The Straz Center’s resident mixologist draws inspiration from the shows in our Broadway series lineup, concocting one-of-a-kind signature highballs to salute and celebrate each production. When the Broadway production plays the Straz Center, the performers onstage aren’t the only ones flexing their talents. Out in the lobby behind the bar, the creative handiwork of Straz... Continue Reading →
New year’s resolutions – made to be broken. What makes us think the end of one year and the beginning of the next will imbue us with discipline and determination we’ve never had before and enable us to effortlessly stop smoking, start exercising, eat healthier, etc. etc., et-freaking-cetera? It’s the myth of the clean slate.... Continue Reading →
As if the job they have didn’t draw enough attention, presidents of the United States have been in the spotlight on Broadway in both plays and musicals. And yes, more than a few of the actors-in-chief have broken into song or tripped the light fantastic on Broadway boards. There have been a few fictional presidents... Continue Reading →
Somewhere between Mariah Carey and Wham! on your holiday playlist are likely a few tunes that have their roots in Broadway. Whether it’s shows devoted to celebrating the season, such as A Christmas Story, or others where Christmas is just part of the story as in Meet Me in St. Louis, we’ve got a rundown of some of the shows that featured favorite holiday... Continue Reading →
The Straz Center’s Broadway investments return Tony Award®-winning shows to our stages and keep new shows in the works. The Straz Center isn’t just a tour stop for big Broadway show-stoppers. Most of the time, we’ve been on the ground floor as a producer, investing in the show and banking on its success. Every year,... Continue Reading →
The next Broadway blockbuster to hit Morsani stage is ANASTASIA, a tale of bravery and finding one’s place in the world spun from a shocking turn of events in 1920, a mere two years after the brutal assassination of the entire Romanov royal family. 2019 marks 100 years since the Bolsheviks murdered Russian royals Nicholas... Continue Reading →
Broadway offers a passel of snortingly good times with its unending parade of parodies. The latest on our roster of roastables is Spamilton: An American Parody, which opened last week and runs until May 12. Behind every iconic work of entertainment lurks a laughing matter waiting to be born. Whether those matters manifest as films... Continue Reading →
And other Valentine’s Day sentiments from Broadway songbooks Broadway boasts a canon of funny romantic songs, some thinly veiled innuendos (see title of this blog, a lyric from “Baptize Me” in The Book of Mormon) and others outrageously explicit (“You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want” from Avenue Q). Here are just... Continue Reading →
By now, Hamilton’s meteoric rise from Broadway musical to cultural phenomenon fills many-a-page from magazine articles to blog posts to Instagram accounts. Its singular effect was solidified last year as the Kennedy Center decided to award the musical an unheard-of special Honors for being such a groundbreaking work of art. What remains unfathomable – even... Continue Reading →
Chazz Palminteri took a moment of his childhood and parlayed it into the cultural phenomenon known as A Bronx Tale. We’ve seen him in The Usual Suspects, Bullets Over Broadway, Analyze This and as a cop, mobster or some form of tough guy in a ton of other film and TV roles. We caught up... Continue Reading →
Our new Broadway season opens in two weeks with the side-splitting comedy The Play That Goes Wrong. To celebrate, we found this collection of Broadway and musical theater blooper reels. Crying. We were crying by the time we picked out this video mash-up of Broadway mishaps for your viewing pleasure for the Straz Center blog... Continue Reading →
The true story of the accused but acquitted Chicago beauties who inspired musical legends Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly The Bob Fosse masterpiece we know and love today as Chicago the musical actually started with two real women and two real murdered men. In Chicago. In the Roaring 20s. 1924 to be exact. In March... Continue Reading →
We love Julie Andrews. Naturally, she’s on our mind since The Sound of Music opens tonight, June 5, and runs through the weekend. No, Ms. Andrews doesn’t make an appearance in the new staging of this masterpiece, but for many of us, we can’t even see the words “the hills are alive” without picturing her sweeping,... Continue Reading →
Internet musical parody sensation Randy Rainbow launched his life in musical theater right here on Straz stages when he was a high school Thespian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S10DtYaIg0g As many, many, many, many, many high schools in Florida know, this week is State Thespian Week, when almost 8000 students, teachers, chaperones and judges descend on The Straz and... Continue Reading →
The original cast of RENT twenty years later … where are they now? The raw yet elegantly composed story of young people scrabbling to make their dreams come true in an AIDS-rattled New York City shadowed by a growing moral hypocrisy from the political establishment, RENT resonated with Generation X. A young composer, a young... Continue Reading →
The 71st annual Tony Awards air June 11, 2017 from Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The ceremony honors achievement on Broadway for the 2016-17 season, and we’ll certainly be tuned-in and on-edge as they announce the big winners. Like us, perhaps you’ve wondered “why are they called the Tonys?” We did some... Continue Reading →