“Magic City”: New Starz drama captivating
“Magic City” writer/executive producer/creator Mitch Glazer is making full use of his childhood memories in the new Starz drama about the owner of an extravagant Miami Beach, Fla., hotel in the late 1950s.
Glazer was born on Key Biscayne in the ’50s, and his father was the Fontainebleau Hotel architects’ favorite electrical engineer, according to press information provided by Starz.
The influence of his experiences growing up in this atmosphere are greatly beneficial to “Magic City” because, from the detailed sets to the gorgeous costumes to the fitting music, viewers will feel as though they have been transported back to that time period and place.
The series centers on Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), owner of the luxurious Miramar Playa Hotel, the day-to-day running of the hotel, as well as what Ike has to do to keep ownership of it.
As “Magic City” begins, Evans is in an uncomfortable, to say the least, business partnership with lethal mob boss Ben “The Butcher” Diamond (Danny Huston) and is trying to deal with unionizing efforts being made at the hotel.
Evans also has a family to take care of: wife and former Tropicana nightclub star Vera (Olga Kurylenko), who is stepmother to Ike’s two grown sons, bad boy and manager of the hotel’s Atlantis Lounge, Stevie (Steven Strait), and sweet-natured law school student Danny (Christian Cooke), as well as Evans’ angsty 13-year-old daughter Lauren (Taylor Blackwell).
