Florida Spotlight: June 2010

The misbehaving ladies of Chicago take their Bob Fosse shimmy down the state this month, with the touring musical making appearances at the Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater (June 4-6) and Orlando’s Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre in Orlando (June 15-20). Meanwhile in Ft. Lauderdale, the somewhat more proper Mary Poppins continues her Florida tour with an extended stop at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale (June 9-27). And in West Palm Beach, the sleek and agile felines of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats howl away at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts (June 22-27).

Also on the east coast, look for The Drowsy Chaperone, the Tony-winning musical-within-a-play with a delicious campy center playing at the Broward Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs (June 11-July 25). In nearby Plantation, The Mosaic Theatre presents Ian Bruce’s Groundswell (June 3-27), a thriller that pits a cop and a gardener against their own greed on the diamond-hungry coast of South Africa.

Central Florida offers up another lesson on greed with Marc Blitzstein’s 1930’s musical The Cradle Will Rock, an operatic indictment of corporate corruption playing at Mad Cow Theatre in Orlando, June 4-July 4. In Gainesville, the Hippodrome State Theatre keeps the improv murder mystery Shear Madness alive (June 4- 27) with a little help from the audience and their clue-hunting skills.

On the west coast, Sarasota makes way for the ladies with the girl group showcase Beehive: The ’60’s Musical at the Florida Studio Theatre (June 2-27) and Menopause the Musical, the hot-flashing and high-kicking parody at the Asolo Repertory Theatre (June 4-27). Meanwhile, the Banyan Theater Company tackles Henrik Ibsen’s dour Ghosts (June 24-July 11), where a widow wrestles with a dead husband’s infidelity.

Venice reaches out to local theater groups worldwide with the AACT International Theatre Festival, bringing community and amateur performers together from as far as Japan for five days of grab-bag shows at the Venice Theatre (June 22-June 27). In Tampa, a café diner inherits the messages and messes of a corpse in Jobsite Theatre’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s dark comedy Dead Man’s Cell Phone, playing at the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts (June 2-June 20).

Finally, Miami hosts the nimble shoes of the Aussie dance showcase Tap Dogs at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts (June 30-July 10), while a trio of students dance around a school scandal and their own adolescence in Stephen Karam’s wry Speech and Debate at the Gable Stage at the Biltmore in Coral Springs (June 19-July 18).