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.
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!
The Woozy and Yoop and Mangaboos – Oh My!
The Patchwork Girl of Oz is L. Frank Baum’s seventh book in the series. Dr. Pipt brings to life Scraps, the Patchwork Girl, but accidentally petrifies Unc Nunkie. So, along with Ojo the Unlucky, Scraps sets off on a component quest to find the remedy and meet and make many friends along the way. Don’t worry if you can’t at first remember the list of items they need to find,
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes”
“Now is the Winter of our discontent”…. No wait, nevermind. That’s a different Shakespeare show, and a different season entirely. But Summer is here in Maryland and when it comes to the Macbeths, “discontent” is an apropos word to define their predicament, but the exact opposite to describe how you will feel as you enjoy this timeless production of the Scottish Play;
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,
Stand Up For…Theatre (SUF…T) is bringing its stage adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz to the DoodleHatch Interactive Art Museum in Columbia from June 9 to June 18. This timeless tale, in which Dorothy travels from Kansas over the rainbow to the magical Land of Oz, is sure to delight kids of all ages who want to join in on the adventure and follow the yellow brick road to see the great Wizard of Oz!
BAWDY-LICIOUS! Something Rotten Brings Down the House.
Cockpit In Court opens its summer season with the ribald musical, Something Rotten, by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell with music and lyrics by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick, in the F. Scott Black Theater. The show runs Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays till June 25th and from the response of the audience at the Sunday matinee I attended, I would suggest purchasing your tickets in advance.
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.
“It’s an old tale from way back when,
And we’re gonna sing it again and again.”
I’ve heard it said that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. But in the world of Hadestown, when you live near the train tracks to Hell, naivety seems to set up shop there as well. Set in a world of Gods and a world of Men, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice takes centerstage in this soulful,
A documentary, cloaked in a musical, peppered with vignettes and duets, sprinkled with group song and dance numbers, and topped off with a dazzling set and live on-stage pit. That is as close as I can come to describing one of the most moving and glorious productions that I have seen recently. Silhouette Stage’s (Columbia, MD) production of Sondheim on Sondheim opened Friday June 2nd to a well-deserved standing ovation. This is a show that needs to be seen.
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.
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,
King Arthur: “Have you heard of this Broadway?”
Sir Robin: “Yes Sire, and we don’t stand a chance there.”
Actually, Spamalot, the musical version of the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail was a bona-fide smash, first lighting up the 2004-05 Broadway season, and now expertly mounted at the Kennedy Center through May 21st, as a part of their ‘Broadway Center Stage’ programming. Honestly, this production of Spamalot is dizzying,
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.
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,
All Shook Up is one of the fantastically fun, fluffy, and flashy hallmarks of the early-to-mid 2000’s big jukebox musicals, and it’s difficult not to come away from the show with some burnin’ love and a couple of jiggly-wiggly, hip-shaking moves made just for your best pair of blue suede shoes. The show originally debuted on Broadway in 2005 with a 6-month run, and it features a cross-section of intermingled love stories in a small mid-western 1950’s town told to the iconic music of The King (Elvis Presley,
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,
From the very first millisecond of Barbara Khan’s The Lady was a Gentleman, I knew I was in for a wonderful treat! In an instant, the production begins and the audience is swept into an aura of light, and energy, and laughter. Led by a brief dumb show that allows the characters to take the stage and give a silent, yet physically over exaggerated sense of who they are, the production immediately becomes alive and allows for a fantastic transposition from the mundane world into the world of a St.
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?
Welcome to Falsettoland! Where lovers come and go, and love is utterly blind. Rep Stage in Columbia closes its final season with a poignant and superb production of Falsettos. With Music and Lyrics by William Finn and Book by William Finn and James Lapine such a prolific piece of theater can remind you of the importance of love and friendship. You can clearly sense the passion and expertise that Director and Choreographer Joseph W.
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.
It is the trial of the century! Every juicy piece of gossip you could imagine is wrapped up neatly, just waiting to be unraveled. There are men, women, and a strange woman. There are cops, judges, bailiffs, and animals. What? Animals? Yes, animals! In fact, some can even talk to them. Curious? Then you must see Doctor Dolittle being presented by The Salem Players.
Director Jen Sizer takes the ball to direct her first musical and delivers a touchdown.
“Magic only fades when it is forgotten.”
Magic has a special place in all of our hearts. It evokes wonder, awe, and a sense that even what should be logically impossible, can be possible. In a sense love is the same. It too evokes wonder, awe, and the sense that anything can be possible (even magical) with the power of love. But magic in the real world, at least the magic performed by real world stage magicians,
Every story is a love story. That’s the message being preached by Artistic Synergy of Baltimore’s (established 2012) production of AIDA which opened on a rainy night in Rosedale, MD. Based on the Italian language opera of the same name, Disney purchased the book rights in 1994 to turn it into an animated feature film. However, it was instead reborn as a Broadway musical with music by Sir Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice.
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,