wits. Chemical Imbalance is at the Caldwell, 7901 N. Federal Hwy., Boca Raton, through Feb. 7. Performances are 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday-Sunday. Tickets are $34-$55. Call 877-245-7432 or visit www.caldwelltheatre.com.
The 101 Dalmatians Musical, here for a very short stay at the Arsht Center, is one of the most imaginatively staged and thoroughly entertaining examples of children's theater in recent memory -- and provides chaperones with just enough grown-up chuckles and tugs at the heartstrings that they won't be bored. They might even enjoy it.
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