The Asolo Rep’s Misery offers some twisted Halloween fun.   By Kay Kipling   At the opening of Simon Moore’s adaptation of Stephen King’s suspenser Misery, now onstage at the Asolo Repertory Theatre’s Cook Theatre, we see writer Paul Sheldon accepting an award and explaining how he came to write his bestselling series of [...]

  Is it the best of times for the Asolo Rep’s A Tale of Two Cities?   By Kay Kipling   The challenges of adapting a classic novel for the musical theater are enormous; the ones facing a production of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, with its perhaps inevitable comparisons to megahit Les [...]

  Good and evil battle it out compellingly in the Players’ Jekyll & Hyde.   By Kay Kipling   Composer Frank Wildhorn has been wildly successful with musicals ranging from The Scarlet Pimpernel to The Civil War to one of his earlier hits, Jekyll & Hyde—successful with audiences, that is, if not always with critics [...]

  Florida Studio Theatre’s Altar Boyz makes a joyful noise.   By Kay Kipling   Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 40 years, you’ve probably come across one or two boy bands in your time. (Remember Menudo? Remember New Kids on the Block? Remember Backstreet Boys? OK, I’ll stop now.)   [...]

  The Manatee Players’ Noises Off is bound to make you laugh.   By Kay Kipling   As playwright Michael Frayn slyly has one of the characters in Noises Off say, “I haven’t come to the theater to hear about other people’s problems. I’ve come to be taken out of myself.”   That, of course, [...]

    Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar makes a stop at Venice Little Theatre.   By Kay Kipling   The challenges of staging Tennessee Williams’ American classic A Streetcar Named Desire are obvious ones; looming at the forefront of them is always the shadow of Marlon Brando, who made the role of Stanley Kowalski unforgettable both on [...]