Impressions of  opening night at Sarasota Opera.   By Kay Kipling   I’ve never been an opera critic, and I’m not setting myself up as one now. I’m not able to learnedly compare the Sarasota Opera’s current production of Madama Butterfly with decades of others at La Scala or the Met (i.e., how did Julie [...]

FST offers our first (and long-awaited) full production of a Martin McDonagh work.   By Kay Kipling   To my knowledge, Florida Studio Theatre’s Stage III presentation of The Lieutenant of Inishmore is the first full offering of a work by the prolific and acclaimed playwright Martin McDonagh (The Pillowman, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, [...]

    The Asolo’s production about an infertile couple is likeable—but not groundbreaking.   By Kay Kipling   Nature has programmed the human race so that procreation is one of our strongest urges. But what happens when that urge is denied by infertility? In today’s world of medical and technological advances, the choices are many, [...]

   Venice Little Theatre tackles a tough Sondheim show—and scores a win.   By Kay Kipling   When Venice Little Theatre announced that it would present Into the Woods in its smaller Stage II space, not on the mainstage, it was cause for some concern. Could the little black box theater adequately hold an action-packed [...]

      Youth shines, despite some flaws, in this Manatee Players’  production.   By Kay Kipling   The Tony Award-winning Thoroughly Modern Millie has been making the local rounds lately, and now it turns up at the Manatee Players, where it’s given a mostly satisfying if not entirely successful production.   Millie, which centers [...]

      The Players successfully tackle a demanding show—as their director makes an unexpected exit.   By Kay Kipling     It would be pretty hard to miss the irony in this scenario: Community theater tackles large-scale, Tony Award-winning show, opens to enthusiastic applause, artistic director in charge of the piece is…fired?   That’s [...]

      A pleasant night is in the cards with this Golden Apple production.   By Kay Kipling   Even if you’re not a bingo player, there’s something hard to resist when a cast member of the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre’s Bingo starts handing out cards and daubers for you to use during the [...]

  The Asolo hits a home run with this immensely likeable show.   By Kay Kipling     Watching David S. Howard at work in this one-man show about baseball legend Yogi Berra is like settling back in your pajamas on a cozy couch, curled up with a favorite book and a drink and knowing [...]

  The play is on target, but it’s hard to love the characters in this Asolo/FSU Conservatory production.     By Kay Kipling   “What you are now has nothing to do with what you’re going to be,” says a character in Kenneth Lonergan’s play, and based on the behavior of the three young people in [...]