The Manatee Players serve up laughs and tears with Steel Magnolias.   By Kay Kipling   I’ve seen Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias a number of times now, and while I can sometimes get restless with all the talk, talk, talk in Truvy’s beauty salon, the test of the production always comes for me in [...]

  The Players Theatre opens the door to Company.   By Kay Kipling   Stephen Sondheim fans (of which I am one) often have a special fondness for Company, his 1970 musical about a 35-year-old, commitment-averse bachelor named Bobby with a lot of married friends. It’s not his deepest show, and the book by George [...]

  Venice Theatre ventures into spoof territory with Forbidden Broadway.   By Kay Kipling   When it comes to biting the hand that feeds you, Forbidden Broadway does it well. You might almost say that writer Gerard Alessandrini and his minions invented the art.   But it’s been a while since we’ve seen a production [...]