Florida Spotlight: February 2009

The big screen adaptation of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt is racking up all sorts of film awards, but you can catch it live on stage in Naples as the Gulfshore Playhouse presents Doubt: a Parable (February 19-28), the gripping Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about faith and scandal. Tony nominee Alan Campbell stars as Father Flynn.

February “kicks” into high gear early with the national tour of A Chorus Line, arriving first at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center (February 3-8), then making its way to Orlando’s Bob Carr Performing Arts Center (February 10-15) and finally Fort Lauderdale at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts (February 17-March 1). Tampa Bay is stocked with touring shows for every taste this month, with Frost/Nixon also slated to appear at the TBPAC (February 17-22). Stacy Keach takes the role of Richard Nixon in Peter Morgan’s searing drama.

Further south, the Manatee Players present the boisterous musical Damn Yankees (February 19-March 15), while Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota tackles the soulful Always… Patsy Cline (February 17-28), a tribute to the country legend. Also at FST, catch Boleros for the Disenchanted (February 4-April 4), Jose Rivera’s bittersweet tale of the ties that bind two Puerto Rican immigrants to their country and each other.

Continuing down the west coast, Venice Theatre keeps things light with their production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music (February 17-March 15), the perkiest musical to feature Nazis this side of The Producers. For even peppier fare, play along with three gambling gal pals and their weekly addiction in Bingo: The Musical (February 6-March 8), also at the Venice Theatre.

In Fort Myers, Theatre Conspiracy takes on My First Time (February 5-28), a series of hilarious and insightful monologues about sexual awakening culled from true stories submitted to Off-Broadway impresario Ken Davenport. Elsewhere in town, Florida Repertory Theatre presents Alone Together (February 13-March 8), Lawrence Roman’s comedy about a couple’s struggle to empty their nest.

On the other coast, it’s more John Patrick Shanley at Coral Gables’ Biltmore Hotel with the Gable Stage production of Defiance (February 21-March 22), a tale of simmering racial tension among the military. Elsewhere in Coral Gables, the New Theatre at the Burstein Family Stage presents Tennessee Williams’ classic family drama The Glass Menagerie (February 26-March 29), while the Caldwell Theatre in Boca Raton raises the curtain on the world premiere of Michael McKeever’s Dangerous (February 22-March 29), a play that explores temptation and lust during the rise of the Nazi regime. In Miami, April Yvette Thompson recounts the culture clashes of her youth in her one-woman show Liberty City (February 18-March 1), playing at the Carnival Studio Theatre in the Adrienne Arsht Center.

In Fort Lauderdale, see Chazz Palminteri’s mafia drama A Bronx Tale (February 10-15) when the Broadway Across America production comes to the Parker Playhouse for a limited run. Jim Brochu pays tribute to theater legend Zero Mostel in his one-man play Zero Hour (February 20-April 5) at the Broward Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs, and Jim Ehrenreich gives his comedic take on New York life when his touring musical A Jew Grows in Brooklyn hits the Coral Springs Center for the Arts (February 4-15) and the Cuillo Centre for the Arts in West Palm Beach (February 19-April 5).

Also in West Palm, spooky yarns backfire on a group of Irish storytellers in Conor McPherson’s The Weir (February 20-April 5) at Palm Beach Dramaworks. The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts goes with more uplifting fare in a production of Ethel Merman’s Broadway (February 10) starring Rita McKenzie, and Golda’s Balcony (February 11), William Gibson’s tribute to the life of Golda Meir starring Tovah Feldshuh. In nearby Delray Beach, catch Elliott Taubenslog’s Millions of Miles (February 6-22), a romantic comedy about love lost and found in the golden years.

Moving through Orlando, we find Mad Cow Theater staging The Year of Magical Thinking (February 6-March 1), Joan Didion’s intensely personal meditation on loss. And for something completely different, head north to the King Center in Melbourne for the touring production of the Monty Python musical Spamalot (February 24-March 1).

Further north in Gainesville, the Hippodrome State Theatre presents Eurydice (February 27-March 22), Sarah Ruhl’s dreamlike take on the Orpheus myth. At the University of Florida’s Curtis M. Phillips Center, catch Lionel Bart’s Oliver! (February 5), a musical adaptation of the classic Dickens novel, and the inventive noisemaking of the touring production of Stomp (February 17-18).

In Jacksonville, Pamela Myers and Harvey Evans headline a Valentine’s Day concert of Hello, Dolly! at the Harold K. Smith Playhouse on February 14, while the University of North Florida plays host to New York’s touring Aquila Theatre company with their production of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors (February 6) at the Lazzara Performance Hall. For a more local take on the bard, head west on the peninsula to see the University of West Florida’s performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Panama City (February 19-March 1).