Hurricane season begins this weekend, so it’s time for the Gold Coast’s mountain birds to decamp for the Carolinas for the summer. Some of our actors are already waiting for you.

Renowned South Florida leading lady Barbara Bradshaw is starring in “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” at the Flat Rock Playhouse, about a half-hour’s drive south of Asheville, through June 7 (in a Flat Rock photo, at right). The Asheville Citizen’s Tim Reid, acknowledging Bradshaw as a regular up there as well, is impressed: “Six Dance Lessons” is the perfect showcase for Bradshaw, who can convey volumes in just an expression or tone of voice,” he wrote.

Further to the north, the Blowing Rock Stage Company, run by former South Floridian Ken Kaye, has begun its summer season with a musical revue called “8 Track” featuring our locals Lisa Manuli and Christopher A. Kent. Next up on the Blowing Rock agenda June 13-22 is the musical version of “The Immigrant.” No cast is announced, but it’d be perfect for Bradshaw who’s done the play version masterfully.

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Benchmarks are on tap for the London/Broadway musical smash “Les Miserables” and the off-Broadway musical phenom “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.”

Over 20 years since its debut, rights for “Les Miz” were recently released to a handful of American professional regional theaters, including The Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables, which will produce the show next spring.

But the lease comes with a caveat – not to reproduce all the signature turntable scenic effects, but to use new staging ideas. What that means began to materialize this week in Philadelphia, whose Walnut Theatre is among the first regionals to mount its own production last week. And as for "Perfect," the show has been hit by the economic downturn and will close July 27 -- after 12 years and $200 million.

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The Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall at Edison College in Fort Myers has been popping up lately as what appears to be becoming a favored launching pad for shows on national tour, and/or to break in new casts for shows in transition.

The latest word, this week, is that Mann will be the startup point for the second national tour of the musical “Wicked” when it cranks up for three weeks there, March 7-29, 2009.

The first national tour, now winding down in Rochester, NY, has played Florida’s east coast several times and won’t be back next season. The new company will move north from Fort Myers to Birmingham and Jacksonville en route to the northeast and Midwest next spring.

The three-week Fort Myers engagement indicates the still-growing southwest coast is becoming an important locale on the touring circuit – yet out of the spotlight enough to serve as the break-in points that Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa once served.

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You can grab a preview Thursday (May 29) or Friday of either half of City Theatre’s always-anticipated Summer Shorts program at the Arsht Center’s Studio Theatre in downtown Miami. But after more than a dozen years of experience, there’s no substitute for a weekend double-header, such as the official openings Saturday (May 31) at 6 and 8:30 p.m. with a picnic-style buffet dinner (optional) in between.

This year’s series of Programs A and B, approximately 90 minutes each of short dramas and comedies, runs at the Arsht through June 22. You can buy one or the other at any performance, or do both on weekends.

The main series then moves to the Broward Center June 26-29 – The time frame compacted due to the Broward Amaturo’s 600 seats vs. 200 at the Arsht’s Studio.

Coming along for the ride to Broward will be the company’s special package of short plays for kids and families, Shorts 4 Kids, for matinees June 26-28.

What isn’t making the trip to Broward, however, is the said-to-be-edgy new late night program called Undershorts, full of “social and political material … adult language, content and nudity.” Those playlets unspool only at the Arsht Thursday-Friday at 10 p.m. and Saturday at 11 June 12-14 and 19-21.

For details, visit the City Theatre, Arsht Center or Broward Center websites.

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Play readings are among the most important building blocks in theater, where plays are spoken and in many cases acted for the first time. But they can also be showcases for existing works that might rarely, if ever, get the opportunity for full productions. Examples of both are coming up in the days ahead.

Both events are upcoming in south Miami-Dade, though readings are also integral parts of such regional theaters as the Florida Stage, Caldwell Theatre Company and New Theatre, which have effectively used their reading series as incubators for main stage premieres.

Sunday (June 1) finds a top-rank cast reading Mario Diament’s “The Book of Ruth” for the recently-founded Theater By The Book program, at the Alper JCC, 11115 SW 112th Ave., Miami. On June 7, The Actors’ Playhouse at The Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables will present readings of its recent From Page to Stage competition, new plays by Carbonell winning dramatist Michael McKeever – “Unreasonable Doubt” at 3 p.m. – and “When the Sun Shone Brighter” by Christopher Demos-Brown at 7 p.m.

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The Broadway theater season officially ended Sunday (May 25), with last fall’s 19-day Stagehands strike blamed for a “slight decline in both paid attendance and grosses,” according to the Broadway League.

The number of new shows continues at pace level with recent years. A total of 36 new productions opened with 11 new plays (same as last season), eight musicals, one return engagement and 16 revivals. This year as last season, the number of new plays and important play revivals blunts the criticisms first expressed a decade ago that Broadway is becoming an exclusive musical row.

The box office numbers weren’t bad, either, with attendance of 12.27 million down just 0.2 percent, and box office receipts down from $938.5 million to $937.5 million.

“While we are disappointed that we didn't exceed last year's record-breaking season, we are confident that in the coming season, with such big name shows on the horizon as “Billy Elliot,” “Shrek,”“West Side Story” and “Equus,” to only name a few, that we will have the best season in recorded history," the League’s executive director Charlotte St. Martin said in a statement.

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Following through on its theme to pay tribute to Spain, the International Hispanic Theatre Festival will bring four productions from that country to anchor its 23rd festival July 9-27 in Miami. Another four are expected to arrive from Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Slovenia.

They will be joined by the fest's host company, founder and festival director Mario Ernesto Sanchez' (photo at right) Teatro Avante in Coral Gables, plus Miami-Dade College's Prometeo Theatre and a pair of Miami area children's troupes, Gira-Sol and Cuenteros. Various performances will be in Spanish or English, Slovenian and some with supertitles.

The opening attraction will be "El Llanto" (Event) by Federico Garcia Lorca and Enric Granados, performed by Barcelona, Spain's Octubre Teatral, July 9-11 at the Arsht Center's Studio Theatre. Other venues include Miami-Dade College's Wolfson (300 NE 2 Ave.) and InterAmerican (627 S.W. 27 Ave.) campuses, plus the Key Biscayne Community Center and Spanish Cultural Center.

Information is available at the Teatro Avante website, by phone 305-445-8877 and the Arsht Center.

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Is he back, or did he ever leave? Ted Neeley is still doing the honors in the title role of "Jesus Christ, Superstar" for the Andrew Lloyd-Webber/Tim Rice musical's appearance June 13-18 at the Broward Center. Neeley has been doing this particular gig since the fall of 2006 (when it played the Kravis Center) in what has been billed as the Farewell Tour.

Neeley understudied the role in the original Broadway production (opened Sept. 29, 1971), then moved into the lead for the 1973 motion picture (pictured at left), which cemented the association. Though he's never been "billed" in the title role on Broadway (which hosted two revivals with others in the lead), he's been the "Superstar" of the road with just a few exceptions. And though Troika Entertainment, the current tour's production company, bills this as the Farewell Tour, Neeley (64) has repeated throughout the trip that he plans to keep playing the role as long as anyone will let him.

Corey Glover, of the band Living Colour, is making his theatrical stage debut in the role of Judas. Tickets and info are available at the Broward Center and Ticketmaster.

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The tickets are free but you've got to be quick, and use the phone - not the web. The Hollywood Playhouse is offering up to 200 free tickets (100 pairs) for tomorrow's (Wednesday, May 21) matinee performance of "Makeover" starting at 2 p.m. Call the box ofice at 954-922-0404. The show written by Mark Poncy is in the midst of its world premiere engagement, is described as "a classic story of the struggle between good and evil, cloaked in a contemporary theme of plastic surgery gone awry." Sun-Sentinel contributor Mary Damiano's review indicated the story is slight and cliched, but added that Poncy's strongest suit is composing lilting songs reminiscent of 1940s standards - such as "Now and Then" and "Old Fashion Love" - that move the story along but can also stand alone."

For more on the show and the playhouse schedule, visit the theater's website here. But remember - for those free tickets, make a phone call.

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Sarasota's Asolo Repertory Theatre finds itself centerstage in American theater this week, with positive reviews now in for its new production of Stephen Schwartz's 1978 musical, "Working."

Schwartz adapted his work from Stud Terkel's oral history on the subject, inviting other songwriters to join in. For this production, some of those songs have been updated, and two new ones have been added by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony Award-nominated star and creator of "In The Heights," the musical that leads this year's Tony nominations.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune theater critic Jay Handelman, a good friend, calls the Asolo staging "invigorating" and writes that it "has the power to rejuvenate your appreciation of your own job, or at least make you realize that you don't have it so bad." Click here for the complete review. The show runs through June 8, a four-hour jaunt on I-75 across Alligator Alley and up to Sarasota (shave an hour from the central/northern Palm Beaches, via the Beeline/SR 70). Details are on the Asolo website.

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Miami's Sixth Annual Lavender Footlights Festival, a two-day event May 31-June 1 at the Miami Science Museum, has tagged onto some good timing with the selection of playwright Douglas Carter Beane as the inaugural recipient of its new achievement award, the Ovation Award. Last week, Beane was nominated for a Tony Award for the second year in a row, this time for the book for the new Broadway musical "Xanadu" (last year was for the play "The Little Dog Laughed").

Beane will participate in a discussion of his work at 6 p.m. Sunday, June 1 with Miami Herald theater critic Christine Dolen, followed by the award presentation, reception and reading of a portion of his newest play, "The Nance."

The Lavender Festival is designed to promote, in its mission statement, "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer plays and supporting the work of emerging playwrights, directors and actors." The one-weekend event finds itself in competition this year with the opening weekend of City Theatre's 13th Annual Summer Shorts Festival, one of those unfortunate but common conflicts on the region's cultural calendar. Summer Shorts fans have a month of alternative dates to pick from; The Lavender program kicks off May 31 with a full-length play reading, reception, and its own shorts program, called Briefs, a collection of eight short plays. Details are on the Lavender fest website.

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Among the 2008 Tony Award nominees are a trio with South Florida connections.

Riding the top of the wave at the moment is Adam Epstein, native Miamian and the lead producer of the musical "Cry-Baby," based on the 1990 John Waters movie. Epstein already has a Tony on the shelf in his office across the street from where "Hairspray" is playing - he won it in 2004 when he was coproducer behind mentor Margo Lion. Epstein, 34, was uncertain the day before the nominations were announced whether his show would edge into the top races. It has a total of four nominations.

Former Miamian Raul Esparza picked up his third nomination of the decade, for the recently-closed revival of Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming," which has a total of three. Esparza is up for Best Featured Actor in a Play, leading lady Eve Best is nominated as Best
Actress, and the show is a contender as Best Revival of a Play. Esparza has been nominated previously for "Taboo" and last season's revival of "Company."

New to the process is Miami's New World School of the Arts grad Alex Lacamoire, nominated along with collaborator Bill Sherman for the orchestrations for "In the Heights," which leads this year's nominations with a total of 13. Lacamoire was previously assistant musical director on "Wicked."

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NEW YORK - Among the big questions going in to the Tony Award nominations Tuesday morning was whether Harvey Fierstein's "A Catered Affair," based on a Paddy Chayefsky teleplay and 1953 movie would crack the list for Best Musical.

It didn't, and what's unspoken so far is that the result appears to be the first-ever sweep of pop-rock and its ethnic genres over Broadway's musical awards.

The four Best Musical nominees span just about the whole spectrum of the kind of music once alien to musical theater. The top contender is "In The Heights," a somewhat bittersweet Latino musical about life in the barrio that mixes pop with hip-hop, salsa, merengue.

It's the one musical that nods slightly toward the traditional show tune but as The New York Times review noted at its transfer from off-Broadway to the Richard Rodgers Theatre, it's full of "sounds that are an ear-tickling novelty on Broadway."

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NEW YORK - Close races are the attention-getters while they're being run, and there are several in the nominations for the 62nd Annual Tony Awards. But the American Theatre Wing did something else of major importance Tuesday morning with the announcement of the 2008 Special Tony Award recipients.

The only question was when, not if, Stephen Sondheim would join the ranks of those named for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. 2008 is a good moment, while there's a strong revival of "Sunday in the Park With George" on tap, and the potential for life and achievement ahead as well as the remarkable record already on the books.

Orchestrations is a late category to join the list of awards bestowed by the Tonys. The king of arrangers, who create the orchestral fabric from composers' scores, was the late Robert Russell Bennett. The 30-piece orchestra at Lincoln Center for the current revival of "South Pacific" is a stunning reminder of a standard that has long since faded. Hopefully, such reminders won't let that standard die completely. But you'll have to come to New York for the experience.

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NEW YORK - The New York Drama Critics weighed in late Monday with their seasonal awards, for their 73rd year, picking the drama "August: Osage County" as Best Play and "Passing Strange" as Best Musical. "August" also has won already the Pulitzer Prize, and both shows are figuring prominently in the Tonys and other races. For more on the critics' picks, go to the website here.

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NEW YORK - The nominations for the 62nd Annual Tony Award nominations will be announced early Tuesday, setting in motion the final rounds of awards for the season. If you're catching up late, the official results will be on the Tony website here. But as for Monday night, the Theater District wasn't entirely hushed in anticipation.

Two of the neighborhood's favorite programs, Encores! and Broadway By The Year were in action with shows carrying plenty of buzz.

At City Center on the north side of the Broadway main stem, the latest Encores! concert version of a classic musical is "No No Nanette" with Rosie O'Donnell and Sandy Duncan. The show got mostly glowing reviews at the start of its five-night stand, which wrapped up Monday.

At Town Hall to the south on 43rd Street was the latest Broadway By The Year: 1965, a songbook of tunes from shows ranging from the hit "Man of La Mancha" to the flop, one of many, "Flora, The Red Menace." As creator-host Scott Siegel intoned, '65 produced a number of hit tunes better known and remembered than the shows they came from.

Among the hits of the Town Hall evening was former Plantation resident Marc Kudisch, in a top-flight company including fellow crooners Gregg Edelman, Brian d'Arcy James and Brandon Cutrell.

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The Theatre League of South Florida wraps up its third annual spring Theatre Festival this weekend, then celebrates Monday (May 12) in Fort Lauderdale with a new awards fete that salutes the best of the fest.

The league is introducing the Silver Palm Awards, a dozen citations for top shows and performances among the fest's 26 participating productions, and to thank the program's major sponsors. The event is party style at 7:30 p.m. at Stork's Bakery Cafe on E. Las Olas Blvd., free to League members and $20 for non-members.

The festival Silver Palm performance honorees are:

The Naked Stage Company - As Outstanding New Emerging Theatre Company.

Playwright Jules Tasca - Outstanding New Work for "The Mission" at the New Theatre in Coral Gables.

"Some Girls" - Outstanding Ensemble, at the Mad Cat Theatre Company, Miami.

"From the Mississippi Delta" - Outstanding Ensemble, at the M Ensemble Company, North Miami.

Nanique Gheridian - Outstanding Performance in "Benefactors" at Palm Beach Dramaworks, West Palm Beach.

Bruce Adler - Outstanding Performance in "I'm Not Rappaport" at New Vista Theatre Company, Boca Raton.

Eric Fabregat - Outstanding Performance in "Dirty Story" at Mosaic Theatre, Plantation.

Ricky Waugh - Outstanding Performances in "The Mission" at the New Theatre and "Two Sisters and a Piano" at The Promethean Theatre, Davie.

The Silver Palm sponsor citations go to:

Jim Stork of Stork's Backery and Cafe Las Olas, WLRN radio-TV, the Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs Dept. and Doug Jones of Sixth Star Entertainment and Marketing, all for Outstanding Contributions to the South Florida Theatre Festival.

Also previously announced, Jay Harris of Boca Raton will receive the League's oldest and highest honor, the Remy Pioneer Award. Freelance journalist Ron Levitt, the league's current VP and a former Florida Assistant Secretary of State, will receive the Remy Service Award. Yours truly Jack Zink will be tapped for a Lifetime Achievement Award. Gush.

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Neil Goldberg's Pompano Beach-based Cirque Productions began mounting Cirque-like shows for sponsored events such as conventions at indoor venues back in 1993, when Cirque du Soleil was exploding into a tour giant with its tent shows. A few years later, Goldberg's nouveau circus shows moved into theaters as ticketed events, and not long ago broke onto Broadway America's national touring circuit, where the latest show "Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy" is now. it played the Kravis Center last winter and is now in the Hawaiian Islands.

On June 16, the show moves to Broadway, at the Broadway Theatre, no less, through at least Aug. 24. There's a possibility for an extension (the tour doesn't resume until December). "Jungle Dreams" claims a cast of 25 and 150 costumes. Goldberg also produces revues of Broadway and Hollywood musicals, which have toured frequently, including stops at the Kravis and Broward Centers last month.

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The company of of "Riverdance" that arrives at the Kravis Center Tuesday for a week is on the show's U.S. farewell tour, wrapping up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in June. The Asian and European companies are also shutting down in August and September, with no word on when the show might resume.

One of those winding down in the U.S. company is Fort Lauderdale native Anne Reilly, now 20, taking time off from studying art history at Columbia University. It's not her first professional step-dancing experience; she performed with The Chieftains when the group played the Kravis in 2001.

Whitehead as Sportin' Life

A tip from theater maven Tony Finstrom revealed that actor-dancer-choreographer Reggie Whitehead (left), a three time Carbonell Award-winner, is about to head off on an East European tour of "Porgy and Bess." Intrigued, we caught up with Reggie at his sublease in Manhattan just as he was preparing to return to South Florida for a visit. He'll be here for a week, then dive into rehearsals back into New York. The company leaves May 20 for St. Petersburg, Russia, then on to Warsaw, etc.

Wrote Reggie, "I left New York almost 20 years ago and thought I was finished up here." But a friend urged him back and offered to let the "Porgy and Bess" producers know about him. Whitehead will play the role of Sportin' Life. Other offers are starting to break for him, he says, but he's had to pass - all the offers conflict with the "Porgy and Bess" tour dates.

"Isn't that the way it always is? There was no contest as to which show I would be doing," he says.

Lauren Feldman play

Miami actress-playwright Lauren Feldman, currently at the Yale Drama School, will see her latest play premiere Sunday through May 17 as one of three new works in the the school's annual Carlotta Festival of new plays. Feldman says it will be her final and thesis production at Yale.

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There is a pleasant surprise waiting out in West Boca where Glades Road meets the ‘Glades, for those who make the hike through mid-May. It’s the New Vista Theatre Company’s revival of “I’m Not Rappaport.”

The two old codgers still have miles left on them in the funny-sad 1986 Tony Award-winning Broadway play by Herb Gardner. But after two seasons, the New Vista Theatre Company is still trying to define its place, and space, in the too-large West Boca Performing Arts Center, the campus theater at West Boca High School. Could director Amy London pull off the complex humor and pathos in this emotional piece? The answer is yes, mostly.

On paper, “I’m Not Rappaport” seemed a perilous skate for the company and an odd casting vehicle for song-and-dance man Bruce Adler (London’s real-life spouse). His assignment as the crusty old socialist provocateur Nat, a signature (and Tony Award-winning) role for Judd Hirsch, is a bit of a stretch and it shows. Adler’s delivery was peppered with uncertainties on opening night, some but not all caused by technical glitches (and one thankfully short-lived breakdown).

The New Vista is pouring effort and expense into production value to fill the space and offer a big-ticket sense. Ian Almeida’s scenery is a near-perfect simulation of the original Broadway concept, requiring spot-on lighting shades provided by Ginny Adams. Paula Villar delivers just so on costumes, but Traci Almeida’s sound design prompts a few head scratches.

The full review is posted on the Sun-Sentinel's entertainment page here.

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City Theatre's Summer Shorts festival of quickie plays is coming together, as usual, in a last-month flurry. Just out in the last hour is the lineup of plays in not one but four separate programs due May 29-June 29 in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

The main body of the festival is the two-part Signature Shorts package, 17 playlets in two programs, each running 90 minutes or more (and sometimes it's been plenty more). Added this year is a late-night "edgy" package of seven plays for the uncensored crowd called Undershorts - And on the far side of that, four plays in a program called S4K (Shorts for Kids).

"Splat" by Michael McKeever, a snarky sequel to "The Wizard of Oz," was among the comic highlights of the 2007 Summer Shorts fest

This stuff isn't on the City Theatre website yet, so we're adding a page here with the whole rundown, including a brief description of each play.

Still to come are the directors and actors in the 2008 company, and precise schedule. Expect the usual weekend double-headers for Signature Shorts, with both shows and an optional picnic style dinner between. The series runs at Miami's Arsht Center Studio Theatre May 29-June 22, and moves to the Broward Center's Amaturo Theatre June 26-29. The Kids and Undershorts programs are presently set for June 12-22 in Miami.

Details will be added to the City Theatre's website as they become available. Or, call the company at 305-755-9401, or the box offices at the Arsht Center, 305-949-6722 and Broward Center, 954-462-0222.

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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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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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