You gotta have heart. All you really need is heart. Well, heart, a talented cast, dynamite dancing, and a few catchy tunes if you want to score like the folks at Pasadena Theatre Company. Their recent production of Damn Yankees, Directed by Chuck Dick, with Musical Direction by Robert White is, well, a hit.
The Humanities Recital Hall on the campus of Anne Arundel Community College is a nice venue for this production.
Mamma Mia! Here I go again! My, my! How could I resist ya? Mamma Mia! Does it show again? My, my— just how much I missed ya! It’s only been a week since I’ve been at Shenandoah Summer Musical Theatre but— here they go again with their third and final production of the 2018 summer season— the exceedingly popular Mamma Mia! Directed by Jeremy Scott Blaustein,
Time weaves ribbon of memory to sweeten life when youth is through and rivers run where they can ramble— but it’s time to take time to see all of the magic they’ve got to do— the they being Monumental Theatre Company and the magic being their street-savvy modern coming-of-age production of Pippin. Directed by Rebeca Wahls with Musical Direction by Leigh Delano and Choreography by Ahmad Maaty, this sleek and slick production of Stephen Schwartz’ Pippin is reaching out to a new generation;
Every fingerprint fits a hand and if you’re willing to understand that protocol says— you must get a ticket to see the only mainstage show at Infinity Theatre Company this 2018 season! Making its regional area premiere, Murder For Two settles into the Broadway-quality professional summer theatre of Annapolis under the direction of the company’s co-producing Artistic Director Alan Ostroff. With zany Book & Music by Joe Kinosian and Book & Lyrics by Kellen Blair,
It’s 1965 and your music career hasn’t quite turned out the way you thought, the pope’s come to town, your freshly drafted son has gone AWOL, your mistress is trying to drag you down to the street side to see his holiness, and your wife has gone bananas, or rather is Bananas. And then the nuns arrive. It sounds like a zany barrel of laughs, but there’s a much deeper and unsettling darkness happening inside the walls of Artie Shaughnessy’s apartment in Sunnyside,
It’s the 1930’s, and love and trickery are in the air, but that’s okay, because times have changed. In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking. Now heaven knows, Anything Goes!
This classic campy Cole Porter production, currently being performed by Rockville Musical Theatre at the F. Scott Fitzgerald, is set aboard a luxury liner, the S.S. American. Nightclub singer Reno Sweeney is en route from New York to England,
There’s a place for you. At Shenandoah Summer Musical Theatre— there’s a seat for you. To celebrate Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday, they’re holding a seat for you— at their production of West Side Story. Directed by Jacob Brent with Musical Direction by Thomas Albert and Choreography recreated from the original Robbins’ choreography by Michael Jablonski, the SSMT production of this ‘musical Romeo & Juliet’ seems more relevant now than ever,
Having recently been introduced to members of Baton Rouge’s Red Hat Society, I… can’t remember who imitates who… but Life and Art are definitely happening in Wolf Pack Theatre Company’s Steel Magnolias. Set in 1980’s Chinquapin Parish, Robert Harling’s play revolves around a year in the life of six women in a gathering place where they can let their hair down.
Director Bill Leary did a marvelous job assembling a cast that is phenomenally strong across the board.
Charm City Players ends their 5th season by showing us all that there is no place like home in this timeless classic, The Wizard of Oz. Based on L. Frank Baum’s popular series, with music and lyrics of the MGM motion picture score by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, background music by Herbert Stothart, and book adaptation by John Kane from the motion picture screenplay. Director Stephen Napp takes us over the rainbow into the merry old land of Oz,
The JCS Summer Community Theatre is here to show you the humor of the nun! That’s right, they’re back in the habit— well, some habits are returning to the stage at any rate (remember two summers ago and all the nuns from their great production of The Sound of Music?)— and the JCSSCT is thrilled to be debuting Nunsense as their summer show. Directed and Choreographed by Dickie Mahoney,
They can dance! They can jive! They’re having the time of their life! And you will too when you come to see Toby’s Dinner Theatre of Columbia present the professional regional premiere of the world famous production Mamma Mia! Available for the first time since the infamous Abba-based production ended its seemingly endless tour, Toby’s Dinner Theatre of Columbia has all your favorite Abba songs, all of the flashy costumes and marvelous dancing,
There’s a brand new sound goin’ ‘round the world and it’s going to ‘altar’ your mind! It’s the Altar Boyz live in living color at the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre and they’re going ‘altar’ your mind for sure! Directed by Mark Briner with Musical Direction by Ken Kimble and Choreography by Becca Vourvoulas, this poppy, enthusiastic musical will spin your head right round, get your feet stomping on the ground, and really get you down on your knees— praising along with these altar boys!
Close your eyes and try to conceive, the most outrageous story to ever be believed! If you can just believe, it’s beautifully bizarre, a story about a boy— and a giant peach, and that’s just the way things are! Right before your eyes— James and The Giant Peach is now appearing on stage at The Heritage Players as their summer engagement. Directed by Elizabeth Tane Kanner with Musical Direction by Emily Taylor &
Are you ready to go back in time? It’s not about history or geography (though it’s important to note the current dates— through July 29, 2018— and the exact location— The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre—) it’s really just about a he and a she, but don’t get caught up in the details. Because the big important detail is that this show— this world premiere musical— is the closer of Season56 at Spotlighters. Judy and The General,
You can achieve many successes in the music industry. You can climb to the top, you can enjoy the view from the top once you get there, but to be the top? There’s only group in the history of rhythm & blues that has been touted continually, through to this very moment, as the best group in the entire history of rhythm & blues: The Temptations didn’t climb to the top they became the top.
What’s in the papes today? Who made the headlines? Above the fold?!? Why it’s Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre with their real swell production of Disney’s Newsies. Directed by Edward Carignan, with Musical Direction by Rick Edinger, and Choreography by Dionysia Williams, this charming tale based on the 1992 film of the same name, will catch your eye like a bold and sassy headline on the morning paper. Filled with heart and some incredibly impressive moments,
In a smoky club they let the record spin…only it isn’t a smoky club, but rather an enchanting distillery…and they aren’t spinning a record so much as a four-person rock band, stirring up sound from the back corner of the unique space…From New York to Berlin— to Frederick, MD— comes stories of true love gone awry. Making its debut production, Free Range Humans, a new theatre company based in Frederick, presents Murder Ballad,
Your entire future depends upon you finding a voice for your comedy! And there’s no truer a statement when it comes to Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor opening the cabaret series at Cockpit in Court this summer. Directed by John D’Amato, this zany, albeit dated, comedy finds purchase in today’s society with its striking relevance to the bullying process of censorship in media and entertainment.
Hayden Muller is at the top of his game with simplistic Scenic and Lighting Design (except for one slightly mis-angled overhead light which casts somewhat of a blinding beam of irritation into just one small section of the in-the-round spacing) for this production.
“You work real hard and the pays real low… and every hour goes oh so slow… and at the end of the day there’s nowhere to go…” but to Cockpit in Court’s production of Avenue Q! This raunchy and hilarious musical by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx is a modern adult take on the classic Sesame Street formula: adorable puppets living their day-to-day lives… It just so happens that these puppets live in the real world,
Neither a borrower nor a lender be. While The Rude Mechanicals aren’t currently producing Hamlet, there’s logic in that quote that could and should be readily applied to The Merchant of Venice, which The Rude Mechanicals are currently producing. Said advice would go far for both Antonio and Shylock and save everyone the trouble of their various plights fraught with woe and unfortunate circumstances. But alas, Shakespeare didn’t pen it that way,
There are moments that the words don’t reach. Seeing the musical sensation that’s sweeping the nation with its razzle-dazzle rhyme in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s prime is supposed to be one of them, and not just one of them, but the biggest one of them, all the people coast to coast begging for the musical with the most finally have their shot— and they are not throwing away their shot— not this summer— because Hamilton has arrived.
In a time where we are stuck in the middle of acceptance and ignorance, Making Advances has a wonderful look into the lives of different individuals who don’t fit the norm of gender and sexuality that society preaches. The entirety of the play involves short but impactful scenes that range from a male to female transgender girl trying to involve her mother in the difficulties of transitioning, a polyamorous relationship between two males and a female,
What happens when you combine beauty, love, poetry, song, and satire? You get Patience – an operetta poking fun at the European Aesthetic Movement of the late 19th century – written by the famous composing duo Gilbert and Sullivan. This witty production is now being performed at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre in Rockville, MD by the Victorian Lyric Opera Company, directed by Felicity Ann Brown, with musical direction by Joseph Sorge.
Ed Higgins, as Alan Turing says in one scene, “It’s about right and wrong.” How Do You Like Me Now Productions (HDYLMNP) understands this and gets it right again with Hugh Whitemore’s Breaking the Code. If there is one thing that we have learned about HDYLMNP throughout the years, it’s that they will take an issue, put it in your face, and make you aware of something that you needed to be made aware.
Well it’s been a long— been a long— been a long— been a long time…since How To Succeed in Business Without Really trying has seen boards the likes of a Broadway-style stage. Six years may not seem that long ago to some, when Harry Potter film legend Daniel Radcliffe teamed up with Emmy-star John Larroquette as the big-name duo starring in the 2012 Broadway revival. Landing in The Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theatre as a part of the 2017/2018 Broadway Center Stage Concert Series initiative,
Well the world keeps spinning round and round and my heart’s keeping time to the speed of sound— I was lost ‘til I heard the drums and I found my way— all the way down to Fort Washington where the Tantallon Community Players to see their current production of Hairspray. Directed and Choreographed by Jonathan Jackson with Musical Direction by Paul Rossen, the Tantallon Community Players are going to shake and shimmy it the best that they can to really shake up this production of the iconic Baltimore musical.
The best friends show up unannounced, terrified for no reason whatsoever to continuing living in their own home, so they’re moving into yours. The alcoholic live-in sister is at the brandy again and has learned how to yodel and play the accordion. The only child is returning home after her fourth failed marriage. And the wife is bent on going mad, intentionally or otherwise. It must be an episode of The Twilight Zone,
What else could you possibly need to know about the facts of Chad Deity?
Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre opens their 2018 season with a bang—literally—in the madcap musical version of Woody Allen’s Academy Award winning film Bullets Over Broadway. When an up and coming playwright is paired with the financial backing of the underworld, expect all the standard screwball hijinx of the Roaring 20’s told with the sounds of the Jazz Age hit parade. Armed with a book by Woody Allen (adapted form his Academy Award nominated original screenplay with Douglas McGrath) and a score,
It’s bad and beautiful; it’s bawdy and bizarre! For just who is who and what is what is quite the question at— well— Harvey Fierstein’s other smash-hit show, Casa Valentina, making its community theatre area debut at Colonial Players. Directed by Mickey Lund, this edgy, inspiring, and potently poignant dramedy will give you, as the modern phrasing goes, “all the feels.” Despite its early 1960’s setting, the show’s relevance to the world of 2018 is remarkable;