Reviews

Review: Spaced Out Magic with Lucas & Liz at Yellow Sign Theatre

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They’re zany in the brainy, and totally insaney! They’re the— well— the alien abductees of Area51 that Agent Coletta doesn’t want you to know about! That’s right, folks, Baltimore’s Artscape 2016 has been invaded— by aliens! Or at least— Lucas Gerace and Liz Christmas have been invaded by aliens— or maybe not— it’s all a bit wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey— and now have permanent alien technology vibrating inside of them! Produced by Yellow Sign Theatre at this year’s space-themed Artscape,

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Review: A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

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Lord, what fools these mortals be— thinking that summertime theatre in Annapolis need only involve outdoor musicals! Annapolis Shakespeare Company has set up shop, for a two-weekend limited engagement, in the luxurious Gardens of The Charles Carroll House for their current production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Directed by Sally Boyett and Donald Hicken, the performance is a tightly trimmed rendition of the whimsical faerie-laden comedy, which showcases mesmerizing costumes,

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Spring Awakening at ArtsCentric Summer Institute

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All shall know the wonder of purple summer who are lucky enough to have attended the ArtsCentric Summer Institute’s production of Spring Awakening. Presented as a final showcasing of the Summer Institute’s hard-working students under the Direction of Artistic Director Kevin McAllister and Musical Director Cedric D. Lyles, this stellar production of young performers brings their radiant vocal talents to light in a show that rings true for adolescents of today despite being set in a time long ago.

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Review: The Sound of Music at The JC Summer Community Theatre

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Talented performers and lots of new faces, wondrous fun costumes and well lit-up stages, Rogers & Hammerstein for a summertime fling, these are a few of my favorite things! And The JC Summer Community Theatre, now appearing live at The John Carroll School, has them all in their inaugural production of The Sound of Music. Directed and Choreographed by Kimberly Brueggemann, Orchestral Direction by Richard Hauf and Vocal Direction by Bonnie Dubel Burns,

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Review: Elephant & Piggie’s “We Are in a Play” at Infinity Theatre Company

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Zip! Zoom! Wowee— does Infinity Theatre Company ever have the most precious and invigorating dose of Saturday morning entertainment that you’ll find this side of the Bay Bridge for the 2016 summer season. Proud to present this musical play with plenty of panache, ITC brings Elephant & Piggie’s “We Are in a Play” to the main stage for children and children at heart under the energetic Direction of Tommy Iafrate. With script and lyrics by Mo Willems and music by Deborah Wicks La Puma,

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Review: Tick Tick BOOM! at Spotlighters Theatre

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Stop the clock. Take time out. Hear the Tick Tick BOOM! as it explodes on the stage of The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre to close out their 54th season. Jonathan Larson’s pre-Rent musical arrives under the Direction of Jillian Locklear Bauersfeld with Musical Direction by Michael W. Tan and features an intimate cast of three just living the real life of 1990 New York City. Big dreams, big goals,

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Review: Million Dollar Quartet at Infinity Theatre Company

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Well it’s one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, now go, cat go! Go directly to Infinity Theatre Company this summer as they bring on some great balls of fiery talent all wrapped up in the second half of their repertory season! One magical night— December 4, 1956— brought four of the greatest rock-n-roll performers the musical charts have ever known together for an unspeakably sensational jam session. Now Infinity Theatre Company is bringing that phenomenal night to you with their production Million Dollar Quartet.

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Review: The Bridges of Madison County at The Kennedy Center

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Striking and inspiring beauty isn’t just in the covered-bridge landscape of Winterset, Iowa. It’s possessed wholeheartedly in the stellar music of Jason Robert Brown’s The Bridges of Madison County musical, now appearing live on stage in the Eisenhower Theatre of The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Based on the novel by Robert James Waller with Book by Marsha Norman, Brown’s stunning score of the heart-melting and utterly emotionally mesmerizing love story is populated with bittersweet poignancy and the closest thing to true American Opera the stage has heard since the 80’s.

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Review: Moxie at Happenstance Theater

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A quick glance to a dictionary— or in our technologically adept modern day world, Merriam-Webster’s website— reveals the simple definition of the word Moxie to be: the ability to be active; courage or determination. And by golly, if Happenstance Theater doesn’t have the ability to be active and have plenty of courage and determination, I’ll eat my hat! Presenting, as only Happenstance Theater can, a theatrical collage of movement, mystery, marvel, and magic: Moxie: A Happenstance Vaudeville comes to the main stage of Round House Theatre this summer to delight,

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Horatio Dark’s Between The Sheets: Special June Edition

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Hey there, Charm City. Are you ready for a night of naughty entertainment? Then just pick up the phone and dial the party line. That’s right, it’s back. Horatio Dark’s Between the Lines has taken that naughty delve once more and plundered its way Between the Sheets! Just four months after the initial Between the Sheets broadcast, which was a Valentine’s Day special event, the antiquarian of the insane,

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Review: Rent at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre

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525,600 minutes— that’s how you measure a last year on earth. And Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre is measuring the second slot of their 50th Anniversary season with their production of Rent, which is currently celebrating its 20th Anniversary of debuting on Broadway. Directed by Andy Scott, with Musical Direction Paige Austin Rammelkamp, this moving and evocative musical about real life in New York City circa the early 90’s is more relevant now than ever in a world that cannot seem to realize there is no day but today.

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Review: Hairspray at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

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Styles keep a changing, the world’s rearranging, but Toby’s Dinner Theatre is timeless as can be! Welcoming in the 60’s with their superior production of Hairspray, the summer stage-blockbuster is marching in through the front door in Columbia and is ready to shimmy and shake-up all of the theatergoers in the area. Directed and Choreographed by Mark Minnick with Musical Direction by Ross Scott Rawlings, this sensational production is the must-see musical of Baltimore’s hot season!

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Review: Another Way Home at Theater J

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The most tender thing in the world is the love of a parent for a child.

The most mortifying thing in the world is a parent loving a teenager.

Another Way Home, by Anna Ziegler, explores this complex, combative time in everybody’s life from the point of view of the parents. Phillip and Lillian (Rick Foucheux and Naomi Jacobson) have come from Manhattan to Maine to visit their son Joseph (Chris Stinson).

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Review: The Little Mermaid at Charm City Players

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Now playing at the gorgeous Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Auditorium, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater, and a book by Doug Wright is sailing into port with Charm City Players through July 17! This musical, filled with exciting songs and dances and a cast of memorable characters, closes out CCP’s season with flair. Perfect for families and little ones, this show offers reprieve from the hot summer sun with some great performances at a decent price!

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Review: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at Stillpointe Theatre

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An audience knows what to expect and that is all they are prepared to believe in. Such a premise as this is where the initial notion of “suspending one’s disbelief” came from, and thus theatrical extemporanea, et. al and so forth. When playwright Tom Stoppard dared the audience to believe in his tertiary character-exploration of Hamlet, he had no idea that Stillpointe Theatre would be putting their hands all over Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in only a way that this innovative,

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Review: Kinky Boots at The Kennedy Center

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Do you know what the most beautiful thing in the world is? Why, it’s a shoe! And the world at The John F. Kennedy Center is brighter because it’s six inches off the ground right now as Kinky Boots settles into the Opera House stage for the first half of the 2016 summer. Preaching a powerful message, this Tony Award-winning musical— with Book by Harvey Fierstein and Music & Lyrics by Cyndi Lauper— is a sizzling sensation of a show that will blind you with how brilliantly it shines.

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Review: [Title of Show] at Milburn Stone Theatre- Elkton Station

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This show is the rice krispie treat. It’s also nine people’s favorite thing, which is better than being 100 people’s ninth favorite thing. And I am one of those nine people after seeing [Title of Show] at Milburn Stone Theatre Elkton Station. I don’t usually write reviews where I self-insert, but since this musical— which is going to make it to the mainstage at Milburn Stone any day now, just as soon as they get enough interested producers— is all about self-insertion,

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Review: Mary Poppins at LIVE! @ Harford Community College

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Time to grab your spoon full of sugar and head over to The Phoenix Festival Theater’s latest undertaking, Mary Poppins the Musical. Disney’s magical nanny is at it again and ready to provide a jolly holiday for believers of all ages! Directed and Choreographed by Kim Brueggemann, this production, while exhibiting some welcome bursts of charming energy (mainly during dance routines) overall feels under-speed. I attribute most of the clunkiness to the book of this musical (one I’ve seen now about three or four times),

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Review: La Cage Aux Folles at Signature Theatre

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Take a deep breath, open your eyes, you have arrived at La Cage Aux Folles. Signature Theatre does its utmost to deliver this ravishing, sensual, fabulous musical Directed by Matthew Gardiner with Musical Direction by Darius Smith, and succeeds making it the show of their season, which is saying something considering just how many smashing productions they’ve managed this year. Legend has told and rumor has promised this zesty, thrilling performance would dazzle theatergoers of Washington DC and there are simply not enough words to properly praise the nearly perfect production as it titillates audiences right to the edges of their chairs!

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Review: District Merchants at Folger Theatre

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The truth within a lie. Isn’t that a quaint little sentence that sums up Shakespeare or most of it at any rate? It is if you’re playwright Aaron Posner and you’ve been commissioned to step away from your exceedingly brilliant modern riffs on Chekhov and step into a variation on the Bard’s The Merchant of Venice. Closing out the 2015/2016 season at Folger Theatre, Posner’s latest world premiere District Merchants,

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Review: Godspell at Cockpit in Court

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Prepare ye the way of the Lord as it paves its path up the aisles of the main stage in the Theatre Building of the Community College of Baltimore County Essex Campus with Cockpit in Court’s production of Godspell. Celebrating its 44th season, the Stephen Schwartz musical kicks off the summer for the community theatre and preaches a message that is poignant now more so than ever in today’s world where hatred seems to be common place and violence is overlooked as a part of the daily routine.

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Review: Towards Zero at Cockpit in Court

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There’s a suggestion of gunpowder in the air, one small spark might set off an explosion upstairs in the Theatre Building this season at Cockpit in Court as they present what is quickly becoming an annual tradition of murder mystery on their stage. Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero is the latest play to fall victim to this yearly tradition and although there’s nary a gun in the show (not even so much as mentioned!),

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Review: Parade at TYA Senior Teen Company at Drama Learning Center

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Set in Atlanta in 1913, a Brooklyn-raised Jewish man by the name of Leo Frank is put on trial for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan. Already guilty in the eyes of everyone around him, a sensationalist publisher and a janitor’s false testimony seal Leo’s fate. His only defenders are a governor with a conscience, and, eventually, his assimilated Southern wife who finds the strength and love to become his greatest champion.  Based on true historical events and adapted for the stage by an acclaimed playwright (Alfred Uhry – Driving Miss Daisy) and composer/lyricist (Jason Robert Brown – Songs For A New World,

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Review: Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver at Infinity Theatre Company

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Infinity Theatre Company just can’t wait to get on the road again. Here they are, back in Annapolis for the 2016 season, and they’ve brought with them Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver. Boldly challenging their audience with this revitalization of a bluegrass-folk infused musical revue featuring the songs of the iconic John Denver, Co-Producing Artistic Directors Anna Roberts Ostroff and Alan Ostroff present a sensational show filled to the very brim with heart and soul that triumphantly calls through the hills of Colorado all the way down to the Chesapeake Bay.

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Review: American Idiot at Milburn Stone Theatre

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It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right, you will definitely have the time of your life if you come see the Milburn Stone Theatre’s production of Green Day’s American Idiot. Directed by Lance Bankerd with Musical Direction by J. Andrew Dickenson, this viscerally emotional and hyper-sensationalized production of Green Day’s concept-album-turned musical does not shy away from the traumas encountered by the characters within. A jaw-dropping, fist-pumping, rage-bleeding experience,

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Review: Love Letters at The Hippodrome

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You can’t hang up on someone via a letter. In today’s much too fast-paced world where everything is tweeted and texted or shouted through smart phones, the intimacy between two lovers is lost, the warmth and heartfelt feeling that can only be felt when personally putting a pen to paper has all but faded from the memories of mankind. Evoking a spark of true tenderness from this art form of letter-writing, Love Letters— as a part of the CareFirst Hippodrome Broadway Series — arrives to Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre after following a successful and critically acclaimed run on Broadway.

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Review: Floyd Collins at 1st Stage

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Do you hear that sound? It’s calling to you from the lone, cold hills of Kentucky. It’s calling for you to follow it down to 1st Stage in Tysons to see the rarely produced musical Floyd Collins. Based on the real life story of the caver by the same name, this backwoods folk-style musical with Music and Lyrics by Adam Guettel and Book by Tina Landau makes its return to the Washington DC area for the first time in over a decade.

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Review: Midlife at Single Carrot Theatre

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Life is slippery, like a fish’s tail. The harder you grab it the les of it you have in your hands. When life begins to slip away from your grasp, it isn’t always in the physical, tangential realm. What happens when the mind slips away from you? What becomes of your life’s story then? Are you two trains on diverting tracks tearing apart at the seams or are you an extraordinary fantasy fated for collision with the brutal harsh reality that is your mortal existence?

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Review: The Amazing Interactive Adventure 2 at Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s Fun Company

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Afraid your children are spending too much time with their video games? So much time that they might just get sucked into them and never return because they can’t beat the evil boss at the final level now that he has control of the keyboard that controls the game? That’s exactly what’s happening to Charlie— a smart, funny, young video game programming kid— in The Amazing Interactive Adventure 2 now appearing live on stage with MET’s The Fun Company!

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Review: Good People at Colonial Players

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Good people are all around us but sometimes, for various reasons, they can be hard to spot. However, you will have no problem spotting them at Colonial Players of Annapolis’ current production of Good People, written by David Lindsay-Abaire and Directed by Edd Miller. You may be familiar with Lindsay-Abaire’s work such as the 2007 Pulitzer Prize winning drama Rabbit Hole and the clever and hilarious book for Shrek,

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