| 16 February 2010
The cast of Les Miserables at Actors' Playhouse.
There was nothing miserable about the Actors’ Playhouse production of the epic musical Les Miserables, the nominating committee for the 34th annual Carbonell Awards said Tuesday as it showered the show with 12 nominations.
The adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel led the field vying for bragging rights of excellence in professional theater in South Florida.
Les Miz, as the popular British show is nicknamed, was cited for best musical, director (David Arisco), actor (David Michael Felty), supporting actor (Gary Marachek), three supporting actresses (Gwen Hollander, Melissa Minyard, Margot Moreland), musical direction (Eric Alsford), and all four design categories: sets (Sean McClelland), lighting (Patrick Tennant), costumes (Colleen Grady) and sound (Alexander Herrin).
Musicals dominated the nominations, with the top four nod totals going to musicals. For the top award, Les Miz will be competing with: Barnum, Maltz Jupiter Theatre (8 nominations), Vices: A Love Story, Caldwell Theatre Co. (8) and Cagney, Florida Stage (7). The fifth show in the Best Musical category is Broward Stage Door’s A Little Night Music, with four mentions.
Best Play nominees include Broadsword at Miami’s Mad Cat Theatre Company and Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them at Plantation’s Mosaic Theatre, tied with five nods each. Two Palm Beach County companies will go head-to-head with them, Palm Beach Dramaworks for Copenhagen and the Caldwell Theatre for The Whipping Man, along with GableStage’s Speed-the-Plow.
Palm Beach County theaters had the largest cumulative nominations total with 38. Boca Raton’s Caldwell Theatre led the way with 12, two each for The Whipping Man and The Voysey Inheritance, in addition to the eight for Vices: A Love Story.
The Maltz Jupiter Theatre was close behind with 11 nominations -- Barnum’s eight, plus three for Evita. Florida Stage scored nine nominations, the seven for Cagney and one each for Some Kind of Wonderful and The Storytelling Ability of a Boy. And Palm Beach Dramaworks’s six nominations were spread among four productions, Copenhagen (2), A Doll’s House (2), At Home at the Zoo (1) and Private Lives (1).
Nominations were distributed fairly evenly among the three counties of South Florida, though, with 37 going to Miami-Dade theaters and 25 to Broward. In all, 13 companies were recognized, with nominations going to 33 of the 75 eligible shows that opened during the 2009 calendar year.
Both actor Gregg Weiner and sound designer Matt Corey hit the trifecta, gaining three individual nominations each. In addition to Weiner’s nods for Dumb Show (Promenthean Theatre), A Doll’s House (Pam Beach Dramaworks) and Farragut North (GableStage), he is also up for the Best Ensemble award as a cast member of Mad Cat Theatre’s Broadsword and Farragut North.
The nail-biting officially begins now for the nominees and continues until Monday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m., when the winners will be announced in the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets to the ceremony are $25, or $20 apiece for a group of 10 or more. They go on sale this Friday at the Broward Center’s box office (954-462-0222) or by visiting www.browardcenter.org.
Cagney
The complete list of Carbonell Awards nominations follows:
COMBINED (plays and musicals)
Best New Work (award to author)
Peter Colley, Robert Creighton and Christopher McGovern, Cagney, Florida Stage; Mario Diament, A Report on the Banality of Love, The Promethean Theatre; Terry Lawrence, Speaking Elephant, The Women's Theatre Project; Carter W. Lewis, The Storytelling Ability of a Boy, Florida Stage; Susan Draus, Everett Bradley, Michael Heitzman and Ilene Reid, Vices: A Love Story, Caldwell Theatre Company
Best Ensemble Production (citations to cast and director)
Bombshells! A Musical Explosion of Life, Love and Telling It All!, Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre; Broadsword, Mad Cat Theatre Company; Farragut North, GableStage; Some Kind of Wonderful, Florida Stage; Viva Bourgeois!, Mad Cat Theatre Company
PLAYS
Best Production of a Play (award to producing organization)
Broadsword, Mad Cat Theatre Company; Copenhagen, Palm Beach Dramaworks; Speed-the-Plow, GableStage; The Whipping Man, Caldwell Theatre Company; Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them, Mosaic Theatre
Best Director
Joseph Adler, Farragut North, GableStage; Joseph Adler, Speed-the-Plow, GableStage; J. Barry Lewis, Copenhagen, Palm Beach Dramaworks; Richard Jay Simon, Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them, Mosaic Theatre; Paul Tei, Broadsword, Mad Cat Theatre Company
Best Actor
John Archie, The Whipping Man, Caldwell Theatre Company; Todd Allen Durkin, At Home at the Zoo, Palm Beach Dramaworks; Paul Tei, Speed-the-Plow, GableStage; Ricky Waugh, Reasons to Be Pretty, GableStage; Gregg Weiner, Dumb Show, The Promethean Theatre
Best Actress
Linda Bernhard, Playhouse Creatures , The Women's Theatre Project; Barbara Bradshaw, Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them, Mosaic Theatre; Lela Elam, No Child, GableStage; Angie Radosh, Speaking Elephant, The Women's Theatre Project; Laura Turnbull, Rock 'n' Roll, Mosaic Theatre
Best Supporting Actor
Dennis Creaghan, The Voysey Inheritance, Caldwell Theatre Company; Todd Allen Durkin, Reasons to Be Pretty, GableStage; Erik Fabregat, Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them, Mosaic Theatre; Gregg Weiner, A Doll's House, Palm Beach Dramaworks; Gregg Weiner, Farragut North, GableStage
Best Supporting Actress
Elena Maria Garcia, Summer Shorts: Signature Shorts, City Theatre; Patti Gardner, Defiance, GableStage; Erin Joy Schmidt, Viva Bourgeois!, Mad Cat Theatre Company; Deborah L. Sherman, Dumb Show, The Promethean Theatre; Miriam Wiener, In a Dark, Dark House, Mosaic Theatre
MUSICALS
Best Production of a Musical (award to producing organization)
Barnum, Maltz Jupiter Theatre; Cagney, Florida Stage; Les Miserables, Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre; A Little Night Music, Broward Stage Door; Vices: A Love Story, Caldwell Theatre Company
Best Director of a Musical
David Arisco, Les Miserables, Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre; Bill Castellino, Cagney, Florida Stage; Clive Cholerton, Vices: A Love Story, Caldwell Theatre Company; Gordon Greenberg, Barnum, Maltz Jupiter Theatre; Margaret M. Ledford, Cannibal! The Musical, The Promethean Theatre
Best Actor in a Musical
Matthew William Chizever, Cannibal! The Musical, The Promethean Theatre; Robert Creighton, Cagney, Florida Stage; David Michael Felty, Les Miserables, Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre; Mark A. Harmon, A Little Night Music, Broward Stage Door; Brad Oscar, Barnum, Maltz Jupiter Theatre
Best Actress in a Musical
Natalie Venetia Belcon, Vices: A Love Story, Caldwell Theatre Company; Misty Cotton, Barnum, Maltz Jupiter Theatre; Jodie Langel, Evita, Maltz Jupiter Theatre; Kimberley Xavier Martins, A Little Night Music, Broward Stage Door; Holly Shunkey, Vices: A Love Story, Caldwell Theatre Company
Best Supporting Actor in a Musical
Darrin Baker, Cagney, Florida Stage; Marcus Bellamy, Vices: A Love Story, Caldwell Theatre Company; Nathanial Braga, Barnum, Maltz Jupiter Theatre; Gary Marachek, Les Miserables, Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre; Rudy Martinez, Evita, Maltz Jupiter Theatre
Best Supporting Actress in a Musical
Katherine Amadeo, Cannibal! The Musical, The Promethean Theatre; Miki Edelman, A Little Night Music, Broward Stage Door; Gwen Hollander, Les Miserables, Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre; Melissa Minyard, Les Miserables, Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre; Margot Moreland, Les Miserables, Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre
Best Musical Direction
Eric Alsford, Les Miserables, Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre; Helen Gregory, Barnum, Maltz Jupiter Theatre; Helen Gregory, Evita, Maltz Jupiter Theatre; Christopher McGovern, Cagney, Florida Stage; Jon Rose, Vices: A Love Story, Caldwell Theatre Company
Best Choreography:
Chrissi Ardito, Bubbling Brown Sugar, Broward Stage Door; Chrissi Ardito, Cannibal! The Musical, The Promethean Theatre; AC Ciulla, Vices: A Love Story, Caldwell Theatre Company; Joshua Rhodes, Barnum, Maltz Jupiter Theatre; Jeff Shade, Cagney, Florida Stage
DESIGN (plays and musicals)
Best Set Design
Antonio Amadeo, Macon City: A Comic Book Play, The Naked Stage; Michael Amico, Private Lives, Palm Beach Dramaworks; Joe Kimble, Broadsword, Mad Cat Theatre Company; Sean McClelland, In a Dark, Dark House, Mosaic Theatre; Sean McClelland, Les Miserables, Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre
Best Lighting Design
Suzanne M. Jones, In a Dark, Dark House, Mosaic Theatre; John Manzelli, Macon City: A Comic Book Play, The Naked Stage; Jeff Quinn, No Child, GableStage; Jeff Quinn, Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them, Mosaic Theatre; Patrick Tennent, Les Miserables, Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre
Best Costume Design
Alberto Arroyo, The Voysey Inheritance, Caldwell Theatre Company; Danielle Campbell, Viva Bourgeois!, Mad Cat Theatre Company; Colleen Grady, Les Miserables, Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre; Brian O’Keefe, A Doll's House, Palm Beach Dramaworks; Alejo Vietti, Barnum, Maltz Jupiter Theatre
Best Sound Design
Matt Corey, Broadsword, Mad Cat Theatre Company; Matt Corey, Cannibal! The Musical, The Promethean Theatre; Matt Corey, Macon City: A Comic Book Play, The Naked Stage; Alexander Herrin, Les Miserables, Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre; Steve Shapiro, Summer Shorts: Signature Shorts, City Theatre
| 15 February 2010
Ted Deasy, Scott Parkinson, Eric Hissom and Claire Brownell in The 39 Steps.
So many shows on Broadway these days stem from movies, productions that get slapped onstage, bypassing any new injection of imagination.
And then there is Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, a frantic, frisky adaptation of a 1935 spy thriller from the master of suspense, reduced -- or possibly elevated -- to a sly comic romp by four actors sprinting through the film’s plot, pausing for plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor, and impersonating the scores of characters in this stiff-upper-lip tense tale.
Having already had a healthy run on Broadway, The 39 Steps is currently on hiatus there before returning for a further run off-Broadway. Meanwhile, the show is on tour, spreading its infectious silliness across the country, including Fort Lauderdale’s Parker Playhouse, where is plays through Feb. 28.
Picture a cut-rate theater company that cannot afford the payroll this convoluted yarn would normally require. Nor do they seem to have the means to construct the sets that the film’s numerous locations would require.
So the parts are dealt out among the four members of the troupe, particularly Eric Hissom and Scott Parkinson, the two hardest-working actors around, who switch costumes and characters with abandon, while occasionally lugging onstage a stray piece of furniture or scenic element.
Under Maria Aitken’s direction, The 39 Steps thumbs its nose at the commercial theater’s penchant for spectacle, preferring instead to draw on the audience’s imagination with shadow puppets and atmospheric lighting. With those puppets, for instance, the Loch Ness monster can materialize and Hitchcock himself can make his signature cameo appearance. (At the 2008 Tony Awards, the show won for outstanding lighting and sound.)
The plot concerns one of Hitchcock’s iconic innocents on the run, a mustachioed Canadian named Richard Hannay (Ted Deasy), who becomes implicated in a murder and forced to flee across the United Kingdom, chased by the police and by espionage agents.
Along the way, he encounters a succession of women -- a Germanic Mata Hari, an archetypal alluring Hitchcock blonde and a rural farm girl -- all played by the versatile Claire Brownell.
Do not be concerned if you are unfamiliar with the film of The 39 Steps, for plot is not this show’s strong point and there is plenty of fun to be had enjoying the moment-to-moment jokes. At just under two hours, the comic conceit is probably stretched to its limit, but the performers are so deft that they hold our attention beyond the point of diminishing returns.
The central joke is that a movie like The 39 Steps cannot possibly be replicated live and contained on a stage. Fortunately, no one told adaptor Patrick Barlow or these four nimble, puckish actors.
THE 39 STEPS, Parker Playhouse, 707 N.E. 8th St., Fort Lauderdale. Continuing through Sunday, Feb. 28. Tickets; $15-$50. Call: (954) 462-0222 or (800) 982-2787.
| 11 February 2010
The members of Rain, in full Sgt. Pepper regalia.
Just because you cannot afford to book a band, or the members have long since stopped talking to each other, let alone playing together, that should not stop a performing arts center from presenting the group anyway. Or at least a reasonable facsimile.
That is the rationale behind the tribute band phenomenon, which has seen the likes of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd on the Kravis Center stage in the past two years and now, on Friday evening, you can meet the Beatles.
Well, sort of.
Liverpool’s Fab Four have inspired a raft of tribute bands, all approximating the look and sound of what is generally acknowledged to be the greatest collection of rock songwriters/performers ever assembled. The band's career had many distinct periods, from the Ed Sullivan Show days through their musical and psychedelic experiments to their bitter break-up, and a group called Rain, which will be performing at the Kravis Center on Friday, is able to render them all.
But their specialty is reproducing the complex, overdubbed tracks that even the Beatles never performed live.
“The Beatles stopped touring in ‘66 and our show just starts to heat up around that time,” says Joey Curatolo, who plays Paul McCartney in Rain. “They started into the studio around ‘Rubber Soul’ or 'Revolver,' and we play all that music till the end of their career. With today’s technology, we can sample, recreate and reproduce and emulate all the [engineer] George Martin productions and scoring.”
Most of the members of Rain came from a 1970s Broadway show about the group, Beatlemania. Originally, they were called Reign, as in royalty, but after enough reporters misspelled it, they switched to Rain, which also happens to be the name of a Beatles song.
Rain was playing cruise ship and casino gigs when Canadian producer Jeff Parry saw them, saw the potential in their musicianship and took the act to a new, more theatrical level that now plays performing arts centers.
“We added the video elements, the historical references in the video, so it’s more of a show than just a bunch of guys playing music,” Parry says.
Still, getting presenters to take a look at Rain was not easy. “We had to convince people that this was something special, not just another Beatles tribute show. When people see it they understand,” insists Parry. “Critics come to rip it apart and in a half an hour, they’re sucked right into this thing.”
Any four guys can call themselves a Beatles tribute band. What further sets Rain apart is the high-level endorsements they have received. “We are licensed by Sony now, the only people licensed to have grand rights for a Beatles show, except for Cirque du Soleil. It’s a stamp of approval of the quality of our show,” beams Curatolo.
Rain can play most of the 200 or so songs in the Beatles catalog, and their show can vary, night to night. But some numbers are virtually required by the fans. “You have to play ‘Yesterday’ in a Beatles show, you have to play ‘Hey Jude,’ you have to pay ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,' ” explains Curatolo.
He claims to not be bothered by the many other Beatles tribute bands running around. “The good thing is that they’re out there and everybody is bringing this music to the younger generation and keeping the spirit of the Beatles alive.”
Not surprisingly, Curatolo thinks you need to see Rain, no matter what your age.
“For Baby Boomers, it’s a religious experience. For young people, it’s what all the excitement was about for their older siblings or mother and father. For younger people, it’s a must to be introduced to this music.
"And it’s the quickest two hours they’ll ever sit through.”
RAIN: A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES. Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets: $25-$95. Call: (561) 832-7469 or (800) 572-8471.
| 04 February 2010
Francisco Solorzano, foreground, and Gordon McConnell in Sins of the Mother. (Photo by Ken Jacques)
Athol Fugard sets most of his plays in South Africa, A.R. Gurney likes to explore the WASP culture of Buffalo, N.Y.,, and Israel Horovitz has cornered the market on tales of the rugged denizens of Gloucester, Mass.
Of the 70-plus plays he has written so far, many are set in the coastal town whose economy is so closely tied to the fishing industry. While the details of his characters’ lives are likely to be foreign to Florida Stage theatergoers, Horovitz writes with an understanding of humanity that has proven universal. In fact, he is the most produced American playwright in the history of France.
His latest work, Sins of the Mother, a story of sudden violence, revenge and forgiveness, has already had a couple of productions, so it is unusual for Florida Stage to become involved with the script at this point. But in honor of Horovitz’s 70th birthday last year, theaters around the world are paying tribute to the unassuming dramatist by collectively staging all of his plays, either in full productions or in readings.
Sins of the Mother is the Manalapan theater’s contribution to this global Horovitz festival, a script that is simply too good to turn down, particularly when the playwright is willing to come here and direct the play himself.
Be forewarned that each of the play’s two acts begin slowly, with seemingly idle chatter over mundane matters. But be assured that this is Horovitz’s crafty dawdle as he carefully calibrates his path to two searing climaxes. He draws us in with plenty of humor, as these gruff stevedores sift through the geography and interpersonal connections in a town where everyone knows each other, or thinks they do. Then gradually, methodically, the script heads towards twin conclusions that cut with a knife, both literally and figuratively.
It is interesting to note that Sins of the Mother began as a one-act play, only the first act of what is on view at Florida Stage. While that does seem to be a fully satisfying tale -- at least by intermission -- what lies ahead feels so organic and crucial to Horovitz’s theme that the first half then seems incomplete in retrospect.
The first act is set in a moribund dock workers’ union hall at a recession-shuttered Gloucester fish-processing plant. There the jobless -- aging Vietnam vet Bobby Maloney (Gordon McConnell), antagonistic needler Frankie Verga (Brian Claudio Smith), decent, but dense Dubbah Morrison (David Nail) and an outsider, Douggie Shimmatarro (Francisco Solorzano), drawn back home after years away -- come to have their unemployment forms signed. They shoot the breeze and goad each other, irritating long-festered wounds until simmering resentments boil over.
Act Two jumps ahead nine months to the wake of Bobby’s wife, who died from a venereal disease -- presumably AIDS, though it is never specified -- whose origin links more than a few of the characters. Hovering over the uneasy small talk of bereavement is the violent act that occurred just before intermission and now must be covered up. Spicing up the drama is the introduction of Frankie’s twin brother Philly (Smith again, in a remarkably versatile acting turn), an affluent Toyota dealer who seethes with anger, but not directed where the others expect.
McConnell heads the cast as the production’s father figure, a critical role in a play full of parent-child tensions. Alternately hot-tempered and teary-eyed, he gives a pitch-perfect performance that culminates in a eulogy laden with irony. The rest of the cast comes from other productions of the play and their seamless ensemble work justifies their importation. In his double roles, Smith is a standout, notably in a stunning second-act monologue of barely contained paternal hatred.
Richard Crowell devises two richly detailed, very solid sets, marvels in the cramped quarters that Florida Stage will soon be leaving. It will be his last design before the company picks up and moves to the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse this summer.
So Sins of the Mother marks the beginning of the end of an era, but with plays like this one, Florida Stage’s future seems assured, no matter where the company performs.
SINS OF THE MOTHER, Florida Stage, 262 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan. Through March 7. Tickets: $45-$48. Call: (561) 585-or (800) 514-3837.
| 20 January 2010
The cast of Slow Burn Theatre's 'Bat Boy.'
Welcome to the area the Slow Burn Theatre Company, a new professional troupe that is the passion project of Patrick Fitzwater and Matthew Korinko, two former St. Louis performers-directors who moved here in 2008 and have wanted to start their own stage operation ever since.
They will be the first to acknowledge that the shaky economy does not make this an ideal time to begin such a venture, but as Korinko puts it, “you can come up with excuses at any point in time for not giving it a shot. We just looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s just do it,’ instead of falling back on excuses not to.”
Although the company’s name brings to mind a crockpot meal or an Oliver Hardy comic take (“Well, Ollie, this is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into”), Korinko says it has numerous other connotations.
“We kind of were going through some theater terms and I Googled a glossary and 'slow burn' was one of the terms. The minute I said it, it fit,” he says. “It can be the way a character grows, a slow burn within a song or within a play, or the more literal meaning that is suggested by our logo, the slow burn of a wick before the explosion you know is coming. The anticipation that builds up, the suspense.”
As the mission statement on their Website (www.slowburntheatre.com) puts it, they intend to produce “daring, contemporary and intelligent works of musical theater” and they list more than three dozen show titles, ranging from Avenue Q to Xanadu, from Next to Normal to Urinetown, that they are interested in mounting. It’s an ambitious list, without a single show by Andrew Lloyd Webber in it. It is hard not to like their intentions, and only time will tell whether they are overestimating the taste of our audiences.
We will be able to find out soon, for they open their first show, Bat Boy: The Musical on Feb. 18 at West Boca Performing Arts Center -- yes, the 600-seat auditorium where Avi Hoffman’s New Vista Theatre recently bit the dust.
Quirky, tongue-in-cheek Bat Boy (music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe; book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming) is based on the freakish character immortalized in the tabloid Weekly World News. The show, which premiered in 1997, is described by Slow Burn as the “amazing story of a strange boy with pointy ears, his struggle to find a place in a world that shuns him, and the love that can create both miracles and madness.” Oklahoma, it’s not.
Asked why they chose Bat Boy to build their reputation on, Korinko says, “I think it embodies everything we want to be. It’s small. Musically, it’s just cool. And it’s lesser known. It could have been better known, but it came out off-Broadway just before 9/11, so it suffered the fate of a lot of shows. There was no audience to go see it, because obviously tourism really dropped off in New York at that time.”
Bat Boy, like many of the shows on Slow Burn’s to-do list, would probably be best produced in a tiny performance space, rather than the cavernous West Boca high school auditorium. But Korinko and Fitzwater are undaunted.
“When we walked into West Boca and talked to the people there, everybody there just had the same vision we did and was so excited about what we wanted to do that the seating capacity wasn’t really the fear anymore,” explains Fitzwater. “We know we’re not going to sell 600 tickets every night, or even once, but we’re finding ways to cut that number down with scenery and not make the theater feel so vast.”
“For ‘Bat Boy,’ we are using the full capacity of the theater. But our second show, ‘Assassins,’ we expect to only use about 270 of the seats, to work the scenery out into the audience and create a big top tent feel that people will walk into.”
The two co-artistic directors live in Fort Lauderdale, but they work at a hair salon in Boca. Although they looked at theater spaces as far south as Hollywood and north throughout Palm Beach County, Boca Raton won out because of its built-in audience for them.
“We have a good base here, because hundreds of people come through the salon a day. It’s like an open audience right here that we’re tapping into that is constantly buying tickets, every single day,” says Fitzwater. “That‘s why we eventually chose Boca, because we already had some clout here in Boca.”
Fitzwater uses his salon clients as an informal sounding board to test market Slow Burn’s show choices. “We ask clients at the salon about their reaction to ‘Bat Boy’ and it’s almost entirely positive, saying that it’s something different, something that they haven’t seen,” he reports.
Because of their mission, Korinko and Fitzwater expect to draw a younger audience, the Holy Grail of all theaters in South Florida. “We want to try and get the new theatergoer, because we want them to grow old with us,” says Korinko. “Rather than going in and just targeting senior citizens, which most theater companies do, we’re trying to reach out to that new theater audience that will spend the next 20 years with us.”
Bat Boy tickets have just recently gone on sale. Interestingly, the early buyers are mostly in two extremes of age. “We’ve only been on sale for about a week and a half from word of mouth and a mailing,” says Korinko. “We’ve had a great response from a wide range of theatergoers. It’s the 20-somethings and then it does jump up to the 70-somethings who are embracing it.”
The challenge for Slow Burn is interesting the generation in the middle. “Yeah, it’s like the 30s and the 40s, I don’t think they plan ahead very far. I still think they’re coming, but they’re like, ‘It’s four weeks away.’ Whereas your 20-somethings are worried it’s going to sell out, your 70-somethings just want to sit in the front row and the 30s and 40s go, ‘It’s a big theater. I’ll buy a ticket that night.’ It’s a little maddening.”
Bat Boy: The Musical (Feb. 18-March 7) will be followed by Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning Assassins, about the diverse, disgruntled handful of souls who attempted or succeeded at killing the president of the United States (April 29-May 9).
“That will be our abbreviated first season,” says Fitzwater. “It gives us a chance over the summer to kind of step back for a second and realize what we did right, what we can do differently and really lay out and market our second season.
“We expect to do three shows in our second season, so it will probably span about eight months. It’s certainly something that could wind up year-round. It’s not in our immediate plans, but it could happen.”
Slow Burn has already incorporated as a not-for-profit group, and is busy raising money, another challenge in this economy. Asked where their operating funds come from, Fitzwater says, “There’s donors, there’s personal money and we’ve had some fund-raisers as well along the way. There are some generous people who believe in us.”
Korinko and Fitzwater are already thinking past the success of Slow Burn to mentoring future theater professionals.
“We really want to include the community in things. We want our Thursday nights to be an inspirational thing for the high schoolers, to have talk-backs after our shows,” Korinko says. “To inspire and encourage the next generation, the next Slow Burn, whoever’s going to be taking over after us.”
BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL. Slow Burn Theatre Company, West Boca Performing Arts Theatre, 12811 West Glades Road, Boca Raton. Feb. 18-March 7. Tickets: $25 ($20 for seniors, $15 for students). Call: (954) 323-7884.
