DR. PHILLIPS CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS AND UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA BLACK BOX THEATRE

by Joseph Harrison - November 16, 2024

The feelings that one gets when sitting in the audience for a musical production can run the gamut from sadness and heartbreak to joy and excitement. But it is a rare experience when a production causes one to experience the full breadth of human emotion – becoming transfixed and transported to an e...

by Joseph Harrison - November 03, 2024

“The sun'll come out, tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be sun…” If you are now belting out this tune in your living room, then you are not alone. The song, from the classic musical ANNIE, is one that has captured hearts ever since it was first heard when this uplifting show pr...

by Joseph Harrison - October 27, 2024

History, romance and a captivating mystery told in a breathtakingly magical way – that’s the thrilling combination you get with ANASTASIA, the latest production from Titusville Playhouse. The beloved musical, inspired by the classic 1997 animated film, takes audiences on a “Journey to the Past” thro...

by Aaron Wallace - October 25, 2024

The show works because it forces us to identify with these well-meaning Mormon kids, which has the double effect of indicting our own sense of cultural supremacy while also softening the slurs toward its Latter-Day Saints. ...

by Joseph Harrison - October 06, 2024

There’s a particular thrill experiencing the familiar in an unfamiliar way - seeing a favorite dramatic actor in a comedic role, eating a “deconstructed” dish with all the familiar ingredients of a favorite entrée but delivered in a very different way, or watching a new film that revisits a classic ...

by Joseph Harrison - September 22, 2024

“What do you do with a drunken sailor?” An age-old question sung by scalawags and ne’er do wells as they drank rum on the deck of a ship on its way to pillage and burn. Sound familiar? For any fan of pirate popular culture, this conjures a particular image. Maybe it’s of Captain Jack Sparrow stumbli...

by Joseph Harrison - September 15, 2024

Jukebox musicals are a polarizing topic in the world of musical theatre. For fans of an artist or group whose music is used as the score of a musical, these can often be favorites due to the familiarity and affinity one might have for the songbook. For musical purists, however, jukebox musicals ofte...

by Joseph Harrison - September 08, 2024

On Tuesday evening, December 4, 1956, in Memphis, Tennessee, while a winter chill bit into passersby at the corner of Union Avenue and Marshall Avenue something big was heating up the studio of Sun Records on that very same corner. Sun Records founder and producer, Sam Phillips had brought together ...

by Joseph Harrison - September 01, 2024

“Everything has it’s season, everything has it’s time..” So goes the lyrics of “Corner of the Sky”, one of the most well-known songs from Stephen Schwartz’ and Roger O. Hirson’s Tony award winning musical, PIPPIN. And it seems, that for the Garden Theatre’s latest production of this classic, now is ...

by Joseph Harrison - July 28, 2024

What happens when you take a classic film, update it for a modern audience and then turn it into a Broadway musical? This seems to be a question producers and creatives have been asking themselves more and more over the last few years. With musicals like BACK TO THE FUTURE and THE OUTSIDERS currentl...