All stories by Bill Hirschman on BroadwayStars

Sunday, February 12, 2023

I’m Still Here: SoFla Theater’s Epic Journey Through the Pandemic and Beyond by Bill Hirschman

Part 2 of a 4-part in-depth series tracking South Florida theater’s arc of paralysis and pivot through the pandemic and into the future, certainties becoming uncertain, and an unquenched d…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:00AM
Friday, February 10, 2023

Peter, Cher, Alexander, Jean and Vivian Headline Arsht Broadway Tours Next Season by Bill Hirschman

A newly revised version of the classic musical Peter Pan, plus a bio-musical about Cher, plus a couple shows you’ve might have heard about Hamilton and Les Misérables are among the offeri…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 12:01AM
Thursday, February 9, 2023

Kravis Musical Tootsie Changed From Film But Remains Fun by Bill Hirschman

The tour of the musical Tootsie, which makes large changes from the film, isn’t a deep show and falls short of scoring points in the battle between the sexes. But it sure is fun. The post …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 02:33PM
Wednesday, February 8, 2023

I’m Still Here: SoFla Theater’s Epic Journey Through the Pandemic and Beyond by Bill Hirschman

Part 1 of a 4-part in-depth series tracking South Florida theater’s arc of paralysis and pivot through the pandemic and into the future, certainties becoming uncertain, and an unquenched d…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:00AM
Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Delightful Honeymoon In Vegas Is Classic Musical Comedy by Bill Hirschman

From Slow Burn Theatre Company’s brass-unleashed overture with a live band, to an ebullient cast, to winning music and witty lyrics, this musical version of the film Honeymoon in Vegas is …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 06:25PM

Actors’ Playhouse Delivers A Margaritaville That Jimmy Buffett Would Drink To by Bill Hirschman

Escape to Margaritaville at Actors' Playhouse accomplishes what its title suggests. Specifically, the show conjures the kind of laid-back escape during which you might sport a hat and sungla…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 08:00AM
Sunday, February 5, 2023

No Exit: Dramaworks Bows Lewis’ Look At Blue Collar Youths’ Blocked Dreams by Bill Hirschman

If the 1920s gave birth to The Lost Generation, then the 2020s saw the taking root of The Trapped Generation. Palm Beach Dramaworks’ premiere of Carter W. Lewis' The Science of Leaving Oma…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 07:37PM
Saturday, February 4, 2023

Riverside’s Bakersfield Mist Delves Into The Power of Art by Bill Hirschman

From F-bombs to high-brow discourse, Riverside Theatre’s absorbing Bakersfield Mist provokes and expands boundaries of what we know about the power of art and broader meanings of authentic…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 01:46PM
Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Ordinary People Face Global Meltdown In Theatre Lab’s Tragi-Comedy Last Night In Inwood by Bill Hirschman

In movies, “ordinary people” facing a dystopian challenge miraculously find courage and composure. We would be more like the extended family slowly coming unglued in Theatre Lab’s prem…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:18PM
Monday, January 30, 2023

FGO Gifts Twin Comic Operas By Puccini & Ching’s Modern Sequel by Bill Hirschman

Is anything as entertaining as watching a pack of scoundrels maneuvering to snatch from each other what isn’t theirs to begin with? Puccini certainly thought not, as does composer Michael …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 08:43PM
Thursday, January 26, 2023

Upcoming Season: From Death of a Salesman to Spongebob by Bill Hirschman

Something old, something new; something borrowed, something blue. Well, not much blue, but Palm Beach Dramaworks, Maltz Jupiter Theatre & Slow Burn Theatre have announced 2023-24 season …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:00AM
Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Rotterdam Captures Shattering Fallout From Gender Fluidity by Bill Hirschman

Jon Brittain’s prescient, abundantly insightful play Rotterdam at Island City Stage, captures the messy, shattering fallout from gender fluidity for the transgender person as well as their…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:07AM
Sunday, January 22, 2023

Bower Shines Like A Star in Tuneful, Witty Anything Goes by Bill Hirschman

If only for the opportunity to enjoy Aaron Bower inhabiting a role she was born to play, we’d urge you to see the Wick Theatre’s revival of the updated Cole Porter musical Anything Goes…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:53PM
Friday, January 20, 2023

Fiery Performance Powers Musical About Tina Turner by Bill Hirschman

Ever wondered what a blazing comet looks like a few yards from your face? Visit the Broward Center to catch the national tour of Tina, fa huge fireball smashing through the backwall powering…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 07:30PM
Thursday, January 19, 2023

Not Hamlet or Hamilton, But The Full Monty Eventually Wins Over by Bill Hirschman

True, there’s not particularly buff former factory workers stripping down to G-strings, pumping and grinding in a ladies’ bar, but The Full Monty is the kind of pleasant mainstream musi…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:45AM
Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Like the Country It Unravels, ‘American Rhapsody is Complicated, Ambitious & Flawed by Bill Hirschman

American Rhapsody, Michael McKeever’s sprawling premiere at Zoetic Stage, is a history play, a bildungsroman, a tribute to fluid families, a cautionary tale about where the zeitgeist might…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:55AM
Tuesday, January 17, 2023

FL Review: Cruz-Directed "Anna in the Tropics" at Miami New Drama Melds Prosaic and Poesy thru Feb 5th by Bill Hirschman

It’s really unfair to single out anyone in this outstanding ensemble, but Gabriell Salgado – the young local actor whose work over the past 15 months has been stunning — is terrific as…

SOURCE: cruz-directed-anna-in-the-tropics-melds-prosaic-and-poesy at 02:28PM
Monday, January 16, 2023

Cruz-Directed Anna in the Tropics Melds Prosaic and Poesy by Bill Hirschman

Miami New Drama’s triumphant 20-year-anniversary production of Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer-winning Anna in the Tropics., directed by Cruz, enables us to see ourselves and all around us more cle…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 05:39PM
Saturday, January 14, 2023

Entertaining Sweet Charity Reflects Its Social Myopia by Bill Hirschman

The Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s Sweet Charity is a thorughly well-produced and inarguably entertaining time machine back to when the musical was created in 1966 and when the cutting-edge danc…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 03:17PM
Friday, January 13, 2023

Feature: Nilo Cruz Directs 20th Anniversary Anna in the Tropics by Bill Hirschman

The drama Anna in the Tropics, about a family of Cuban-American cigar makers in Ybor City near Tampa in 1929, has now turned 20, and Miami New Drama is presenting a production directed by i…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 10:59AM
Tuesday, January 10, 2023

The Banality of Evil Is At The Crux of GableStage’s Powerful We Will Not Be Silent by Bill Hirschman

Evil thrives when good people, normal people, do nothing. This banality of evil provides the crux of playwright David Meyers’ incisive play We Will Not Be Silent, receiving a bold, powerfu…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 05:07PM
Monday, January 9, 2023

Boca Stage’s Time Alone Examines Grief, Doubt Within Two Isolated People by Bill Hirschman

Time alone often brings out moments of self-doubt; of deep, endless grief; questions of what ifs and should haves that crop up in the middle of the night—so skillfully explored in Boca Sta…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 08:26AM
Saturday, January 7, 2023

Riverside Gifts Exquisite Voices, Bold Visuals To La Mancha by Bill Hirschman

With its soul-stirring theme ,” the musical Man of La Mancha is the ideal choice for Riverside Theatre to reflect on how it has triumphed over adversity.This abundantly satisfying producti…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 10:04PM
Monday, January 2, 2023

Book Review: New Sondheim Volume More About Interviewer by Bill Hirschman

D.T. Max got Stephen Sondheim to reveal glimpses of his work process in five "interviews" but clearly, Max is almost as crucial, at least to him, for what’s in this book as what Sondheim s…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:09PM
Tuesday, December 27, 2022

We’re Still Here: A Look Back at South Florida Theater 2022 by Bill Hirschman

Quite a come back year: World premieres, epic musicals, moving two-character dramas, you name it. Here's not so much a “best of the year” list – no such list can be reliable or complet…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 07:54PM
Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Report From New York: A Welcome Return Into The Woods by Bill Hirschman

It has been said that this New York production of Into the Woods merging heart, humor, energy and imagination is better than the original. But that’s not the case; it is it’s own vision …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 11:48PM
Monday, December 19, 2022

Cut Loose With Slow Burn Theatre’s Rousing Footloose by Bill Hirschman

A hallmark of Slow Burn Theatre Company is its knack in finding new, mostly young talent and shaping those performers’ creativity. That approach—and this current round of talent—are on…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:18AM
Saturday, December 17, 2022

Report From New York: Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt Questions Assimilation by Bill Hirschman

Leopoldstadt's breathtaking scene of a family's debate whether to flee the Third Reich -- ended by a knock on the door -- is only one facet in Tom Stoppard's borderline masterpiece that trac…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 05:48PM
Thursday, December 15, 2022

Aesop’s Fable-ous Xmas Tree Gifts Tales To Celebrate by Bill Hirschman

In Aesop’s Fable-ous Christmas Tree at Main Street Players, Aesop’s fables receive a holiday spin in vignettes illuminating important life lessons by reinventing the classic fables. Humo…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 10:06AM
Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Wick Cinderella Is a 21st Century Reboot of the Classic by Bill Hirschman

Charm bubbles throughout the Wick Theatre’s lush production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, a very 21st Century riff on the classic musical that can legitimately be promoted as …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 10:54PM

Cast of Region’s Top Actors Triumph in 12 Angry Men by Bill Hirschman

A baker’s dozen actors we’ve seen in myriad roles over the past decade or more submerge themselves so deeply in their characters that they are nearly unrecognizable. An unequalled assemb…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 01:06PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards