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Tag: center stage

  • Broadway musical ‘& Juliet’ revamps well-known romance story in Central Florida Jan. 6-11

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    Broadway musical ‘& Juliet’ revamps well-known romance story in Central Florida Jan. 6-11

    The show’s lead and a 2025 Jimmy Award winner, Fabiola Caraballo Quijada, joins WESH 2 with a preview.

    IS TAKING CENTER STAGE WITH A MODERN TWIST. THE BROADWAY MUSICAL AND JULIET BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO THE ROMANCE TRAGEDY ROMEO AND JULIET. JOINING ME NOW IS 2025 JIMMY AWARD WINNER AND THE SHOW’S LEAD, FABIOLA. FABIOLA. CARABALLO. QUIJADA. FABIOLA. GREAT TO SEE YOU. THANKS FOR HAVING ME. AND LET ME JUST SAY, MY FAMILY AND I GOT TO SEE THE SHOW LAST NIGHT AND IT IS JUST A CONCERT AND A PARTY, AND YOU GO ON THIS EMOTIONAL JOURNEY WITH YOUR CHARACTER. SO I DON’T KNOW HOW TO EVEN DESCRIBE THE STORY TO SOMEBODY. WHAT DO YOU SAY? YEAH. SO AND JULIET, YOU KNOW, IT KIND OF TAKES A TWIST ON THE CLASSIC ENDING OF OF ROMEO AND JULIET. YOU KNOW, SHAKESPEARE’S INFAMOUS PLAY. AND SO, YOU KNOW, THIS ENDING, YOU KNOW, WE TAKE THE QUESTION, WHAT IF JULIET HADN’T ENDED IT ALL OVER ROMEO? AND SO, YOU KNOW, SHE REALLY STARTS HER JOURNEY OF, OF SELF-EMPOWERMENT AND SHE GOES AND MAKES MISTAKES AND LEARNS FROM HER FRIENDS, AND SHE ULTIMATELY DECIDES THAT HER JOURNEY IS, YOU KNOW, HER DESTINY IS IN HER OWN HANDS. YEAH. AND YOU, YOU PLAY JULIET? OF COURSE. THE LEAD HERE. IT WAS OPENING NIGHT. WE’RE REALLY THANKFUL THAT YOU GOT UP EARLY AND YOU JOINED US HERE. HOW WAS THE ORLANDO AUDIENCE? WHAT WAS THE ENERGY LIKE? YEAH. WE’RE INCREDIBLE. IT WAS INSANE. I HAD NEVER FELT AN ENERGY IN, LIKE, THE FIRST OF ALL, THE THEATER IS JUST INCREDIBLE. IT’S BEAUTIFUL AUDITORIUM. AND YOU GUYS JUST FILLED IT WITH SO MUCH SOUND AND JOY. IT WAS REALLY INCREDIBLE TO FEEL ON STAGE. WELL, AND THEN WE’LL GET TO THIS QUESTION LATER. BUT, YOU KNOW, WE’VE GOT A BIG ORLANDO TIE IN I’M TALKING ABOUT. YEAH, YEAH, MAYBE A BOY BAND MEMBER, YOU KNOW, WHO LIVES HERE IN CENTRAL FLORIDA. BUT FIRST, JULIET, I MEAN, THIS IS A CHARACTER THAT WE KNOW FROM SHAKESPEARE’S WRITING. IT’S A BIG ROLE TO FILL THESE SHOES. HOW DO YOU DO IT NIGHT AFTER NIGHT? YEAH. SO, I MEAN, WE’VE GOT TO START WITH, YOU KNOW, LIKE THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF JULIET, YOU KNOW, LIKE, SHE’S YOUNG AND SHE’S A LITTLE BIT SHELTERED. SHE JUST WANTS TO DO, YOU KNOW, SHE’S KIND OF REBELLIOUS. AND SO WE USE MOST OF THAT IN THIS NEW ADAPTATION. BUT WE ALSO, YOU KNOW, SHE IS JUST WILD AND YOUNG. AND WE TAKE THAT ON. AND, YOU KNOW, WE ALSO INCLUDE LIKE THE POP ELEMENT OF IT. AND SO, YOU KNOW, WE WE KIND OF JUST MIX THE, THE Y2K ELEMENTS WITHIN THE ENTIRE SHOW. AND JULIET IS JUST, OH, SHE’S JUST A ONE BIG BALL OF ENERGY. AND THEN IT BRINGS HER THROUGH SO MUCH IN HER JOURNEY, AND IT LEADS HER TO MEET SO MANY NEW PEOPLE. AND SHE GOES THROUGH A LOT EMOTIONALLY, YOU KNOW, SHE SHE IT’S AN EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER FOR JULIET. AND SHE ENDS UP SHE WITH THE VICTORY IN THE END. YES. AND FABIOLA, YOU DO A FANTASTIC JOB WITH THIS SHOW. YOU MENTIONED THE MUSIC. IT IS WHAT THEY CALL A JUKEBOX MUSICAL. SO THESE ARE SONGS ALL OF US SHOULD KNOW? YES. INCLUDING CAST MEMBER HERE THAT WE KNOW FROM A BOY BAND, NSYNC MEMBER JOEY FATONE IS ON STAGE WITH YOU HERE FOR THE ORLANDO SHOWS. YES, JOEY IS PLAYING OUR LANCE THIS WEEK AND THIS WEEK ONLY. HE IS JUST AN INCREDIBLE PERSON TO WORK WITH. HE’S SO, SO FUNNY, SO FULL OF ENERGY. HE REALLY BRINGS AN INCREDIBLE ENERGY TO THE STAGE AND IT’S SO MUCH FUN. IT’S DIFFERENT, BUT YOU KNOW, THAT’S WHAT KEEPS US ON OUR TOES ON STAGE. THE AUDIENCE LOVED SEEING HIM. HE HAS JUST SUCH A FUN PART, BUT IT DOES HAVE THIS EMOTIONAL ARC. I JUST THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO BE COMEDIC RELIEF LIKE WE FIND IN A SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTION. BUT THERE’S SO MUCH MORE TO TO WHAT JOEY BROUGHT. AND HE DOES LIVE HERE, YOU KNOW, HIS FAMILY’S ROOTED HERE AND WE LOVE SEEING HIM ON STAGE. HE ALSO JUST CAME OFF THE BROADWAY RUN. HE DID TWO STINTS ON BROADWAY OVER THE SUMMER, AND THEN EARLIER IN THE YEAR AT 2025, BIG YEAR FOR JOEY FATONE. BUT FOR YOU TOO, YOU JUST GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL. I SURE DID. I SAID HIGH SCHOOL THIS PAST SPRING. I MEAN, WHAT A HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT. NOW IN A BROADWAY TOUR. WOW. THANK YOU. HOW DID THAT HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? YEAH, WELL, I GRADUATED IN MAY OF 2025, AND SHORTLY AFTER I WENT TO NEW YORK FOR THE JIMMY AWARDS, THE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL THEATER AWARDS. FOR THOSE WHO DON’T KNOW. AND IT WAS A ONE WEEK, INCREDIBLE WEEK IN NEW YORK. AND I ENDED UP TAKING HOME THE PRIZE TO MY PARENTS AND MY FAMILY. AND, YOU KNOW, SHORTLY AFTER THAT, I WAS I WAS OFFERED THE AUDITION FOR ANNE JULIET, AND I WAS LIKE, HEY, I DIDN’T THINK THAT ANYTHING WOULD COME OUT OF IT. AND, WELL, HERE WE ARE. OH, HERE YOU ARE IN A BIG WAY. FANTASTIC IN THE SHOW. AND JULIET PLAYING JULIET. WE JUST WISH YOU CONTINUED SUCCESS. THANK YOU. IT WAS. IT WAS SUCH A FUN RIDE, EVERYBODY. WE WERE ON OUR FEET. IT WAS LIKE A PARTY AT THE END, CELEBRATING WITH. WITH JULIET HERE AND FABIOLA AS WE WRAP THIS UP HERE, WHAT’S THE MESSAGE FOR OTHER YOUNG PEOPLE, BROADWAY KIDS OR BROADWAY ASPIRING YOUNG PEOPLE? WELL, THE THING THAT I ALWAYS SAY IS JUST THAT IT’S SO IMPORTANT TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. YOU KNOW, THERE ARE SO MUCH THAT YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH. YOU JUST NEED TO HAVE A VISION OF WHERE YOU WANT TO BE, AND YOU NEED TO TRY EVERYTHING YOU DO, EVERYTHING THAT IS IN YOUR POWER TO TO TRULY TAKE THIS STEP FORWARD. OPEN DOORS. DON’T BE AFRAID TO STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE BECAUSE YOU KNOW A LOT CAN HAPPEN. THERE’S A LOT OF THINGS THAT YOU YOU, YOU DON’T KNOW THAT YOU CAN DO UNTIL YOU KNOW, YOU TAKE THAT STEP AND THERE YOU ARE. WE LOVE IT. GREAT WORDS. FABIOLA. THANK YOU. A REALLY FUN SHOW. AND WE’RE TALKING ABOUT, YOU KNOW, HITS THAT MAX MARTIN WROTE THAT. YES. HALF OF THEM CAME OUT BEFORE YOU WERE EVEN BORN HERE. OH, BUT I KNOW HIM JUST AS WELL. OH, LET ME TELL YOU. BETTER THAN I THAN I OR ANYBODY IN THE AUDIENCE SAYS YOU’VE GOT IT. AND WE’RE GOING TO POST A LINK TO ALL THE SHOW INFORMATION. FABIOLA, WE’RE LOVING YOU AS JULIET. CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THE SKY’S THE LIMIT FOR YOUR CAREER. THANK YOU SO MUCH. ALL THE INFORMATION IS U

    Broadway musical ‘& Juliet’ revamps well-known romance story in Central Florida Jan. 6-11

    The show’s lead and a 2025 Jimmy Award winner, Fabiola Caraballo Quijada, joins WESH 2 with a preview.

    Updated: 10:02 AM EST Jan 7, 2026

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    The Broadway musical “& Juliet” puts a modern spin on the well-known Shakespearean romance story, “Romeo and Juliet,” as the national tour makes a stop in Central Florida. The show’s lead and a 2025 Jimmy Award winner, Fabiola Caraballo Quijada, joins WESH 2 with a preview.The show will take center stage at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts from Jan. 6-11, 2026. Orlando native and *NSYNC superstar Joey Fatone joins the Orlando stops of the North American Tour of the hit musical as “Lance.”Click here to learn more.

    ORLANDO, Fla. —

    The Broadway musical “& Juliet” puts a modern spin on the well-known Shakespearean romance story, “Romeo and Juliet,” as the national tour makes a stop in Central Florida.

    The show’s lead and a 2025 Jimmy Award winner, Fabiola Caraballo Quijada, joins WESH 2 with a preview.

    The show will take center stage at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts from Jan. 6-11, 2026.

    Orlando native and *NSYNC superstar Joey Fatone joins the Orlando stops of the North American Tour of the hit musical as “Lance.”

    Click here to learn more.

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  • The iPhone 17 square selfie camera is a bigger deal than you think

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    A square camera sensor may sound like one of those things only nerds would appreciate, but as part of the new front-facing 18-megapixel “Center Stage” camera on the iPhone 17 lineup, it could have massive implications for Apple’s users. They’ll no longer need to turn their phones to take a landscape selfie, especially if they need to fit a large group of people, as that’s all handled automatically by Center Stage. It’s the sort of “Why didn’t I think of that?” feature that other phone makers will likely copy, simply because it’s immensely practical. Those square camera sensors could help make Apple a selfie pioneer, once again.

    We’ve come a long way from when the iPhone 4 and HTC Evo 4G introduced the idea of modern front-facing cameras in 2010. Earlier cellphones in Japan and Europe had low quality selfie cameras, and you could argue that the Game Boy Camera also toyed with the idea when it arrived in 1998. But in 2010, we finally had powerful phones on relatively speedy mobile connections that could easily share photos and let users hop on video chats on a whim. (It still stings that it took Apple two more years to release the LTE-capable iPhone 5, which made FaceTime much more useful.)

    iPhone Air selfie camera

    (Sam Rutherford for Engadget)

    During the iPhone 17 launch event, Apple revealed that its customers took 500 billion selfies last year, a massive figure that shows just how normalized the practice has become. Selfies were often mocked when they were deemed the purview of Instagram-obsessed teenage girls, but these days it’s not unusual to see everyone from seniors to a gaggle of sports bros gathering around a single phone like an object of worship. And, on a personal note, they’re really the only way to get decent photos of your entire family, especially when you’re juggling two rambunctious young kids.

    We take photos to preserve memories, but selfies feel distinctive for their intimacy. You’re not just capturing where you were, but you’re also documenting yourself in the moment, along with the people around you. By making it easier to take selfies, it follows that you’ll start to take even more of them, ultimately tying yourself into Apple’s ecosystem even further. That leads to needing an iPhone with more storage and potentially more iCloud backup space down the line. You’re also not going to jump over to an Android phone if you have to turn your phone sideways for a landscape selfie, or if you lose access to all of the cherished memories in your Apple Photos library.

    The square camera sensor keeps you loyal. 

    It’ll also change the way iPhone users take front-facing videos. Center Stage automatically keeps you in the center of FaceTime calls, so you don’t have to worry so much about framing yourself up. And while I haven’t seen this particular feature in action, it should also help alleviate the headache of turning your phone during a FaceTime call to match the recipient’s device. (Or maybe I’m just tired of telling my parents to flip their phones when their FaceTime chats have huge black borders.)

    This may be a stretch, but I could see the Center Stage front camera making it more common to record video with your front and rear cameras at the same time. While it’s new to iPhone as “Dual Capture,” we’ve seen variants of it from Samsung and Nokia (remember #bothie?) Android devices, but they’ve never really taken off. TikTok’s dual-camera live streaming mode has been more successful, and there are also vlogging apps like MixCam built around dual recording. With Dual Capture on iPhone 17, Center Stage’s ability to keep you in the middle of the action with the front camera should let you focus more on getting the best shot with the rear lenses.

    While I’d love to see Apple cram more pixels into the 18MP Center Stage camera, moving to a square sensor will honestly be more impactful for all of the reasons above. It’s easy to throw in a higher resolution sensor, it’s tougher to fundamentally rethink how you can improve upon something as simple as taking a selfie.

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  • A Food Fight at the Kids’ Table

    A Food Fight at the Kids’ Table

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    Suddenly, it just tumbled out: “Honestly, every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.”

    That was former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley’s rebuke of businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, easily the best line of Wednesday night’s messy and awkward GOP primary debate. Ramaswamy, for his part, produced his own meme-worthy quote during a heated exchange with Senator Tim Scott: “Thank you for speaking while I’m interrupting.”

    Such was the onstage energy at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum: Chaotic, sloppy, largely substance-free. Seven candidates desperately fought for fresh relevance; none of them came away with it. Rather than pitching themselves as the candidate who can beat former President Donald Trump, these Republicans seemed to be operating most of the time in an alternate universe, in which Trump was absent not just from the stage, but from the race.

    Eight years ago, so many candidates were vying for the Republican nomination that the party took to splitting primary debates into two sessions: the main event and the undercard. The latter contest was mocked as the “kids’ table” debate. So far this time around, there’s only one unified debate night. Nevertheless, Trump has such a commanding lead over his challengers that, for the second debate in a row, he hasn’t even bothered to show up and speak. Voters have no reason to believe he’ll be at any of the other contests. Trump counter-programmed last month’s Fox News debate by sitting down for a sympathetic interview with the former Fox star Tucker Carlson. On Wednesday, Trump delivered a speech in Michigan, where a powerful union—United Auto Workers—are in the second week of a strike.

    All seven candidates who qualified for the debate—individuals with honorifics such as “governor,” “senator,” and “former vice president”—spent the evening arguing at the kids’ table. Barring some sort of medical emergency, Trump seems like the inevitable 2024 GOP nominee. As Michael Scherer of The Washington Post pointed out on X (formerly Twitter), the candidates on stage were collectively polling at 36 percent. If they were to join forces and become one person (think seven Republicans stacked in a trenchcoat), Trump would still be winning by 20 percent.

    Read: A parade of listless vessels

    How many other ways can you say this? The race is effectively over. So what, then, were they all doing there? A cynic would tell you they’re merely running for second place—for a shot at a cabinet position, maybe even VP.

    One candidate decidedly not running for vice president is Former Vice President Mike Pence, who has taken to (gently) attacking his old boss. Nor does former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie seem to want a sidekick or administration gig. Christie has staked his entire campaign on calling out Trump’s sins, and, so far, it’s not working. Earlier on Wednesday, Christie shared a photo of himself at a recent NFL game, with a cringeworthy nod to new Kansas City Chiefs fan Taylor Swift: “I was just a guy in the bleachers on Sunday… but after tonight, Trump will know we are never ever getting back together.”

    At the debate, Christie stared directly into the camera like Macho Man Randy Savage, pointer finger and all, to deliver what amounted to a professional wrestling taunt. “Donald, I know you’re watching. You can’t help yourself!” Christie began. “You’re not here tonight because you’re afraid of being on this stage and defending your record. You’re ducking these things, and let me tell you what’s going to happen.”

    [Here it comes]

    “You keep doing that, no one up here’s gonna call you Donald Trump anymore. We’re gonna call you Donald Duck.”

    “Alright,” moderator Dana Perino said.

    The crowd appeared to laugh, cheer, boo, and groan.

    The auto-worker’s strike, and criticisms of the larger American economy, received significant attention at the debate. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum laid the strike “at Joe Biden’s feet.” Pence came ready with a zinger: “Joe Biden doesn’t belong on a picket line, he belongs on the unemployment line.” (Another Pence joke about sleeping with a teacher—his wife—didn’t quite land.)

    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, once seen as Trump’s closest rival, stood center stage but spent most of the night struggling to connect as all the candidates intermittently talked over one another. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, perhaps trying to fight back against those who claim he lacks charisma, frequently went on the attack, most notably against Ramaswamy, who, in the previous debate, claimed his rivals were “bought and paid for.” Later, Scott attacked DeSantis for his past controversial comments about race: “There is not a redeeming quality in slavery,” Scott said. But he followed that up a moment later with another sound byte: “America is not a racist country.”

    Read: The GOP primary is a field of broken dreams

    However earnest and honest Scott’s message may be, it was impossible to hear his words without thinking of the man he’s running against. So again: What was everyone doing Wednesday night? In an alternate reality, a red-state candidate like Scott, Haley, or Burgum might cruise to the GOP nomination. In a way, Fox Business, itself, seemed to broadcast tonight’s proceedings in that strange other world. The network kept playing retro Reagan clips as the debate came in and out of commercial breaks. And those ads? One featured South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem—not a 2024 presidential candidate, but certainly a potential VP pick—making a pitch for people to move to her sparsely populated state. Another ad argued that the Biden administration’s plan to ban menthol cigarettes would be a boon to Mexican drug cartels. What?

    It was all a sideshow. Trump’s team seemed to know it, too. With just over five minutes left in the debate, the former president’s campaign blasted out a statement to reporters from a senior advisor: “Tonight’s GOP debate was as boring and inconsequential as the first debate, and nothing that was said will change the dynamics of the primary contest being dominated by President Trump.” For all of Trump’s lies, he and his acolytes can occasionally be excruciatingly honest.

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    John Hendrickson

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