Beating the rest of the South Florida theatrical community to the punch, theMaltz Jupiter Theatre has already announced its 2011-2012 season lineup, which features five shows from November through next April. Among the usual crop of longstanding Broadway staples – “Cabaret” and “Hello, Dolly” shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with Maltz’s brand — is a genuine shocker.
Of all the theaters to premiere the 2010 Tony Award winner “Red” in South Florida, Maltz would be one of the last on my list. The austere two-character play, which dramatizes abstract expressionist Mark Rothko as he swallows his purist credibility and accepts a lucrative mural commission from the Four Seasons restaurant in the late 1950s, is more the domain of smaller, edgier playhouses, like Mosaic or GableStage. Richard Jay Simon, the artistic director at Mosaic, told me last year that he’d love to present “Red,” a challenging, cerebral work that’s 180 degrees away from the musical escapism of Jerry Herman or Cole Porter.
That Maltz nabbed the rights to produce the play smack-dab in the middle of its next season of cobwebby musicals is an incremental improvement. It suggests that the theater is willing to take a chance and move beyond its comfort zone and potentially alienate some its regular clientele (Indeed, “Red” is a polarizing work; some family members of mine saw it on Broadway and couldn’t have been more unengaged).
Another play I’ll be anticipating at Maltz is its next season opener, “The 39 Steps,” a self-aware homage to the films of Alfred Hitchcock. The farce features four actors playing more than 150 roles, sometimes performing multiple parts at once. Local theatergoers may have some strong comparison points; the touring Broadway version of “The 39 Steps” toured the Parker Playhouse in 2010, and Actor’s Playhouse in Coral Gables will be staging its own version this May.
Full schedule:
“The 39 Steps, Nov. 1 to 13
“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” Nov. 29 to Dec. 18
“Cabaret,” Jan. 10 to 29, 2012
“Red,” Feb. 14 to Feb. 26, 2012
“Hello, Dolly!” March 13 to April 1
