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 2009 MiamiHerald.com Christine Dolen 60 Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:59:27 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's PubSys miamifeedback@miamiherald.com http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/833112.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/833112.html Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:01 EST Normal cats with nine lives have nothing on the long-running kitties of Cats. The record-setting, Tony Award-winning musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber (based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats) has been touring for 25 years, and this weekend it's back in South Florida at Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd. Performances are 2 and 7:30 p.m. Friday-Sunday. Tickets are $25-$61. For information, call the Arsht Center at 305-949-6722 or... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/833107.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/833107.html Wed, 31 Dec 2008 03:01 EST Despite the fact that the people and puppets who populate Avenue Q could be the grown-up cousins of the folks who live on Sesame Street, you should not -- repeat not -- dream of taking the kiddies to see the Tony Award-winning best musical of 2004 during its run at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/829825.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/829825.html Tue, 30 Dec 2008 03:01 EST For his second-ever musical at GableStage in the Biltmore Hotel, director Joseph Adler has chosen a piece based on a play that was written three years before the stately Coral Gables hotel opened in 1926. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/825699.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/825699.html Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:01 EST The Tony Award-winning Avenue Q returns to South Florida, this time for a two-week run at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts beginning Tuesday. The people-and-puppet stars of this Sesame Street-style grown-up show include, from left, Maggie Lakis, Nicky, David Benoit, Rod and Robert McClure. The musical runs through Jan. 11 at the Broward Center, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Performances are 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday (additional shows at 7:30 p.m... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/825706.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/825706.html Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:01 EST From Elmer Rice's 1923 Expressionist play comes an of-the-moment musical about a man thrown out of work after 25 years of dutiful if unfulfilling service. Oscar Cheda plays the long-suffering Zero, Maribeth Graham his nagging Mrs. in the Joshua Schmidt-Jason Loewith musical, Adding Machine, at GableStage. The show begins Saturday and runs through Jan. 25, with performances at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $42.50 Friday-Saturday and Sunday matinee, $37.50... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/819777.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/819777.html Sun, 21 Dec 2008 03:01 EST In his decade as the artistic director of Miami-Dade County's most celebrated small theater company, Joseph Adler has done just one musical: James Joyce's The Dead. The production won GableStage the 2002 Carbonell Award for best musical, but Adler since has stuck largely with the provocative dramatic fare he prefers. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/819837.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/819837.html Sun, 21 Dec 2008 03:01 EST Fine productions by many theaters in three counties, losses and near misses, dramatic highs and lows: All marked the year in South Florida theater. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/819206.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/819206.html Sat, 20 Dec 2008 03:01 EST As biblical revisionism goes, Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told is way funnier than just about any other retelling of the Old Testament. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/817637.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/817637.html Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:01 EST What if, instead of humanity beginning with Adam and Eve, the first couple had been named Adam and Steve? What if Cain and Abel were actually Jane and Mabel? Though it might seem sacrilegious to some, playwright Paul Rudnick imagines just such a scenario in The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, the holiday production from Oakland Park's Rising Action Theatre. Featuring Martica DeCardenas, Emily Ocheltree, Ricardo Rodriguez and Larry Fields, the show goes on through Jan. 18 at Rising Action... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/814854.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/814854.html Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:01 EST Few playwrights mix everyday life and magical realism the way that José Rivera does. The work of this artful, award-winning playwright is too seldom done in South Florida, so the fact that the new Unhinged Theatre has chosen a Rivera play for its inaugural production is a good thing (unless you're affiliated with the Alliance Theatre Lab, which had earlier announced a January production of the same play). http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/811960.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/811960.html Sat, 13 Dec 2008 03:01 EST Like the work by artist Kathleen Holmes in the hallway gallery outside Florida Stage's performance space, Michele Lowe's Mezzulah, 1946 is a thing of delicacy and strength, theatrical art that embraces the everyday and the unexpected. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/810317.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/810317.html Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:01 EST More than 2 ½ years after the Coconut Grove Playhouse abruptly shut down during its 50th anniversary season, the theater's board of directors has revealed specific plans for getting the historic theater's doors open again. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/808234.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/808234.html Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:01 EST After World War II, American soldiers returned home to reclaim jobs from the women who had worked while their men were off defending freedom. But in Michele Lowe's Mezzulah, 1946, one young woman isn't about to sacrifice her dreams or her job to take a step backward. Theo Allyn portrays the determined title character in the play at Florida Stage, 262 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan, through Jan. 19. Performances are 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday, 2 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday-Sunday... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/804141.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/804141.html Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:56 EST While the precise fate of Miami's famous Coconut Grove Playhouse is still in limbo, one thing is now certain: The historic theater will never return in the form that defined it for 50 years. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/804084.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/804084.html Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:01 EST In the summer of 2003, and again in 2005, Actors' Playhouse presented a wacky two-man musical titled The Big Bang. The idea was that the actors had written a megamusical about the history of the world, and they were performing it in hopes that we'd part with some of the millions it would take to get the show to Broadway. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/801172.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/801172.html Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:48 EST Reversing a decision that stirred South Florida's sometimes-contentious theater community to action, the board of directors of the Carbonell Awards voted Friday to continue the awards during 2009. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/798401.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/798401.html Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:01 EST Working themselves into a musical comedy frenzy, Wayne LeGette and Francisco Padura play a couple of guys with a show to sell in Gutenberg! The Musical! To find backers for their Broadway dreams, the two portray all the characters in a musical about the inventor of the printing press (that would be Johannes Gutenberg, of course). They hold forth at Actors' Playhouse, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables, through Jan. 4. Performances are 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/798418.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/798418.html Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:01 EST The economy is tanking badly. Unemployment is growing worse. Men, women and kids are homeless. Factories are closing. And the stock market is enough to give anyone ulcers. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/794602.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/794602.html Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:01 EST At one point during The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] -- right after a hip-hop Othello and before a Cuisinart-style version of 16 comedies -- three of the hardest-working men in Shakespearean showbiz acknowledge that the Bard of Avon wasn't exactly, um, original. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/789736.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/789736.html Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:01 EST While the world of dance has The Nutcracker, theater has A Christmas Carol as its most-produced holiday show. Some large cities have dueling versions, but this season in South Florida, Actors' Playhouse has the major production of the Charles Dickens classic. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/789720.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/789720.html Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:01 EST Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor are smart, funny guys who don't think you have to be a scholar or sit for several hours to enjoy the work of William Shakespeare. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] is all about proving that thesis, as the two perform all 37 of the Bard's plays (at least a bit of each) in 97 minutes. The show runs through Jan. 18 in the Carnival Studio Theater at... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/787952.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/787952.html Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:01 EST Avi Hoffman's New Vista Theatre Company has just kicked off its season with a musical that is, as they say in the wedding biz, something old and something new. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/786999.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/786999.html Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:01 EST Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor appreciate the works of the greatest playwright the English language has ever produced (OK, arguably the greatest) as much as any Bard-besotted scholar. But that doesn't mean that either man believes the plays of William Shakespeare need to be done reverently. Or even as written. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/785818.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/785818.html Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:01 EST It is the morning of Christmas Eve, but despite the presence of a sad little tree adorned with tiny lights, the chilly stone house that two grown brothers share is anything but festive. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/784704.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/784704.html Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:01 EST North Miami's M Ensemble Company continues its exploration of August Wilson's work with Joe Turner's Come and Gone, one of the most challenging scripts in the late playwright's celebrated 10-play ``Pittsburgh Cycle.'' http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/782004.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/782004.html Sun, 23 Nov 2008 03:01 EST Richard Jay Simon is a gambler. Not the kind who spends every spare hour in a casino, though he's good enough that he once played in the World Series of Poker, and he has a Fantasy Football team in a league with other South Florida theater types. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/781247.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/781247.html Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:01 EST W.C. Fields famously turned up his bulbous nose at working with scene-stealing children and dogs. If he were still around to be cast in the show that has just opened at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, he'd have something else to add to his professional enemies list: a flying car. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/779653.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/779653.html Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:01 EST In Conor McPherson's The Seafarer, friends and relatives gather for cards, booze, stories and an old-fashioned scare on Christmas Eve in Dublin. Dennis Creaghan, John Felix, Gregg Weiner, Christian Rockwell and Ken Clement star in the recent Broadway hit at Mosaic Theatre, 12200 W. Broward Blvd., Bldg. 3000, Plantation. The show runs through Dec. 14, with performances at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $35 ($29 for seniors 65 and older, $15 for... http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/775693.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/775693.html Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:01 EST Already this season, families have journeyed to Oz together. This week and next, they'll watch a special car take wing to rescue an old man from some family-phobic villains. And soon they'll be able to see the return of a red-haired orphan, a collection of singing cats, athletic performers leading them on a jungle adventure. http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/775880.html http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/columnists/christine-dolen/story/775880.html Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:01 EST First plays seldom spring fully realized from a writer's imagination. In her program notes for The Gates of Choice, now getting its world premiere at New Theatre, playwright Michelle Rosenfarb mentions her play's journey from short story to screenplay to multiple drafts of what has finally wound up onstage.