It’s never an easy task to tackle a difficult subject, particularly when attempting to speak about a narrative that isn’t necessarily your own. What Was Done, a world-premiere play by Jack L. B. Bohn currently being produced for the Baltimore Playwrights Festival by Miriam Bazensky and Directed by Barry Feinstein as a co-production with Spotlighters Theatre, is a play that leaves the audience with more questions and awkward comments than anything else.
They are revolting children! Living revolting times! They sing revolting songs! Using revolting rhymes! And you’ve got to get your tickets to see them do their thing— they’re stupendous, they’re great— they are REVOLTING! Only in a Roald Dahl musical could you use an adjective like revolting as a pride-of-place badge to describe a wildly talented bunch of kids as they bounce all around the stage with exuberant energy and smashing voices. Which musical is that you ask?
Earth-shaking! Life-affirming! Breathtaking! Gut-wrenching! Heart-aching! In two words, it’s history-making! They’re really and truly changing lives— at least they hope to be! The four actors, some of Baltimore’s most recognized members of the theatre community, playing the four Broadway stars who find themselves in a small town in Indiana trying to ‘change lives’ though perhaps for all the wrong reasons. Sound familiar? It is Prom season, after all. In a sit-down interview, we talk with Shannon Wollman,
Delicious, well-seasoned, and rare. And a big enough portion to share! Bring me all of the heartache, a small side of woe— that flavor of longing that I long to know— yes I’d order love! Well, maybe that’s a tall order for a— *gasp* First Date! But it happens. Sometimes. Almost never. But sometimes!! The fairytales we all grew up on, the soap operas and prime-time dramas we’re all addicted to— the fiction books and even the musical librettos.
Is anybody there? Does anybody care? That certainly seems to echo the sentiments of our country at present where large groups of people are concerned. When the Founding Fathers of this infantile country set out to free themselves from the tyranny of King George and the mighty English Empire… well, what we’ve got here in 2023? I’m sure they never could have dreamed of this. The story is history, that much is true.
First impressions, wearing the right thing, not saying the wrong thing, and all the butterflies, nausea, and chaos that typically accompanies a first date. We’ve had them. (Most of the waking world that is.) Most of us can even remember a disastrous first date. And now Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, for it’s mid-season musical, is premiering First Date that low-key musical that debuted on Broadway a decade ago, starring that young girl who had just finished originating Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family musical.
They’re going to raise the roof! They’re going to carry on! Give them that old trombone! Give them the old baton! They are the parade— Howard County Summer Theatre— with their 47th annual production and this year it’s a true classic. Hello, Dolly! graces their summertime stage (this year in the auditorium at Marriotts Ridge High School) and it’s a real whizbang! It’s a wonder! It’s a sensation! And it’ll only take a moment for you to fall in love with the tremendously impressive,
A shining new era is tiptoeing nearer…
And where does it feature? Just listen to teacher…
It’s the main stage feature of The Kennedy Center’s Opera House stage. Disney’s The Lion King, one of its most spectacular touring productions to date (and that’s saying something considering all of the fantastical magical enchantment that’s rolling around the country with Aladdin and Frozen), has arrived in the nation’s capital for a month-long summertime engagement!
Everyone wants publicity, daaahlings. Even the bad kind is the good kind, because any kind beats no kind, right? Lucky for Thomas “Toby” Hessenauer and the company of Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot it’s the good kind. Mostly. I’m no Daria Chase, daaahlings, but for God’s sake, I am a theatre critic. Launching the ‘upstairs’ half of the upstairs-downstairs-summertime-palooza that we all know to be Cockpit in Court, this zany little Baskerville-wannabe is two parts mystery,
The county known as Harford is so wide, mein Herr. They’ve got theatres up and down and side to side, mein Herr. I don’t always get them all, at least I tried, mein Herr. So I see… and I go… play by play… night by night…show by show… and this show— a truly remarkable and superbly stunning production of Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret is waiting to welcome you through its doors at Phoenix Festival Theatre.
Winter’s a good time to stay in and cuddle— but you’re going to have to LET IT GO. Because summer has arrived and with it blows the sparkly, dazzling, twinkly lights of Disney Broadway musical, blasting its way into Baltimore and ready to take Charm City by storm. We may not have seen any snow last winter, but fear now, with summer arriving— Frozen is here and ready to bring you all the snow you’ll ever need.
I had no choice— but to hear you. You stated your case time and again. I thought about it—
I’m in the wrong story. Wait one moment please!
There is a Prince…well, princesses? And falling flags. And a non-binary Olympian (in the sense of the Gods on high not in the sense of gold-medal-winning…though the gold Doric dress of the shiniest lamé all the way from the Amazon is certainly prize-worthy!) and calamity and chaos and a good time.
If they were two bells they’d go ding dong ding dong DIIIING! How fun is it to get to do a show with your spouse? Even more so when you spend that entire show denying that you’re falling in love with their character? We’ve got real-life married couple Andrea and DJ Wojciehowski (and their kids sitting in on the interview for good measure!) who are playing the roles of Sky Masterson and Sgt Sarah Brown in Third Wall Productions’ Guys &
Welcome to a show about death! Literally the first second number that bangs out from the stage into the house now that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice BEETLEJUICE!!! (the musical, for the love of God let’s hope he doesn’t appear in your living room or your car or your office board meeting— wherever you’re reading this review!) has returned to The National Theatre in DC. It got it’s pre-Broadway launch there back in 2018 before it’s short-lived-Pandemic-killed run on Broadway in 2019,
“Don’t expect a bright future if you can’t expect a dark past.”
Just one of many profound quotes that stuck in my mind after I left South & Saints at Maryland Ensemble Theatre the night I attended their final main-stage production of the 22/23 season. It’s a devised work, featuring a performing cast of six— Gifty Amponsem, Evan Carrington, Victoria Causey, Alonzo Cook, Marcus Kersey Jr., and MET company member Rona Mensah— with four devising leads— Gené Fouché,
Living or dead, family is family. And when you’re an Addams, you do what Addams’ do or… die! And you’ll want to be an Addams and be a part of their creepy-kooky-mysterious-ookey-all-together-spooky good time up at Tidewater Players this spring. Bringing the dark comedy, which is filled with surprising heart and a deep sense of familial ties to their stage, Tidewater Players is delivering The Addams Family musical with their own special spin.
Let’s live before we die, let’s laugh before we cry— let’s hold each other close and dance! And there couldn’t be a more in-love, truly romantic couple filling out the roles of Morticia and Gomez Addams than Michele and Greg Guyton. They’re so goofy and crazy about one another, the whole interview was almost a half an hour, 20 minutes of which was the pair of them laughing and canoodling and laughing while canoodling. Which is why they’re a perfect match for these star roles in The Addams Family musical opening at Tidewater Players in Havre de Grace.
HISstory is about to get overthrown! You may think you know their stories…
Divorced… Beheaded… Died… Divorced… Beheaded… Survived…
But you’re getting HERstory tonight (and every night through May 14th 2023) as Six the Broadway smash-sensation musical lands at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre! They are so much more than just six wives… of Henry VIII. They are a company of true triple-threat talent that will have you jumping to your feet,
Sing out for yourselves for you are blessed! Blessed to hear the stellar talent performing live on stage for the final production of the Children’s Playhouse of Maryland 2022/2023 season. Closing this season with a bang, their production of Jesus Christ Superstar is nothing short of stunning; it will give you chills, bring tears to your eyes, and make you thunder with applause by the time the show reaches its conclusion. Directed by Liz Boyer Hunnicutt,
What does a divorcee look like? Zsa Zsa Gabor? Megan Markle? Elizabeth Taylor? How about a 19-year-old groovy chic from Los Angeles slumming it in a New York City apartment in the 60’s? That one fits the bill for Butterflies Are Free the 1969 play by Leonard Gershe (not to be confused with the 1972 film-adaptation starring Goldie Hawn.) Directed by Jason Crawford, this romantic-dramady tells the story of Don Baker, a young man living in his first solo apartment in New York City after fleeing his overbearing mother’s house in favor of newfound freedom.
When the play opens with the infamous “To be or not to be…” you start to think time is out of joint. Or maybe that you’ve just misremembered how Hamlet starts? You ever look at one of those maps of the United States where all the states have been shoved around into different spaces in the outline but it still mostly looks like the outline of the country even though everything is all discombobulated?
When all the world is a hopeless jumble and the raindrops tumble all around… heaven opens up a magic lane. When all the clouds darken up the skyway, there’s a rainbow highway to be found, leading from your window pane… and rain did it ever this past weekend all over Charm City. And everywhere around it. If you’re wondering why you don’t recognize those lyrics as a part of the iconic “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” it’s because they weren’t included in the 1939 filmset that so many of us know and love.
Puppy dogs with droopy faces…
Unicorns with dancing mice…
Sunrise in wide open spaces…
Disney World— I’ll go there twice!
Maybe don’t go there twice, but consider going to see Tidewater Players’ production of The Addams Family? They’re creepy and kooky…and all that jazz… and we’ve got two of them— Wednesday and Pugsley here to chit chat about the process and give you some doom and gloom— I mean,
Put on some make-up! Go get your tickets! And watch her put the wig back on her head! Yes, that’s right, everyone of all genders, having conquered the great divide, Hedwig is coming for you! And not only is she coming— she’s HERE!! Dominion Stage is starting their 23rd Season with a tour du force production of John Cameron Mitchell & Stephen Trask’s Hedwig & The Angry Inch. Directed by Danni Guy with Musical Direction by David Smigielski &
Show them that it can be done! Build a prom for everyone! It’s Prom season, y’all. (Just like it used to be Les Miz season and Mamma Mia season?) Throwing their hat into the ring, Scottfield Theatre Company is building The Prom and it’s pretty spectacular. Directed by Chuck Hamrick, with Musical Direction by Nathan Scavilla, and Choreography by Becky Titelman, this inspiring new musical is making the rounds across the state,
Resolved to never belong to anyone but herself, Edna Pontellier controlled her own destiny.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Picture it. A balmy, breezy, almost tropical evening on Grand Isle. Louisiana Gulf. Cottages. 1890’s. Summertime. Can you feel the sea breeze blowing in? Smell the scent of the water? Can you hear the French Creole dialect running thick like Cajun gumbo through the words that get spoken? You’ll picture it a whole lot better if you slip on over to Endangered Species Theatre Project this April to experience their extraordinary production of Rebecca Chace’s The Awakening.
What’s the buzz? Tell me what’s a’happening? What’s the buzz? I’ll tell you what’s happening!
It’s Jesus Christ Superstar! Yes, the full-length stage musical, yes produced by Children’s Playhouse of Maryland, yes featuring some of the finest young talents in Baltimore and the surrounding areas. And TheatreBloom has a special treat for you readers. We’ve taken a few moments, on an early* Saturday morning to sit down with six very special cast members of the upcoming Jesus Christ Superstar to talk to them all about their experience with this production thus far and their experiences with Children’s Playhouse of Maryland as a whole.
“When your trust is all but shattered; when your faith is all but killed. You can give up bitter and battered or you can slowly start to build.”
I like to start most reviews, if I can help it, with a hook-line, usually some clever twist on one of the show’s iconic lyrics or themes, but this one is just a direct line-pull from “Beautiful City” because it’s what co-founders Albert J. Boeren and Lisa Boeren have created.
Are you ready to sit in a theatre and see a play of hopes and fears? Stillpointe Theatre invites you to do exactly that. Examine the unexamined; explore the darkened recesses of the mind of the master of the macabre. They present to you the regional premiere of Nevermore, a 90-minute musical which swirls and swivels through the madness that is the mind of Edgar Allan Poe, Baltimore’s beloved poet. Directed by Ryan Haase,
A song so beautiful it brings the world back into tune.
But’s a sad song.
It’s an old song.
And it is finally, finally here at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre!
The train on that long road to hell has arrived, bringing you the epic, Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown. With music, book, & lyrics by Anaïs Mitchell, this stylistically mesmerizing and wondrously refreshing take on an ancient Greek myth will dazzle and amaze,