A&E Season Preview 2023 – 2024: Broadway In Orlando
This season’s Broadway in Orlando series at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts includes six fresh-faced new productions. Here are thumbnail sketches of the half-dozen newbies.
Funny Girl: A perky update of the classic musical tribute to Fanny Brice, the earthy charmer and national darling who worked her way into pretty much everybody’s heart in the early 20th century as a model, singer, comedienne and radio and film actress.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical: A musical based on the 2001 film about the glamourous Belle Epoque Parisian nightclub and the story of a young composer’s obsession witha glamorous cabaret actress who goes by the fabulous name of “Satine.”
Jagged Little Pill: A jukebox musical inspired by the Alanis Morisette album of the same name, set against the struggles of a modern family besrtt by addiction and trauma.
Mrs. Doubtfire: Based on the Robin William movie about a divorced father who wants to spend more time with his children – and how better to do that to become a cross-dresser and pose as a nanny?
Austin Elle Fisher (Natalie Hillard), Tyler Wladis (Christopher Hillard), Analise Scarpaci (Lydia Hillard), Jenn Gambatese (Miranda Hillard) and Rob McClure (Daniel Hillard as Euphegenia Doubtfire) in the Original Broadway Cast of Mrs. Doubtfire. Photo by Joan Marcus
Peter Pan: Not to be confused with another recent stage revival, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, this modernized rendition of the high-flying fantasy is more closely akin to the more traditional, “I-won’t-grow up!” mid-50s musical starring Mary Martin. That production was based, in turn, on the Disney animated version of a story written by Scottish novelist Sir James M. Barrie in the late 1880s. Barrie was obsessed with the notion of eternal childhood because he’d lost his older brother to an ice-skating mishap when he himself was only six years old. This on-tour version is modernized, but they didn’t, let’s say, tinker with its spirit, judging by the advertised promise that it “embraces the child in all of us, so go on a journey from the second star to the right and straight on ‘till morning.’” If you’re of a certain age, you already knew the way.
Back row (L–R): Michael Kostroff as Professor Plum, John Treacy Egan as Colonel Mustard, and Alex Mandell as Mr. Green; front row (L–R): Sarah Hollis as Miss Scarlet, Donna English as Mrs. White, and Kathy Fitzgerald as Mrs. Peacock. Courtesy of Paper Mill Playhouse; photo by Evan Zimmerman/MurphyMade.
Clue: More nostalgia via an ingenious musical based on the murder-mystery board game featuring an updated version of Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum and company living out a wacky whodunit featuring a fun-filled variety of murder weapons – hey, it certainly taught a generation the value of resourcefulness – in a well-appointed mansion.
