Arts Season Launches in Shadow of COVID-19

Live performance venue promoters usually announce their seasons this time of year, with jam-packed schedules offering just about any kind of show you’d want to see in the Biscayne Corridor on just any given night.

This year, with the pandemic far from over, arts executives in charge of scheduling big venues and producers of performance companies are displaying a cautious optimism.

Still, there is excitement in the air as those putting together the upcoming live arts season talk about their plans and welcome their audiences back with open arms – while remaining socially distanced and fully masked.

“We’re absolutely delighted that we will be able to open as planned, but we understand that COVID is still around and we will continue to be as flexible as we’ve had to be over the last 18 months,” said Johann Zietsman, CEO and president of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. He said the venue has rolled out a robust season, keeping in mind however that there is an expectation of a slow reemergence by those coming back into the theater.

“We have curtailed some things and plan to keep adding shows if we feel that people are really ready to come back fully,” said Zietsman, and added that it’s nonetheless a big year for the Arsht. “We are celebrating our quinceañera, we’re calling it ‘Sweet 15,’ this year.”

Yes, it has been 15 years since the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts opened in 2006. Two years later, its name was changed after Miami business leader and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht pledged $30 million to secure the arts center’s future. To mark the milestone anniversary, Zietsman said the center will be offering a limited number of $15 tickets to many of its shows.

At Florida Grand Opera, CEO and general director Susan T. Danis said the company’s season is purposefully getting a later start.

“We will open after the first of the year in hopes that things will be in better shape (when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic).”

For Danis and FGO, the pandemic was a chance to try out some ideas; the lessons learned will continue into the new season. In November, the opera will host a three-concert series at the 200-seat Sandrell Rivers Theater with “Singing at the Sandrell.” But the big production kicking off its opera season in January is the operatic version of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Here are highlights in the performing arts for the 2021-2022 season.

Dance

After the Miami City Ballet was forced to postpone its $3 million North American premiere production of Alexei Ratmansky’s “Swan Lake” in February because of the pandemic, the company will stage the monumental production one year later. Ratmansky’s “Swan Lake” is an amazing feat, as the former director of the Bolshoi Ballet researched the history of the fabled ballet, reconstructing much of the original choreography through notations dating back to 1895.

Also put off by COVID-19 was the culmination of a two-year artist-in-residency debut, “Birds of Paradise,” a commissioned work of the Adrienne Arsht Center with Miami-based choreographer Pioneer Winter and his Pioneer Winter Collective. The piece is described as dance-theater explores the LGTBQ+ experience through a series of narratives. Between 2018-2019, Winter hosted more than 40 community workshops.

“A lot of the conversations were about how events leave a certain imprint and shape who we are as people,” Winter said. According to Zietsman, the Arsht has never commissioned a contemporary dance piece, so it is “very special.”

In Broward County, the venerable Parker Playhouse, which opened in 1967, has been rebranded The Parker and modernized after a $30 million renovation. Although most of the venue’s lineup for the season is musical acts, German Cornejo’s dance troupe, the Tango Fire Company of Buenos Aires, might be just the spark needed for dance lovers to head to Fort Lauderdale to check out the new digs. Choreographer and partner Gisela Galeassi, along with dancers from tango houses across Argentina, will present what’s described as the sultry side of tango. What other side of tango is there?

If You Go

“Birds of Paradise”

Sept. 16-19, 2021; $40

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts

ArshtCenter.org and 305.949.6722

“Miami City Ballet: Swan Lake”

Feb. 11-13, 2022

Season subscriptions start at $84; single tickets not yet available

Miami City Ballet

MiamiCityBallet.org and 305.929.7000

“Tango Fire”

Jan. 30, 2021; $43-$73

The Parker

ParkerPlayHouse.com and 954.462.0222

Theater

Must-sees of the theater season are the lineup of touring shows from Broadway In Miami and Broadway In Fort Lauderdale. As usual, there are many that have come to town before with some new ones tossed in the mix.

BIM is at the Adrienne Arsht Center while BIFL is at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Broward might be the better bet for the Broadway touring shows to avoid the crush of crowds that, this year at the Arsht, will be navigating through the parking maze created by the $818 million Florida Department of Transportation Signature Bridge project with an expected completion date of Fall 2024. The largest and usually most accessible lot at the Arsht, across from the Ziff Ballet Opera House, is currently a heap of dirt, so know before you go.

Zietsman said the Arsht will be keeping in touch with ticket buyers through emails and have made deals with restaurants for parking, and are also providing a shuttle service to the theater. He also said many of the parking garages nearby are accommodating venue guests.

So, what’s worth navigating? Do a bookend with the opening show “Hairspray,” which kicks off the BIM season, and attend the closer, “Hadestown.” The former has been here before and has also been performed locally, but this production makes it worth another go-round because of the star power of Andrew Levitt, (aka drag queen Nina West, a fan favorite on RuPaul’s “Drag Race”) as Edna Turnblad. The 14-time Tony Award winning show “Hadestown” reopened on Broadway and will be touring the country with a stop in Miami. The musical is derived from two mythical tales, which follow ill-fated lovers trudging through a 1930 New Orleans-flavored neverland.

Get more of a Broadway musical fix in Fort Lauderdale as two Great White Way hits pulled from the big screen head to the Broward Center: “Pretty Woman: The Musical” (no, Julie Roberts is not in the touring cast) and “Tootsie” (and, no, Dustin Hoffman is not in the tour). Broadway-musical-turned-movie “The Prom” is also part of the BAFL season.

At local professional theater houses, Arsht-in-residence company Zoetic Stage is opening its season with the South Florida premiere of “Frankenstein.” In this adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, British playwright Nick Dear tells the story from the point of view of “the creature.”

At Actors’ Playhouse at The Miracle Theatre, “Middletown” by playwright Dan Clancy, a South Florida favorite son, (he splits his time between Fort Lauderdale and New York), is about two couples – Don and Dotty Abrams and Tom and Peg Hogan – exploring how they’ve endured the ups and downs of life across 33 years of friendship. Taking a page from A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters,” the actors read from scripts at separate music stands. Clancy’s idea is that he wants the “words to speak for themselves.” And, like “Love Letters,” different celebrity cast members are part of the draw. Productions in other cities have featured Didi Conn, Sandy Duncan, Donny Most, Sally Struthers and Adrien Zmed. The theater is still finalizing which celebrities will grace the Miracle Mile for the run.

New producing artistic director Bari Newport steps into the shoes of the late Joe Adler at GableStage, to continue the final play directed by Adler before he passed away in April, Arthur Miller’s “The Price.” Newport said in a statement from the theater – which is housed inside the Biltmore Hotel – that she is using Adler’s notes to “bring to life his vision of the (playwright’s) classic, a two-act play about two estranged brothers who come together after the death of their father.”

If You Go

“Hairspray”

Dec. 28, 2021 – Jan. 2, 2022

“Hadestown”

Dec. 6-11, 2022

Five-show subscriptions start at $191; single tickets not yet available

“Frankenstein”

Oct. 14-31, 2021

Five-show subscriptions start at $194; single tickets not yet available

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts

ArshtCenter.org and 305.949.6722

“The Prom”

Dec. 14-19, 2021

“Tootsie”

Jan. 11-23, 2022

“Pretty Woman: The Musical”

May 4-15, 2022

$35-$90 or six-show season subscriptions start at $270

Broward Center for the Performing Arts

BrowardCenter.org and 954.462.0222

“Middletown”

Nov. 10 – Dec. 19, 2021; $30-$75

Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre

ActorsPlayhouse.org and 305.444.9293

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

Feb. 4, 2022; $40-$45

Aventura Arts & Cultural Center

AventuraCenter.org and 305.466.8002

“The Price”

Nov. 12 – Dec. 12, 2021; $35-$65

GableStage at the Biltmore

GableStage.org and 305.445.1119

Music

The question is always “Where to begin?” when selecting what to put in the datebook for music offerings. Florida Grand Opera first comes to mind because the opening show of its 80th anniversary season at the Adrienne Arsht Center is sure to be a crowd-pleaser – the operatic adaptation by Andre Previn of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

“You listen to the music, and you feel like you are in the steaminess of New Orleans,” Danis said. Last year’s all-American season during the pandemic showed that English-language operas resonated with local audiences, she said.

“Besides ‘Streetcar’ being an American piece (it will have Spanish subtitles), it has a familiarity,” explained Danis. “Everyone’s heard of ‘Streetcar Named Desire.’”

Cuban American Miami native Elizabeth Caballero sings the role of Blanche Dubois.

FGO will also be heading to the Sandrell Rivers Theater for its new three-concert series “Singing at the Sandrell,” which includes a collection of spirituals, jazz and Motown programs.

A Miami holiday tradition returns to an in-person event after Seraphic Fire streamed “Home for the Holidays” last year. There’s nothing like seeing and of course hearing South Florida’s professional chamber choir as it presents its annual candlelight holiday concerts of classics inside historic churches. Heavenly!

American Airlines Arena has been renamed FTX Arena, and while there are some big names heading to town, Elton John’s swan song – his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour – is one of the most anticipated. This is another pandemic-era reschedule, as the concert was originally slated for Miami in May 2020. Those who already have tickets will be able to use them on the rescheduled April 2021 date. But “Rocket Man” fans, don’t fret: At deadline a check of Ticketmaster showed some seats still available.

If You Go

“A Streetcar Named Desire”

Jan 22-23 & 25, 2022

Three-opera series subscriptions vary; single tickets available Oct. 4

“Singing at the Sandrell”

Nov. 20, 2021 (spirituals); March 19, 2022 (jazz); April 30, 2022 (Motown)

$25 general admission

FGO.org and 800.741.1010

“A Seraphic Fire Christmas”

Dec. 10, 15 & 17, 2021

Seven-concert subscription series $371

Locations vary

SeraphicFire.org and 305.285.9060

“Elton John: Farewell Yellow Brick Road”

April 28; $140-$245 and higher for Ticketmaster verified resale tickets

FTX Arena

FTXArena.com and 786.777.1000