On Stage

A DUAL CRITICS 1904 MUSIC HALL REVIEW Yes, Rocky is back in town thanks to the and show sponsor Alexander Dental. It opened Oct. 31, 2017, with additional performances scheduled Nov. 3, 4, 10, and 11. Tickets are available at 1904musichall.com and the venue’s Facebook page. We attended the performance on Nov. 4, and found the show just as exciting as our previous experiences with . The show has an interesting history. wrote the musical, which debuted in London in 1973. During the next six years, the London-based production was staged in a number of theatres for almost 3,000 performances, but …

A Dual Critics Florida State College of Jacksonville Fine Arts Dept. Review The presented ’s comedy entitled “” during November 2 – 5, 2017. It was staged at the , at 11901 Beach Boulevard. The play was inspired by a children’s book of the same name by Jon Sciezka and Lane Smith which was published in 1992 and has acquired a wide and devoted audience. This production was directed by , who has been Professor of Theatre and head of FSCJ’s Theatre Performance Program at South Campus for the past twenty-four years. During this time, he has staged a vast …

Michael Winslow is a comedian, film actor, voice-over artist, and beatboxer, but he is best known for his wicked arsenal of impressions. Branded “the man of 10,000 sound effects” Winslow can imitate anything from a leaky faucet to an Air Force jet, but to call him an impressionist is a gross understatement. He’s an anomaly that you must hear to believe. Winslow will perform two shows at the . He hosts the first annual Black Friday Black Ball on Nov 24 and a second show Nov 25. EU Jacksonville had the chance to chat with the funny man and “voicetramentalist” …

“Feed Me.” With just two simple words, a villain is born. Or sprouted, in this case, under curious circumstances during a solar eclipse of the sun. With an immensely talented cast, superb direction, spot-on vocals and expert puppeteering, Players by the Sea’s staging of Little Shop of Horrors is a riotous good time that is out of this world. “Little Shop of Horrors” is staged through November 18 at PBTS, 106 6th Street N. in Jacksonville Beach (www.playersbythesea.org). This delightfully campy musical directed by Jocelyn Geronimo is based on the sci-fi Broadway play by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. It …

A  JACKSONVILLE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF THE FINE ARTS REVIEW Jacksonville University opened a four-performance run of “” during October 26 – 29, 2017, staged in the school’s at 2800 University Boulevard North. With ticket prices of $10 for adults and $5 for seniors, military, students, and children, the large theatre was almost filled to capacity on opening night. This musical comedy opened on Broadway in 2001 and ran for almost a thousand performances. It was nominated for ten Tony Awards and won three, for Best Book, Best Original Score, and Best Direction of a Musical. The Dual Critics saw the …

A DUAL CRITICS ATLANTIC BEACH EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE REVIEW ABET opened a two-week run (Oct 17 – Nov 5, 2017) – of “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds” by Paul Zindel (1936 –2003). The play received the Obie Award and the Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play in 1970, followed by the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1971. The story is that of a dysfunctional family and is semi-autobiographical, as Zindel incorporates material drawn from his difficult teen years with an impoverished single mother, and his career as a chemistry teacher prior to his later success as a …

A DUAL CRITICS DOUGLAS ANDERSON SCHOOL OF THE ARTS THEATRE REVIEW The Theatre Department opened Steven Dietz’s “Lonely Planet” on October 19, 2017 for a run of eight performances through October 27. DA’s production is the Florida premier. The play was written by prolific playwright (who wrote thirty-four plays during 1981 – 2015), and is set in the late 1980’s. It debuted in 1993, a decade after the recognition of the beginning of the AIDS crisis. A Wikipedia post from 2015 which identifies fourteen plays with HIV/AIDS as a major theme includes Dietz’s play. Among the most frequently staged are …

Hope McMath, a leader in the Jacksonville arts community, has moved on from her post as director at the , to run a new endeavor–Yellow House. Inside Yellow House, just across from the , at first glance, it looks like a gallery, albeit one with storage issues–besides art, the first room of the gallery features pallets of water, cereal boxes and other sundries, ready to go to communities in need. When hurricane Irma hit, mobilized as quickly as possible, getting much needed supplies to those living in Jacksonville, especially in the Washington Heights area, which was flooded. She had specific …