Watkins, who also starred in the House’s “The Magnificents” at the Arsht in 2014, won Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award in 2012 for his work on “Death & Harry Houdini.” A third-generation magician who performs his own show “The Magic Parlour” at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, Watkins is also a compelling actor who takes the audience on Houdini’s journey from a Hungarian-born boy named Erik Weisz who was fascinated by magic to a world-famous escape artist obsessed with cheating death. And “Death & Harry Houdini,” which launched the House on Halloween in 2001 (the 75 th anniversary of Houdini’s death), is a moving and illusion-filled treasure.Ĭredit for the show’s ongoing success also belongs to its charismatic star. The House is a special, blazingly theatrical company. This is the company’s seventh annual visit to the Arsht, but there’s no return planned for next year, which is a pity. Written and staged by House artistic director Nathan Allen, the play is a magnificent piece of theater – entrancing, mysterious, thrilling. Because that’s what you do when you’re playing legendary magician and escape artist Harry Houdini. Then he wiggles and twists, and 1-2-3 he’s free. In the House Theatre of Chicago’s “Death & Harry Houdini,” now back at the Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theater five years after it first wowed Miami audiences, Watkins arrives onstage with the help of theater technology unknown in Houdini’s day.ĭangling upside down from the ceiling, his torso encased in a straightjacket, the actor-magician is moved electronically along an overhead track until he is stopped centerstage. ‘Death & Harry Houdini’ Makes Another Magical Moment at ArshtDennis Watkins knows how to make an entrance.

Harry houdini mayer samuel weisz