Albert Gutierrez

At the height of its fame, the musical Les Misérables was the Dorsia of Broadway, a hot-ticket event that reached Hamilton levels of excessive prices, elite A-list attendees, and legions of fans who’d revisit the show through repeat viewings, memorization of the cast recording, and fierce debates of West End vs. Broadway performers.

Encore! Performing Arts’ production of HELLO, DOLLY! leans heavily into the relentless optimism and good time that’s made the musical a classic. They’ve crafted together a show which takes advantage of every aspect of its production, from the costumes to the orchestrations to the simple power of a Look from the lead.

Encore Performing Arts has a long and varied history of selecting projects for their appeal to the audience, both within the immediacy of the moment, as well as in the endurance it will hold in the memory for years to come.

A record 16 of the 17 credited cast members are transplants from the Broadway run, including an astounding 97% of its behind-the-curtain crew. In essence, we are getting the bona fide Broadway show, from its stars to its set decorators, here in the heart of Florida. I cannot fathom a better way for local audiences to experience INTO THE WOODS.

“I haven’t laughed so much in my life,” the audience member me behind remarked as curtains drew to a close. A fellow patron to my right turned around and declared, “Neither have I!” The two instantly bonded over how much they loved SORDID LIVES, a self-proclaimed “black comedy about white trash” - the latest production from Encore! Performing Arts.

Unlike the traditional figures in Greek mythology, Orpheus is a hero, but not a warrior. He's an artist, but not a celebrity. He's a man, just a man, and one whose entire literary journey is focused on the love of a woman. Compared to Perseus or Achilles or Jason, Orpheus's tale almost always depicts how love drives him.

Much in the same way most students know about the Salem Witch Trials through the dramatization found in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, it’s safe to assume virtually every student of U.S. history from 2015 onward may better know the intimate details of this Founding Father through Lin-Manuel Miranda’s HAMILTON.

Although it’s been romanticized and idealized in sitcoms like “Friends,” the wilderness years of the modern twentysomething has been most accurately captured in Jonathan Larson’s seminal work RENT. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1996 and subsequently became a phenomenon that’s influenced virtually every musical to follow in its wake.

As a concert, SIX maintains the momentum and energy for its audience with a consistently good set list of songs, the brazzle-dazzle of lights on the stage, and playful choreography that add up to an exciting ninety minutes of sheer, unadulterated fun.

Director Joseph Walsh has mounted this production fifteen years previously in the UK and Ireland, but he's brought a new production to Central Florida during a year that has been, to say the least, a difficult challenge for both the LGBTQ+ and local theatre communities.

Nothing lasts forever, but that doesn't stop us from enjoying the moments as they pass into memory. A CHORUS LINE teaches the audience this through a story that is rooted in the classic vein of 'let's put on a show,' but contains a universal message that rings true to anyone with a passion, whose life is better because they did what they love.

Twenty years ago, a group of Walt Disney World cast members decided they wanted to put their talents to good use beyond their roles within the theme parks. Inspired by an Andrew Lloyd Webber 'Birthday Concert' in which stars got together to celebrate the acclaimed composer, they likewise set out to create a concert setting - all on their own time and dime - to help benefit the Central Florida community they call home. What began as a contingent of nearly seventy players has expanded and grown over the next two decades as hundreds of members come and go at their leisure, based upon the time they can give and the talent they can share. In a world filled with uncertainty and strife, it's a blessing that something as inherently good and selfless as Encore! Performing Arts continues to thrive.

These are the moments that make ON YOUR FEET such a strong musical, and the Garden Theatre's production such a monumental one. Within the intimacy of this theatre, through this masterful direction of performance and light and sound, we've been transported.

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, yet that is exactly what the intrepid team behind HEAD OVER HEELS sought to do. The 2018 musical retells Sir Philip Sidney's Old Arcadia by way of Shakespearean line delivery and the music of The Go-Go's.

Yet, even with the hardships this theatre has gone through, and the uncertainty of the future, all involved with WHILE THE LIGHTS WERE OUT made sure to go out on that stage and give it their all. They rose up, like a David to the mighty Goliath, to deliver entertainment for an audience that strives for it.

A few weeks back, I attended the opening night of The Three Musketeers at Orlando Shakes. I marveled, in particular, at a rotating stage and staircase designed by Bert Scott. The way the production team used that stage always impressed me. Imagine my delight when I came back to Orlando Shakes for the opening weekend of HENRY IV, PART 1 and saw that same exact stage now being used to represent 1492 England rather than 1628 France. Part of it is my fault, I didn't know they'd be using the same stage and assumed another theatre space at Orlando Shakes would house HENRY IV. But now knowing that this same space was used for two plays got the wheels in my head turning. It's a genius move on Orlando Shakes' part, creating a very fitting double-feature of entertainment. The same cast, the same stage, but two wholly different stories unfold.

The last time I attended a production at Osceola Arts, the stage had been transformed into 1899 New York City for a production of Newsies. Last night, I returned to Osceola Arts, but now found myself transported thirty-two years later and over four thousand miles eastward to Germany, specifically the Kit Kat Klub of Berlin as immortalized in the 1966 musical CABARET. Although we're now ninety years removed from the Weimar Republic, CABARET still feels timely as ever. Given what regime succeeded the Weimar Republic, maybe that should not be good news. Yet that is why we need shows like CABARET: reminders that the apathy and distractions we think help us get by should actually not be our only outlet for life and livelihood. The Kit Kat Klub becomes less a physical place than it does a state of mind, one that comments upon the action of the musical, but does so without the repercussions and consequences of the narrative, at least until the bitter end.

Ask anyone to describe the Three Musketeers, and you'll get the usual answers: three heroes, bound together in brotherhood, inseparable in the most dire circumstances. They were a holy trinity of masculinity and friendship, the #SquadGoals of the 19th century. But unless one were intimately familiar with Alexandre Dumas' novel or its many adaptations, five will get you ten the average Joe today would be remiss to actually name all of them. That's not the fault of the average Joe, but rather the reputation that precedes these fictional characters. Most would be familiar with what they are, not necessarily who they are.

There's blood on my program. At first, I thought it was a printing design, but upon further inspection, I realized that, yes, I have blood stains on my program. Normally, I would be concerned, but given that the first three rows at the Moonlight Players Theatre have been designated 'Splatter Zone,' I didn't think much more of it from the safety of my seventh-row seat. Having played out to sold out crowds in its first and second weeks, Moonlight Players' EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL will end its run this coming post-Halloween weekend. But fear not, Deadites, for you can also catch Ash Williams and his boomstick on a special Halloween performance as well. The hugely-popular Off-Broadway musical condenses Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy into a two-act musical that celebrates the films' subversive comedy take on 1980s gore. And it does so with a gusto and a panache that knows just how ridiculous and trope-heavy the source material is.

Picture it, April 2018.  Encore Performing Arts has commandeered the stage at The Abbey, a swanky downtown Orlando lounge theatre, to convert it into their spring production of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE.  My friends and I meet up for the Bee, a nice way to finish off a birthday weekend that - for myself at least - began ten hours earlier, 14,000 feet in the air.