Orlando Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 8

BWW Review: The Nonstop Twists and Turns in Garden Theatre's DEATHTRAP Are Both Trick and Treat
by Aaron Wallace - October 14, 2019

DEATHTRAP gets off to a slow start, but by Scene Two - when the third of five characters enters the action - it's off to a fast-paced saga of twists, turns, and fatalities... Hilarity and homicide ensue, but in ways you won't see coming, with so many plot twists and misdirects that even an audience ...

BWW Review: Clermont's Moonlight Players Make Mayhem in DIAL M FOR MURDER
by Albert Gutierrez - September 21, 2019

Tonight's my first time in Historic Downtown Clermont. The small parking lot outside the Moonlight Players Theatre already filled up well before I arrived, so I settled on a very uncomfortable parallel parking space a couple blocks down. Fortunately, this allowed me a chance to walk along Minneola...

BWW Review: SEASONS THE MUSICAL Makes Triumphant Return to Orlando at Dr. Phillips Center
by Albert Gutierrez - September 15, 2019

Late Spring.  Early Summer.  An Autumn Afternoon.  Am I describing the time periods of 2014's Orlando Fringe darling SEASONS or the seminal works of film director Yasujirō Ozu?  Ironically, I had watched Ozu's Late Spring a few days before heading out to Dr. Phillips Center to attend the opening per...

BWW Review: Garden Theatre's RAGTIME Is Something Special
by Aaron Wallace - September 03, 2019

For RAGTIME, director Mark Edward Smith and his crew have crafted one of the most appealing and stately sets I've seen at the Garden Theatre. The blocking is clever and thoughtful - important when you have a big ensemble cast on a small stage - and the lighting and costumes are on point. The vaudevi...

BWW Review: Theater West End's IF/THEN Is a Moving, Thought-Provoking, Big-Song Musical You'll Be Glad You Saw
by Aaron Wallace - August 19, 2019

IF/THEN is a dramatization of the concept of opportunity cost. How different might your life be because you went to the park an hour later than you planned or lingered there a little longer? How much of life's trajectory is informed by choice as opposed to coincidence or what is 'supposed' to be? Ho...

BWW Review: GHOST THE MUSICAL Brings Poltergeists, Pop Songs, and Pottery to Theater West End in Sanford
by Aaron Wallace - June 24, 2019

For all my problems with GHOST: THE MUSICAL, Ghost remains an extremely compelling story. Its unusual blend of comedy, drama, horror, and romance is still striking on stage, and even though there were things I'd change, last night I texted a few friends and told them to be sure they see GHOST: THE M...

BWW Review: COME FROM AWAY at Dr. Phillips Center Shows Us the Best of Humanity in the Worst of Times
by Aaron Wallace - June 12, 2019

That the odds are against it underscores just what a tremendous achievement COME FROM AWAY represents. Almost two decades later, this still isn't easy ground to tread - not for creators and certainly not for audiences. But COME FROM AWAY rings true. It is reverent but not funereal, stirring but not ...

BWW Review: Classy Meets Wacky in 'WEIRD AL''s Must-See STRINGS ATTACHED Tour at Melbourne, FL's King Center
by Aaron Wallace - June 11, 2019

But lest you worry that this isn't the full-fledged Yankovic stage experience, rest assured: you aren't missing out one bit. I've always said a 'Weird Al' show is like a series of music videos brought to life on stage. True to form, nearly each new song in STRINGS ATTACHED brings an elaborate costum...

BWW Review: ANASTASIA at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
by Aaron Wallace - May 15, 2019

Thankfully, when ANASTASIA hit Broadway, it dispensed with anyone immortal or winged, replacing fantasy with the real-world politics that led up to the Romanovs' demise. The added historical context grounds this once-wacky story, and frankly, I would have welcomed even more of it......

BWW Review: DEAR EVAN HANSEN Shows Orlando Why It Rocked Broadway
by Aaron Wallace - April 18, 2019

There's terrific acting in the touring cast, even if the singing voices waver from Platt to flat. We get an incredibly convincing Evan in Ben Levi Ross (an understudy for the same role on Broadway). He interprets the character as nervous, nerdy, and unknowingly funny. It's an excellent performance.....

BWW Review: FRIENDS!: THE MUSICAL PARODY Is The One You Want to See with Your Millennial BFFs
by Aaron Wallace - April 08, 2019

Effective parody isn't that common, it doesn't happen to every iconic TV show, and it IS a big deal!...

BWW Review: Things Get Naughty in WILD PARTY at Theater West End
by Aaron Wallace - April 08, 2019

WILD PARTY is a showcase of everything I love about Theater West End: gorgeous lighting, creative set design, top-notch casting, and a willingness to stage shows that aren't being done somewhere else fifty times a year  - even if this particular musical, about a 1920s love rectangle that implodes du...

BWW Review: In 1984 at Garden Theatre, Big Brother Is Shocking You...
by Aaron Wallace - March 15, 2019

Those who know 1984 will anxiously await a big twist, and let me tell you, I couldn't have dreamed of a better execution. It was so startling and dramatic that I physically jumped in my seat, even though I knew what was coming......

BWW Review: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at Dr. Phillips Center
by Aaron Wallace - March 12, 2019

This show is essentially what it was on Broadway: a gorgeous staging that marries stunning stagecraft with complex and rewarding material. But with so many of the cast members, the singing isn't where it ought to be......

BWW Review: WEST SIDE STORY Comes Alive in Immersive Production at Theater West End in Sanford, FL
by Aaron Wallace - February 17, 2019

At Theater West End, you've entered the world of WEST SIDE STORY before even taking your seat. Getting there requires walking across the blue-collar, gang-ridden streets of 1950s New York in the Upper West Side. There's graffiti on the floor beneath you and the walls all around. T-shirts hang out to...

Nothing Rotten about Orlando Shakes' 'Hamlet'
by McKenzie Lakey - February 10, 2019

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BWW Review: HAMILTON Is Here and Meets the Hype at Dr. Phillips Center
by Aaron Wallace - January 25, 2019

Not since Sondheim have we had a musical so complex in lyrics, so layered in rhetoric, so rich in motif, and so conscious of characters' competing perspectives on one another. It is a concert of overlap, interplay, meta-reference, and occasionally even time travel......

BWW Review: It's Hamilton Month in Orlando, but Don't Sleep on THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE at Garden Theater
by Aaron Wallace - January 24, 2019

A fledgling Elvis impersonator reluctantly takes a secret gig as a drag queen in the Florida panhandle... and hopes to God his wife won't find out. That's the high-concept premise of THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE......

BWW Review: Natalie Cortez Dazzles in Riverside's Thrilling EVITA, Despite Lack of Political Focus
by Matt Tamanini - January 26, 2019

My mind kept turning these quotes over after I saw Riverside Theatre's spectacular production of Andrew Lloyd Weber and Time Rice's EVITA, running through Sunday, Jan. 27 in Vero Beach. With its supremely talented cast, phenomenal production values, and shining star, there is no doubt that the music...

BWW Review: WHITE CHRISTMAS Is an Alright Christmas at Dr. Phillips Center
by Aaron Wallace - December 19, 2018

Certainly, if you're looking for a festive night on the town with your family this holiday week, WHITE CHRISTMAS at Dr. Phillips Center is your ticket. There's something quaint about heading downtown for some simple entertainment to ring in the holiday. And to this production's credit, the set desig...

BWW Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Orlando Shakes
by McKenzie Lakey - December 04, 2018

The traditional and beloved tale of greed, reflection, and redemption in the wake of the Christmas season recently hit the stage at Orlando Shakes this past weekend-and no, it's not the tale of the Grinch. Whether you're a seasoned Charles Dickens fan, entirely versed in his holiday classic, 'A Chri...

BWW Review: HELLO, DOLLY! at Dr. Phillips Center Reminds Us the World Is 'Full of Wonderful Things'
by Aaron Wallace - November 29, 2018

The grin hits your face early in HELLO, DOLLY! and stays there 'til the bows are done......

BWW Review: THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY Is Another Win for Theater West End in Sanford
by Aaron Wallace - November 07, 2018

If the thing you love about musical theatre is its ability to express a character's emotions and inner struggles in song, BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY is the show for you......

BWW Review: The JERSEY BOYS Are Back at Dr. Phillips Center and Holding Their Own
by Aaron Wallace - November 03, 2018

As of last fall, JERSEY BOYS has been seen on the stage by more than 25 million people around the world. So, is it really that good? Tough question. My first instinct is to say JERSEY BOYS ain't all that. It's a backstage, jukebox, rise-and-fall musical, a combination that ought to be the broadest, ...

BWW Review: Something Different This Way Comes in HOCUS POCUS VILLAIN SPELLTACULAR at Magic Kingdom
by Aaron Wallace - October 29, 2018

Night after night, three dead-ringers for Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy rush from behind a cemetery gate to the front of the stage, the towering Cinderella Castle lit up in spooky candelabras (impressively projection mapped) behind them. Without fail, the crowd either gasps wi...