Drifting along with the Manatee Players’ Hank Williams: Lost Highway.   By Kay Kipling   The life and career of country music legend Hank Williams should make for a great story. Hardscrabble beginnings, stardom at the Grand Ole Opry, health and addiction issues, turbulent marriage and early death—that’s more than enough material for a show. [...]

Sometimes politics is the most intriguing theater.   By Kay Kipling; photographs by Ian Dean   Ordinarily, of course, I write about theater in this spot. But, given the chance to attend the Barack Obama rally at Ed Smith Stadium on Thursday, Oct. 30, I immediately saw it as a chance to write about another [...]

  There are lessons for those of every age in the Asolo Rep’s The Giver. By Kay Kipling   The Giver, adapted from the Newbery Award-winning book by Lois Lowry, is an Asolo Rep production that’s part of its “New Stages” initiative, bringing fully staged theatrical productions to area students, especially those of upper elementary [...]

  It’s not perfect, but the Players’ Bye Bye Birdie provides some welcome fun.   By Kay Kipling   No matter how expert you are, you never really know what musicals are going to hold up 40 or 50 years after their debuts. Who would have thought that Bye Bye Birdie, which seemed so firmly [...]

  It’s time for a touch of Twain with Florida Studio Theatre’s A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage.   By Kay Kipling   Lively and fun, Florida Studio Theatre’s current production of A Murder, A Mystery & A Marriage may not leave an indelible memory—in fact, chances are you’ll forget it pretty soon after [...]

  A Golden Apple cast romps through the Moliere-inspired Golddiggers of 1633.   By Kay Kipling   Most of the time, the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre’s Robert Ennis Turoff sticks to producing or directing the shows, but every once in a while he steps on stage to perform; and when he does, it’s frequently a [...]