<\/p>\n
What a summer for musicals in Central Florida. Fresh off the delightful \u201cCatch Me If You Can\u201d<\/a> at Osceola Arts and the exhilarating \u201cBig Fish\u201d<\/a> from Theatre at St. Luke\u2019s comes \u201cJerry\u2019s Girls,\u201d a super-duper tribute to Broadway composer Jerry Herman<\/a>.<\/p>\n The show, a revue of Herman\u2019s songs, is the season opener for Winter Park Playhouse<\/a> \u2014 but you\u2019ll find it at the Mandell Theater in the Lowndes Shakepeare Center, where the Playhouse is staging its plays while its usual home is renovated<\/a>.<\/p>\n And if you\u2019re a fan of musical theater, or just a fan of talent, catchy tunes and well, smiling in general, you will want to find \u201cJerry\u2019s Girls.\u201d It\u2019s one of those revues that has a solid foundation in the source material \u2014 and then the production lifts the enterprise above and beyond what\u2019s on the page.<\/p>\n Director Roy Alan, of course, is a dab hand at this kind of show, and as usual he knows just when to play a scene with a nod and a wink, and when to let his powerhouse cast dig deep into the emotion of the material.<\/p>\n Patrece Bloomfield gets to do a lot of digging, making a strong impression with the depths she finds in her opening \u201cIt Only Takes a Moment,\u201d then bringing even more emotion to \u201cI Won\u2019t Send Roses\u201d and \u201cIf He Walked Into My Life.\u201d Her rich vocals, suffused with the joy and cares of life, send these songs soaring and serve Bloomfield well in a dynamic \u201cI Am What I Am.\u201d<\/p>\n If Bloomfield is serious, Laura Hodos is her comic counterpoint \u2014 first prattling on as Dolly Levi in \u201cJust Leave Everything to Me.\u201d (A song written for the \u201cHello, Dolly!\u201d movie, not the stage musical \u2014 but if you\u2019ve read this far you likely know that.) Even better numbers come later: Berating a second-rate male movie star in \u201cNelson,\u201d and channeling the unsophistication (and surprise) of \u201cMame\u201d character Agnes Gooch.<\/p>\n Ta-da! This trio\u2019s getting gussied up to be \u2018Jerry\u2019s Girls\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Then there\u2019s Desiree Montes, this production\u2019s electrifying live wire: Determined in \u201cWherever He Ain\u2019t,\u201d winking in \u201cSo Long,Dearie,\u201d seductive in \u201cLa Cage aux Folles,\u201d chillingly heartbreaking in \u201cI Don\u2019t Want to Know.\u201d Just try to look away from her: Her shifting eyes, her stylized moves. It\u2019s an all-in performance.<\/p>\n And the scathing \u201cBosom Buddies\u201d duet between Montes and Bloomfield may be my favorite musical moment of the year.<\/p>\n The four women of the ensemble also display their own personalities in group and breakout numbers. Alan\u2019s choreography is top-notch, capturing a Vaudeville style when needed, but also giving us the energy of tap, the fun of fan dance, a sultry air for the \u201cLa Cage\u201d number \u2014 and a heaping helping of good ol\u2019 Broadway razzmatazz.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a change to not see Christopher Leavy\u2019s four-piece band, tucked behind the scenery in this home-away-from-home, but the music is as strong as ever. And J. Adam Smith\u2019s sound design makes all of Herman\u2019s lyrics \u2014 even in the fast patter songs \u2014 easy to understand.<\/p>\n Daisy McCarthy Tucker\u2019s costumes deserve their own round of applause. Every time a performer re-enters the stage, she\u2019s wearing something else. From glitzy red Dolly dresses to old-timey black-and-white ensembles, from sophisticated evening gowns to silly clown-like garb, to a sleekly ambiguous outfit that lets Bloomfield sing a male-female duet to herself. Nam Mai\u2019s wigs complement the ensembles with flair.<\/p>\n In a nice touch, scenic designer Sonia Smith-Tembe has designed a simple but elegant set that calls to mind the Playhouse\u2019s usual stage a couple of miles away in Winter Park. But \u201cJerry\u2019s Girls\u201d shows that while the company is \u201con the road\u201d at the Shakespeare Center, it\u2019s not missing an artistic beat.<\/p>\n Follow me at facebook.com\/matthew.j.palm<\/a> or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Find more entertainment news and reviews at orlandosentinel.com\/entertainment<\/a> or sign up to receive our weekly emailed Entertainment newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Length:<\/strong> 2 hours, including intermission<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Where:<\/strong> Lowndes Shakespeare Center, 812 E. Rollins St. in Orlando<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n\n Cost:<\/strong> $42-$47, with discounts for military, students and theater-industry workers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What a summer for musicals in Central Florida. Fresh off the delightful \u201cCatch Me If You Can\u201d at Osceola Arts and the exhilarating \u201cBig Fish\u201d from Theatre at St. Luke\u2019s comes \u201cJerry\u2019s Girls,\u201d a super-duper tribute to Broadway composer Jerry Herman. The show, a revue of Herman\u2019s songs, is the season opener for Winter Park […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1946120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[341548,341549,341550,341552,341553,341551],"class_list":["post-1951373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-jerrys-girls","tag-lowndes-shakepeare-center","tag-osceola-arts","tag-roy-alan","tag-the-playhouse","tag-winter-park"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Lloyd-native-nominated-for-6-IBMA-awards.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1951373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1951373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1951373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1946120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1951373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1951373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1951373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Jerry\u2019s Girls\u2019<\/h3>\n
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