THEATER REVIEW

Looks like child's play -- it's not

Post-college life gets a children's TV spin in a Tony-winning musical meant for adults.

THEATER REVIEW

GableStage's 'Adding Machine' a dramatic musical

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.

CRITIC'S PICK

People and puppets of 'Avenue Q' hit Broward

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...

CRITIC'S PICK

'Adding Machine' looks at hard times

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...

THEATER REVIEW | ADDING MACHINE

GableStage's vintage musical feels eerily of-the-moment

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.

The year in review: Theater

Fine productions by many theaters in three counties, losses and near misses, dramatic highs and lows: All marked the year in South Florida theater.

THEATER REVIEW

Gay play wonders: What if God was one of us?

Paul Rudnick delivers a different holiday story, serving up biblical tales from a gay point of view.

CRITIC'S PICK

Rising Action recasts Biblical stories with gay twist

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...

THEATER REVIEW

Fine, not magical, debut for Unhinged Theatre

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).

THEATER REVIEW | MEZZULAH, 1946

You-go-girl tale at Florida Stage is sweetly quirky

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.

THEATER COMMENTARY

Playhouse poised for small-scale comeback

More than 2 ˝ 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.

CRITIC'S PICK

She's come a long way in 'Mezzulah, 1946'

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...

THEATER REVIEW

'Gutenberg' is a bad idea that gets worse

Not all two-man musicals are created equal, as the latest effort from Actors' Playhouse demonstrates.

THE ARTS

Miami's shuttered Coconut Grove Playhouse expected to return as smaller theater

The Coconut Grove Playhouse board has unveiled a plan that includes building a single, smaller theater, a development deal and a larger pool of artistic partners.

Coconut Grove Playhouse expected to return as smaller theater

The Coconut Grove Playhouse board unveils a plan for building a single smaller theater, a development deal and a larger pool of artistic partners.

Carbonells: The show is back on

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.

CRITIC'S PICK

'Gutenberg! The Musical!' a musical comedy frenzy

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...

THEATER REVIEW | ANNIE

Betcha nobody gets enough of this

The award-winning musical about a red-haired orphan and the billionaire who changes her life returns as a resonant holiday treat.

THEATER REVIEW

Shakespeare done for laughs

A speedy version of the Shakespearean canon is anything but stuffy as the Reduced Shakespeare Company does its thing at the Arsht Center.