The legend of singer Johnny Cash still looms large nearly a decade after his death, and a strong contingent of fans turned out for opening night of the Cash-based musical Ring of Fire, at the Manatee Players Riverfront Theatre. I doubt many of them were disappointed by this evening packed with memorable Cash and traditional [...]

Emilio Delgado, Frankie J . Alvarez and Mercedes  Herrero in Asolo Rep’s Hamlet, Prince of Cuba. The works of Shakespeare perhaps more than any other playwright are open to vastly differing artistic interpretations, and that’s held true especially in productions of Hamlet. Settings, costumes and staging have varied much over the centuries, at the least [...]

Lilian Moore, Jason Kimble and Carolyn Zaput in Noises Off. I first saw playwright Michael Frayn’s Noises Off nearly 30 years ago in London, and can still recall laughing until the tears came to my eyes. I’ve seen this onstage-backstage farce a number of times since then, in productions with varying degrees of success, but [...]

De’Zhon Fields in WBTT’s Sammy Tonight! On the one hand, it’s a shame that Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe wasn’t able to present a biographical musical about entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. as originally planned (because of another show that beat them to the rights to his story). The man’s life was certainly packed with drama, from [...]

Hillary Clemens and Kate Hampton in Asolo Rep’s Fallen Angels. For Noel Coward fans, a chance to see even one of his minor plays is cause for some celebration. And that’s what we have with Fallen Angels, a little-seen work from 1925 that’s now onstage at the Asolo Repertory Theatre. It’s hard for modern-day audiences [...]