Florida Spotlight: June 2007

Setting up shop at the Sharp AQUOS Theatre on the Universal CityWalk in Orlando, Blue Man Group brings its splattering paints and pulsating refrains to the Sunshine State on June 6. The show, which combines elements of previous Blue Man productions with newly created material, uses music, comedy and multimedia theatrics to create the party atmosphere the Group is known for.

City Theatre, which is devoted entirely to the development and production of one-act plays, presents the Summer Shorts Festival, beginning June 7 at Miami’s Carnival Center. Living up to its title, 15 short plays are presented in two alternating programs.

Maintaining the minimalist momentum, two solo shows make their homes in South Florida. Steve Solomon continues his quest to understand who he is and how he survived his wacky, multi-ethnic family with My Sister’s An Only Child at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach (June 5-17). At the Mosaic Theatre in Fort Lauderdale, Todd Allen Durkin stars in Will Eno’s Thom Pain (based on nothing), a surreal, sometimes comic, always moving exploration of the human experience (June 28-July 15).

At the Shimberg Playhouse at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Jobsite Theater presents Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman in Mind (June 7-24), about a bored housewife who experiences a series of hallucinations in which her tedious life is replaced by a fantasy world. Another woman worth paying attention to is sexual educator Ida Craddock, the subject of the GableStage’s world premiere production of Smut (June 16-July 15).

On the musical front, British stage and screen star Michael York visits the Broward Center as King Arthur in the national tour of Camelot (June 12-24). Orange Park Community Theatre presents the Rodgers & Hammerstein tuner State Fair (through June 23). Then, starting on June 30, Florida Stage celebrates Noël Coward with A Marvelous Party, an evening of ravishing melody, with nimble dance and repartee, all courtesy of that master of theatrical sophistication.

If you’re looking for something to take the tots to, there’s Go, Diego, Go LIVE! The Great Jaguar Rescue at The Broward Center (June 29-July 1) and Oz, presented by The Orlando Shakespeare Theater in partnership with the University of Central Florida (June 19-July 29), in which author L. Frank Baum is writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz while his housekeeper and a girl named Dot get swept up in his magical tale. Lastly, there’s Got No Strings at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood (June 2-August 12), an exhibition that documents a puppeteer’s creative process from conception through construction and production. A special performance of Peter Rabbit will be presented on June 2 to help celebrate the opening.