You may have already noticed -- the show business news at the moment tends to be loaded with season announcements about what's coming up in the 2008-09 season starting in September-October. This is traditional - it began in early spring with the major arts orgs that plan long-range, and is winding up now with most other groups who want to get the word out before snowbirds head north and the rest of us check out for wherever. Coming days and weeks likely will have plenty more. We'll ID the highlights and give you the links to pour over the details.

If you're looking for info on something specific, let me know. I'll checkitout.

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"We're not doing safe stuff, we're taking risks," says Deborah Sherman, founder-director of the region's current Cinderella theater company.

More importantly, she adds The Promethean Theatre is headed into its fifth season and "We didn't make it by not taking major risks.

"When we go, we're going to go big or we're going to go home."

Thus far, the Promethean - TPT for short - has managed to avoid that kind of finality. They've won on most counts and when they've lost, they've managed to recover. In the process, they've added what she calls a viable option to resident theater in Broward.

And now, Sherman and company are offering a truly engaging as well as eclectic collection of plays for the 2008-09 season. The centerpiece will be the March 6-23 regional premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire's "hilarious and heartrending" play "Kimberly Akimbo," about a dysfunctional couple with a teenage daughter who has a rare condition that makes her body age like lightning.

The show was commissioned by California's South Coast Repertory and arrived off-Broadway via the Manhattan Theatre Club. Until now, this curious and tender story was something outside the ambition of South Florida theaters.

The season will open with "Still the River Runs" Oct. 17-Nov. 2, a bittersweet drama set in central Florida about estranged brothers reunited to bury their grandfather. Ken Clement stars in the title role of "Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol" Dec. 12-21, a backstage riff on Scrooge's version that's already been highlighted on National Public Radio. Following "Akimbo" in March will be "Cannibal: The Musical" in the summer of 2009 in NSU's larger black box space. That's a stage version of Trey Parker's 1995 indie film about a legendary incident in the Rocky Mountains in the 1870s.

Information on the company and its season is online at the TPT wehttp://www.theprometheantheatre.orgbsite at theprometheantheatre.org or by calling 786-317-7580.

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"What good's permitting some prophet of doom
To wipe every smile away
Life is a cabaret, old chum
So come to the cabaret."

--Lyrics by Fred Ebb, music by John Kander, "Cabaret," Broadway, 1966

Welcome to the blogosphere that encourages discourse from everyone who recognize the obvious: There are few if any boundaries among interests in the arts or their connection to show "business" and pop culture.

Plays, musicals, opera, symphony, chorus, recitals, jazz, pop concerts, artspolitik, philanthropy, and much more are part of the Cultural Cabaret.

Here, you'll find breaking news and opinion of events - performing arts and show business - in the digital world, often as observation within minutes or hours of an event - previews to the fully vetted online and print news or reviews to follow.

Whether the discussion is conducted digitally or on paper, we all need to be a part of the community exchange. Ours is South Florida. These posts are the starting point for you to discuss our cultural community among one another.

Now that the cabaret is in full swing with a few scoops and catch-up items on the entertainment news front, it's time to pause for introductions and welcomes.

You lounge lizards know the drill - the set begins with a torch song opener, then a ballad, then the entertainer "chats" with you personal-like before diving into the show proper.

Here's my chat: I've spent nearly 40 years covering entertainment and the arts for every major newspaper in South Florida, from Miami through the Palm Beaches - over half of it here at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

For much of that time, I've also covered the statewide entertainment industry reporting for "the bible of show business," Variety based in New York City and Daily Variety in Los Angeles.

In the overview, that means nights in saloons and salons and sheds (a.k.a. amphitheaters), plus supperclubs, casinos and concert halls, from symphony orchestras to rock festivals, playhouses to theaters to opera houses, movies from the set to the neighborhood multiplex to art cinemas to film festivals, and artspolitik from city hall to the state legislature.

That's a jack-of-all-trades experience in a whole bunch of class-conscious worlds with many self-appointed high priests. So, expect to hear some some high-velocity rebuttals from contributors offering counterpoint as we rebuild the roads of information and opinion as two-way, community-wide thoroughfares.

This blog and its threads will attempt a univeral approach to the arts and show business without demeaning one to the other.

High priests have their place, and their standards deserve defense. I myself am a devotee of Ayn Rand's cultural philosophy and live in a condominium named The Fountainhead, for which I have been board president. This is not entirely coincidence or serendipity.

Yet, the differences that propel community expectations populate the arena of the cultural cabaret. On the web, the stage is yours, mine and ours.

There is one caveat, however. Anonymous comments won't get a followup or response from here. To be taken seriously, you need to be taken at face value. Without a face, your comments have no value.

- Jack Zink

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What do Washington, D.C.'s theater judges know that no one else does? Well, we do have a good idea of what they've been smoking, and it must be good: Last night, at the 24th Annual Helen Hayes Awards, they chose that cult classic "Reefer Madness" as Outstanding resident musical and Shakespeare's "Macbeth" as Outstanding resident play.

Of interest to South Florida, former Broward resident and Florida Atlantic University graduate Marc Kudisch (pictured at left) was named Outstanding lead actor, resident musical for "The Witches of Eastwick" at The Signature Theatre. "Witches," incidentally, was written by former South Florida resident Dana P. Rowe with John Dempsey. The Washington Post has a report on the event.

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Usually among the perks of being a subscriber to a local theater or music group is that you get the announcement of what's happening next season before anyone else--before those of us in the press, even, if the front office manages to keep hush hush.

Not so at the moment at Palm Beach Dramaworks. Work piled up and delayed the mailing, cofounder Sue Ellen Beryl told Friday's opening-night swells at "Benefactors." The announcement is being assembled today and is expected to arrive in mailboxes by the end of the week.

But the schedule was right there in the program for the opening of Michael Frayn's tale of givers vs. takers. When you're done finding out about what's coming up, the review of that show is here in the Sun-Sentinel's arts section.

Once again, the PBD schedule is both unique and interesting. And that begins early, on July 5 with a two-month run of the 2005 Broadway comedy-with-music "Souvenir." It's a portrait of Florence Foster Jenkins, a socialite who fancied herself a singer (an excellent one at that). Instead, she became a celebrity icon of bad taste and lack of talent. Casting is top flight with a pair of Carbonell multiple-award winners, Beth Dimon and Tom Kenaston.

The four-show 2008-09 main stage season beginning in the fall will have two classics, Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten" and could very well stand up as the professional regional premiere of Eugene Ionesco's absurdist 1952 tragicomedy "The Chairs." At least, there's no record of one in our digital or print records. If anyone is aware of a previous local production, please drop a line.

Also on tap will be "The Weir," Conor McPherson's 1998 collection of ghost stories told in a bar, and the Florida premiere of Edward Albee's "Peter and Jerry." Albee's work is a pairing of his first play, 1959's "The Zoo Story," with a prequel he wrote for the Hartford Stage in 2004 called "Homelife."

None of that is up on their website as of this writing, but you can leave an email or call (561) 514-4042 to get in on the action early. The company remains in its (very) tiny Banyan Street playhouse space for now, but continues to work with both government and corporate bigwigs on plans to find a larger space in the downtown West Palm Beach area.

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No, Palm Beach does not roll up its sidewalks in the summer. At least, not in front of the Colony Hotel, where the Royal Room will continue its cabaret series and the Polo Steakhouse goes Motown on weekends, through Labor Day.

Though you might be able to find on-street parking in the off-season, the island remains pricey year-round. Dinner and show prices range $95-$110 per person for the Royal's summer rotation. Shows are 8 p.m. with dinners from 6:45 p.m.

Among the attractions, Palm Beach County resident Avery Sommers (pictured) will be making her Royal Room debut on Fridays and Saturdays for three weekends, Aug. 1-16. Liz Callaway comes in for the coup de grace Aug. 22-30.

The summer begins with torch singer Maude Maggart May 23-31, Baby Jane Dexter June 6-14, Jeff Harner June 20-28, Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano July 4-12, and Sheera Ben-David July 18-26, last year's Backstage Magazine Bistro Award winner.

For more details, check out the Colony website or call 561-659-8100.

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New York's Metropolitan Opera will expand its high-definition broadcast schedule from eight to 11 transmissions next season, the project's third.

The number of theaters carrying the performances will go up from 600 to 800, expanding to more countries and (gasp!) cruise ships worldwide. Let's hope the Met adds at least one more theater in South Florida - specifically in Broward County, which thus far has no venue for the series while there are several in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade.

The 2008-09 lineup will have a total of 11 performances from the opening night gala Sept. 22 (The HD series weekly hostess Renee Fleming, pictured at left, in scenes from various operas) through May 9.

On schedule is the Met preem of John Adams' "Doctor Atomic," Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon in "Lucia Di Lammermoor," a new production by Chicago/Broadway director Mary Zimmerman of "La Sonnambula," and Angela Gheorgiu with Roberto Alagna in "La Rondine," among others.

A complete list and details are available on the Met website. Tickets won't go on sale until August, though.

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Now that the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has won top Carbonell Award honors including Best Musical and director two years in a row, the fifth anniversary lineup for the rejuvenated playhouse is generating a buzz.

The five-show 2008-09 lineup includes three musicals, a mystery, and opening Nov. 11-23 with a comedy, “Noises Off,” Michael Frayn’s evergreen backstage spoof about life in a rotten acting company.

The mystery is next, Anthony Shaffer’s “Sleuth,” the complex tale that was so effective it became impossible to top, thus ending the golden era of the stage thriller. It plays Dec. 2-14.

The plays run 12 days over two weekends but the musicals add another week each, beginning with a rare production of Cy Coleman’s 1980 “Barnum” Jan. 6-25, about the circus producer known as “the prince of humbug,”

The off-Broadway revue “Beehive,” with tunes from pop-rock’s early girl singers, runs Feb. 3-22, and the season wraps next March 17-April 5 with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Evita.”

Single tickets don’t go on sale until August but four- and five-show subscription packages are now available from $118-$229, online at jupitertheatre.org or 561-575-2223, 800-445-1666.

The Jupiter’s 2008-09 special events season of concerts and attractions is still unannounced, but the end of this season will be capped in August by a reprise of “Menopause, The Musical.”

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, development director Tricia Trimble has been appointed the theater’s managing director. She’ll continue to be involved with fundraising, especially for an endowment for the theater’s conservatory, now in its second year, as well as operations.

Also, noted choreographer Ron DeJesus will spend the month of June at the conservatory, teaching jazz classes and choreographing the student production of “42nd Street.”

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Now in London, a musical Rhett and Scarlett
Darius Danesh and Jill Paice
(Bloomberg News)

The last time was a generation ago in a pre-Broadway tour that played Miami Beach's Jackie Gleason Theater (now the Fillmore). That show fizzled, appropriately enough, in Atlanta not long after. Among the ignominies, a flaming tree at the burning of Atlanta scene fell over -- and then bounced back up like new.

The latest attempt is helmed by British wunder-director Trevor Nunn and is just opening in London (considered more forgiving than Broadway of late). The early reviews range from negative to tepid. It appears the Selznick film remains inviolate. The New York Times surveys the carnage of the London critics.

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The dust hasn't settled on the Florida Legislature's conference committee's slash of the state's arts funding, but another and longer-term crisis has arisen for cultural interests.

Late Thursday afternoon, Florida Cultural Alliance president Sherron Long sent out an e-mail to the alliance network warning that a dangerous clause in Senate Bill 1914 hasn't been removed, a clause adding "practical arts" -- with an "or," not an "and" -- to the state's requirement that students have at least one credit hour of "fine or performing arts" study to graduate from high school.

It took 20 years of lobbying by arts advocates to get the fine arts cemented in the curriculum. The new language if adopted in conference would make it possible for schools to strip fine arts and performing arts from the curriculum -- "practical arts" being shop, auto mechanics and nursing, Long says.

The companion House Bill 7045 has the language arts advocates want. Time is short for backers to influence legislators, but efforts were still ongoing Monday the 28th to get "practical arts" removed or alter the language. Check out the details at the FLCA website including contact information on legislators.

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