John Thomason

Fall brought us an exciting lineup of original theater and festive favorites, but we're ready for the main event: As the temperatures lower, curtains will rise for theater companies across South Florida as we embark on the winter 024/2025 season. There’s a lot to sort through this winter, and our picks for the most exciting shows are a testament to the diversity of producers, audiences and talent in the cultural melting pots of Miami-Dade and Broward.  Expect to encounter timeless and contemporary classics, beloved musicals and newer works that examine today’s social issues with compassion, nuance and biting humor. Looking to dive into a full-throttle season of culture in Miami? Peruse our winter theater preview below, a roundup of the best shows across South Florida to book right now. RECOMMENDED: The best things to do in Miami right now

Dust off la caja china—the holiday season is almost here! We’ve got Knaus Berry Farm cranking out cinnamon rolls, Tropical Park decked in lights and “Mi Burrito Sabanero” on radio repeat—all the telltale signs of Christmas in Miami. We may not have snow, but boy, does Miami have holiday spirit. We’re talkin’ interactive light shows, festive street parades, yuletide theater productions and so much more. Check out the best Christmas events in Miami for 2024 so far, and check back often as we update this list with even more holiday happenings.  RECOMMENDED: The best things to do with kids over the holidays in Miami

In the theater world, summer used to be a creatively fallow period, with most playhouses shuttered as the snowbirds prepared their northern migration. And in some pockets of South Florida—Palm Beach comes to mind—it still is. But in Miami and Broward, there’s no end to the “season.” That’s evidenced by a robust calendar of plays, music and dance recitals all the way through August, from the major regional players like Zoetic Stage, GableStage and Actors’ Playhouse; to the touring companies dropping some of their most blockbuster shows, like Peter Pan and Les Misérables, during Miami’s sweltering dog days. Maybe this flurry of activity has something to do with the new, culture-craving residents still moving to Florida in unprecedented numbers. Whatever the reason, we like it—and we think you will too. Here’s a taste of what’s on tap. RECOMMENDED: The best museums in Miami

A wintertime favorite with adventure and romance to spare, this musical adaptation of the 1997 animated classic retains the story’s historical origins, as the amnesiac title character escapes her oppressive life in imperialist Russia and hopes to reconstruct her past with the unlikely help of a con artist and ex-aristocrat. Celebrated playwright Terence McNally wrote the book for the musical. Slow Burn Theatre at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW 5th Ave, Fort Lauderdale (954-462-0222). Dec 21–Jan 5: various show times; $72 and up.

This hit-filled musical, authorized by the late performer, charts the tumultuous journey of Tennessee-born Anna Mae Bullock, later christened Tina Turner by Ike Turner, the showman and bandleader who discovered her, married her and abused her. By Act II, Turner has shed her violent first husband and embarks on a new musical vision as a solo artist, despite the pervasive racism and ageism of the era. The songs are a marvelous assemblage of 20th-century rock and soul. Broadway in Miami at Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd, Miami (305-949-6722, arshtcenter.org). Jan 14–19: various show times; $30–$135.

Fresh from Broadway—where it won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play—Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ searing dark comedy is set on a decaying plantation in the cicada-filled environs of Arkansas, where a family has gathered to quarrel over their departed patriarch’s inheritance. When an estranged brother appears unexpectedly, and buried relics resurface among the clutter, the already fractious reunion reaches a boiling point. GableStage, 1200 Anastasia Ave, Coral Gables (305-445-1119, gablestage.org). Jan 31–Feb 23; various show times; $25–$80.

The final show in LakeHouseRanch’s third season of provocative plays in intimate settings, Mackenzie Raine’s world-premiere comedy takes its name from four artists, selected for different reasons, who are enlisted to design and build a new American flag. As a consensus choice grows more elusive, Raine takes an absurdist look at patriotism and symbolism in the 21st century. LakehouseRanchDotPNG.com at Main Street Playhouse, 6812 Main St, Miami Lakes (lakehouseranchdotpng.com). Jan 24–Feb 2: 8pm Fri–Sat, 2pm Sun; $20.

A Pulitzer Prize and Tony winner upon its 1967 Broadway premiere, this hulking portrait of domestic dysfunction from playwright Edward Albee is considered among the undisputed masterpieces of the second half of the 20th century. A late middle-aged couple flees an indefinable sense of terror to cohabitate with their best friends, whose own problems, from divorce and alcoholism to potential infidelity, are all too tangible. Island City Stage, 2304 N Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors (954-928-9800). Jan 16–Feb 9: various show times; $48.

Nothing is sacred in the not-so-hallowed halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in this gleefully vulgar farce from up-and-coming playwright Selina Fillinger. Despite the acronym in the title, the president of the United States doesn’t have a speaking part in this all-female satire, but his louche actions set in motion the zany antics of a rogues’ gallery of Beltway archetypes tasked with protecting—or exposing—his reputation. Zoetic Stage at Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd, Miami (305-949-6722, arshtcenter.org). Jan 9–26: 7:30pm Thu–Sat, 2:30pm Sun; $56–$61.

One of the foundational productions in the peak era of the jukebox musical, this four-time Tony winner charts the historic rise and personal struggles of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons through two decades of the vocal group’s pioneering explorations of four-part harmony. “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man” are among the irrepressible earworms. Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables (305-444-9293, actorsplayhouse.org). Jan 22–Feb 23: 8pm Wed–Sat, 3pm Sun; $60–$70.

Jason Robert Brown’s sobering, fact-based musical explores the trial and wrongful sentencing of a Jewish factory owner in the racist, anti-Semitic Atlanta of 1913, for the unspeakable crime of raping and murdering a 13-year-old employee. In their handling of this pivotal case, Brown and his book writer, Alfred Uhry, unravel the ways in which stubborn prejudice clouds rational inquiry, through tunes both elegiac and trenchant. Slow Burn Theatre at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW 5th Ave, Fort Lauderdale (954-462-0222). Feb 8–23: various show times; $72 and up.

Set during the familiar period of cautious reemergence from the coronavirus pandemic, John Mabey’s brand-new comedy centers on Ruth, a fully vaccinated empty-nest mother preparing to (finally) embark on a cruise. Her increasingly asocial husband Denny, however, has come to prefer the imposed isolation of quarantine, a conflict that is complicated by the arrival of their two grown children—with a less-than-savory boyfriend in tow. Main Street Playhouse, 6812 Main St, Miami Lakes (mainstreetplayers.com). Feb 21–March 9: 8pm Fri–Sat, 2pm Sun; $30.

Like the 1959 Hollywood classic on which it’s based, this gender-switching, Prohibition-era musical follows two male jazz musicians who witness a mob hit. Suddenly on the lam from gangsters, they pose as women to join an all-female band on its tour bus to safer climes. Witty repartee, hot jazz, lightning-fast tap dancing and other tropes of the Roaring Twenties helped elevate the show’s Broadway premiere to 13 Tony Awards in 2023, the most of any musical of its season.

In this sparkling celebration of the music and legacy of Cher, three actresses, referred to in the show as Babe, Lady and Star, portray different eras of Cher’s life, and occasionally interact with each other, temporal logic be damned (she did write “If I Could Turn Back Time,” after all). The music, 35 songs deep, is nearly all Cher’s, and the show’s dazzling costumes earned it a Tony Award in 2019.

The edgy, breakout musical from Jonathan Larson—who went on to compose Rent—Tick, Tick … Boom is a semiautobiographical account of a restaurant server and aspiring musical-theater composer who faces mounting pressures to abandon his passion for a more lucrative career in the corporate world. Larson died six years after its completion, but the musical has enjoyed a posthumous shelf life in both regional theaters and through a film adaptation in 2021.

Robert Battle remembers growing up in Miami’s Liberty City and taking the bus to the Jackie Gleason Theater for a children’s matinee performance of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. “And look where I am now,” he says. For the past seven years, Battle has been artistic director of that very institution. “People should take that as a guide—that it’s important young people especially see the company, because it can be a transforming experience.” This year celebrates two major anniversaries for the modern-dance company, renowned for its ability to communicate African-American experiences to a global audience through movement. March 30 commemorates 60 years since the theater’s inaugural performance in New York, while 2018 marks a decade of Alvin Ailey at the Adrienne Arsht Center, where its annual program is a cultural staple. And every Miami tour is a homecoming for Battle, whose mother still lives in his childhood home. “Having grown up in Miami, [I think] it’s important that we see a company where the majority of the dancers are dancers of color, that we see images of people that are successful in the field, and that dance can serve as a uniter,” says Battle. “I know Miami. I was there for some of the not-so-good times, the riots. I know how important it is for a company like Alvin Ailey to come and deliver a message of hope.” That theme will no doubt resonate during the theater’s 2018 Arsht program, which features Battle’s Mass, a rapid-fire work for 18 dancers; and Aile

For theatergoers, one of the pleasures of a Miami summer—which begins in April and runs approximately through October (if we’re lucky)—is the air-conditioned escapism of Summer Shorts. Hosted at the Adrienne Arsht Center and produced by City Theatre for the past 22 years, the program’s formula is as familiar and dependable as an IHOP breakfast: eight shorts culled from hundreds of entries, each running no more than 10 minutes, with a bias toward the outrageous. There’s no reason this eccentric assortment couldn’t also work in the wintertime—in City Theatre’s verbiage, “for those nights when South Florida temperatures plunge below 70.” Hence the resurrection of Winter Shorts, Summer Shorts’ chilly companion, which City Theatre last produced in 2001. Its winter revival is part of the company’s fullest season yet, an initiative by recently appointed artistic director Margaret Ledford to expand City Theatre’s footprint. “I am coming on as a full-time, full-fledged artistic director, and trying to grow City,” says Ledford, who has directed for many of South Florida’s most esteemed companies. “We decided Winter Shorts would be a perfect thing to add to this season. We’d love to make it an anchor to the Summer Shorts program in the winter.” The relaunched presentation will have a more consistent thematic focus than its sister show, with all of the plays addressing the holidays. Although some of the shorts are still in negotiation, Ledford is excited to include Oy Vey Maria, Mark Har

In November 2015, the preeminent power couple of the Miami music scene added another accomplishment to an already long list that includes Grammy-winning albums, books, films and more. That’s when Gloria and Emilio Estefan became Broadway impresarios, spearheading a musical based on their inspirational, tumultuous lives. Two years after its Broadway debut, On Your Feet! makes its national touring debut in Miami. Emilio Estefan would have it no other way. “Miami is going to be crazy, because most of the people have been with us since we played bar mitzvahs and weddings,” he says. “Miami has always been special to us. It’s a place where we always felt thankful for the good times, and even when we had the accident [that critically injured Gloria, in 1990], everyone was praying for us. It’s going to be amazing going to a theater and seeing the amount of faces we’ll know.” A splashy jukebox musical that earns its exclamation point, On Your Feet! weaves the Estefans’ crossover singles, from their Miami Sound Machine days and Gloria’s solo career, into a narrative about pursuing the American Dream on one’s own terms. The book, scripted by Birdman’s Oscar-winning cowriter Alexander Dinelaris, charts Gloria’s musically precocious childhood in Cuba through her immigration to Miami, her on- and offstage relationship with Emilio and that harrowing bus crash. Along the way, it addresses themes of racism and perseverance, as the Latin pop innovators spar with shortsighted record executives

When GableStage’s Artistic Director Joseph Adler produced Tracy Letts’s Killer Joe in 2000, he wasn’t just testing the waters of onstage depravity and violence. He was ready to jump headfirst into a pool of controversy.  The notorious 1993 play—a white-trash, black-as-death comedy rife with vulgarity, bloodshed and sexual humiliation—puts even the strongest constitutions to the test. A more prudent director might have eased into such a production, carefully cementing a reputation before attempting a work this polarizing. But Adler staged Killer Joe as GableStage’s sixth show, on the heels of safe, established works by David Hare, John Steinbeck and John Patrick Shanley. “When I did Killer Joe, the then executive director asked, ‘You’re going to do this, with nudity and violence? At the Biltmore? In Coral Gables?’ I said, ‘Yes, and it’s going to be the biggest success we’ve had this year,’ ” recalls Adler. “She said, ‘Put it in writing.’ And I did. And it was!” Adler, who became GableStage’s artistic director in 1998, is quick to point out that the theater produces far more than just confrontational shockers. He stages historical dramas and political comedies and erudite monologues and chamber musicals. But his reputation for shows that illuminate the dark corners of the human condition was solidified early, in part because nobody else in the region was doing them at the time: 2004’s Bug, with its unsettling dental surgery, disembowelment and full-nude self-immolation; 2010’s