Drew Eberhard News

The Wolves is a play written by Sarah DeLappe. It premiered off-Broadway in the 2016 season at The Duke at 42nd Street. The play has gone on to receive multiple awards and was a finalist in 2017 for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

From the opening drum sequence to the first note, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s behemoth musical that changed the course of the Modern American Musical as we have come to know it completely draws you in, and the silence of the room waiting with bated breath is almost extinguished by the deafening roar of excitement exuded from the audience.

Anyone who has ever taken the time to listen to Christmas Music, or thrust themselves into the droves of retail holiday shopping, has probably heard a familiar tune grace the airways. Throughout popular culture and even the likes of an M&M Candies commercial, cadences from The Nutcracker can be heard. So whether you grew up listening to classic Christmas tunes, or grew up near a big city, in some way shape or form you have heard of The Nutcracker. Always a go-to holiday event for families of all ages and generations, this classic story is brilliantly told through the art of dance, specifically in the form of Ballet.

Forever Plaid is an Off-Broadway Musical Revue that was first performed in 1989 in New York, and was written by Stuart Ross. Now the show is performed Internationally. The show itself featured Stan Chandler, Guy Stroman, Gabriel Barre, and Jason Graae in the 1989 New York Cast. While James Raitt was responsible for the Musical arrangement, vocal arrangements and music direction, the show was Directed and Choreographed by its writer Stuart Ross. The Musical Revue was produced into a feature film, which was released in 2009 starring two of the original cast members (Chandler, and Engel)and Larry Raben and Daniel Reichard as Sparky and Frankie respectively. Fans of the show will notice that in the film adaptation, “The Golden Cardigan,” and “Catch a Falling Star,” were omitted.

Allow me if you will a little indulgence as I set the scene. The year is 2020, the Global Pandemic that has riddled the world, and the country as we know it to shutter/ shelter in place. Like many Performing Arts Organizations, the folks at freeFall Theatre, known for their motto “Just escape awhile...” and their inventive way of producing live theatre, was struggling to find the best outlet to keep producing, while safely doing so for both performers and patrons alike. Producing Artistic Director Eric Davis and Director Matthew McGee began discussions about how to safely produce a Christmas Show that was full on Christmas versus just taking place around Christmas. In the past freeFall has produced works such as Peter & The Starcatcher, and The Lion in Winter that work for Christmas shows, but are not necessarily Christmas shows. They have also in the past produced A Christmas Carol, but being inventive, Eric Davis and company wanted to shake things up a little, and if any theatre is well known for doing just that, its freeFall. So you can say the show itself was born out of a challenge, and freeFall delivered ten-fold. The Night Before was such a hit, freeFall decided to bring it back this season for the second year in a row, with some new adaptations and new characters.

Yes, the Holiday Season is once again upon us. Time for merriment, gathering with friends, family, chosen family, and what have you to enjoy the sights, the sounds, and the food of the season. Amidst all of the hustle and bustle of the times, the Straz Center’s Carol Morsani Hall brings a different fable and tale of love, hope, and the courage to survive against all odds to its patrons following the close of Thanksgiving weekend, and ushering in the first week of December. Unlike Ghosts of both Past, and Present, patrons of the Straz Center are plunged head-first into a dark tale based on figures found in Greek Mythology, and the tale itself seems all too relevant and perfectly placed in our current climate. The Broadway Smash Hadestown takes the stage by storm and leaves no prisoners in its wake. I for one am thankful for this time, the time to sit in a sacred space and experience the undeniably beautiful event that is live theatre, and the Straz Center is the Gift that keeps on giving, not only during the holiday season but all year long. Their 2022/2023 Bank of America Broadway Season is one of the absolute best yet!

The first live standings have been announced for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Tampa Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

Saturday’s opening night crowd was all a buzz as they stepped into the halls of the Asolo Repertory Theatre for the opening of their 2022/2023 season. Their season opener being the stunningly beautiful, sexy, and haunting work of Kander & Ebb, and a production none other than Cabaret. This was my first experience at the Asolo, and after what I saw Saturday night, I will be back again and again. First off, let me start by saying that there is truly nothing like sitting in an audience of 400+, with everyone sharing the same excitement, all leading up to the moment the lights descend and we are plunged head first into a world much different from our own, but also very similar all the same.

The Colored Museum a play with music was written by George C. Wolfe. The play premiered at the Crossroads Theatre in 1986 and was directed by L. Kenneth Richardson. Wolfe’s work is the focus of 11 individual sketches or “exhibits” and through these revues, recounts satirical and prominent themes and people throughout African-American History and Culture. As the second show in their 2022/2023 “This is America” Season, American Stage planned to stage this show as a way to redefine our ideas of what it means to be African American in Contemporary America. George C. Wolfe’s review show was the winner of the 1988 NAACP Image Award.

A Number written by British Playwright Caryl Churchill first premiered in September of 2002 at the Royal Court Theatre in London, England. The play starred Michael Gambon in the role of Salter, and Daniel Craig in the role of Bernard (Et al.). Under critical reception, Churchill’s play was lauded for its use of “significant intellectual depth while imploring an effective economy of style.” Told in a series of five vignettes, the story is set in the near future, where a relationship/conflict between father and sons comes to a head when conflict about the use of human cloning becomes the topic of conversation. The play expresses the deeply divided differences between nature vs. nurture, and the idea that “if we had a do-over, could we atone for our mistakes?” In an article for the New York Times, Ben Brantley described Churchill’s work as, “stunning” and a “gripping dramatic consideration of what happens to autonomous identity in a world where people can be cloned.”

Playwright Lucas Hnath was born and raised in Orlando, Florida. Later his move to New York led him to study Pre-Med, but soon he changed his major to Dramatic Writing, where he studied at Tisch School for the Arts earning a BFA, and subsequently following an MFA. Hnath is the playwright of 10 Dramatic works. His Broadway Debut and most notably his best work A Doll's House Part 2, debuted on Broadway in April of 2017 and closed in September later that year. Commissioned by South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, Hnath's contemporary spin/sequel to the Ibsen classic starred Laurie Metcalf, Chris Cooper, Jayne Houdyshell, and Condola Rashad. Metcalf later went on to win a Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her portrayal of Nora Helmer. Subsequently, Hnath's work was also a nominee for Best Play at the time.

On Tuesday evening a packed house at Carol Morsani Hall at Tampa, Florida's Straz Center for the Performing Arts sat waiting in anticipation for the Broadway Season Opener SIX to begin. I myself have stayed relatively neutral to the show, and going in blind only hearing one or two songs, I was eagerly awaiting the performance. As the curtain speech began anticipation grew stronger, and it was announced,' the show would begin in just under SIX minutes.' With book, music, and lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, SIX is a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII. The show is performed in a pop concert style, with each performer singing about her time with Henry and battling it out to see who suffered more, and can become the lead singer of the group. Therefore not making the plot overly complicated, SIX is a high-energy spectacle that is a good time from start to finish.

Arthur Miller's subliminal masterpiece in a Three-Act structure All My Sons is what Miller considered his last-ditch effort at writing a commercially successful play. You see Miller's first play The Man Who Had All the Luck failed miserably on Broadway lasting a total of four performances. Miller considered throwing in the towel prior to writing All My Sons.

The Drowsy Chaperone is a musical comedy, about a musical within a comedy, featuring music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison. With a book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar, this musical tells the story of a fictional 1928 musical. The story itself centers around a character, 'Man in Chair,' as he describes to the audience his trepidations in life and this overwhelming feeling of sadness and foreboding which he calls 'Blue.' So over the course of two hours the 'Man in Chair,' takes the audience on a journey using the only thing he knows that will cheer him up, his love of Musical Theatre tunes, specifically classics such as The Drowsy Chaperone.

Dracula, a novel written by Bram Stoker and published in 1897, became Stoker’s most definitive work. Told in an epistolary style through letters, journal entries, and newspaper articles, Stoker’s novel is never told through the eyes of a single protagonist. Our tale begins with a businessman by the name of Jonathan Harker traveling to the Transylvanian Castle of one Count Dracula, in order to procure a deed. Having merely escaped the castle with his life, after finding out the Count is a Vampire, Harker makes his way home to England, where the Count has now taken up residence with plans to plague the small seaside town of Whitby.

After a triumphant five book series, a couple of movie adaptations, and an upcoming Disney+ series, everyone's favorite Half-Blood has now been turned into a musical. 'The Lightning Thief; The Percy Jackson Musical' is based on the first book in the Percy Jackson series with the same title. ThinkTank Theatre's production of this groundbreaking musical is currently running at Stageworks Theatre and must close this Sunday, October 23rd.

The National Tour of Tina - the Tina Turner Musical launched in Washington, D.C. Read all of the reviews here!

Hurricane Ian will cause ThinkTank Theatre's next show to be postponed by a week. 

Anyone who has any grasp on popular culture knows of, or has heard of Comedic Actor Steve Martin. With such notable roles in films such as Father of the Bride, The Jerk, Cheaper by the Dozen, and It’s Complicated, Steve Martin has graced both small and large format screens with some of the finest actors/actresses of our time. Outside of Film, Steve Martin plays bluegrass music, and as a writer has written several plays, and co- wrote Bright Star with Edie Bricknell.

From the moment the lights descended on the stage at 1120 E Kennedy Blvd., Unit 151 otherwise known as Stageworks Theatre, the opening night audience sat with bated breath as we awaited the opening notes of The Color Purple: The Musical Adaptation with book by Marsha Norman and music/lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray.