All stories by Bill Hirschman on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Powerhouse Actresses Serve Up A Century Of History In Having Our Say At Primal Forces by Bill Hirschman

Having Our Say is likely the first play in which both of its characters are centenarian women of color. At Primal Forces’ regional premiere, this means two roles of uncommon heft and histo…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 12:42PM
Monday, January 7, 2019

Celebration Set Jan. 21 Honoring Tony Finstrom by Bill Hirschman

A celebration of the life of Tony Finstrom, playwright patron and theater lover, is scheduled for Monday, Jan 21 from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Wold Performing Arts Center at Lynn University where…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 01:48PM

Main Street Works Hard But Superior Donuts Disappoints by Bill Hirschman

It took Main Street Players’ lethargic production of Superior Donuts about 20 minutes to show much signs of life, and even then the primary electricity came from one actor as a young man a…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 12:42PM
Thursday, January 3, 2019

Knight Honors Adler, Fliss, Pelaez, Funds CoCo Grove $2 Mil & Miami New Drama $900,000 by Bill Hirschman

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded $2 million to Miami-Dade County to complete the project for GableStage-FAU’s theatre department to rebuild and reopen the Coconut Gro…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 11:32AM
Sunday, December 30, 2018

Bookshelf: Hirschfeld, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Michael Caine by Bill Hirschman

By Bill Hirschman If you’re a theater aficionado and received a nice check from your mother for the holidays or maybe from a busy relative gave you a gift card to Barnes & Noble, what …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 10:04PM
Friday, December 28, 2018

Palm Beach Dramaworks And Theatre Lab To Host New Play Festivals On The Same Weekend by Bill Hirschman

South Florida will reinforce its commitment to new play development in January with two simultaneous new play reading festivals at Palm Beach Dramaworks and FAU Theatre Lab during the first …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:12AM
Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Stagebill Blog: Triumph And Tragedy — 2018 In SoFla Theater by Bill Hirschman

Breathtaking tour de forces, heartbreaking tragedies on stage and in real life, shows you've never heard of and shows you've seen three times too often, troupes taking chances - some resulti…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:36AM
Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Prolific Theater Artist Finds Welcoming Permanent Working Home In Wilton Manors by Bill Hirschman

For theater artist Ronnie Larsen, “the roots are setting very deep” in Wilton Manors. “It just feels right to stay here.” Larsen is a playwright, actor, director and producer “whos…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:32PM
Thursday, December 20, 2018

Vital Hamilton Dazzles – With Asterisks – At Broward Center by Bill Hirschman

Hamilton, which explodes with power, vitality and imagination in the Broward Center for a five-week run, is not the Second Coming as many overheated observers would have you believe. But thi…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 02:48PM
Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Playwright, Patron And Pillar Tony Finstrom Died Tuesday by Bill Hirschman

Tony Finstrom, who died Tuesday at the age of 71, was a prolific playwright, an arts journalist and a generous patron, but above all Tony Finstrom was a man who loved theater down through th…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 01:42PM
Monday, December 17, 2018

Slow Burn’s Legally Blonde Is An Early Christmas Gift — In Pink by Bill Hirschman

The Christmas season officially opened this weekend wrapped in pink. Elle Woods, leading a perky singing and dancing ensemble in Slow Burn Theatre Company’s ebullient Legally Blonde, lit u…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 03:42PM
Saturday, December 15, 2018

This Season’s Winter Shorts Is A Mixed Bag At City Theatre by Bill Hirschman

Much like the holiday season itself, there are things to endure and other instances that are jolly. That's the mixed bag of City Theatre's Winter Shorts now playing at the Carnival Studio Th…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 11:06PM

Uneven Yellow Brick Road At Stage Door’s ‘The Wiz’ by Bill Hirschman

Soul and spirit are characteristics we would expect from a production of the multi-Tony-winning musical The Wiz. And, to be fair, Stage Door Theatre’s mounting is, at times, spirited, hip,…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 12:04PM
Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Now The National Leader, City Theatre’s Long History Championing The Short Play by Bill Hirschman

For some who view two-part events on Broadway and five-hour epic tragedies as the height of the theatrical form, the 10-minute play is condescendingly tolerated as the poor relation at the a…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 12:12PM
Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Painful Drama, Absurdist Comedy Commingle In Dramaworks’ House on Fire by Bill Hirschman

The script and the production of Palm Beach Dramworks need some refining, but when it’s most in the pocket, the world premiere of Lyle Kessler's House on Fire dances a delicate pas de deux…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 01:04PM
Sunday, December 9, 2018

Wick’s Annie With Sally Struthers Reliably Entertaining by Bill Hirschman

It’s not that it’s impossible to mess up the musical Annie, but when you have a reliable troupe of talented hands like those connected to the current Wick Theatre production, you are gua…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:36PM

The Hamilton Survival Guide by Bill Hirschman

The ground-breaking record-breaking Tony-winning Pulitzer-winning musical Hamilton is expected to attract unprecedented numbers of fans and newcomers when the national tour arrives at the Br…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 08:42AM
Saturday, December 8, 2018

Colorful Miami Motel Stories: MiMo Is Trip Through Time by Bill Hirschman

How do you get a younger demographic to go see a play? Well, if it isn't Hamilton, it is difficult, sometimes impossible, to get those, let's say, under the age of 40-somethings to a live th…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 01:06PM
Thursday, December 6, 2018

Angie Radosh Gives Harrowing Performance In Breadcrumbs by Bill Hirschman

Angie Radosh’s face, not to mention her body language, provides an unimpeded view deep into the soul of a writer battling an inevitable descent into the spiral of Alzheimer’s disease in …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:24AM
Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Family Strife, Motherhood & Hope In Theatre Lab’s Tar Beach by Bill Hirschman

The emotional cauterizing of an already withdrawn teenager by a family dynamic of furious fights and fierce sibling rivalry forms the core of Tammy Ryan’s Tar Beach, receiving a sensitive …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 10:32PM
Monday, December 3, 2018

Exploring The New Work: Dramaworks’ House On Fire by Bill Hirschman

When a theater produces Death of a Salesman , it’s not unknown territory. The director can adopt, adapt or depart from what has been done before. But when it’s a world premiere such as P…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:12AM
Friday, November 30, 2018

Tale As Old As Time — With Puppets: Beauty And The Beast by Bill Hirschman

It’s unfair to the Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s Beauty and the Beast -- which is as thoroughly charming on its own merits as you could ask -- but understandable that the focus is diverted to …

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 03:48PM
Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Report From New York: The Prom Is Very Strange Strangers In A Strange Land by Bill Hirschman

Usually in “fish out of water” comedies, the fish are surprised to find themselves out of the water and spend most of the evening trying to get back to familiar aquatic climes. But in th…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 11:12PM
Monday, November 26, 2018

Report From New York: Mean Girls Surprisingly Charming by Bill Hirschman

For those convinced that theater has no future among pre-Millenials, you should have been with us a few weeks ago when we made a belated visit to a Sunday matinee of the musical version of t…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 08:48PM
Sunday, November 25, 2018

It Ain’t Easy Being 18: GableStage’s Lacerating Actually by Bill Hirschman

It can be argued whether Anna Ziegler’s Actually is a perfect piece of art, but it’s hard to argue that the dizzyingly thought-filled drama at GableStage has captured the angst and confl…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 11:48AM
Saturday, November 24, 2018

Report From New York: Just Closed ‘The Nap’ And ‘Inner Voices’ Worth A Local Look by Bill Hirschman

We’re back from our trip to New York to scout out productions you might want to see (or not), shows that might tour South Florida and scripts that might be worth reviving in our regional…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 12:32PM
Friday, November 23, 2018

Magic Planned For The Maltz’s Beauty & The Beast Is Puppetry by Bill Hirschman

By Bill Hirschman When the musical Beauty and the Beast works, theater magic flows from the stage. But it’s been done so often – a long run on Broadway, multiple national tours, the orig…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 09:12AM
Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Welcome Hello, Dolly! With Bravura Betty Buckley by Bill Hirschman

By Bill Hirschman There’s not much in life that you can say this about, but the national tour of Hello, Dolly! is everything you hope it will be. For anyone under the age of 50 who wonders…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 11:12PM
Monday, November 19, 2018

MNM’s Grease Struts Its Stuff When The Music Starts by Bill Hirschman

If you hire strong voices as they did in MNM Theatre Company’s production, the venerable musical Grease cannot help but be entertaining with its elbow-nudging pastiche of faux late ‘50s-…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 04:54PM
Thursday, November 15, 2018

Report From New York: New Daniel’s Husband Gets New Vibe by Bill Hirschman

When a script is as strong as Michael McKeever’s Carbonell-winning Daniel’s Husband and begins to develop legs beyond its local premiere, one pleasure seeing it produced elsewhere is not…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 07:24PM
Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Report From New York: A Terrifying Portrait Of Dementia In The Waverly Gallery by Bill Hirschman

If you are or have been the caregiver to a senior suffering with dementia, delusions and/or Alzheimer’s disease, the revival of The Waverly Gallery is a pain-riven reminder of the mutual a…

SOURCE: Florida Theater On Stage at 10:54PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic