First produced in 2007, Evan Smith's The Savannah Disputation is a holy war in microcosm - an acerbic verbal brawl on a single suburban property, currently receiving an exceptional production from Zoetic Stage at the Arsht Center.

Barbara Bradshaw and Laura Turnbull play Mary and Margaret, Roman Catholic sisters cohabitating on a leafy street in Savannah, Georgia. It's obvious from the first moment who wears the pants in their arrangement; for the loud, obnoxious Mary, gossip is a second language, and she spares no insults for the filthy, rude, phony Catholics with whom she shares her pews. She bullies Margaret, whose docile demeanor and lack of religious rectitude makes her an ideal target for new neighbor Melissa (Lindsey Forgey), a peroxide blonde with a beaming smile, a peachy southern drawl, and a box of literature emblazoned with a "Jesus: Change We Can Believe In" sticker. Melissa worships at a small but extreme fundamentalist church that believes Catholics, with their worship of statues and popes (aka false idols) and misguided dogmas, are headed straight for eternal damnation - for only her sect is the one true faith.

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via londonist.com

Lewis Carroll + street art = Alice in Wynwoodland.

Miami is nothing if not a rabbit hole, a place where doe-eyed innocents, much like Alice, gather en masse and then disappear into a surreal void where they meet tweaked-out freaks and crazy characters. So an Alice in Wonderland-themed event seems incredibly appropriate for our far-out fantasyland.

Enter Alice in Wynwoodland. The intriguing concept, a costumed bike ride/theater performance, is the collaborative brainchild of the Front Yard Theater Collective (FYTC) and local bike champion Emerge Miami. So on April 27, bike riders across Miami can don their best Cheshire Cat getups and take to the streets to follow Alice on her trippy trip through the ether.

The premise: What would happen if Alice's final destination were Wynwood instead of Wonderland?

See also:
- Miami-Dade's BIKE305 Initiative Aims to Add Hundreds of Miles of New Bike Paths
- DecoBike is Coming to Miami (Pending Commission Approval)

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Merrell Virgin/VSPOT Photography

He'd entered the ring with a respectable 16-1 record, seven of which were by knockout. But despite a six-inch reach advantage against his opponent and the genetic predisposition of a former heavyweight champion, Marvis Frazier was likely the only person inside Glens Falls Civic Center on July 26, 1988, who actually thought he stood a chance against a 24-0 "Iron" Mike Tyson.

"It is not a matter of if Mike Tyson knocks out Marvis Frazier," opined boxing commentator Alex Wallau before the fight. "It's just a matter of when."

Tyson went on to earn his 25th victory that night, landing a ferocious uppercut some 20-odd seconds into the bout.

"I knew deep down in my blood that I was going to stop him in the first round," he said with a menacing straight face after the fight. "I'm confident I can beat any fighter in the world."

He almost did.

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"I've wanted another one of these for so long," a gracious Lela Elam said last night as she accepted the Carbonell Award for Best Actress in a Play for her work in GableStage's Ruined. "I think they just look better as a set."

For Elam, who won a Carbonell in 2008 for GableStage's In the Continuum, it was a brief moment of levity in an otherwise tearful and moving acceptance speech -- and she wasn't the only actor to struggle to keep her composure.

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Photo by Alejandra Serna for FGO

Catalina Cuervo and Jeremias Masseda - Maria de Buenos Aires

Sexy. Seductive. Sweaty. These are three S's not typically associated with opera, the favorite pastime of the monied elderly. But times have changed, and this ain't your grandma's opera anymore.

On second thought, judging by the audience at last night's Tango double-bill at The Stage, maybe it still is your grandma's opera -- but that's only because the younger generations haven't caught on yet. They will. Especially if the Florida Grand Opera (FGO) keeps bringing sexy back like they did with last night's performance.

See also:
- Florida Grand Opera to Debut New Series at The Stage: "We Don't Know What's Going to Happen"
- Florida Grand Opera Returns to Wynwood's Second Saturday Art Walk

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Fela Kuti, the pioneering Nigerian Afrobeat musician, activist, presidential candidate and polygamist (at one point, he had 28 wives) seems an unlikely subject for an American musical. But that's exactly why the show Fela!, based on a biography of Kuti's tumultuous life, is so special. Like the musician himself, it's a brazen affront to politeness, rife with profanity, simulated pot-smoking, political rabble-rousing and harrowing violence. Moreover, it refuses to adhere to any conventions or trends, repeatedly broadening the definition of what a Broadway musical can be.

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Photo by Carol Rosegg

Michelle Williams rockin' the stage in Fela!

Since the Super Bowl, pop-culture chatter has essentially revolved around Beyoncé -- her HBO special, her world tour, her GQ cover. But let's not forget about the other members of Destiny's Child -- especially the one who's starring in a Broadway show, planning a new reality TV show, and dealing gracefully with her haters.

Grammy-winning Michelle Williams is taking the lead in Fela!, a musical tribute to Fela Kuti, the Nigerian singer who created Afrobeat as a musical genre and used it to speak out against government corruption. The highly acclaimed song-and-dance show is headed to Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center March 19. We spoke to Williams about the stigma of depression, Blue Ivy's charms, and the fried Oreos at Prime One Twelve.

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Justin Namon

In Miami's ever-evolving cultural landscape, change is not only welcome but also required for survival. And the Miami Made Festival, bringing up-and-coming theater and dance projects to the Adrienne Arsht Center February 26 through March 3, is evolving along with its local talent. The eighth edition of the festival comprises five free shows this week, with a twist on its earlier presentations: It's branching out across Biscayne Bay, infusing one of the Miami Made events with a dose of reality television and putting it on at a South Beach hotel.

Project Theatre, whose past performances have included flash mobs and characters with names like Connie Lingus, kicks off this year's festival with the reality TV spoof Extended Stay at the Riviera Hotel in South Beach. The immersive, interactive performance will include participation by the audience and hotel staff and will be filmed live, reality-TV-style. It's not your typical night at the theater.

See also:
- Mastermind 2012 Honorable Mention: The Project [theatre]

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Florida Grand Opera

If the standard selection of overpriced jukeboxes, off-key cover bands, and Jimmy Buffett wannabes at your local bar is getting a little old, there's a new game in town -- the opera. Once the domain solely of the rich (and Richard Gere), the opera's modern-day makeover is coming to Midtown's bar scene.

Starting in March at The Stage, Florida Grand Opera (FGO) is launching an "Unexpected Operas in Unexpected Places," series, featuring a tango double bill. Bargoers will hear Robert Xavier Rodriguez's Tango and Ástor Piazzolla's María de Buenos Aires, all while sipping on bottled brewskis and vodka tonics.

See also:
Opera for Hipsters: Florida Grand Opera Brings Romeo et Juliette to Wynwood
Florida Grand Opera Distracts Shoppers From IKEA Weekend Hell (Video)

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Belaxis Buil (Miami), photo by Charo Oquet

Latex, birdcages, nude bodies, eggs, holy water. No, it's not a list of items used in some bizarre demon-summoning ritual. They're just a few of the props used by the artists in last year's Miami Performance International Festival, curated by Edge Zones. Now in its second year, MPIF has artists flying in from Puerto Rico, the Czech Republic, Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Dominican Republic, the U.K. and more. It sounds like a hell of a Miami event -- except for what seems to be a lack of our own artists' interest in applying.

MPIF is calling local performing artists to submit to the 2013 festival line up. And they want to represent the 305 so bad that they're actually turning away international submissions.

See also:
- Eleven Animated GIFs from the Miami Performance International Festival (NSFW)
- Miami Performance International Festival: Work You Can't Hang Over Your Couch

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