Tag Archives: Dave Alan Thomas

A DUAL CRITICS ABET THEATER REVIEW The opened Alice in Wonderland on May 10 at 544 Atlantic Boulevard in . The show, sponsored by The Mary E. Haverty Foundation and John and Beverly Johnson, runs through May 26, 2019. Visit abettheatre.com or call 249-7177 for additional information and reservations. The book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, was written by Charles Dodson and published in 1865 under the pen name of Lewis Carroll. The book became a publishing sensation; Queen Victoria and Oscar Wilde were avid fans. It has never been out of print, has been published in over ninety languages, and continues …

DUAL CRITICS REVIEW “Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” a social-issues play by George Bernard Shaw, opened on the Swisher Theatre Stage at Jacksonville University on February 15th, with additional shows scheduled February 22 and 24, at 7:30 PM.  The Irish playwright was a Nobel Prize winner, who wrote more than sixty plays during his lifetime. His best known works include “Man and Superman,” “Saint Joan,” “Major Barbara,” “Caesar and Cleopatra,” and “Pygmalion,” the basis for the ever- popular musical “My Fair Lady.” He died at age ninety-four, while in the process of writing still another play. “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” was written in …

St. Augustine’s opened the Florida premier of “The Nance” on June 2, 2017 which will remain on the Matuza Main Stage through June 25, 2017. The theatre is located at 11 Old Mission Avenue; call 825-1164 or visit limelight-theatre.org for reservations. The play, written by , received three Tony awards after opening on Broadway in 2013 with star Nathan Lane in the lead role, and both entertains and educates. “” is set in New York City in 1937. The city is filled with burlesque theatres, which feature performances filled with adult content and allusions to sexual situations by naughty bawdy …

ATLANTIC BEACH EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE REVIEW A DUAL CRITICS REVIEW BY DICK KEREKES & LEISLA SANSOM Atlantic Beach Experimental Theatre,, opened its first production of 2017 with “,” a spectacular musical which will remain on stage through February 5th. For reservations, visit www.abettheatre.com or call 904-249-7177. “Celebration” is unique: a musical fable unlike any you have previously seen in a theatre. You probably do know the composers: (words) and (music) are famous for their 1960 hit “The Fantasticks,” which ran Off-Broadway for 42 years, with 17,182 performances. The original production closed in 2002; a 2006 revival is still running Off-Broadway. In …

  Billed as an “Avant-Garde Musical Fable,” tells the story of a young Orphan who stumbles upon the home of Edgar Allen Rich, who is the wealthiest man in the world, on what is revealed to be a magical New Year’s Eve. Among the guests of Mr. Rich is the beautiful fallen Angel, who becomes the subject of a ritualistic battle for her love. Celebration runs Jan 20–Feb 5 at the . (249-7177, www.abettheatre.com) directs the ABET stage debut with musical director and choreographer . Celebration stars , , , and features Brian Keith Champion, Lucas Hopper, Matt Krieger, Kimberly Cooper …

ABET THEATRE REVIEW DUAL CRITICS REVIEW BY DICK KEREKES & LEISLA SANSOM [email protected] The opened the Florida premier of the musical “” on September 9, 2016. The production will be onstage through September 26. The musical, which debuted on Broadway in 1981, is based on a 1934 play by and . It hasn’t been staged frequently, probably because it is so challenging for the actors, musicians, and directors. But as far as we know, director embraces challenging works, and this play was no exception. He was ably assisted by actor/director . The book is by , while the music and …

LIMELIGHT THEATRE REVIEW DICK KEREKES & LEISLA SANSOM [email protected] St. Augustine’s has opened Frank Galati’s Tony Award winning play “.” The play is based on ’s novel, which was published in 1939, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for fiction; a film starring Henry Fonda received an Academy Award the following year. The film is still shown on cable from time to time. Director ’ production of this searing indictment of man’s cruel indifference to his fellow man is a winner on stage at Limelight. It is a history lesson that remains frighteningly relevant, and one you won’t …

PLAYERS BY THE SEA THEATRE REVIEW Jacksonville Beach’s opened its 50th season on September 18, 2015 with a revival of the 1984 winner of six Tony Awards, “,” which will run through October 10. Reservations are highly recommended; call 904-249-0289 or visit theatrejax.org. When this play first hit Broadway in 1983, it was considered controversial as it is about a committed gay couple facing a family crisis when their son decides to marry. As far as we know, this production is only the second in North Florida; we recall it being staged at the some years ago. In view of …

This summer’s collaboration between , a Theatre Company and will be Bruce Norris’s thought-provoking comedy , a play about race, real-estate and relationships.  Named for the fictional white neighborhood introduced in Lorraine Hansberry’s seminal play “A Raisin in the Sun,” Clybourne Park is a neighborhood twice transformed. Starting in 1959 we meet a Russ and Bev, a white middle-class couple packing for a move out of the neighborhood. Visits from their clergyman and their neighbors lead to a heated disagreement about the buyers for Russ and Bev’s home, a black family, and their worries about the impact on their property values. In …