Drew Eberhard - Page 6

For Thursday evening’s performance of Frozen the Musical the crowd was buzzing, little girls and women of all ages appeared in Elsa and Anna dresses, and some were carrying Olafs by their side in anticipation of a magical trip to the fictional Arendelle. Like many of us immersed in pop culture and especially here in the Sunshine State where Disney makes Central Florida a primary vacation destination, the magic of Frozen has appeared in our lives in some form or fashion over the course of the last 8-9 years. Since its release in November of 2013, the Disney film Frozen has captivated audiences and families of all ages. From its hit musical numbers to the lovable characters Disney once again created something for everyone. In 2019 Disney released a sequel to the behemoth film and added yet another magical adventure to Arendelle with the release of Frozen 2. Led by an all-star cast of Broadway Legends from Idina Menzel and Jonathan Groff to film actress Kristen Bell, Frozen and Frozen 2 warmed even the coldest of hearts and the world of Disney animation has never been the same since, and for that, we are forever thankful.

Titanic the Musical opened on Broadway in April of 1997. The musical tells the story of the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, or what would soon be aptly named “The Unsinkable Ship.” However, as history tells us the ship sank on its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912. The 1997 Broadway production won five Tony Awards including Best Musical and was directed by Richard Jones. Following the opening of its Broadway run, Titanic was adapted for film and released the same year in 1997 by James Cameron starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Both of which the musical and film have no correlation to the other. Maury Yeston who was a Broadway composer and lyricist for Nine was inspired by the discovery of the wreckage of the Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland in 1985. Yeston said he was inspired by all the ship represented. So Yeston met with Peter Stone who wrote the libretto and Titanic the Musical was born. Of the five Tony’s that Titanic went onto win among them were Best Score, Best Book, Best Orchestrations, Best Scenic Design as well as Best Musical mentioned above. Previews started in 1997 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and received mixed but positive reviews. After 804 performances, Titanic the Musical closed in March of 1999. Boasting a whopping 20 musical numbers in Act One and 12 in Act Two this behemoth of a musical is grand in design, and song. This musical also features a cast of 37 some doubling multiple roles. Proving to be a huge undertaking for amateur productions and professionals alike.

Jennifer Haley’s haunting and sensitively-driven script dive deep into the middle of the human experience as it examines it from one of the hardest perspectives, dealing with a crippling disease. Some diseases render a person defenseless in body and in mind, but then there are diseases such as Dementia, a disease that is not only crippling on the mind but just as crippling on the human soul. What happens when the victim, if that word can even be used, is faced with an extraordinary experience? The ability to trust, feel, and even need, the person is faced with the idea that it could all be gone in a blink of an eye, or for Alida the turn of a page. Jennifer Haley creates an emotionally driven and complex world that is as sobering as it is heartbreaking, and far too familiar with a number of us as audience members. I think that is what makes Jennifer Haley’s script so intriguing and yet so relevant, especially in today’s climate.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a musical inspired by the Victor Hugo novel of 1831, with music primarily featured in the 1996 Disney film adaptation. With music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and book by James Lapine and Peter Parnell The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 2.5 hour deep dive that takes pieces from both the film and Hugo’s novel to create an amalgamation of the world in which the people in this story reside.

In 1962 English author Anthony Burgess published the Dystopian-Black Comedy novel entitled A Clockwork Orange. The novel itself was partially written in a Russian-influence argot called “Nadsat” which in a Russian suffix took on its namesake for the equivalent of “TEEN” in English. In 2005 the novel was included by Time Magazine in a list as one of the 100 best English Language novels of the 20th Century. The novel is divided into three parts: Alex’s World, Ludovico Technique, and After Prison, and each of the novel’s three parts contained only 7 chapters. 7 x 3= 21 which was an intentional nod to the age of 21 which is considered a milestone in adult maturation.

The Prom a new musical with music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, and a book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin is based on an original concept by Jack Viertel. Directed and Choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, this explosive new musical took the stage by storm Tuesday night at the Straz Center, and with open arms, the audience welcomed this exceptional cast to the bay area. Boasting a primarily younger cast who danced and sang till everything was left on the stage, the audience was grooving in their seats and filled with joy all evening.

As has happened in theatres from Broadway to Buffalo, the coronavirus has claimed another victim. TampaRep’s long-awaited production of Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy KING LEAR opened to a small but powerful house on Friday, February 4th, and enjoyed an engaged Saturday night crowd. The cast, crew, and administrative team had no idea that would be the final performance.

We all know the story, have studied it in High School English, and for some even had the experience of visiting the Annex itself in Amsterdam. For Anne Frank and her family, the time spent in the “Annex” in hiding goes down in history as a timeless story that is still being told and is still as relevant as ever. The time was 1942-1944 prior to the liberation of the Jews in Holland. Not a sound could be made, shoes were not to be worn indoors, food was rationed, and for families of Jewish lineage an ever-pressing fear hung in the balance of what was now their reality.

In 1946 before Julia Child rose to fame James Andrew Beard became the first “celebrity” cook with the premiere of his NBC cooking show, “I Love to Eat.” Television sets were still black and white back then and there may have been 1000 sets total in all of Metropolitan New York, but between Howdy Doody and the 9 o’clock hour, you could experience the culinary delights of James Beard.

Kitch and Moses sit on the corner of a nondescript street, underneath a streetlight adorned with an old tire and over-turned shopping cart. “The Block” is what they call this specific corner. No city has been identified, but we know the time is now, but also 1855, but also 13th Century BCE. Like I stated before; a ghetto street, a lamppost at night, but also a plantation, but also Egypt, a city built by slaves. Crystal clear, right? Let’s break it down even further as we explore the inner workings of Antoinette Nwandu’s explosive new play Passover, onstage and in collaboration with Studio620 and Outcast Theatre Collective.

Almost exactly two years since Dear Evan Hansen first stepped onto the Straz Center stage and into our hearts, the show that has left a mark on everyone that has seen it, or heard the soundtrack is back under the lights of Carol Morsani Hall. It’s hard to imagine two years, and yet here we are. It felt like just yesterday with bated breath we were sitting in our seats awaiting the dim of the lights and the story to unfold before our eyes.

The year 1985, the setting Fair Verona where we lay our scene. Over the years Romeo & Juliet has been translated, interpreted and conceived in many different forms and fashion. Outside of literature none more so than that of film and stage. Diverting back to literature briefly, Romeo & Juliet was first translated into English in 1562 as a poem entitled The Tragic History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke.

Over the past several years, one thing is for certain Broadway audiences and Regional audiences alike come out in droves to witness, experience, dance, and sing along with well known songs that have defined music across many generations. With shows like Ain’t too Proud: Life and Times of the Temptations, and MJ: The Michael Jackson Musical, Broadway is no stranger to this type of tale. Tuesday night was no exception as the doors of Morsani Hall at the Straz Center burst at the seams with only the glitz and glamour that the Queen of Disco could bring to the party. Summer: The Donna Summer Musical is a jam-packed 115 minute spectacle of grandeur. The talent here is absolutely no joke and is full of all the Donna Summer songs we have come to know and love.

Somewhere in a world on a road less traveled, between the likes of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, American Psycho, Carrie, and the more recently conceptualized Beetlejuice lies the twisted campy world in which the characters of Evil Dead the Musical reside. First performed in 2003 in Toronto, this campy rock-filled musical made its transfer to Off-Broadway at New World Stages in 2006. In 2012 a production opened in Las Vegas as a 4-D Experience and complete with a 100 chair “Splatter Zone,” and as of 2017 making it the longest-running theatrical experience on the strip. With Book, Lyrics, and Music by George Reinblatt, Evil Dead the Musical brought Sam Raimi’s characters to life in a true blood-filled fashion. In partnership with the University of Tampa, Stageworks Theatre and Producing Artistic Director Karla Hartley made the decision to open their 2021/2022 season of Emerge with this blood-soaked campy rock-fest complete with “Splatter Zone” for the 40th anniversary of the Sam Raimi film. As theatres slowly but steadfast begin their “Emerge” out of the darkest times in recent history Karla Hartley promised one thing with Stageworks new season, “I made the conscious decision to bring you a 2021-2022 season that was big and bold. Every show this season is big. Big casts. Big sets. Big everything. Big risks. Big rewards.” As I sat in the almost completely full audience on Friday’s opening night, I can say with full confidence that Karla and friends over at Stageworks have done just what they promised and more. It would be incredibly remiss of you if you happen to find yourself without a ticket to Evil Dead the Musical as it is deathly good, and I’ll be damned if you find something any better than this for some time to come.

In 1983, Sally Ride, or as proclaimed in the play, “She should be called Dr. Ride,” an Astrophysicist became the first and youngest American woman in Space aboard the Orbiter Challenger. Liza Birkenmeier’s play is not about Sally Ride, even though her name is mentioned throughout the 85 minutes. However, under the veil of the ’80s in St. Louis, Missouri we meet four women living out their lives and by a matter of opinion telling stories that boldly go where none of them have gone before so to speak. At its heart, Birkenmeier’s script is compelling, enlightening, and stunning from top to bottom, a true marvel of live theatre. In her script, we get to meet characters that are not as often displayed on-stage, and that is what makes this show so endearing. Being that this show is set in the 80’s smartphones, and other things like social media, don’t exist yet; which renders the compelling humanity shown throughout the script. It’s a breath of fresh air as we learn of these women, and how they may or may not enjoy their current way of life, and yet so different in a matter of opinions and lifestyle they are all one and the same.

An empty stage is all the stands before us, at its center a girl on the floor in a daydream, or just merely sleeping. After a few brief moments of staring at her like we’ve just seen an accident that we cannot turn away from; the lights dim and she awakens. “I am here, your Magician.” A few moments later the Magician recognizes us as her audience and brings us into her sweeping tale of love, tragedy, and imagination.

Our central characters Ileen and Jaclyn work togther a meer desk apart in a small and conservative Medical Office in Chicago. As the story opens we find out that Ileen has recently been made office manager by Dr. Williams, and over coffee and sweet rolls they discuss the days upcomings. By a watch unlike any-other Jacklyn arrives to work, finding her desk askew and walking into the room as if someone was just talking about her. After a five day leave Jacklyn returns to an office that may or may not have been turned on its head so to speak. What happens in the progressingly swift 95 minutes is nothing short of magical. The twist and turns, the wonder about what could possibly happen next, keeps you on the edge of your seat and filled with anxiety at its best. Somehow a story so real, so human, and so down-right current even in an unfortunate way makes this a piece you absolutely can’t steal your eyes away from. With baited breath we hang on every word.

Auditions for the fall production of Biloxi Blues by Neil Simon will take place at the JCC on the Cohn Campus in the J Stage Theatre on Sunday, September 12 from 5:00 – 8:00 pm. Callback auditions are scheduled for Monday, September 13 from 6:00 – 9:00 pm. J Stage Theatre is located at 13009 Community Campus Drive in Tampa. 

When playwright Michael Proft was introduced to the back story behind this gripping tell-all piece, he learned of a documentary entitled 'Worst Places in the World to be Gay.'

“She wanted them the way she needed the earth and the flowers and the sky and the sea from her tower room and food and sleep and warmth and light and nights by the fire and poetry and the stories of going out in the world and almost being destroyed by it and returning to find comfort and the real meaning of freak.” -an excerpt from SNOW from THE ROSE and THE BEAST Throughout the last year, freeFall Theatre who is no stranger to inventive staging found a way to make use of their performance space by providing Outdoor Musical Revues. Allowing the company to recoup some lost revenue due to the global shutdown, freeFall took to the streets so-to-speak and provided the surrounding community with joy through song. By implementing a Drive-In aspect to live performance a stage was constructed in the parking lot adjacent to the courtyard, and patrons could purchase tickets or a “parking spot” and by dialing in on their car radio be able to hear what was being presented on stage.