Orlando Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 4

Review: Six Ex-Wives Tear Down the Patriarchy Rather Than Each Other in SIX: THE MUSICAL at Dr. Phillips Center For The Performing Arts in Orlando
by Albert Gutierrez - October 05, 2022

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....

Review: Ghost Light Theatricals' LILIES Answers Questions We Shouldn't Be Afraid to Ask at Theatre South Playhouse
by Albert Gutierrez - September 26, 2022

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....

Review: SH-BOOM! LIFE COULD BE A DREAM at The Winter Park Playhouse
by Joseph Harrison - September 25, 2022

The Winter Park Playhouse, in Winter Park, FL is extremely good at producing intimate, sometimes lesser-known, but always high-quality musicals. In my short time here in Orlando, I have had the pleasure of visiting the Playhouse on a few occasions, and each time have been thrilled at my experience –...

Review: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN at Osceola Arts
by Joseph Harrison - September 20, 2022

There’s no arguing that musicals made from movies can be hit or miss. Broadway has had it’s share of them over the last few decades. Sometimes they work well (e.g., HAIRSPRAY, LEGALLY BLONDE, THE PRODUCERS) and sometimes not so much (e.g., CARRIE, KING KONG, DRACULA) but there is something particula...

Review: AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' at Titusville Playhouse
by Joseph Harrison - September 17, 2022

Thomas “Fats” Waller, a pioneer in jazz piano, was a prolific composer, writing over 400 songs in his lifetime, with hits like “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Honeysuckle Rose” even making it into the Grammy Hall of Fame. So, it is no surprise that in 1978 a Broadway Musical, AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ premiered fe...

Review: NOISES OFF at Orlando Shakes
by Joseph Harrison - September 11, 2022

What’s the formula for a perfect farce? First take a bunch of unwitting characters thrown together in an unlikely scenario, add to that a lot of slamming doors, physical comedy and costume malfunctions (and maybe a bunch of sardines) and let boil over until you have immense amounts of laughter. Or y...

Review: A CHORUS LINE Dazzles and Delights at Theater West End
by Albert Gutierrez - August 29, 2022

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 li...

Review: Encore! Performing Arts Celebrates Milestone 20th Anniversary with COME ALIVE: CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF ENCORE at Steinmetz Hall of Dr. Phillips Center
by Albert Gutierrez - August 20, 2022

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 ...

Review: THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL at Titusville Playhouse
by Joseph Harrison - August 14, 2022

Audiences in Titusville have their own chance to journey to Bikini Bottom and visit SpongeBob and friends in Titusville Playhouse’s 58th season opener – THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL – a visual feast of a show featuring an outstanding cast which delivers a fun, family-friendly, and highly entertaining night...

Review: ON YOUR FEET: THE STORY OF EMILIO & GLORIA ESTEFAN is a Triumphant Homage to Trailblazing Icons at The Garden Theatre
by Albert Gutierrez - July 12, 2022

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. ...

Review: SWEENEY TODD by New Generation Theatrical
by Joseph Harrison - July 09, 2022

How do you take a brilliant piece of classic musical theatre and improve upon it? Orlando’s New Generation Theatrical's production of SWEENEY TODD, does this by breaking down the typical stage barriers and immersing the audience in the material, creating a fresh (and fantastic) production....

Review: SCHOOL OF ROCK at Theatre South Playhouse
by Joseph Harrison - June 23, 2022

What happens when you take a popular comedy film, add in new music by the king of musical theatre, and put it on stage with a talented cast? You get the Orlando premiere of SCHOOL OF ROCK presented by Theatre South Playhouse in Dr. Phillips - an energetic, entertaining, and eminently electric experi...

BWW Review: Florida Theatrical Association's BLOOD BROTHERS at The Abbey
by Joseph Harrison - June 12, 2022

“So, did you hear the story of the Johnstone twins? As like each other as two new pins. Of one womb born, on the self-same day, how one was kept and one given away?” These are the words spoken by the Narrator at the beginning of BLOOD BROTHERS, the long-running West End musical by Willy Russell whic...

BWW Review: Even Refreshed for its 50th Anniversary, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR Remains Dated & Divisive — Dr. Phillips Center
by Aaron Wallace - June 09, 2022

What did our critic think of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR at Dr. Phillips Center? The show remains fundamentally a relic of the precise moment in time that Short summed up so well, when the convergence of counterculture and rock & roll meant that an irreverent but ultimately thin concept like this one — “...

BWW Review: PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES at The Winter Park Playhouse
by Joseph Harrison - May 22, 2022

Somewhere on Highway 57 between Frog Level and Smyrna sits a little diner across from a service station where the pie is fresh, the beer is cold, and the gas is cheap (if that’s even possible these days). Such is the setting for the Off-Broadway hit musical PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES. And in its latest ...

BWW Review: BEAUTIFUL - THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL Returns to Dr. Phillips Center; Still Better Than Most Jukebox Musicals
by Aaron Wallace - May 16, 2022

But BEAUTIFUL is structured differently than most 'backstage biomusicals.' It's not a rags to riches story, exactly, nor the routine tale of one woman's ascent to superstardom. Mercifully, we are spared the obligatory plot points of that particular formula. King never learns her contract is unconsci...

BWW Review: LEGALLY BLONDE at Titusville Playhouse
by Joseph Harrison - May 08, 2022

There are some musicals that just make you smile and can do so regardless of how many times you have seen in them. For me, one of those shows is (and will always be) LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL. Read our critic's review about this production of this fun and uplifting musical,. Titusville Playhouse de...

BWW Review: AIDA at The Henegar Center
by Joseph Harrison - May 01, 2022

In the opening number of Elton John and Tim Rice’s hit musical, AIDA, Princess Amneris sings - “Every story, tale or memoir, every saga or romance, whether true or fabricated, whether planned or happenstance….All are tales of human failing, All are tales of love at heart.” and with those opening lin...

BWW Review: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Feels New Again in Outstanding Garden Theatre Production
by Aaron Wallace - April 26, 2022

Director Roberta Emerson has devised an intriguing way to approach the story's outer framework without altering the libretto. The story opens not with an unseen narrator recounting the enchantress's spell on a prideful prince and his servants but instead with a young Black girl (played sweetly by Ga...

BWW Review: Florida Theatrical Association's ASSASSINS at Cheyenne Saloon
by Joseph Harrison - April 24, 2022

In the world of musical theatre there are productions that come along that deliver the perfect storm of creative expression. This elusive synergy can be due to the topic or setting being extremely relevant to the time that it is performed or can come from the blending of top-notch talent, creative v...

BWW Review: A CHORUS LINE at Titusville Playhouse
by Joseph Harrison - April 09, 2022

A CHORUS LINE, the hit Broadway musical about performers auditioning for a Broadway show played for 6,137 performances in its original run due to several factors. Audiences simply connected with the characters on stage and related to their lives, their experiences, and their passion for pursuing the...

BWW Review: Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age (In the Best Way) — Dr. Phillips Center
by Aaron Wallace - April 04, 2022

The biggest draw to an evening with Alan Cumming may be just that: it’s an evening with Alan Cumming, a playful and energetic personality you like right away. His easy wit and effortless charm create an atmosphere that feels distinctly personal and intimate, even a thousand miles south of Club Cummi...

BWW Review: Why I'm Not Crazy About CATS at Dr. Phillips Center
by Aaron Wallace - March 31, 2022

Now I would never wish harm on cats, of course. It's just that they ought not wish it on me either. But as I sat there bored nearly to felicide Tuesday night and praying for a cat-pocalypse on stage, I couldn't help but wonder why there's not a PETA for theatregoers - and if there were whether they'...

BWW Review: THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES: DREAM ON at The Winter Park Playhouse
by Joseph Harrison - March 29, 2022

What fun it is to take a stroll down memory lane and revisit the locations (and experiences) of our youth. Such journeys often include stops at familiar haunts, laughs at the fashions we thought were so hip at the time, and listening to the songs that served as the soundtrack to our formative years....

BWW Review: URINETOWN: THE MUSICAL at Little Radical Theatrics
by Joseph Harrison - March 27, 2022

There have been a lot of interesting concepts for musicals over the history of the artform. For the most part, the shows that push the boundaries of the musical theatre format stick to the Off-Off-Broadway theatres or Fringe festivals. But sometimes one of these genre-busting musicals makes it to th...