Florida Spotlight: December 2008

This month, Anthony Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning murder mystery Sleuth (December 2-14) will play at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre in Jupiter, starring Mark Jacoby and Jeremy Webb. If that seems to convoluted and holiday spirit is what the doctor ordered, The Maltz Jupiter will sing in season with Doo Wop Holiday Bop (December 16) and New Gardens Band will present Home for the Holidays (December 15). Atlantic Theater will join in the yuletide fun with A Christmas Carol (December 12-14), or for a more off-kilter version The Mixed Nut (Cracker) (December 20-21) will also take the stage at their theater in Jupiter.

In the West Palm Beach area, Palm Beach Dramaworks presents the absurd work of Eugene Ionesco with The Chairs (December 19-February 1), a play about two people setting up chairs for an invisible guest. If you love Barbara Cook, she will be making an appearance this month at the Raymond F. Kravis Center this month with An Evening with Barbara Cook (December 16). Also at the Kravis Center, Brad Zimmerman will tell the tale of his struggle to make it as an actor in New York in My Son The Waiter, A Jewish Tragedy (December 21-24), and the Forbidden Broadway 25th Anniversary Tour will drop in December 26-28.

Further south, follow the comic adventures of two Shakespearean actors as they try to fraudulently collect on the fortune of a sick old woman by impersonating her long lost nieces in Leading Ladies (December 5-21). In Manalapan, Florida Stage will bring a history lesson with Mezzulah, 1946 (December 10-January 19), set just after WWII when the boys are back home and Mezzulah and her fellow female co-workers have no intention of giving up their jobs to men. Ray Cooney’s emergency room comedy, It Runs in the Family (December 5-21), will bring laughs with the story of Dr. Mortimore and the 17-year-old son he never knew at Delray Beach Playhouse in Delray Beach.

Continuing down the coastline, The Coral Springs Center for the Arts will have a dose of Billy Joel’s rock rhythms and Twyla Tharp’s moving choreography in Movin’ Out (December 23, 2008), and in Margate, the Broward Stage Door Theater will take a glittery romp into the world of drag queens with La Cage Aux Folles (December 12-January 18).

Fort Lauderdale is in for a taste of Tony winning musical comedy when Avenue Q (December 30-January 11) rolls into the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Rising Action Theatre is set to present Paul Rudnick’s retelling of the Biblical story of Creation, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told (December 10-January 18), where God made Adam and Steve, and Jane and Mabel. In the Miami area, Gable Stage’s Adding Machine (December 27-February 1) will take a satiric look at capitalism when Mr. Zero is replaced by a machine after 25 years of service. Two playwrights will pitch their biggest idea yet at Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre in Gutenberg! The Musical! (December 3-January 4), a musical story celebrating Johann Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press. Meanwhile, the Adrienne Arsht Center will stage two musical theater classics, Annie (December 2-7) and Cats (December 31-January 4), and some holiday cheer with The Nutcracker (December 12-14).

In the center of the state, Orlando Shakespeare Theater will take a judicial approach to the facts of Charles Dickens’ timeless story in The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge (December 5-28) when the ghosts of Christmas are on trial for breaking and entering, kidnapping and a host of other misdemeanors. Closer to the coast, the Maxwell C King Center for the Performing Arts will present Dickens’ heartwarming story of a young orphan,Oliver! (December 20). If you’d rather take a musical romp with Dr. Seuss, Seussical (December 11) will also play at the King Center, and get a taste of some down-home homemaking with Dixie’s Tupperware Party (December 2-12). The King Center will also be getting into the holiday spirit with The Nutcracker (December 6-7).

On the West Coast, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center has a few big musicals this month, including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (December 9-14), a magical journey complete with a flying car, and Spring Awakening (December 30-January 4), a story of adolescents coming of age and confronting their oppressive society. Also at the TBPAC, Sister’s Christmas Catechism (December 2-21) brings a forensic take to the story of the nativity from the author of Late Nite Catichism. Further south in Bradenton, Manatee Players will present Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (December 4-21), a candy-coated musical romp for any one with a sweet tooth.

In Sarasota, Asolo Repertory will stage This Wonderful Life (December 3-January 30), a one-man adaptation of the Frank Capra classic by Steve Murray, and Florida Studio Theatre will present Opus (December 3-January 30), a world-class string quartet must replace their violinist a few days before a televised ceremony at the White House.

In Venice, The Venice Theatre has two versions of Christmas cheer, including Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (December 12-14), and A Tuna Christmas (December 17-20), another hilarious broadcast by Murray Chase and Allan Kollar direct from Tuna, Texas with all your favorite citizens from that southwestern hamlet. Finally, in Naples, Gulfshore Playhouse will take a comic approach to the holidays with Another Night Before Christmas (December 11-21) at the Morris Center, a musical about a social worker who meets a homeless man claiming to be Santa Claus.