Kay Kipling

1 week ago | sarasotamagazine.com | Kay Kipling

The weather is scorching, the news is bad, and there’s nothing “must-see” to watch on TV. Sounds like it’s time to slip into the theater for a light, winsome musical comedy—something like Florida Studio Theatre’s production of Dames at Sea.

2 weeks ago | sarasotamagazine.com | Kay Kipling

Sarasota’s Urbanite Theatre always likes to take chances onstage, presenting new works, often edgy, with regularity. Latest up is the world premiere of a piece the theater commissioned, Nia Akilah Robinson’s From 145th to 98th Street, centered on a Black family that has moved from Harlem to a better neighborhood in hopes of improving their children’s lives. Robinson’s story, and her approach to it, might sound a bit of a mix of The Jeffersons and A Raisin in the Sun.

2 weeks ago | sarasotamagazine.com | Kay Kipling

The musical creative team of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice has probably never been accused of much subtlety or nuance. As a rule, the pair liked to do things splashy and over the top, and one of their earliest efforts, the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, is certainly no exception. So it’s fitting that the Asolo Rep’s current production of the show, choreographed and directed by Josh Rhodes, plays it big, with pull-out-all-the-stops numbers and acting. Why not?

3 weeks ago | sarasotamagazine.com | Kay Kipling

Talking with father-son musicians Jeffrey and Gabriel Kahane is a bit like eavesdropping on a meeting of a mutual admiration society. So it’s no surprise that one of the highlights of the 61st annual Sarasota Music Festival, running June 1-21, will be a collaboration between the two. The elder Kahane (Jeffrey) has been music director of the festival since 2016.

1 month ago | sarasotamagazine.com | Kay Kipling

A piece of Harlem is coming to town this month with the world premiere of playwright Nia Akilah Robinson’s From 145th to 98th Street at Urbanite Theatre May 30-June 29. Not that you need to know much about the New York neighborhood to appreciate Robinson’s play, which centers on the Curtlys, a Black family moving from the historically African American community to the Upper West Side in search of better opportunities for their children.