11 insane things we’d like to do at Disney after dark
If you’re a Disney fan, you may have heard that Disney is keeping three of its parks – the Magic Kingdom here in Orlando, as well as Disneyland Park and Disney Adventure Park in California – open for 24 hours straight on May 24. We’re sure it’ll be fun and all, if you’re into that…
Nashville garage-rock band Natural Child tonight at Will’s Pub
Monday, May 20 – Natural Child with the Woolly Bushmen, Golden Pelicans 9 p.m. Will’s Pub 1042 N. Mills Ave. willspub.org $8-$10 Drugs, drinks and hookups can be compelling reasons to get out and have a good time, and Nashville garage-rock band Natural Child know that all too well, condensing those stimulants into one powerful…
Fringe Review: Circus Arts: An Aerial and Acrobatic Adventure
This dizzying twirlabout is hardly an adventure. The show started off slow and never quite reached a crescendo. The underlying theme of the production was mankind’s inherent desire to fly. Aerial silks were the primary means of conveying flight and the aerial artists seemed fairly skilled. The problem lays the venue. Although, the ceilings were…
Fringe Review: The Boy Who Stole the Sun
From the moment the violinist took the stage, I knew I was in for a treat. The Boy Who Stole the Sun chronicles the exploits of a prepubescent young man beginning to find his footing in the world. In Frank Capra’s celebrated masterpiece It’s a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart charmed his lady friend by saying…
Fringe Review: A Mind Full of Dopamine
I've spent my share of time at casino tables in Vegas and the Carribean, but I've never maxed out 8 credit cards or lost my rent money on a hand of poker, like Rory Ledbetter. As I learned in A Mind Full of Dopamine, his brisk, funny exploration of gambling addiction, the difference between us…
Fringe Review: Stained Glass Windows
In the first half of Stained Glass Windows, by playwright Steve Sherman, college student David (Jordan Woods-Robinson) reveals to his sister Claire (Hana Kalinski) that he is gay. At first, David’s older sibling is reluctant to accept the news with equanimity, but her love for her brother soon mitigates her initial stern and confused reaction…
Fringe Review: Shut Up, Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson (Tanya O'Debra) was a poet, recluse, and the most annoying person ever born. If you decide to spend an hour with her, be prepared to part with a healthy sum of your patience. The preceding isn't my own opinion; it comes verbatim from the opening lines of Shut Up, Emily Dickinson. But who…
Fringe Review: Take Off Your Shorts
Playwrights’ Round Table, Orlando’s own theatrical writing collective, offers Take Off Your Shorts, a gaggle of four short comedies, as its contribution to this year’s Fringe Festival. Each one-acter has its fun and funny moments, although only one play displays a mature use of language and structure. The best of the quartet is The Seven-Second…
Fringe Review: Poe and Matthews: a Misadventure in the Middle of Nowhere
Poe and Matthews is a two-man trifle created by Emily Windler, who plays the 19th-century writer Edgar Allan Poe, and Brian Kuwabara, who plays the much lesser-known author and Poe contemporary Cornelius Matthews. The play’s conceit is that, somehow or other, the two friends find themselves marooned on a desert isle and now must pass…
Fringe Review: Brothers of Affliction
Brothers of Affliction is a gritty relationship drama depicting the trials and tribulations of three troubled and trouble-making Afro-American siblings. Chris, the eldest, drinks to excess; Shane, the middle son, who has spent seven years in prison, is a coke-head; and Tyree, the youngest, gets high on weed when he’s not getting into fights in…
Fringe Review: Chase and Paul: Solo Shows Are Hard
Chase Padgett and Paul Strickland are both Fringe veterans who generally perform their music and standup comedy acts alone. This year, they decided to join forces, since, well, Solo Shows Are Hard. Luckily for the audience, the synergy works wonders. Together, they’re actually more than twice as good as they are separately. Both performers are…
Fringe Review: Piranha the Musical!
Once upon a time, some of the most elaborate Orlando Fringe shows were those with a distinctly local focus. As costs and ambitions rose, however, that seemed to become less and less the case. Who’s going to go to the trouble of writing, scoring and staging an entire musical that can never play out of…
Fringe Review: CELEBRITY MATCH GAME: The Musical (And a Game Show)
Would you like to see a Broadway musical integrated into a TV game show, seamlessly and organically? Then girlfriend, keep your ass away from Michael Wanzie. The point of an outing like his Celebrity Match Game is to perpetually and defiantly court utter collapse with a performance that gratuitously mashes up two already-gratuitous festival tropes. A…
Fringe Review: God Is a Scottish Drag Queen
I have seen God. And I’m elated to report that He’s everything we always hoped He would be. First of all, He’s a brilliant standup comedian with a wicked sense of humor (as you may have already surmised from the way your life has turned out since high school). For another, He is indeed omniscient,…
Fringe Review: Dark Fantastic
I thought that writer/performer Martin Dockery's previous solo Fringe outings (Wanderlust, The Bike Trip, Bursting Into Flames) were out of this world, but his latest is like something from a parallel dimension. I won't even attempt to describe Dark Fantastic's surreal Möbius strip of a storyline, which switches from first to second to third person,…
For Reels Sunday Roundup — May 19th, 2013
Far, far away in a little city on the water, a little film festival began this week. As is the custom every year, I follow every critic and writer I can find who is at Cannes on Twitter and read them bitterly while wishing I was there. Rain be damned. Cat burglars be damned. Gun…
Fringe Review: Mitzi Morris in “If Looks Could Kill!”
Mitzi Morris (a.k.a. playwright Kevin Kriegel) has everything a swinging 60s super-spy needs: a M-like English authority figure (Michael Colavolpe), a bedazzled PPK and a handbag full of lethal gadgets, and a John Barry-esque theme song (composed by John deHaas). Likewise, her second Orlando Fringe outing If Looks Could Kill! has everything an effervescent espionage…
Fringe Review: See Rock City and Other Destinations
A waitress (Kelly Coy) and wanderer (Sage Starkey) meet-cute in an all-night diner and take off to see the widely-advertised Rock City. A geeky guy (Wesley Slade) waits alone in Roswell for the aliens to land. An adoring granddaughter (Kelly Coy) takes her ailing, inarticulate Grampy (James Meadows) to the Alamo to reunite with his…
Fringe Review: The Three Pussy Riot Sisters
I've been eagerly anticipating The Three Pussy Riot Sisters as the homecoming of Fringe-favorite writer/director David Lee (Jaws The Musical, Pie-Face), and expected another sly serio-comic sendup along the lines of Aunt Vanya and Nirvanov, the first two installments of his “Chekhov Mash-Up Trilogy.” What I found instead was something much more profound; rather than…
Fringe Review: The Crack Rock Opera
In 2012 I named Danny Feedback's Crack Rock Opera the “Worst, Worst, Worst Anything Anywhere Anytime” that I'd seen on stage (and yes, I've seen Spider-Man: Turn Out The Dark). So I was understandably apprehensive about returning to the re-mounted show at Fringe; after all, at least the production I saw at the Parliament House…
Fringe Review: Brutal Imagination
At its best, acting is an exercise in artistic empathy in which one person inhabits the soul of another, and that's exactly what the two-person cast of Brutal Imagination achieves with breathtaking impact. In 1994, Susan Smith (Melissa Landy) notoriously drove her car into a lake, drowning her young boys in the back seat, and…
Fringe Review: LOON
Every year at Fringe I seem to find a fantastical freak-show of physical theater to fall in love with, like Miss Hiccup (who returns to the Festival this year), Poofy Du Vey, or Schave & Reilly. This time around, Wonderheads won my Fringe Crush fealty with their touching triumph Loon. When we first meet Francis…
Wayne Casino Night to benefit the Zebra Coalition
Saturday, May 18 – Wayne Casino Night 6 p.m. The Geek Easy 114 S. Semoran Blvd., Suite #6, Winter Park 407-332-9636 facebook.com/thegeekeasy free Bruce Wayne throws a hell of a party (even if they do occasionally end in mayhem or improvised tantrums). MAP Foundation and A Comic Shop are hoping to rival those extravagant bashes…
Orlando Gay Chorus presents We’re Ready for Our Close-Up
Saturday-Sunday, May 18-19 – We’re Ready for Our Close-Up 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 4:30 p.m. Sunday The Plaza Live 425 N. Bumby Ave. 407-228-1220 plazaliveorlando.com $25-$35 We all love movie music. Even those who say they don’t hum movie music to themselves when no one’s looking. If you’re one of these secret soundtrack lovers, be not…
Fringe Review: Blue and Tod: In the Black
I stumbled across a nude portrait of Bea Arthur embedded within a Yahoo News article Thursday evening. As my eyes gazed upon the matronly bosoms of Dorothy Zbornak, I truly felt that I was prepared for the anything-goes atmosphere of the Fringe Festival. However, I still wasn’t prepared for Blue’s voice, though I was well…
Fringe Review: Cemetery Golf
The title of this production could easily cause some preconceived misconceptions regarding the plot. One could feasibly walk-in with the notion that it’s about mischievous mall Goths playing graveyard putt-putt after hours. The actuality of the story and tone is far more somber. Cemetery Golf is a barebones one-man show recounting the tortured childhood of…
Fringe Review: Magical Mystery Detour
Sandra (Gemma Wilcox) is knee-deep in composing a new advertising slogan for marmite (the malodorous yeast goo Brits eat on toast) and has barely recovered from her mother's death and boyfriend's dumping, when an unexpected road trip rips her out of her rut, forcing her to face the futility of following other people's maps, metaphorically…
Fringe review: Jett Backpack and the Battle at the End of the Universe
Some come to Fringe for weighty provocations, and some come to see a great performance. Others come simply for the guilty pleasure of watching actors make fabulous fools of themselves, while listening to William Shatner destroy David Bowie’s Space Oddity. If you’re the latter undiscriminating, deranged individual and have a penchant for bad sci-fi, your…
Fringe Review: Obsessively Okay
If you've ever known (or been) someone who can't leave the house without checking the stove a dozen times, you know obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is no laughing matter. But Audrey Kearns (co-founder of Discount Comedy Outlet and 4 Truths and a Lie) demonstrates with her autobiographical one-woman show Obsessively Okay that crippling neurosis can…
There’s a bajillion FREE shows this weekend! Here’s the rundown, plus music from every band
I know a ton of people spent their savings to see Paul McCartney this weekend, but for the thriftier crowd, this weekend also brings with it a ton of free music events that you may not be aware of, so I consider it my civic duty to keep you informed. Here’s stuff to do just…
Fringe Review: Burnt at the Steak
This is how it happens. You see the promotional materials for Carolann Valentino’s Burnt at the Steak. You read that it is a comedic portrayal of her experiences working in a New York steakhouse. You think to yourself that this could be fun — Hell’s Kitchen as a one-woman show, perhaps. Mere minutes into the performance,…
Fringe Review: Key of E
Key of E, the apocalyptic “junk rock” musical by Orlando musician Andy Matchett (of the band The Minks) and actor/writer Corey Volence, promises to “have it all,” and for once at the Fringe there's truth in advertising. Shadow puppets, rage monsters, imaginary girlfriends, kick-ass rock 'n' roll, and more are all packed into this passionate…
Short Film Friday — Leos Carax, Blue Balls and Looking for Love in all the Wrong Intersections
Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight (Kinda NSFW) Dir: Eliza Hittman Runtime: 15m (mostly English, but a little subtitled Russian) @ElizaHittman (Source: Sundance) A slice of life from about a teenager whose night out at the club with her girlfriend might cost her a little more than she bargained for, filmed around the neighborhoods in Brooklyn I…
Tech-savvy British Isles Adventure Race set to go down in Audubon Park
Saturday, May 18 – British Isles Adventure Race check-in at noon, race begins at 2 p.m. Audubon Park Garden District East Winter Park Road and Corrine Drive facebook.com/gardendistrict 407-212-7321 $15 When it comes to themed neighborhood revelry, Audubon Park’s increasingly become the place to be – area merchants and bars go all out for Zombietoberfest,…
Fringe Review: How to Be a Terrorist
When scavenging sticks for kindling, if it breaks it will burn. Lord Baden-Powell, the possibly-gay founder of the Boy Scouts, lived in a colonial encampment in Afghanistan with a manservant he called “the boy.” The quickest way to make young campers cry is to call them sub-human animals. I learned at least three useful facts…
Fringe Review: Be a Man
RibbitRePublic Theatre’s Boygroove (2005) was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen at the Orlando Fringe: a sendup of a seemingly one-dimensional subject (boy bands) that revealed layers upon layers of motivation and semiotics. The Canadian company’s Be a Man (which actually predates Boygroove) is almost identical when it comes to structure, with a four-man ensemble performing…
PHOTO GALLERY: Sunday Funday pub crawl in College Park
nothing goes down easier than a pickle shot! In this month’s Another Round I hit up College Park with a group of friends for a day-drinking Cinco de Mayo pub crawl. We downed pickle shots at Ollie’s Public House before slurping CoronaRitas at Paxia and then sipped on Dos Equis drafts at the Local. Being…
Fringe Review: Geek Life
I always thought a geek was a sideshow carny who bites the heads off of live chickens. But according to juggler Aji Slater's Geek Life, geeks are actually distinguished by three characteristics: they are infatuated with a niche topic, they are “out” about their obsession, and they bond socially with each other over their shared…
Fringe Review: They Call Me Q!
After seeing seeing a half dozen solo shows featuring atrractive, articulate white women emoting autobiographically, They Call Me Q! comes as a refreshing change of pace: an attractive, articulate Indian woman emoting autobiographically. In all seriousness, Qurrat Ann Kadwani is a theatrical force of nature, embodying 13 distinct characters in this emotionally affecting exercise in…
Star Wars Weekends return to Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Friday, May 17 – Star Wars Weekends through June 9 Disney’s Hollywood Studios Walt Disney World Resort Lake Buena Vista 407-939-7211 disneyworld.com/starwarsweekends included with park admission It doesn’t matter if your favorite Star Wars character is Boba Fett, Darth Maul, Chewbacca or Yoda. The whole intergalactic gang will raid Disney’s Hollywood Studios each weekend for…
Fringe Review: Urban Hermit
Have you ever passed a street musician on the sidewalk, their open instrument case hopefully holding a few crumpled bills, and wondered how they got there? Rachel Nelson's one-woman show The Urban Hermit offers one explanation. Her story takes her from a tiny garret apartment, a perpetually-stoned college grad hoarding cash in a tobacco tin,…
Pat Greene curates Imprint art show at Gallery at Avalon Island
Thursday, May 16 – Imprint opening 6-9 p.m. exhibit through July 11 Gallery at Avalon Island 39 S. Magnolia Ave. free This show features so many happy returns we’re almost overcome. First and most important, there’s the return of the Gallery at Avalon Island – not that it went anywhere, really, but the space in…
Fringe Review: Hitler’s Li’l Abomination
When a show is titled Hitler’s Li’l Abomination, you feel kind of weird telling people “I loved it! It reminded me of all my relatives!” But if you grew up among Germans – especially ones who were only a few years removed from The Old Country – you’ll be beside yourself with nostalgic laughter as monologist Annette…
Canadian folk-pop outfit Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk tonight at Backbooth
Thursday, May 16 – Lauren Mann & the Fairly Odd Folk with Kyle Cox 7 p.m. Backbooth 37 W. Pine St. 407-999-2570 backbooth.com $8-$10 Canadian folk-pop outfit Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk flaunt their joyous grassy sound this week at Backbooth. Carried by singer Lauren Mann’s voice and uke, the Fairly Odd Folk…
Theatre Review: Cirque du Soleil’s Quidam
A bored little girl is spirited away from her inattentive parents by a magical blue bowler hat, and finds herself amidst a menagerie of free-spirited creatures. That's the closest I can come to summarizing the storyline behind Cirque du Soleil's Quidam, but that's ok: the eye candy is just as sweet, even if the Magritte-esque…
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd stages prostitution sting using Backpage.com
Remember Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, Central Florida’s own morality police? In 2011, we did a pretty extensive story on Judd and his crusade to get all the porn and perverts out of his jurisdiction by staging elaborate sting operations and bullying small business owners who carried dirty magazines and videos. Judd, whose claim to…
Fringe Review: Eating Pasta Off the Floor
You don't have to have an Italian mother to appreciate Maria Grazia Affinito's solo show Eating Pasta Off the Floor — a Jewish, Greek, or any other old-world ethnic one will do. Affinito observes her tempestuous with her outspoken parent through the prism of a visit to the home country for a family wedding. Maria's…
Good at Bad Decisions show features local comics
Thursday, May 16 – Good at Bad Decisions III: Springtime for Bad Decisions 9 p.m. Will’s Pub 1042 N. Mills Ave. willspub.org $5 We’re not sure what (or where) we were drinking, but at some point over the past year, a hirsute breed of alternative stand-up hopefuls hit critical mass against the typically depressing Orlando…
Fringe Review: OCCUPY This! Tales of an Accidental Activist
Tommy Nugent wants to tell you a story. He wants you to know how he evolved from a jaded, politically disengaged Fringe-circuit monologist into a zealous champion of the 99 percent – all because the Occupy movement came to his hometown of Detroit. He wants to tell you what he saw there, who he met,…
Local artists illustrate Orlando neighborhoods in Picturing Main Street art show
‘Haley (as Mother Nature)’ by Johannah O’Donnell Thursday, May 16 – Picturing Main Street 6-10 p.m. CityArts Factory 29 S. Orange Ave. 407-648-7060 orlandoslice.com free Perhaps you don’t think of Orlando as a Main Street kind of city – the kind of place where neighborhoods have grown up organically around thriving commercial hubs that act…
Theatre Review: Memphis The Musical
With today's Broadway dominated by revivals and adaptations, where do you have to go to see a show you haven't already seen on the silver screen? The answer, it appears, is Tennessee. Memphis: The Musical, the 2010 Tony Award winner concludes Fairwinds' 2012/2013 Orlando Broadway Across America season with a weeklong stand at the Bob…
The not-so-Great Gatsby
Luhrmann infuses the Fitzgerald classic with lots of life but little soul
How to Fringe
Tips and tricks for making the most of your Fringe Fest experience
Happytown: Another Tallahassee Medicare scandal
Feds sue hospice provider tied to Florida Senate President Don Gaetz for Medicare fraud
Not to be upstaged
The Free Outdoor Stage on the lawn at Fringe is not what you might expect
Tip Jar
Trader Joe’s is coming! Plus, food trucks at Fringe, the 20th International Beer Festival and more
Savage Love
I have a mentally disabled cousin who I haven’t figured out how to help. He’s lived for more than 40 years in the same nursing home in a small, conservative town. His mental age is about 8, there are other mental-illness issues, and he has some physical problems. He is now in his late 60s.…
Soapboxer
Lucas da Silva is the poster child for immigration reform
Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival
A guide to Orlando’s most exhilarating arts festival
Under the Rainbow
Our favorite mess, Judy Garland, shares hints on surviving Fringe
Drinking, Nightlife and Parties
Where to drink and party in Orlando this week
Noodles and Rice Café
Noodles of every shape take center stage at this Mills 50 restaurant
Happytown: Mother of all sick-time protests
Advocates send Mother’s Day video to Gov. Rick Scott urging him to veto House Bill 655
Rounding out
A between-venues pub-crawl to come full circle during your Fringe experience
In Your Queue: Three undersung films about music
This Must be the Place, Fish Story and The Swell Season
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19) In the alternate universe created by Marvel comic books, there is a mutant superhero called Squirrel Girl. She has the magic power to summon hordes of cute, furry squirrels. Under her guidance, they swarm all over the bad guy she’s battling and disable him with their thousands of tiny chomps and…
Fringe Fest 2013 shows
Some choices for geeks, gamers, those who prefer to fly solo, kids, oldsters and more
Modern maturity
Fringe 2013 is all growed up with everywhere to go
Bloc Party hit the Beacham
The strife-ridden indie rockers still strive to treat one another like “decent human beings.”
Another Round
Sunday Funday pub crawl in College Park
Movies opening in Orlando
Hating Breitbart and Star Trek Into Darkness
Album review: The Knife's 'Shaking the Habitual'
The Knife returns with their first double album that is definitely passionate but also melodically challenged.
This Little Underground
Our live music columnist checks out the Joy Formidable, ETurn, Orgone and more this week
UPDATED: Rich families using disabled tour guides to cut lines at Disney?
via disneyworld.disney.go.com Today, the New York Post reported that “Rich Manhattan moms hire handicapped tour guides so kids can cut lines at Disney World.” According to the story, some well-off families have taken to “hiring disabled people to pose as family members so they and their kids can jump to the front” of the notoriously…
We’re more than fish and pie: Should Florida be considered a food state?
You don’t have to tell us that the Sunshine State – and Orlando, for that matter – consists of a flourishing culinary scene, one that’s continuing to reach new heights. But as a recent article in The Wall Street Journal confers (“Is Florida the Next Foodie Hot Spot?”), that’s the question at hand. To give…
Photo Gallery: 4x4xFringe Pub Crawl
The 22nd annual Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival doesn't officially get underway until Wednesday night, but last night's 4x4xFringe pub crawl was as good an unofficial kickoff as any. The even, which was co-sponsored by Mills 50 and Ivanhoe Village, featured Fringe artists and drink specials at 8 establishments along Mills, Virginia, and Orange Avenue.…
Fringe Review: The Ukrainian Dentist’s Daughter
As Maya, the protagonist of Yana Kesala's moving one-woman show The Ukrainian Dentist's Daughter, says at the start, “It's funny the stuff you remember. It's funny too the stuff you forget.” Mya doesn't seem to forget a moment; we first meet her in 1946 as a 3-year-old girl playing amid the rubble of post-war Berlin,…
On sale this week: Imagine Dragons at UCF Arena
On sale: Friday, May 17 Imagine Dragons 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 23 UCF Arena 407-823-6006 ucfarena.com $32.50-$37.50 Down the road: Bo Burnham, May 23 at The Plaza Live Chris Wollard & the Ship Thieves, May 25 at Will’s Pub Face to Face, May 30 at House of Blues The Pauses, May 30 at The…
Abdomen Canvas headlines Backbooth’s Heavy Metal Juggernaut night
Tuesday, May 14 – Juggernaut: Abdomen Canvas Comeback Show with Motivated by Silence, Tales of Massacre 10 p.m. Backbooth 37 W. Pine St. 407-999-2570 backbooth.com $3 Recently we’ve experienced too much bravado from the très brutal bands in local metal shows. But our final sigh has been halted, and we are ignited anew at news…
