Box Office: 305-445-1119
Through Sept 12, 2010
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Adam and Jan seem to be a stable married couple alone for tonight for the first time in years, while their over-protected young son is at a sleepover.  Will the couple re-affirem their marriage with a passionate sexual liaison, or will a nagging argument lead to secrets that tear it apart?

 

This play is about the lies women tell their husbands and the lies they tell themselves, so they can fit into rigid stereotypes created during the 50’s, 80’s and today, that seem to “control” women, even if they know better. 

This play is about the lies men tell their wives (by omission) and do not bother to tell themselves since men believe everything they think and say, even if it doesn’t make sense.

The play submerges us into surreal perceptions of men concerning their wife’s alluring sexuality, off-putting coldness, baffling logic and irrational emotionality.  Women may view the play as a cogent argument as to why their husbands drive them crazy.

This play is a brutally honest take on the war between sexes in a modern setting, and it may be wise for a husband and wife viewing 50 Fifty Words to discuss it honestly, only with same-sex friends. 

As always, Joe Adler brilliantly directed this play featuring two very talented actors who are among our favorites, Erin Joy Schimdt and Gregg Weiner, who we hear, were recently married.

Erin and Gregg were very convincing and dynamic as a modern couple, while the audience was entertained and absorbed by their predicament of having to face sexual and emotional intimacy for the first time in years.

Fifty Words can be seen at GableStage located at the beautiful Biltmore Hotel, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 2pm and 8pm. Call Box Office: 305-445-1119 to reserve your seats today. 

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Blasted – Facing down the darkness at GableStage 
By Tony Guzman
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Betsy Graver and Todd Allen Durkin in Blasted

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Gablestage at the Biltmore Hotel 1200 Anastasia Coral Gables, FL

Box Office: 305-445-1119
Through March 28, 2010
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Known primarily for presenting compelling, award-winning theater, GableStage is also known for pushing the envelope at times with everything from graphic violence to full frontal nudity, to treating all manner of controversial themes. So when, a while back, producing artistic director Joseph Adler started warning patrons about an upcoming production that might be too much for some of their sensibilities, one had to wonder what kind of a play this could possibly be. Now we know with the current GableStage production of Blasted by British playwright Sarah Kane, whose life ended tragically early in 1999, as if life itself were too much for her to take. But she left behind this great, if rarely produced, play which premiered in London in 1995. This is only the second American production.

According to her notes to Blasted, Kane was in the process of writing a play about a rape in hotel room in Leeds, England, featuring Ian, a tabloid reporter whose beat is serial killings and other atrocious crimes, and Cate, his infantile, epileptic ex-girlfriend, when the playwright was seized by reports of the genocidal atrocities being committed during the war in Bosnia, which was then raging. Kane incorporated this larger, more horrendous vista by having a Bosnian partisan Soldier break into the hotel room just before a massive bomb blasts the setting and action from Leeds, to a nightmarish Balkans of the imagination at its most anguished and stricken. Here the Soldier, driven to sadistic insanity by the horrors he has witnessed and participated in, subjects Ian to horrific abuse, raping then blinding him before shooting himself. Cate tries to comfort a starving baby who dies, then goes off to barter sex for food from partisan troops, while eyeless Ian crawls about in an extremity of anguish depicted in a series of chilling blackouts. Keep an open mind and I will try to convey why you absolutely have got to see this play while you have the chance.

Almost parenthetically one should mention the technical brilliance of this GableStage production. Among many wonders of light, sound, costume and set, set designer Tim Connelly and stage manager Kristen Pieski and her crew manage to transform a realistically rendered hotel room into the same blasted to smithereens and turned into hell – within one amazingly brief blackout. It’s a masterpiece of stagecraft. 

Then there are the performances. As Ian, Todd Allen Durkin gives a performance of towering courage and conviction. Erik Fabregat brings a mesmerizing intensity to the Soldier’s viciousness, while also suggesting the immense wounded-ness behind his malevolence. Young Betsy Graver is one of the most promising young actresses around, and she’s fortunate indeed to have the opportunity to take on Cate, as are we.

Blasted may well the crowning achievement of Joe Adler’s distinguished theatrical career so far: deeply challenging and provocative material that few would have the stones to take on, brilliantly directed and acted in a technically superb production. But it’s the writing above all. Great tragedy trumps and transcends the darkness it portrays precisely by incorporating into the greater vision of Art. Blasted ends with a tableau of searing beauty and almost incomprehensible hope, incorporating baptismal and Eucharistic imagery. Despite the darkness it depicts, the play leaves one absolutely exhilarated. That’s great tragedy, and this is a great production of a truly great play.   
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Get Your Mind off the Recession at Actors’ Playhouse’s Rollicking Great American Trailer Park Musical
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 Actors’ Playhouse kicks off 2010 with The Great American Trailer Park Musical, an off-Broadway hit with book by Betsy Kelso and songs by David Nehls. Trailer Park is an often inventive and zany send-up of the supposed gaucheries of the redneck underclass. Set on the grounds of Armadillo Acres, a trailer park in the mythical town of Stark, Florida, with occasional side-trips to such locales as The Litter Box, a local strip joint, and the studio of an over-the-top tell-all reality TV show, Trailer Park chronicles the travails of the Garstecki’s, a couple comprised of the agoraphobic Jeannie (Margot Moreland) and Norbert (Stephen G. Anthony), a toll collector whose big dream is for his wife to be able to leave their trailer home long enough to accompany him to The Ice Capades in celebration of their upcoming 20^th wedding anniversary.  Serving as a sort of high-voltage hayseed Greek chorus to the action are “The Girls”: Betty the wise-cracking trailer park manager (Meghan Colleen Moroney), Linoleum “Lin” (Stacey Schwartz), whose husband is on death row at the local penitentiary, and Donna “Pickles” (Gwen Hollander), so named for her penchant for hysterical pregnancies. Trouble brews when Norbert meets Pippi (Kelly Atkins), an exotic dancer, on the run from her gun-totin’, magic marker sniffin’ boyfriend, Duke (Christopher A. Kent). They fall for each other, and all manner of laugh-inducing complications ensue, while Duke bears down on the action from his native Oklahoma, leading to a surprise ending and a surprisingly affecting finale. For while we’ve had quite a hoot at the characters’ expense, we’ve also come to care and root for them as well. That’s largely due to an excellent cast  who sing up a storm and overflow with comedic brio – all backed by a rocking four-piece house band led by musical director Eric Alsford on the keyboard. You might not want to live in one, but this trailer park certainly provides a rollicking comedic escape from your cares. Runs through February 7 at Actors’ Playhouse, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables. 305-444-9293.  
Gablestage presents Willimon's delightful tale of political king-making,
Farragut North ***********************************************  

Gablestage at the Biltmore Hotel 1200 Anastasia Coral Gables, FL

Box Office: 305-445-1119
Dec 26-Jan 24, 2010

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By Liz Potter with Tony Guzman
Joe Adler brilliantly directs Beau Willimon's Farragut North, starring Nick Duckart as a rapidly rising young political press secretary working for the charismatic presidential candidate, Carbonell Award-winning Gregg Weiner as his jaded boss, Deborah L. Sherman as an influential (and easily influenced) New York Times columnist, Betsy Graver as seductive intern, and Robert Strain as a cunning strategist from the opposing political camp.

Farragut North refers to a suburb in Washington where successful political strategists retire as wealthy lobbyists, and the play is based on Willimon's experiences in Howard Dean's 2004 Democratic pimary campaign.  Playgoers may note eerie similarities to Obama's recent and successful Presidential run. 

Farragut North is a satisfying morality tale on the seductive power of king-making, choices in trust, and the pitfall of believing in your own identity myth. 

Liz and Tony highly recommend seeing Farragut North at the intimate GableStage Theatre at the beautiful Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, FL .. *****************************************Mad Cat Theatre presents Paul Tei's comedic satire
VIVA BOURGEOIS By Liz Potter
************************************************Mad Cat Theatre 3000 Biscayne Blvd Miami, FL 33137
Box Office: 305-576-6377
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Mad Cat Theatre presents Paul Tei’s must-see comedic adaptation of Moliere’s classic play, Viva Bourgeois.  Set in Memphis, Tennessee, 1971, the play’s delightful cast of characters included a thinly disguised Elvis Presley (Erik Fabregat) and Michael Jackson (Troy Davidson).  Both actors brilliantly portrayed the complex inner conflicts of two megastars victimized by fame and society’s class divisions, and intertwined by family and fate. Erik Fabregat's performance of a tortured superstar was compelling, and his charisma entranced the audience as he played guitar and sang Elvis Presley favorites; Troy Davidson was spot on as a talented, effeminate Michael Jackson.  Equally delightful were newcomers Betsy Graver as the bossy family maid, and Caitlin Geier as Elvis Presley’s daughter, who performed a charming dance number with Tory Davidson.  George Schiavone lent the right comedic touch to Elvis Presley’s “Philosophy Master.”  It was a delight to see returning actors Erin Joy Schmidt as a smart Priscilla Presley, and Ivonne Azurdia as the “sophisticated lady” and love interest of both a lascivious Senator (Joe Kimble) and Elvis.  While Viva Bougeois helped explain the societal and psychological factors (class divisions, ignorance, greed, exploitation, desire to fit in and be truly loved) that led to Elvis Presley’s accidental overdose, it is an eerie coincidence this play opened shortly after the King of Pop’s untimely demise.   Liz and Tony highly recommend seeing Viva Bourgeois at the intimate Mad Cat Theater located at the Light Box, 3000 Biscayne Blvd, Miami.    ***********************************************
PAST REVIEW
*****************************************Cheer Up, The New Century Is Hilarious
By Tony Guzman
GableStage Theater
at Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave
Coral Gables, Box Office: 305-445-1119
June 20-July19
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GableStage is lightening the gloom of this season of our discontent with a hilarious staging of The New Century by Paul Rudnick, best known for his Gay romp for stage and screen, Jeffrey. The play takes the form, broadly speaking, of extended monologues introducing us in turn to three marvelously eccentric characters who all come together for a rousing denouement in a New York City maternity ward, followed by a Dance Fever curtain call.  And what characters they are. First up is Helene Nadler, an impeccably coiffed Long Island Jewish mother whom we come upon addressing a meeting of a support group for parents of children of every imaginable and unimaginable sexual orientation. Helene, who’s unshakeable determination is to be the perfect mother regardless of provocation, has had her mettle tested by a succession of lesbian, gay and transgender progeny. As Helene, Patti Gardner turns in a performance that is as funny as anything we’ve seen in any theater or comedy club,  culminating in Helene’s unveiling of her pièce de résistance, son David (Daniel Landon in leather S&M victim garb), who epitomizes every Jewish mother’s ultimate dream: “He’s not only a doctor, he’s a slave!” The scene’s ending, with Helene issuing orders while she flogs the floor with a cat o’ nine tails and the cowed David answers, “Yes, master!” is about as funny as it gets.  In the second scene we’re the studio audience for a middle of the night Palm Beach cable access show, Too Gay, named after the offense for which its host, Mr. Charles, has been banned from New York. Rejected by a now largely assimilated and wanting-to-be-taken-serious gay establishment who consider his flamboyant effeminacy an embarrassment, Mr. Charles is the last of the flaming femmes, a sort of Chingachgook of the Sue, banished to the hinterlands to rue the demise of his kind. In order to validate his character’s title of “gayest man in the world,” John Felix regales us with a cornucopia of over-the-top flamer mannerisms in order to fashion a Mr. Charles who makes Paul Lind look like Lee Marvin. Good sport Daniel Landon is on hand again, this time as Mr. Charles’ endlessly energetic and cheery boy-toy, Shane.     The third scene finds us as attendees at an arts and crafts convention listening to a talk being given by Barbara Ellen Diggs, a frumpy Midwestern widow who has lost a son to AIDS. Her strategy for fighting off clinical depression involves total immersion in the garish hominess of crafts projects. Sally Bondi captures Barbara’s guileless sincerity pricelessly as she shows off her latest creations, including macramé outfits for toasters and wicker toilet paper caddies. 
So preoccupied with arts and crafts is Barbara that when she mishears that “muslin terrorists” have attacked the World Trade Center, she is aghast that fellow crafters who have mustered the intricacies of “using cheap cotton-like decorations” could do such a thing. In one of The New Century’s funniest segments, Bondi, with deadpan fervor and impeccable comedic timing, goes through a list of actual but utterly ridiculous-sounding craft specialties that Barbara has mastered; a goof-ball litany that gets increasingly funny as it goes on. Bondi milks the humor inherent in Barbara’s gaucheness for all its worth, while gradually revealing a very genuine person whom you increasingly grow to like. When the characters – now joined by a young Madonna with child winsomely played by newcomer Jehane Seralles – show up in the maternity ward scene, we greet them as kooky-to-the-max but genuinely lovable family members whose latest shenanigans we’re eager to enjoy. If the circumstances of their coming together are a bit contrived and if the Message peeks through the laughs a bit too obviously at times, who cares? It’s as good a message as any. Here are people who have managed to stay true to themselves in the face of all the slings and arrows, while keeping the milk of human kindness flowing through their veins.  

Shorter Shorts Still Shine
By Tony Guzman
Arsht Center, Miami, Box Office: 305-365-5400
www.Arshtcenter.org/summershorts
Broward Center, Ft. Lauderdale
Box Office: 954-462-0222 www.browardcenter.org/summershorts   Thanks to the economy no doubt, Summer Shorts, City Theatre’s annual festival of short plays, returns this year in abbreviated form, with only one main program, instead of two as in years past, to complement the festival’s racier late-night undershorts and its Shorts for Kids. But the main program, now dubbed Signature Shorts, still provides an ample serving of the sort of highly entertaining, sometimes thought-provoking fare that Shorts fans have come to expect.    As in summers past, many of the Shorts are jumpstarted by some sort of loopy MacGuffin (defined as "a plot element that catches the viewers’ attention or drives the plot"), as in: a hyper-Gallic restaurant cat at a wacky resort in French Polynesia has inexplicably assumed human form and begun to wait on tables (Kitty the Waitress by Christopher Durang); a love affair between symphony musicians is hampered by deep-seated prejudices amounting to “class warfare” between the various sections of the orchestra (Falutin by C.S. Hanson); three starving shipwreck survivors in an open boat discover that one of them has been hiding a bunny rabbit he’s inordinately attached to (Jettison by Brendan Andolsek Bradley); another love affair is stymied by his Spermatophobia (fear of germs) and her Agoraphobia (won’t leave her apartment) (Snow by Adam Szymkowicz); and a man’s fervent desire to host his daughter’s outdoor wedding is thwarted by the fact that, inexplicably, he always attracts bad weather, including lightning strikes (Storm on Storm by Gary Garrison). The MacGuffin then plays out in ways ranging from milking the premise a bit too long on the way to becoming a heartfelt look into a painful marriage (Storm on Storm), to rather poetic musings on “the big picture” with some moments of real beauty (Snow), to unfolding paroxysms of absurdist hilarity (Kitty the Waitress).  Our favorites from among this summer’s selection of Shorts included Cravin Tutwieler (The Real Life Story of) by Michael McKeever, in which three widely disparate females recount a mysterious sophisticate’s transformative effect on their lives. It features fine comedic turns by Elena Maria Garcia as a former flower child, Laura Turnbull as a conservative business woman and Erin Joy Schmidt as a Paris Hilton-like heiress. Tutwieler is a wonderful vehicle for Stephen Trovillion, who nearly steals the show despite the fact that his part consists almost entirely of his periodically sauntering onstage in a red velvet smoking jacket and intoning, “My name is Cravin, Cravin Tutwieler, and I’m going to change your life.”  Another favorite was a searing enactment of Harold Pinter’s The New World Order, another elaboration by Pinter of a favorite motif in which a helpless victim is terrorized by a pair of sinister thugs who are quite the philosophical pedants, cutting semantic hairs while giving vent to the undercurrents of sadism and rot seething beneath society’s sanctimonious facade. Trovillion and Stephen G. Anthony are very effective as the “enhanced interrogators,” and a particularly fine moment occurs when Anthony suddenly bursts into tears, crying, “I feel so pure!” and is comforted by Trovillion’s “You are keeping the world clean for democracy.” Laura Turnbull has a luminous monologue as the Emily Dickinson-like recluse in Snow, which also includes affecting performances by Anthony, Erin Joy Schmidt and John Manzelli. David Hemphill is extremely funny as a bongo playing busboy in Kitty the Waitress, but the pièce de résistance of this edition of Shorts is the uproarious, over-the-top performance by Elena Maria Garcia as Kitty herself. Her depiction of Kitty’s frenetic attempts to pour a bottle of wine with the cork still in it is worth the price of admission of itself, never mind Kitty’s hilarious ascent to heaven on a ladder that concludes the program (“Life number five, eet is leaving!”). All in all, this year’s edition of Summer Shorts may be shorter than in years past, but it’s still long on the inventive energy and entertainment value we’ve come to look forward to each year.   
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New Theatre's Southeastern Premiere of Mauritius:
Stamp Collectors Gone Wild!
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New Theatre
4120 Laguna Street
Coral Gaels, FL 33146
Box Office: 305-443-55373
www.new-theatre.org 
By Tony Guzman
Coral Gables’ New Theatre is currently closing out its 2008-2009 season with the Southeastern U.S. premiere of Mauritius by the popular contemporary playwright, Theresa Rebeck. Mauritius recently concluded a successful world premiere run on Broadway. Subtitled “A Sinister Comedy about Stamps,” the play is set in the world of philately – the study and collecting of postage stamps. The title refers to the tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean where, in the mid-1800’s, two of the rarest and most highly sought-after postage stamps in history were issued, the Mauritius one-penny and two pence "Post Office" stamps, so named for a misprint on the face of the stamps. When a set of both stamps, in uncancelled, pristine condition, turns up in a private collection, the chain of highly-charged events that comprise the play’s action is set off.  Mauritius’ cast of characters includes Sterling, a menacing international arms dealer/real estate mogul whose Achilles heel is his obsession with rare stamps;  Philip, a cynical, disillusioned rare stamp expert who’s nursing some grievous wound from the past related to Sterling that’s never made quite clear; and Dennis, a quick-witted second-tier stamp expert that Sterling can afford to employ just to keep an eye on the happenings in Philip’s stamp shop.  Enter Jackie, a Cinderella-like neighborhood girl who’s discovered an impressive-looking stamp collection (containing the famed Mauritius stamps) that belonged to her recently deceased mother. She doesn’t at first know the immense value of what she has, but she learns fast. Unfortunately for Jackie, Mary, her spoiled older half-sister, who left long ago for private boarding schools and a privileged life thanks to her own patrician father, has returned for mom’s funeral. The stamp collection is from Mary’s blue-blood side of the family – which complicates things no end. Dennis feverishly tries to broker a sale of the mega-valuable stamps on Sterling’s behalf in order to claim a sizeable fee. Sterling and Dennis try to enlist Phil in a scheme to purchase the stamps from Jackie at far less than they’re actually worth, and all sorts of machinations, confrontations and surprise twists ensue. For a plot about stamp collecting Mauritius is surprisingly edge-of-your seat fare, with strongly drawn characters, high stakes, reversals of fortune leading to exhilarating highs and devastating lows, and, perhaps most importantly, genuine rooting interest for and against the characters to keep the audience emotionally engaged. Mauritius’ is also often quite funny thanks to its drolly cynical, witty dialogue.  Under the direction of New Theatre’s artistic director, Ricky J. Martinez, the action hums along throughout. The ensemble acting is first-rate, and the staging of acts of physical violence is handled quite effectively. Mauritius features some noteworthy performances. Particularly fine is that of Michael McKeever as the cynical stamp expert, Philip. It’s a subtly masterful performance that is utterly convincing, ringing true at every turn. Michaela Cronan is genuine and genuinely affecting as the disappointed-by-life but feisty Jackie – just what that part calls for. In the role that ties the action together, Israel Garcia gives us a Dennis who is charismatic when that wily conniver is front and center propelling the plot – and gets out of the way when the spotlight rightly belongs to other characters. As the unsympathetically snobbish and self-centered Mary, Kim Ehly does a nice job of giving us someone to root against, without making her character a caricature. Bill Shwartz gives us a suitably spooky and compelling, if somewhat mannered and stylized, Sterling. All in all, New Theatre’s Mauritius is a highly entertaining production of a very entertaining, well-crafted play. Mauritius runs through May 17 at New Theatre, 4120 Laguna St., Coral Gables. 305-443-5909.www.newtheatre.org.
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PAST REVIEW
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MadCat Theater
At the Light Box, 3000 Biscayne Blvd
Miami, FL 33137
Box Office: 305-576-6377
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Variety Spices up Mad Cat’s MIXTAPE, a Theatrical Stew