CHRIS SILK

• Review: FGCU students serve up "peachy" adaptation of Roald Dahl classic Updated 06/13/2013 at 2:08 a.m.

  I treasure Roald Dahl's children's fiction. I can recite detailed plots of four from memory. Thus, I approached FGCU TheatreLab's productionof Dahl's "James and the Giant Peach," with trepidation. If Hollywood has taught us anything, is is to be wary ...

• Review: Stage 2 Improv serves up quick wits, fast comedy in solid debut Published 06/07/2013 at 3:01 a.m.

  Maybe improv does have a future in Naples. Stage 2 Improv - "the next stage of comedy" (insert eye roll here) - served up a loud, lively, way-better-than-I expected debut in the Naples Players' black box space Friday night. There ...

• Review: Songbird Beck belts tunes of Patsy Cline at Broadway Palm Published 06/07/2013 at 2:42 a.m.

  As Patsy would say, God bless Heather J. Beck. "That girl can sing!" The songstress renders an uncanny vocal portrait of the country music legend up on the Broadway Palm stage in the early summer revue "A Closer Walk with ...

• Strong songs from depths of Detroit save "Dreamgirls" from disaster Published 05/23/2013 at 2:39 p.m.

  Shimmy shimmy. Shake shake. Dip. Croon. Sparkle. Wail. Ooooooh. "We're you're 'Dreamgirls.'" Delightful, delicious, feathery musical "Dreamgirls" floated into the Phil (sigh, Artis–Naples) Wednesday. There's a reason the show appears "One Night Only," but the music of Motown makes it ...

• Ghostbird, Brady soar with Kickstarter crowd-funding success Published 05/22/2013 at 2:07 p.m.

  One adjective runs through the phone conversation I shared with Ghostbird Theatre Company founder and producing artistic director Brittney Brady: "exciting." The word - or some form of it - pops up on every page of my notes.

• Review: "American Idiot" rocks Fort Myers Published 05/21/2013 at 2:54 p.m.

  "American Idiot" has something to say. "American Idiot" has nothing to say. Part rock concert, part political statement, part slamming, jamming, banging celebration of youth, freedom, music and the very emptiness of American culture at the dawn of the millennium, ...

• Review: "50 Shades! The Musical" cracks the whip on comedy in Fort Myers Published 05/21/2013 at 2:44 p.m.

  "50 Shades! The Musical" crawled blindfolded and ball-gagged into Fort Myers Friday. Oh, what a night. Sweet Katherine Kavanagh, what a night! Roaming the lobby at BBMann, one might have thought pop stars of One Direction stature were less than ...

• Review: Ladies laugh through life in "Love, Loss and What I Wore" Published 05/19/2013 at 10:08 a.m.

  Every woman with a cluttered purse should see Theatre Conspiracy's production of "Love, Loss and What I Wore." Every woman with a disorganized closet should see "Love, Loss and What I Wore." Every woman should see Theatre Conspiracy's production of ...

• Review: Lab Theater explores Bible Belt lives with poetic "Rimers" Published 05/17/2013 at 11:01 a.m.

  The Laboratory Theater of Florida closes their season with an evocative, at times thrilling production of Lanford Wilson play "The Rimers of Eldritch." Director Louise Wigglesworth delivers strong work in teasing out the play's poetry. I wish the creative work ...

• Cape Coral deaf, hearing community join forces for a signed production of 'Wizard of Oz' Updated 05/17/2013 at 10:19 a.m.

  "The Wizard of Oz " is already a very visual musical. So what happens when you include the poetic movement of sign language into it? A Cape Coral group is finding out firsthand.

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