Theaters love to tout world premieres, those gambles that can confer prestige, create buzz and lead to continuing benefits if a show takes off. Yet more often than not, a ''world premiere'' is nothing more than a new work that needs work.

Vices: A Love Story, the world premiere musical at Boca Raton's Caldwell Theatre Company, is not just a happy exception. It is an inspired, edgy, thrilling new piece of theater, one that will most certainly have a life beyond the Caldwell.

Clive Cholerton, who recently replaced founding artistic director Michael Hall, chose Vices with an eye to making a statement about how he would do things differently from Hall, who mixed serious drama, lavish period pieces and the occasional musical during his 34-year tenure. Vices is a risky choice, given how many elderly theatergoers are in the Caldwell's audiences, but it is also a sizzling, dazzling success.

Though the show features just six performers, it is the work of a larger collaborative team.

Ilene Reid and Michael Heitzman get credit for story, music and lyrics. Susan Draus and Everett Bradley also wrote music and lyrics, with Draus arranging and orchestrating. Emmy Award winner A.C. Ciulla created the explosive, sensuous choreography, a vital part of a show whose central characters are played by dancers who never speak. Cholerton staged it and oversaw ongoing developmental work during rehearsals.

Musical director Jon Rose is part of a versatile four-piece onstage band. The design team makes vital contributions to the production's urban edginess.

And those half dozen New York-based performers really seal the deal, delivering all the passion, comedy and yearning that the creative team has so carefully crafted.

Dancers Marcus Bellamy and Holly Shunkey play the wordless couple whose intense relationship is nearly undone by the myriad temptations and addictions of 21st century life, including work stress, shopaholic glee, smoking, drinking, texting, gambling and that not-so-minor problem, infidelity.

The two are physically gorgeous, dramatically expressive, mesmerizing dancers. Shunkey is a Pilobolus veteran once toured in the dance-driven show Contact. Bellamy is going to be in the new Julie Taymor-directed Broadway blockbuster Spiderman. They are major-league talents.

The show's four actor-singers -- Natalie Venetia Belcon (she was Gary Coleman in Avenue Q on Broadway), Carlos L. Encinias, Lara Janine and Leajato Amara Robinson -- artfully give voice to the couple's desires, fears and self-destructive behavior, and they kill (in a good way) the myriad musical styles the composers throw at them.

Do You Mind If I Smoke?, for instance, becomes a rousing disco number with Belcon (in full Donna Summer mode) sporting a vast Afro. Hello . . . Ah! decodes text messaging and laughs at cellular addiction. Charge It features the cast in an operetta about our addition to plastic. On Type A, Wall Street dynamos stress out while singing like the Manhattan Transfer. Janine goes all torch song on the boozy Johnny. White Noise is about a nation of benumbed cable and Internet addicts. Belcon turns All the Money into an aching, raging lament. Robinson goes sexy and soulful, while using his body as an instrument, on Some Like It.

Vices: A Love Story has it all -- wit, insight, style, plus a terrific score, great performances and brilliant dancing.

For Cholerton, the ''new'' Caldwell and the show itself, the premiere is a bright beginning.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@