Reviews

A View From The Bridge at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews May 31, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Most people ain’t people. Because people strive to treat each other with dignity and respect. Of course, that was the point Arthur Miller might have been trying to make when he scribbled down A View From the Bridge. Horrifically relevant and strikingly topical in today’s political climate, this intense family-driven drama is an exacting fit for the style of ensemble performance work which the Maryland Ensemble Theatre prides themselves on and does exceedingly well.

Camelot at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Reviews May 31, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Proposition: A show consisting of little more than pageantry and sentimental idealism can still find sturdy footing in the modern world with potent relevance to the happenings of today’s society in the hands of the right director.

Proposition: The right director, in this case Alan Paul, can take Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot, which is filled with pageantry and sentimental idealism, and transform it into something relevant and intriguing which reaches modern audiences on a relatable and interesting level.

Love, Loss, and What I Wore at Spotlighters Theatre

Reviews May 26, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

It was a white dress with pink floral patterns all over it, A-frame and 50’s vintage style cut with a singular crinoline layer that peaked out from the bottom. I wore it with a pink hat dotted in flowers and pearls, the hat that my partner calls “…that flower bucket on your head…” I got the dress in Vegas, at a retro-chic wannabe vintage shop called Rockin’ Betty’s over in the Arts District— that’s off the strip— on the last Sunday of our family trip there.

Incredibly Dead! The B-Horror Rock Opera! @ Baltimore Rock Opera Society

Reviews May 25, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Tonight is the eve of humanity’s reckoning! Because The Baltimore Rock Opera Society is absolutely going to raise some hell— quite literally— in what could arguably be the most fantastic sendup to B-grade horror films of yesteryore with their latest original creation: Incredibly Dead! The B-Horror Rock Opera. Co-Directed by Michael Ziccardi and Sarah Gretchen Doccolo, with Musical Direction by Paul Joyce, and Choreography by Caitlin Rife, this zany, whacky, so-bad-it’s-good comedic musical is all of their own creation and it’s a thoroughly hilarious encounter.

Return to the Forbidden Planet at Greenbelt Arts Center

Reviews May 23, 2018 Rachel Zirkin Duda

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a young man named William Shakespeare who was a huge science fiction playwright. No, wait. That’s not right. Let’s try that again. There was once a man named Bob Carlton, who penned a science fiction play called Return to the Forbidden Planet, an homage to the classic works of William Shakespeare – and of course the classic 1956 film,

The Trial of the Catonsville Nine at Salem Players

Reviews May 19, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

You cannot know where you are going until you know where you have been; those who are ignorant of history are bound to repeat it. Never have words felt truer; the times in which we live call for a drastic examination of history to give us hope for moving forward as a society. A true historical event, recognized nationally in 1968 put 21228— the great community of Catonsville— on the map. Daniel Berrigan, a priest turned playwright,

Jekyll & Hyde at Third Wall Productions

Reviews May 18, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

There’s a face that we hide till the nighttime appears…and what’s hiding inside behind all of our fears— is our true self— locked inside the façade! Who knew that Third Wall Productions’ true self was an astonishing masterpiece of brilliance locked behind the façade of community theatre? In their finest and most extraordinary production since the company’s inception in 2015, Third Wall Productions brings you the stuff of legends, the stuff of nightmares, their true inner workings…with their production of Jekyll &

Priscilla Queen of the Desert at Kensington Arts Theatre

Reviews May 17, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Hello, Possums! Welcome to The Kensington Arts Theatre— the drag capitol of the world! Because they have the most dragulous show all lined up for you over these next few weekends! That’s right, Possums! It’s— *GASP* Priscilla Queen of the Desert! Directed by John Nunemaker with Musical Direction by Valerie A. Higgs and Choreography by Rikki Howie Lacewell, this area community theatre premiere has lots of dragtastic potential and a heart-warming story about embracing yourself no matter who you are!

Waitress at The National Theatre

Reviews May 17, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Sugar.

Butter.

Flour.

A recipe for perfection— that’s what’s cooking up at The National Theatre in Washington DC as the national tour of Waitress makes stops over in the nation’s capital for a three-week engagement. The Broadway sensation that was inspired by the film, written by Adrienne Shelly, has arrived— featuring book by Jessie Nelson and music & lyrics by Sara Bareilles.

Palindrome at Rapid Lemon Productions

Reviews May 16, 2018 Linda Roby

Palindrome by Max Garner holds a special element of history with two important men of music in the two plays he wrote. With each one act play explaining the fantastic yet tragic stories of Thelonious Monk and Marvin Gaye. With subtle touches of musical aspects in each play, the audience’s ears ring with the smooth sounds of jazz and other genres that were produced by the focused artists.

Allan Sean Weeks who took the responsibility of lighting director really took on the “less is more” saying for each play.

Big Fish at Silhouette Stages

Reviews May 14, 2018 Erin Tarpley

Who among us is not guilty of embellishing a story here and there? Whether exaggerating about our feats of derring-do, or adding a few inches to that fish we caught when we were a child, stories have a way of taking on a life of their own when we tell them. In this case, there is “Magic in the Man” through the larger-than life stories Edward Bloom tells his young son. But all children must grow up,

New York at Just Off Broadway

Reviews May 11, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Can you remember what you had for breakfast this morning? Do you recall what pair of shoes you wore out last Friday night? Or what you were doing three years ago on a Saturday afternoon? Most of us can’t. But on the morning of September 11, 2001— a Tuesday morning not quite 17 years in America’s past, everyone can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when the news broke that planes had crashed into the twin towers.

Deathtrap at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

Reviews May 11, 2018 Alan Duda

Deathtrap: A play of one set, two acts, five characters.

One Set: A writing den in a converted church. A typewriter. Walls decorated with posters from previous plays and various prop implements of persuasion and destruction.
Two Acts: Running an hour each with a 15-minute intermission.
Five Characters: The established writer. His wife. The new writer. The psychic neighbor. The lawyer.

Pardon my conceit as I continue the review by repeating this again with further variations,

Much Ado About Nothing at Artistic Synergy of Baltimore

Reviews May 10, 2018 Jim Gerhardt

Artistic Synergy of Baltimore (ASoB) presents a splendid rendition of Much Ado About Nothing, one of Shakespeare’s most well-known classic comedies. Most are probably familiar with the material already through literature class, seeing it performed elsewhere, or from the various movie versions (most notably the 1993 version directed by Kenneth Branagh), but for those who are not familiar, it can be summed up briefly as two love stories intertwining with misdirection,

1776 at Tidewater Players

Reviews May 9, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

I say this with humility in this— online open space! They’re your responsibility in— good ol’ Havre de Grace! If you want to see their show and all the feelings that they spill, in Havre de Grace Opera House that’s halfway down the hill, then for God sakes get thee to it! For Congress never will! Yes, yes, it’s not even July and the Tidewater Players are calling to order the second continental congress of America with their production of 1776.

Hairspray at Children’s Playhouse of Maryland

Reviews May 9, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

You can’t stop an avalanche as it races down the hill! And CMP is stopping their season here, with a show that’s such a thrill! And you can try to stop their dancing feet, but they just cannot stand still! Cause the world keeps spinning round and round and their hearts are keeping time to the speed of sound, they were lost ‘til the heard the heard the drums (go Lisa Wood, go, go,

Weird Romance at MAD

Reviews May 8, 2018 Rachel Zirkin Duda

What happens when you mix love and science fiction? You get Weird Romance, a show described as two one-act musicals of Speculative Fiction, which is now being performed by the Music and Drama Club (a.k.a., MAD) at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Glenn Dale, MD. The production, Directed by Randy Barth and Produced by Eliot Malumuth, is based on a book by Alan Brennert, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by David Spencer.

The Speed Twins at Venus Theatre

Reviews May 8, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Would you choose to be you if you had to choose? What if at the end of the bright, white light there’s a form with boxes that you have to check? Sex: Male or Female? Orientation: Heterosexual or Homosexual? Would you choose to be the you that you had just been, the you that you know yourself to be? Playwright Maureen Chadwick examines exactly that with her edgy and riveting work The Speed Twins,

Antigone at Theatrical Mining Company

Reviews May 8, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

War makes us blind. Love makes us blind. Life makes us blind. But Theatrical Mining Company is opening our eyes to clearly see their new production of Antigone. Directed by the company’s Artistic Director, Barry Feinstein, this modernized edgy production takes snippets and snatches of the original text and melds them with a more accessibly modern style of speaking, rendering the Greek tragedy down to its most basic essence for all to experience.

Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet at The Kennedy Center

Reviews May 5, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Words, words, words. Not to read, but to hear, and Shakespeare did write so many of them, five act’s worth for arguably his most infamous tragedy, Hamlet. Appearing now as a limited engagement, the Royal Shakespeare Company brings their evocative conflagration of a production to The Eisenhower Theatre inside The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Directed by Simon Godwin, this spellbinding, razor’s edge modernity casts new light on the Bard’s most treasured tragedy,

Catch Me If You Can at Dundalk Community Theatre

Reviews April 30, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

They’re live in living color! Dundalk Community Theatre’s got something special on tonight! They’re live in living color— ‘cause life ain’t lived in black and white. Their production of Catch Me if You Can is live in living color and it’s something you should see! It’s God damn and gumbo fabulous— it won’t fit in your TV! Directed by Robert W. Oppel, with Musical Direction by Cecile Audette, and smashing choreography by Vincent Musgrave,

Violent Delights: A Shakespearean Brawl-Esque Sideshow at Off The Quill

Reviews April 29, 2018 Claudia Bach

For first-time audience members, it is hard to predict just what you’re getting into with Off the Quill’s new staging of Violent Delights: A Shakespearean Brawl-esque Sideshow. An original production created first for the 2013 Capital Fringe Festival by company members Patrick Mullen, Leanne Dinverno, J. Peter Langsdorf, Katie Wanschura, as well as William Shakespeare, and directed by Mullen, the show bills itself as a blend of stage combat, dance, clowning,

Homebodies at Baltimore Theatre Project

Reviews April 28, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

What’s inside the box? More like what isn’t inside the box when it comes to Alex & Olmsted’s latest production: Homebodies. An original devised work that is gloriously magnificent in its own right, Homebodies explores the life of two individuals and their ordinary, everyday life. Inside their box. Devised and performed by Alex Vernon and Sarah Olmsted Thomas this quaintly quirky, highly expressive, physical exploration of movement and life has a little bit of something for everyone.

Camelot at Woodbrook Players

Reviews April 27, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

It’s true! It’s true! The crown has made it clear! That the performances must be perfect at this time of year! While it isn’t the lusty month of May, though worry not that’s coming quite quickly down the pipe, we know a place where you can say, that the performances are rollicking, rolling, and ripe! Why, it’s Camelot! Camelot! Yes, Camelot, so I’ve said. At the Woodbrook Players now,

Waiting for Godot at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Reviews April 27, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

We are all born mad. Some remain so. But what is madness? The inevitable wait for that which will not come? The yearn of tomorrow knowing that it will never truly be tomorrow because tomorrow will always be tomorrow? Skipping Druid’s production of Waiting for Godot at Shakespeare Theatre Company this spring? That last one borders dangerously close on madness if not sheer delirium. Directed by Garry Hynes this classical reincarnation of Samuel Beckett’s darkly humorous and dreary drudgery of a drama finds reanimation and breaths of new life in this potent production presented by Druid.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at Prince George’s Little Theatre

Reviews April 24, 2018 Rachel Zirkin Duda

Who is going to believe a con artist? Everyone, if she [he] is good. – Andy Griffith

In the 18th century, a grifter named Samuel Thompson tried to swindle people out of their money and watches by attempting to gain their confidence. Though in the end he was not highly successful, the New York Herald publicized the story, dubbing him the “Confidence Man.” The term took off and was eventually shortened to simply – “con man.” In 1988,

Into the Woods at Memorial Players

Reviews April 20, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

You may know what you need, but to get what you want, better see that you keep what you have! And what Memorial Players has is an extraordinarily talented production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods. And what they want is for everyone in Baltimore to come and see it. So they need you to do exactly that! Running just two weekends, and as always at Memorial Players, a free performance for all in attendance,

The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews April 20, 2018 Spencer Nelson

If you expect to see a pipe smoking, violin playing, deerstalker wearing detective Sherlock Holmes solving crimes you’ve come to the wrong show. This show is not about Holmes at all, it’s about his companion Dr. John Watson (and he does wear a deerstalker, fans of the iconic hat may rejoice!). Well, the play really isn’t about Dr. John Watson either. Actually it’s really very complicated and complex. The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence comes from the mind of award-winning playwright Madeline George and it won the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Playwriting Award.

Sweet Charity at The Heritage Players

Reviews April 19, 2018 Lindsey Litka & Matt Wetzel

Hey Big Spender! Spend a little time… with Heritage Player’s latest production, Sweet Charity! Based on Federico Fellini’s screenplay Nights of Cabiria, with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and book by Neil Simon, Sweet Charity is the 1966 musical about a starry-eyed young woman who’s looking for love in all the wrong places. The show revolves around the ever hopeful and aptly named Charity Hope Valentine,

Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery at Greenbelt Arts Center

Reviews April 17, 2018 Rachel Zirkin Duda

Back in 1887, Scottish writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced the world to the now-infamous sleuthing mastermind, Sherlock Holmes. More than a century later, playwright Ken Ludwig adapted Doyle’s third crime novel, the well-known Hound of the Baskervilles, as a madcap, sometimes dizzyingly fast-paced farcical comedy, called simply – Baskerville. Directed by Ann Lowe-Barrett and produced by William Powell, this adaptation is currently being performed at the Greenbelt Arts Center to raving audiences.