All stories by Bill Hirschman on BroadwayStars

Friday, June 2, 2023

Report From New York (Tony Edition): Sweeney Returns With Scope Rarely Seen Since 1979 by Bill Hirschman

Sweeney Todd has rarely been restored to the breathtaking visual scope of that initial production featured, but the current revival is the return of a full-fledged, full-throated, fully-pro…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 10:02AM
Thursday, June 1, 2023

Report From New York – Tony Edition: Some Like It Hot Is A Time Machine With Asterisks by Bill Hirschman

It’s a safe bet that the stage floor has been reinforced and tts speakers upgraded to accommodate the pounding tap dancers and the whirlwind of music pouring out at Some Like It Hot. If y…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 12:24PM
Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Report From New York (Tony Edition): Life of Pi Puppetry Gifts Visual Triumph by Bill Hirschman

On occasions, you run into people who have dismissed seeing plays without having seeing one, people who don’t understand the absolutely unique magic of live Theater. Drag them to see Life …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 04:54PM
Monday, May 29, 2023

Dramaworks’ Ends Season With Electric Topdog/Underdog by Bill Hirschman

Palm Beach Dramaworks’ immersifying edition of Topdog/Underdog laudably justifies in its delivery, this masterwork has a depth and complexity that gifts each outing with the opportunity to…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 10:24AM
Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Hundreds of Students’ Work in Theater Honored At Cappies by Bill Hirschman

Amid protracted and repeated cheers of a volume rarely heard in the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, hundreds upon hundreds of high school students and their families celebrated the c…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 10:18PM
Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Tracy Jones Is Gentle Comedy of Lonely People Trying to Connect by Bill Hirschman

Tracy Jones bowing at Island City Stage is a comedy masking lonely people trying to make connections they don’t have the skill to achieve. It’s a briskly-moving smile with quirky charact…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 11:42AM
Saturday, May 20, 2023

Mystery In Actors’ Playhouse’s Proof Goes Beyond Mathematics by Bill Hirschman

Genius and madness. Concrete calculations and unbridled theorizing. Humor and sorrow. But the greatest mysteries depicted in Proof reside in the human heart, conflicts on display that are ha…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 04:48PM
Thursday, May 18, 2023

M Ensemble Again Does Justice To Wilson’s Two Trains Running by Bill Hirschman

Langston Hughes wrote of “a dream deferred” from the elevated promontory of poetry; but the great playwright August Wilson wrote from the street what it was like living through a dream b…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:24PM
Sunday, May 14, 2023

MNM’s Disenchanted Enchants by Bill Hirschman

The musical Disenchanted is a highly entertaining, hysterical, irreverent, clever, poignant, profane, with several bits of profanity, reimagining of what happened to these princesses, making…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:24PM
Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Miami New Drama’s Evocative ‘Create Dangerously’ Resounds For Haitians, Educates All of Us by Bill Hirschman

With music, dance, humor, drama and storytelling,Create Dangerously at Miami New Drama reaffirms the glory and agony of Haiti’s tumultuous culture that should resound with Haitian-American…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 05:24PM
Sunday, May 7, 2023

Zoetic Stage’s #Graced Is Quirky Road Trip To Define America by Bill Hirschman

Zoetic Stage's #Graced is an episodic road trip veering all over the place in a theatrically metaphorical jalopy bouncing along on a journey for its protagonists to discover who they are per…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 07:42PM
Thursday, May 4, 2023

Wick’s Million Dollar Quartet Is Still Worth Every Penny by Bill Hirschman

As the Wick Theatre’s electric production of Million Dollar Quartet powers through the last four numbers, it’s easy to imagine that the sun never sets anywhere in the world where this mu…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 04:12PM
Wednesday, May 3, 2023

‘Mean Girls’ Sweetly Revisits Anxiety-Ridden Teen Years by Bill Hirschman

Is it possible to call the musical Mean Girls sweet, despite the tropes of teenage anxieties, insecurities, cliques and general high school malaise, not to mention the meanest of mean girls …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:54PM
Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Main Street Players Depicts Human Cost Of Economic Flux by Bill Hirschman

Main Street Players’ unsparing edition of Lynn Nottage’s stunning Sweat insightfully tracks the spiraling toilet spin of blue collar workers as economic changes devastate their incomes a…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 10:42PM
Monday, April 24, 2023

One More Yesterday Deserves Many More Tomorrows by Bill Hirschman

The musical One More Yesterday may see it itself as a work progress, but enfold yourself in this humorous, tuneful and heartfelt work, especially to savor Angie Radosh giving yet another sup…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 10:54AM
Friday, April 21, 2023

Capote Returns To Life As Unique &Complex As Ever In Tru by Bill Hirschman

Tru, the play bringing the audience into Truman Capote’s living room for a chatty wit-lathered visit at a crucial moment in his life, entertains as Charles Baran evokes the engaging person…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 08:36AM
Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Past, Present and Future Intertwine In Magical Dance in GableStage’s El huracán by Bill Hirschman

The past, the present and the future intertwine in a magical dance seasoned with love and guilt in GableStage’s outstanding El huracán as three generations of women wrestle with loss and …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 08:32AM
Tuesday, April 18, 2023

PPTOPA Asks You To Join Us In The Summer Of Love In Pippin by Bill Hirschman

Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts presents a new vision for the musical Pippin echoing The post PPTOPA Asks You To Join Us In The Summer Of Love In Pippin first appeared on Flori…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:48AM
Monday, April 17, 2023

Choice, Politics & Dreams In 1964 Haiti In ‘Cry Old Kingdom’ From New City Players by Bill Hirschman

By Bill Hirschman Sometimes theater comes to you, washes over you without you having to invest much of yourself, say, something like Wicked. Sometimes you have to come to it, invest not just…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:36AM
Sunday, April 16, 2023

Riverside’s Intoxicating 42nd Street Is As Good As It Gets by Bill Hirschman

Riverside Theatre’s intoxicating production of 42nd Street is as good as it gets -- anywhere. This high-spirited show is awash in entertainment from beginning to end and you’ll remain a …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 11:54AM
Thursday, April 13, 2023

The Walls Have Ears Explores Brutal Terror in 1962 Cuba by Bill Hirschman

Politics, family and revolution—each volatile in their own way—provide the harrowing backdrop for Robby Ramos’ debut drama The Walls Have Ears, having its world premiere through May 14…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:48AM
Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Theatre Lab’s Refuge Examines Immigration Through Mysticism, Magic and Theatricality by Bill Hirschman

Embracing the eloquence that only imaginative theatricality can provide, Theatre Lab’s Refuge depicts a deeply moving journey through the current immigration crisis viewed not as a politic…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:06AM
Monday, April 10, 2023

A New Company, Loxen, Bows Little Shop Of Horrors In Miami by Bill Hirschman

It’s always commendable to have new theaters with emerging talent start in South Florida, especially when the goal is to feature local performers. Loxen Productions shows potential with it…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 05:48PM
Thursday, April 6, 2023

Tuneful Folk-County Music & Soaring Actress Power Actors’ Playhouse’s Bright Star by Bill Hirschman

Actors Playhouse’s lively Bright Star is a folk-country fable replete with spirited dances, classic character types, a genuine respect for everyday folk, and, ultimately, a moral about be…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:42AM
Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Tuneful, Touching Always…. Patsy Cline Is Far From Crazy by Bill Hirschman

Always...Patsy Cline is a cross between a memory play, historical piece, and jukebox musical that is receiving an admirable production from Arts Center Management, the City of Lauderhill and…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:54AM
Monday, April 3, 2023

Dramaworks’ Devastating, Searing August: Osage County by Bill Hirschman

You don;t want to go home again. Certainly, that’s the Weston family manse in the desolate prairie of Oklahoma as depicted in Palm Beach Dramaworks’ searing, devastating portrait of toxi…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 02:32PM
Friday, March 31, 2023

A Very Different But Fully Satisfying ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Bill Hirschman

Other than the outlines of Harper Lee’s plot, do not go to the superb national tour of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Broward Center expecting echoes of the cherished movie. ITe style, struc…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 08:42AM
Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Kravis Next Season’s Includes Jagged Little Pill; Boca Stage + MNM For Thriller & Comedy by Bill Hirschman

The 2023-24 theater season in South Florida includes alliance of Boca Stage and MNM Theatre's Wait Until Dark and Boeing Boeing; Kravis Center has Tina, Six, Hamilton and Jagged Little Pill…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 01:06AM
Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Feature: My Fair Lady Revival On Tour Has New-Found Depth by Bill Hirschman

Madeline Powell, who plays Eliza Doolittle, and Jonathan Grunert, who stars opposite her as Professor Henry Higgins, in the Broadway national tour of My Fair Lady coming to the Arsht Center,…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 10:54AM
Monday, March 27, 2023

Slow Burn’s Practically Perfectly Delightful Mary Poppins by Bill Hirschman

Of course, Mary Poppins does fly in Slow Burn Theatre Company's glorious production at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. As the song goes, this Mary Poppins is “Practically Perfe…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 07:36PM
Saturday, March 25, 2023

Sharp Inquest Into Gender Politics At Heart Of Oleanna by Bill Hirschman

Skilled direction and excellent performances plumb the deep currents in Oleanna, currently on stage at Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach. In fact, Riverside’s production is as sharp and poin…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 08:48PM

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