‘Twas the night before opening and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a—
Whoops. Not that one. Lemme try again.
Marley was dead to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his—
Oh. Oh… not that one either? (Whew!) Let’s see…uh—
All I want for Christmas is a Red-Ryder Carbine Action BB Gun— no way, kid, you’ll shoot your—
Still no!?
Oh what tangled webs we weave when we practice to— get out from under the manipulative fist of the patriarchy who relies heavily on the normalization of harmful tactics like gaslighting. Not the single-word response you were expecting? Good. Because this isn’t your grandma’s Gaslight. Though it’s been adapted from that play (by Patrick Hamilton) by Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson, this ‘gaslight of a thriller’— Deceived is not your classic case of a woman being manipulated into questioning her own sanity,
Well leapin’ lizards! It’s a Christmas miracle that Children’s Playhouse of Maryland still has a ticket or two for their wonderful production of Annie next weekend! Aww, gee. You don’t have tickets yet? Aww, gee. You better not wait! They’re flying off the {digital} shelf faster than FDR’s new deal! Directed by Liz Boyer Hunnicutt with Musical Direction by Charlotte Evans and Choreography by Lauren Stewart, this time-honored musical theatre classic, is the perfect show for the Christmas season and is full of wonderfully talented young performers just radiating their best sunshine-positivity all over the stage!
It’s a joy to be in the Mount Vernon area when that Christmas spirit takes hold. They light the monument, trees go up everywhere, and Spotlighters Theatre puts on a holiday show of some variety or other. (They’ve even thrown their hat in the ring in years past with their very own one-man A Christmas Carol.) But this year, they’re trying something a little different. Yes they are, they are, they are.
“Bills don’t care about the holidays, Virginia.” Not quite the same ring as that line about truly there is a Santa Claus. But then again, this isn’t exactly your grandfolks’ Christmas Carol either. A glorious blending of the macabre meets the holidays, which is sort of what Dickens intended when he wrote A Christmas Carol so many Christmas pasts’ ago, or at least that’s how it turned out— what with the ghosts and all.
In the 10,000 or so productions of A Christmas Carol that I’ve seen over my ~15 years a reviewer, I have never seen one (and I’ve even seen the Richard Wade-Richard Gessner adaptation at Colonial Players a time or two before…) that had such a strikingly profound moment— a momentary minutia that hit with such heartfelt intent that I both gasped and wept in utter shock. But let’s back it up in true Dickensian style.
How do you compete with Santa Claus this time of year? With the reindeer cookies, Mariah Carey all over the radio, for crying out loud, with the Hallmark Channel and their same recycled plot presented 24 new different ways each December? With an un-spellable, totally not as important as other Jewish high-holy-holidays show all about Hanukkah! Hannukah? Channukah? Chanukkah? The eight-crazy-nights-holiday! That one! While everyone else is serving up A Christmas Carol,
Dear 34th Grade Journal,
I cannot believe it has been a whole ten years— that’s a decade— since I’ve visited Room1. (Literally so unbelievable I had to go count back through the archives, and BOOM! Do the math— 2015 to 2015— that’s ten whole years!) And it’s so wonderful, splendiferious, fabulously good fun to be back in Room1 with Mr. Scary, Junie B. Jones, and all the rest of the zany characters that populate the MET Fun Company’s production of Junie B.
Tis the season of hospitality, merriment, and openheartedness! Come in and know them better, man! Tis the season— their 11th, in fact— for putting that timeless holiday classic, A Christmas Carol, upon their stage. Tis the season for uplifting spirits, for heartwarming festivities, and for radical, positive change. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s A Christmas Carol is truly a cherished stage tradition, nestled right in the heart of Charm City and is bringing jubilation amid the bleakness that 2025 has turned out to be;
Wonderful… I’m callin’ it wonderful… it does sound wonderful, trust me, it’s fun! And while it may not be the GREEN v PINK everyone’s defying gravity over…remember a certain witchy-witch pair started off in their very own musical a long, long time ago— total reverse plot-twist that this is the original-origin of the ‘origin’ story! Are you ready to return to Oz? To the OG-Emerald City? Theatreworks Live has you covered with their adorable and talent-loaded production of The Wizard of Oz (youth edition.) Directed by Cathy Koncurat with Musical Direction by Megan Koncurat and Choreography by Leslie Perry,
All that we see or seem, is but a dream within— BAH. HUMBUG! Wait a minute… that’s not right.
Let me try again.
The scariest monsters are the ones that would rather die? Then they’d better do so and decrease the surplus population! No… that’s— hold on a minute.
One more try—
I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as— singing in street corner choir!
Bah! Humbug! The Christmas season is upon us. Again. Already. (Baltimore’s local 101.9 even had flipped the switch to their Christmas music on Thursday 11/20/25 as I was driving home to ring up Greg Burgess and interview him!) The holidays are upon us whether you’re ready or not. And in a world of so much darkness and chaos, aren’t the holidays meant to be what spreads a little love, a little light, a little joy?
A lady’s imagination is very rapid, and while this lady’s imagination is not jumping from admiration to love to matrimony the way some of the Bennet daughters do in Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, it is certainly jumping from point to point trying to extrapolate the thoughts and opinions formulated upon viewing Compass Rose Theater’s current production, as adapted by Emma Whipday under the direction of Madeline Austin (of no relation to the playwright.) I am only resolved to write in that manner,
Sometimes the right dress makes all the difference. I’d be hard-pressed to find a more relatable statement, particularly when it comes to going out to the theatre. In the industry for nearly 15 years a reviewer, with the reputation of ‘that one who dresses up to the theme of the show’ the right dress can make all the difference. Knowing nothing about Red Hill Theatre Group (a true shame as they’ve been around since January of 2020— getting one solid production under their belt before that pesky little problem of the global pandemic halted all theatre in person) and producing mostly in the Frederick area,
You have come here! In pursuit of your deepest urge— in pursuit of that which till now has been silent…silent. It’s here— the music of the night— it’s here— truly, this time— The Phantom of the Opera. To launch the North American tour, after what feels like an eternity of missing-in-action, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic and most infamous musical has returned to the stage, and what better a stage to return to than Baltimore’s own Hippodrome Theatre at The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center?
Missed opening weekend? That’s your funeral, that’s your funeral!
Don’t have tickets yet? That’s your funeral, that’s your funeral!
But luckily for you— you can still get tickets to see the 10-year anniversary production of Oliver! at Third Wall Players, running through the 23rd of November in their resident play-space at Chestnut Grove Presbyterian. Directed by Andi Rudai, in her directorial debut (after playing the titular role in the TWP original production of Oliver!
Cor! Look at this! It’s a real full circle moment! Maybe at the end of Oliver! the little orphan boy— in this case, girl— grows up to be— a director! And that’s exactly what happened as Third Wall Productions celebrates ten years of producing theatre— their very own Oliver Twist, from their inaugural production of Oliver! (February of 2016) has come back to the project in a new capacity. Andi Rudai,
“Facts are facts. They don’t loosen or tighten. They just are.” ~The Thanksgiving Play; Larissa FastHorse.
Opinions, however, can be loose, tight, and all over the place. Popular or unpopular, we all have them, and we all share them. And that’s an important notion to keep percolating just at the back of the brain as you settle in for this 90-minute, no-intermission, genre-questionable work that is Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre as the second offering of their 2025/2026 main stage season.
It’s astounding. Time is fleeting. Madness…takes it’s toll. But listen closely— not for very much longer— literally a performance tonight and three next weekend— they’ve got to keep control! Do you remember— doing the Time Warp!? It’s that time of year again! And the Maryland Ensemble Theatre has partnered with Frederick Community College to reprise their annual tradition of mounting Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show to the stage of the Jack B.
I am all in a sea of wonders…I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul…so instead I’ll confess to you— the folks of readerland— this Halloween spoof-spectacular is unhinged, off-the-hook, and absolutely the must-see, laugh-out-loud 95-minute thriller of the season. Forget about Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., Christopher Lee, Adam Sandler, and whoever else you’ve seen don the cape on the silver screen through the years— they can’t hold a garlic-scented candle to Colonial Players and their present production of Dracula A Comedy of Terrors,
It’s often said that death brings out the worst in people; you see family’s tear one another apart over left-behind possessions in the wake of someone’s passing. But what happens when the death of a friendship is eminent? How do friends behave when the threads that bind them are no longer frayed but thinly grizzled and hardly friends at all? So much so that a singular choice— one might even say a matter of personal taste and opinion— or a disagreement over said choice,
Go take a look at the old folks! They’re quite an int’resting sight! But if you want to see old folks— then get your tickets to The Salem Players 70, Girls, 70! It’s chock-a-block with old* folks! If you’re ready for a charming, sparkling little gem of a long-lost musical theatre show, then dust off your duds and get on over to The Salem Players. In other words, hit it, Lorraine! Haa-chaa!
author Leonard Taube
In 1886 Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson penned a Gothic horror novella titled Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and a murderous criminal named Edward Hyde. Becoming one of the most famous pieces of English literature, it also played a part in pop culture with the expression “Jekyll and Hyde” being used to refer to people that appear good but have an evil nature inside.
Do you know the feeling when day turns to night?
A question posed in the ethereal menagerie that is Vesper, a dream play, a new work premiering at The Voxel in Baltimore’s Remington neighborhood. Conceived and Directed, or dare I say dreamed, by Jarod Hanson (with a co-productive assist from The Acme Corporation and assistant directorship from Brandice Thompson) this masterfully articulate and evocative work of living theatricality encapsulates the essence of the rich,
It always pays to raise the roof. No limits. No boundaries. No compromise. Other Voices Theatre is certainly pushing their boundaries, breaking their limits, and giving it their all for their current production of Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party. Directed by Diane Causer with Musical Direction by Sheila Melendez and Choreography by Amanda Patten, this musical is one heck of a bumpy and wild ride, so buckle up, put your bugle beads on and get ready for one intense evening of theatre.
With my high-starched collar and my high-heel shoes— and a wig piled up on my head…
I went to lose two jolly hours at the theatre and I went and lost my heart instead!
Clang! Clang! Clang! Went the trolly! Ding! Ding! Ding! Went the bell! Zing! Zing! Zing! Went my heartstrings as in love with this little show I fell! Old-fashioned classical musicals don’t always do it for me, especially because they tend to err on the lengthier side of long.
Do you want to have a party in the middle of the street? Or perhaps a spooky celebration to kick off the haunting season with a real bang? By the pricking of my theatrical thumb… I tell you now… Something Wicked! this way comes! And it’s come to Havre de Grace. The STAR Centre to be more specific, by way of Rogue Swan Theatre Company! A flashy fun spectacle— a Vaudeville— chock-a-block with variety and crazy characters some years in the cultivatory cauldron,
You wanna see something to set your spine tingling? Something that blows Ringling out of the ring? It’s coming around the bend— arrived just before the month did end— it’s something better than the rest— feast your eyes, your eyes, and your senses on the best— it’s Water For Elephants at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre. Launching from Charm City’s beautiful Hippodrome Theatre as one of three brand-new touring productions to launch their Broadway-Across-America season here in the heart of Baltimore,
“I am loved. And I am strong. If I can dream it then I can do it.”
There are few more important words that children (and children at heart) need to hear right now in this topsy-turvy, upside-down world that no longer makes a lot of sense. And you can hear them, feel them reinforced, and live them as the MET Fun Company kicks of their 2025/2026 season with Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Juliany Taveras (based on the book by Christine Baldacchino &
Does the show stop when nobody’s watching? Or does the show go on? A curious question that slides into the vein of ‘are we only truly ourselves when nobody is watching?’ territory. And it’s one that is explored in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog opening the 63rd season at The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre. Directed by Rain Pryor, this lengthy narrative follows snippets of two brothers— Lincoln and Booth— from inside their apartment and the struggles that are day to day life for these two men.