VALENCIA COLLEGE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

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...

by Joseph Harrison - July 14, 2024

There’s something about a musical that never gets old, regardless of how many different productions one might see. It’s hard to pinpoint what the core reason for that may be – a catchy score? A tight book? A unique concept? A clarity of purpose? Whatever it may be, the fan favorite LITTLE SHOP OF HO...

by Albert Gutierrez - June 26, 2024

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...

by Albert Gutierrez - June 21, 2024

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 L...

by Joseph Harrison - June 15, 2024

It is rare to sit down in a theatre to see a play and literally laugh non-stop from before the curtain all the way to the final bows. Sure, there are hilarious comedies out there that garner many laughs in an evening but to create a raucous reaction from an audience with little time to take a breath...