Venice Theatre is alive with The Sound of Music.  By Kay Kipling Just when you thought you couldn’t stand to see The Sound of Music one more time, along comes a production that makes it pleasant to watch again.   Not that Venice Theatre’s production of this classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical offers anything new [...]

 A musical classic gets a new look with the Manatee Players‘ Damn  Yankees. By Kay Kipling   Just in time for spring training, the Manatee Players are presenting that baseball-themed classic musical, Damn Yankees. It’s a tried-and-true perennial, but this production offers up some surprises.   The energy of the show is felt immediately as [...]

A mild version of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest takes to the Players stage. By Kay Kipling   Fair warning: Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest holds a rather special place in my heart. Although I’ve read and seen it countless times, I still revel in the brilliance of Wilde’s wit, and [...]

 A play about love and marriage with FST’s Boleros for the Disenchanted.   By Kay Kipling   With Valentine’s Day this month, it’s an auspicious time for Florida Studio Theatre to present Jose Rivera’s Boleros for the Disenchanted, a play about a couple told in scenes set 39 years apart.   That doesn’t mean Boleros [...]

 The Sarasota Opera triumphs with a compelling Tosca.   By Kay Kipling   For a relative latecomer to opera such as myself, one frequent complaint has been that while the music, the voices and the settings are beautiful, the storylines can be far-fetched and the characters too thinly drawn. Not the case with the Sarasota [...]

 Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe gets down with Sistas in the Name of Soul.   By Kay Kipling   When the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe was forced to reconsider its 2009 season plans (including finding a new venue) due to tough economic times, one wondered if the company could survive and if so, in what form. [...]

 Humor and heart with the Asolo Rep’s Visiting Mr. Green.   By Kay Kipling   From the opening scene of Visiting Mr. Green, now onstage at the Historic Asolo Theater in an Asolo Rep production, it’s a pleasure to admire not only the actors onstage, but the comic timing of both playwright Jeff Baron and [...]

 An outstanding Circus Sarasota show welcomes star Bello Nock back home.   By Kay Kipling   Longtime Sarasotans always look forward to the opening of Circus Sarasota each winter, and this year’s show is no exception. In fact, it’s a more exciting production than usual, thanks in large part to the presence of Sarasota native [...]