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‘42nd Street’ to bring the magic of Broadway to this Central Florida theater

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‘42nd Street’ to bring the magic of Broadway to this Central Florida theater


OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – Set in New York in the 1930s during the height of the Great Depression, “42nd Street” follows chrorus girl, Peggy Sawyer, and her rise to fame overnight.

She arrives to the Big Apple from Allentown, Philadelphia, and lands her first big role in the ensemble of a new Broadway show.

Just before opening night, the show’s leading lady, Dorothy Brock, breaks her ankle, and that’s when Sawyer steps in.

The cast has been rehearsing for four hours, four to five nights a week since early January.

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“A show like this, which is a very difficult tap dancing show, takes many hours of practice,” said show director Russell Fox.

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Tess Fouchi plays Peggy Sawyer in the show opening at Osceola Arts. She said she just moved to Orlando in the fall. She works part-time within Disney Entertainment and she’s a full-time student at UCF, pursuing a degree in entertainment management. She said Peggy Sawyer is a dream role for her.

“Over winter break, I threw on my tap shoes again and immediately started training for auditions, determined to get any spot in the show,” Fouchi said.

She said it doesn’t take much for her to get into character, because she really relates to Peggy.

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“Fortunately, Peggy shares many qualities with myself, such as enthusiasm, optimism, and a passion for dance. I don’t have too much prep to get into character before the show, because I’m usually just as excited and happy to be at rehearsal as Peggy would be. And although I inhabit some of her positive traits, I also can be just as clumsy as she is, having wiped out a few times during rehearsal,” Fouchi exclaimed.

Hannah McGinley plays the seasoned actress, Dorothy Brock.

“I feel a bit young to be cast as the ‘aging starlet’ at the ripe old age of 35, but then I see these young 20-somethings dancing with all this energy, I find myself relating to her immensely. This show, as many musicals do, focuses a lot on aging in the business and that is something I’m constantly evaluating in myself,” McGinley said.

“42nd Street” is performing at Osceola Arts March 15-31. (Waylon Lemasters)

She said outside of the show, she also works in a box office and at the theme parks.

“The balance is a bit easier for this one, because my husband is the technical director, so several branches are overlapping right now. It’s definitely not easy though! Long nights, often early mornings, but we do it because we love it! It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life, so getting the opportunity to perform professionally is always worth the sacrifices,” McGinley said.

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The show captures the essence of Broadway dreams with a backdrop of love, laughter and dance numbers.

“This is a show within a show, so it’s the backstage story of creating a Broadway show in 1933 with all the stereotypical characters of old stage and screen musicals: The director who has lost his money in the stock market and needs to have another great Broadway show hit,” Fox said. “The diva singer, who is no longer at the top of her game, but needs to prove herself again. The comedy team who also are the writer and composer of the show. The young dancer in the chorus line who can’t help but stand out because of her talent, and the lead tenor who sings all the big songs, and dances his way through the show.”

“42nd Street” features Broadway hits, while also capturing the golden age of performing and musical theater.

“Without a doubt, the 42nd Street ‘ballet’ is my favorite. It’s a ten-minute tap ballet celebrating the beauty of New York City, and my character is dancing the whole time. I think it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done onstage, but I absolutely love it,” Fouchi said.

Osceola Arts will have special performances of “42nd Street” with an audio-described show for people who are visually impaired on Friday, March 29, at 7:30 p.m., and an American Sign Language-interpreted performance on Saturday, March 30, at 2:00 p.m. for those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

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Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’

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Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’


It only took three weeks for a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University (FIU) to become a place where participants eagerly used racist slurs, prompting widespread condemnation from community leaders.

Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of Miami-Dade county’s Republican party and a student at FIU’s College of Law, reportedly started the chat after the killing of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, in September 2025.

But on Wednesday, the Miami Herald published leaked WhatsApp conversations in which the college Republicans made racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic comments, including variations of the N-word used more than 400 times. Knowledge of the chat’s existence was revealed on the same day that Republican lawmakers in Florida pushed forward a bill to rename a one-mile stretch of road alongside FIU in honor of Kirk.

William Bejerano, who the Herald noted once tried to start an anti-abortion group at Miami Dade College, was the most prolific user of the N-word. Using the slur, Bejerano called for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting.

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Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans’ recruitment chair, who has recently applied to become a GOP committee member, responded to the calls for violence by saying: “How edgy.” He repeatedly used “colored” to describe Black people, including writing: “Ew you had colored professors?!” and “Avoid the coloreds like the plague,” according to the Herald.

Carvajal, who was appointed to a two-year role on the city of Hialeah’s planning and zoning board earlier this year, confirmed to the paper that the group chat was his doing, but he denied knowledge of the problematic comments until the publication contacted him about its logs last week.

“It’s been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I’ve seen this message,” Carvajal told the Herald.

“I guess to an extent, I bear some responsibility, cause I created a chat. But if I had seen this at the moment, I would have removed [Bejerano] from the chat. I probably would have even blocked his number.”

The Herald found that Carvajal had deleted 14 messages sent by other participants in the chat and 42 of his own messages before the publication obtained the chat’s logs.

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He also participated in some of the racist discussions. While referring to a Black student who allegedly left FIU’s College Republicans after a member of the group “called her a [N-word]”, the Floridian reported that Carvajal wrote: “Why didn’t miggress leave?” Elsewhere in the chat, the publication reported that Carvajal used “Miggress”, “Migglet” and “Migger” to refer to Black women, Black children and Black people, in general.

At one point, Gonzalez wrote: “You can fuck all the [K-word, a slur for Jewish people] you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.”

Ian Valdes, the Turning Point USA FIU chapter president, responded, “I would def not marry a Jew,” before changing the group chat’s name from “Uber [R-word slur for disabled people] Yapping” to “Gooning in Agartha”. “Gooning” is a gen-Z slang term for male masturbation, while “Agartha” is a mythical white civilization promoted by Heinrich Himmler, one of the most powerful leaders in Nazi Germany next to Hitler.

Gonzalez reportedly described Agartha to the group chat as “Nazi heaven sort of”.

Kevin Cooper, the first Jewish chair of the Miami Dade Republican party, condemned the group chat in a statement published to X and called for Carvajal’s resignation.

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“The majority of our board voted to request Carvajal’s resignation. We have commenced removal proceedings and look forward to resolution from the Republican Party of Florida,” he wrote.

That call was echoed by Juan Porras, a Republican state representative and Miami-Dade GOP state committee member, who said in a statement: “Leadership carries responsibility. When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida. For that reason, I am asking the Miami Dade Republican party secretary to step down from this position.”

In a joint statement, Florida Republican state senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia and Ana Maria Rodriguez denounced the chats and called for the expulsion from party leadership of its participants.

“The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican party of Florida,” their statement said. “We call for the immediate expulsion of the individuals disseminating from any level of leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party … We will not tolerate bigotry or discrimination.”

Multiple leaked group chats from young Republicans have created controversy in recent years.

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Last year, Politico published messages from a group chat of more than 100 conservatives across the country in which users also made racist and antisemitic comments. In 2022, a Young Republican group chat from North Dakota was revealed as a cesspool of homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric.



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Federal judge blocks DeSantis executive order declaring CAIR a 'terrorist organization'

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Federal judge blocks DeSantis executive order declaring CAIR a 'terrorist organization'


A federal court in Tallahassee has issued a temporary injunction blocking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) a “terrorist organization.” U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s order comes nearly three months after DeSantis signed his executive order on Dec. 8. The order directed Florida’s executive and Cabinet agencies, as […]



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Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip

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Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip



Four days into the Iranian conflict, gas prices are rising at many stations in South Florida.

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“I’ve traveled all over the United States,” says Stacey Williams. CBS Miami spoke to him as he was gassing up on the turnpike. He paid $66 for 20 gallons of diesel to fill his pickup truck. Williams has noted the fluctuations in fuel as he drives to locations for his work on turbines. He just spent three weeks at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant south of Miami.

“The salary we get paid per hour does not add up to what we pay for gas, housing, and food,” he says.

Mitchell Gershon is also dealing with the higher gas prices. He has to fill three vehicles constantly for his business—Thrifty Gypsy, a pop-up store at musical venues. He’s back and forth from Orlando to Miami and says fuel is costing him 20% more. When asked how he handles these fluctuations, he said, “Have a little backup cash so you are ready for it.”

The rise in oil prices contributed to a drop in the stock market on Tuesday, which means some retirement accounts dipped, too. CBS Miami talked to Chad NeSmith, director of investments at Tobias Financial Advisors in Plantation, for perspective on the drop.

“We are seeing most of the pullback today. Yesterday was a shock,” he says. He’s not expecting runaway oil prices but says investors should stay in the loop: “Pay attention to your portfolio. Stick to your goals. Have a plan because these things are completely unpredictable.”

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That unpredictability has Williams adjusting his budget. “You just cut back, cut corners, all you can do,” he says.



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