The 2023-2024 theatre season may be winding down, but a handful of South Florida theatre companies have already announced their 2024-2025 seasons, which begin in earnest in October. We combed through their programming for the most noteworthy fare, so mark your calendars for these highlights—and if tickets are already on sale, don’t hesitate to snag a few.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Nov. 21-Dec. 22, 2024 at The Wick, 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton
Before there were “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Evita,” there was “Joseph,” the first of the kismet-like collaborations between composer Andrew Lloyd Weber and lyricist Tim Rice to be performed publicly, and one that has certainly stood the test of time. Debuting on the West End in 1973, the sung-through musical has become a staple at theaters both grand and intimate, from Broadway to grade schools, and is as beloved for its popular lay reading of the Biblical story of Joseph as it is for its extravagant costumes and infectious songcraft, which spans early rock ‘n’ roll to calypso to Americana.
Parade, Feb. 8-23, 2025, at Slow Burn Theatre at Broward Center, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
First performed on Broadway in 1998, Jason Robert Brown’s sobering, fact-based musical “Parade” explores the trial and wrongful sentencing of Jewish factory owner Leo Frank in the racist, anti-Semitic Atlanta of 1913, for the unspeakable crime of raping and murdering a 13-year-old employee over Memorial Day weekend. The case became a cause celebre for the civil rights movement and eventually spawned the formation of the Anti-Defamation League. In their handling of the case, Brown and his book writer, Alfred Uhry, unravel the ways in which stubborn prejudice clouds rational inquiry, through tunes both elegiac and trenchant.
Camping With Henry and Tom, April 11-27, 2025 at Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach
The “Henry” in the title of this unusual period piece from playwright Mark St. German is Henry Ford; the “Tom” is Thomas Edison. And the third wheel who happens to be camping with these titans of industry is President Warren G. Harding. Set in 1921 and inspired by an actual such trip the three men took together in the Blue Ridge Mountains, St. Germain’s fictionalized account finds the jingoistic Ford mulling a presidential run, Harding longing to be with his mistress, and a cynical Edison functioning as the trio’s conscience. St. Germain is deft at putting words in the mouths of real people—his other plays have focused on Sigmund Freud, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway—so this flight of woodland fantasy seems right up his alley.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, April 22-May 4, 2025 at Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s Island Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter
The sort of sprawling, three-act drama that is seldom published anymore, let alone produced, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” brought novelistic ambition to the stage when it premiered in 1962, dividing its acts into loaded subtitles like “Fun and Games,” “Walpurgisnacht” and “The Exorcism.” Capturing the bitter dialectics of a broken marriage between academic George and his blue-blood spouse Martha over the course of one tumultuous night, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” would earn Edward Albee the Tony Award for Best Play in 1963 and inspire a celebrated film adaptation by Mike Nichols. The production will arguably be the centerpiece of the inaugural season of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s new black box-style space, the Island Theatre.
Dry Powder, April 24-May 4, 2025 at Boca Stage at Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 N.W. Ninth St., Delray Beach
Borrowing its wonky name from financial-industry jargon involving low-risk, highly liquid marketable securities, Sarah Burgess’ appropriately cynical deep dive into the world of vulture capitalism debuted in 2016 but will continue to feel fiercely relevant when Boca Stage mounts it a year from now. Its central characters are the rapacious CEO of a private-equity firm, who is trying to stave off a P.R. disaster; and two junior partners—an idealist and a shark—with different ideas in mind for a new company they’re poised to acquire. Having begun my belated viewing of Showtime’s icy “Billions” this spring, about this very clutch of sociopathic money changers, I’m poised to see the depravity bleed through the Wall Street argot.
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