Reviews

Noura at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Reviews February 16, 2018 Spencer Nelson

In 1879 when Henrik Ibsen premiered his play A Doll’s House he probably didn’t imagine that today, nearly 139 year later, it would be the inspiration for a new work about a modern Iraqi-American family who welcome an Iraqi refugee into their home for Christmas. But that is exactly what has happened, Heather Raffo has brought Ibsen’s work to new life with her play Noura, now playing at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Lansburgh Theatre as part of the Women’s Voices in Theater Festival.

Light Years at Signature Theatre

Reviews February 15, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Did I tell you the story? The story of the #uglycry of the century? Did I tell you the story? The story of the most evocative musical to take to the stage in recent history? Did I tell you the story? The story of truth, humanity, reality, and life all swirled together through song and narrative perfection, unwinding, unraveling, and unfurling in The Max Theatre at Signature Theatre this winter? Did I tell you the story of Light Years?

Heathers at Street Lamp Productions

Reviews February 13, 2018 Andrew Worthington

In a time where our students are facing issues with identity, popularity, socializing, and acceptance on an almost minute-by-minute basis, a show like Heathers, where each character openly discusses their role in the social environment of high school, is poignant, relevant, and necessary. Street Lamp Productions’ brilliant performance of the musical hits all of the right notes, both literally and metaphorically.

Based on the 1980’s cult-movie of the same name,

Coriolanus at Brave Spirits Theatre

Reviews February 13, 2018 Joshua Engel

For a world turned upside down as 2018, Director Charlene V. Smith has crafted a riveting, provocative, explosive Coriolanus. “Are we even capable of not harming ourselves?” she asks in the director’s notes, echoing Tori Boutin as citizen of Rome: “We willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will.”

Smith’s Rome is not a pinnacle of civilization. It’s violent and dirty, its citizens easily provoked to engage every whim.

I Hate Hamlet at Spotlighters Theatre

Reviews February 12, 2018 Lindsey Litka & Matt Wetzel

To see or not to see… that is the question! Spotlighters’ latest production in their 56th season is none other than Paul Rudnick’s 1991 comedy-drama I Hate Hamlet, directed by Hillary Glass and Ilene Chalmers. The play revolves around the young and successful television actor Andrew Rally who has just relocated to New York after the recent cancellation of his television show. He finds his agent has booked him a gig as the titular character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet,

Constellations & Crossroads at Arena Players & Baltimore Rock Opera Society

Reviews February 12, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Titanic: In Concert at Heritage Players

Reviews February 10, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Sail on! Sail on…great ship. Godspeed, Titanic. (in concert!) In a bold and ambitious move, and an unprecedented trend in the area’s community theatre scene, The Heritage Players launch the first “in-concert” musical production on their stage of the 2018 season with their floating city Titanic: In Concert. Directed by David Jennings with Musical Direction by David Zajic, this “concert-plus” experience is the ship of dreams for any community theatre.

Steel Magnolias at Kensington Arts Theatre

Reviews February 10, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther 2 Comments

Laughter through tears is soon to be your favorite emotion, just like the ladies of Louisiana’s Chinquapin Parish hanging out every Saturday at Truvy’s beauty shop! Kensington Arts Theatre breaks up the bleakness of midwinter with their stage production of Steel Magnolias, the emotionally heartwarming tale that was made infamous on the silver screen by movie marvels Sally Field, Dolly Parton, and the rest of the iconic 1989 film cast. Directed by John Nunemaker,

Digging Up Dessa at The Kennedy Center

Reviews February 8, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

“History is the domain of rich, white men, who as a breed, are allergic to change.” Who said it? Her name is: MARY ANNING! MARY ANNING! She knows what it is like when the world won’t acknowledge you. But the universe is impartial, the universe does not care. It’s the people that populate the universe that are not impartial, the people that care. So what do you do when the people won’t acknowledge you?

The Trojan Women Project at Brave Spirits Theatre

Reviews February 7, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

The natural orders are ours to make. Gender is a sphere. Women are women regardless of what kind of women they are. Does it make you a bad feminist or a bad woman if your version of feminism and supporting women is not the same as someone from a different generation, from a different race, from a different background, from a different socio-economic standpoint? The Trojan Women Project, devised by Rachel Hynes and the ensemble,

Something Rotten at The National Theatre

Reviews February 7, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Welcome to The National— where every show is for you— and this is new! Yes, welcome to The National— where they’ve got Something Rotten! And it’s outrageous, fantastic, and downright fun. Directed and Choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, with Music & Lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick, and Book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell, this razzle-dazzle, hilariously side-splitting musical is great for everyone who loves theatres. It’s even greater if you like Shakespeare.

The Music Man at Third Wall Productions

Reviews February 2, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther 1 Comment

O-ho the Wells Fargo Wagon is a-comin’ down the street! Oh please let it be for me! O-ho the Wells Fargo Wagon is a-comin’ down the street— and I know, I know, I know what it must be! Why it’s bringing something special— a classic production— just for me! And all of Charm City as Third Wall Production presents The Music Man as their winter stage offering of 2018. Directed by Mike Zellhofer with Musical Direction by Andrew Zile and William Zellhofer,

Blithe Spirit at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Reviews January 29, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

A second marriage to a new wife is perfectly acceptable and almost expected when your first wife dies young. It might even go along swimmingly, even if from time to time your late first wife surfaces in conversation. But things tend to go grievously awry when said dearly departed surfaces in her ghostly fatigues right in the center of your drawing room. In the zany high-brow comedy of wit and repartee, Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit is conjured to the main stage of Annapolis Shakespeare Company to kick-start the back end of their 2017/2018 season.

Hamlet at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Reviews January 29, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. By that logic, theatergoers should be rushing out to Shakespeare Theater Company for Michael Kahn’s production of Hamlet starring Michael Urie as the mad Danish prince. Disturbingly dystopian, albeit conceptually undercooked, this production marks the end of an era as Michael Kahn, the show’s director and the company’s long-standing artistic director, makes it his final production before retiring. Not without impressive performances given by the featured player and others,

Almost, Maine at Greenbelt Arts Center

Reviews January 28, 2018 Rachel Zirkin Duda

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”

– Maya Angelou

What is love? Why does it happen? How does it grow? When does it end? The residents of a little area way up north – Almost, Maine – have the same questions, and Director Bob Kleinberg brings their stories to the Greenbelt Arts Center just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Cloud 9 at Iron Crow Theatre

Reviews January 28, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther 1 Comment

If there isn’t a right way to do things then you have to invent one. Iron Crow Theatre is doing exactly that with their current production of Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9. Directed by Dr. Natka Bianchini, this work of Churchill’s examines a lot of things but askes a great deal from the audience in order to exist as anything other than a preachy drama with a lot of confusion. That said,

Young Frankenstein at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

Reviews January 26, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

If you’re blue— and don’t know where to go— why don’t you go where theatre’s fine?

See Young Frankenstein!

Different songs to really please the ear— dancing feet to watch and you’ll cheer— it’s sublime!

See Young Frankenstein!

Dressed up like a million-dollar trooper! Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper— it’s SUPERDUPER!

You won’t get to see a better show— and Columbia is the place to go— take their word and mine!

Trouble in Tahiti at Stillpointe Theatre

Reviews January 21, 2018 Mike Zellhofer

Sometimes what we long for is staring us right in the face. This could not be a truer example than in Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble In Tahiti, Directed by David Schweitzer, with Musical Direction by Benjamin Shaver, now playing at Stillpointe Theatre.

From the moment that you enter the venue, you are captivated by Scenic/Properties Designer Ryan Haase’s transformation of an upper church room into a 1950’s “supper club”. The covered tables,

Quartet at Colonial Players

Reviews January 20, 2018 Andrea Bush

“I was somebody once.”

“We were all somebody once.”

“I thought I was somebody now.”

What do you do when your life doesn’t pan out the way you thought it would? Do you mourn? Rage? Retreat to memory (at least, as long as your memory holds)? Or do you find the humor and accept life on life’s terms? Set in the solarium of an English country house turned home for the aging,

Love is a Blue Tick Hound at Rapid Lemon Productions

Reviews January 19, 2018 Linda Roby

Rapid Lemon Production’s production of Love is a Blue Tick Hound found a beautiful way to touch and create an intimate environment for the audience to grow a connection with each character on stage. Audrey Cefaly wrote four different plays that are displayed long enough to grow a bond with each character, whether that would be a waitress laying on the floor of an Italian restaurant or a man on his second date receiving an ear piercing with a potato in his hand.

Wit at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews January 19, 2018 Spencer Nelson

According to the Oxford Living Dictionary the meaning of Cancer is “A disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body”. Sounds so simple right? A nicely put definition for a disease that is anything but nice and simple. This is the backbone for Margaret Edson’s Wit, a dark comedy that won her the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1999, which is currently playing at Silver Spring Stage under the direction of Jeff Mikoni.

The Humans at The Kennedy Center

Reviews January 18, 2018 Mark Briner

Be it Christmas, Thanksgiving, Passover, or Festivus, the family convening for an annual anticipated holiday ritual that begins with good intentions, love, and thanks for all those gathering, but will inevitably devolve into a miserable airing of deeply-buried, lifelong grievances is one of the most tired and overused tropes in the cannon of American theatrical comedy or drama. When creativity comes to a halt, have a family dinner to force the blowup. Steven Karam’s 2016 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning The Humans,

On Your Feet! at The Kennedy Center

Reviews January 18, 2018 Spencer Nelson

Cold winter blues got you down? Feeling the urge to “shake it” but don’t have a good beat? Would you like to experience a range of emotions, but ultimately leave happy and dancing your way to your car? Wonderful! The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has just the cure for you! Right now in their Opera House you can go feel the rhythm of On Your Feet! The Emilio and Gloria Estefan Broadway Musical.

The Tempest at Baltimore Shakespeare Factory

Reviews January 18, 2018 Joshua Engel

The Tempest should always open with a bang. It often brings out the high tech and the special effects. Baltimore Shakespeare Factory brings The Tempest back to its roots. Their space, inspired by Elizabethan theaters, holds what it needs to bring a storm inside: the imagination of the actors and the audience. It’s a high-energy opening to a high-energy show. It’s a great workout for the cast… and a bit for the audience.

Henry VIII at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews January 12, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther 1 Comment

“Men’s evils manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.” And we shall now ascribe the virtues of The Rude Mechanicals production of Henry VIII in ink. Well, digital ink. Directed and Choreographed by Liana Olear, this ‘lost history’ (the most boring of the boring and banal of banal Shakespearean histories) is revitalized and given a new lease on life. Olear’s strategic placement of the historical recounting of the eighth Henry in the mid 1910’s lends itself to her dancer’s passion,

The Illusionists at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 28, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Are you ready to witness the next generation of magic? Forget card tricks as you know them, and illusions as you’ve come to see them…or not see them…as the case may be. Returning to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, direct from Broadway with a whole new routine and series of new magicians, The Illusionists will razzle you, dazzle you, and perform mind-blowing defeats of magic that simply must be seen to be believed!

Blue Christmas at Do or Die Productions

Reviews December 22, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Ding dong merrily on high! The murder bells are ringing!

I saw three bodies come sailing in— at Christmas time! At Christmas time!

Deck the halls with bowels and bodies— fa-la-la-la-la! La-la-la-la!!!

It’s that time of year when the murder mysteries start, it’s that time, I fear, when we say “Deadly Christmas!” And nobody does death better than Do or Die Productions! Revealing a brand-spanking new murder mystery for the 2017 Christmas season,

First Date at Spotlighters Theatre

Reviews December 22, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther 3 Comments

How does it start? With a meet-cute little musical number featuring the cast of seven. How does it last? Those same seven sing and dance and talk and laugh and cry for 100 minutes every Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon* so that audiences all over Charm City can have an adorable feel-good alternative to the Christmas season’s traditional musical theatre offerings. Despite an unsuccessful run Off-Broadway, the current cast of the Spotlighters Theatre production of First Date is finding second life,

Matt Shingledecker as Enjolres with the cast of the National Tour of Les Misérables

Les Miserables at The National Theatre

Reviews December 22, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Welcome, Monsieur, sit yourself down, and meet the best touring production in town! As for the rest, well none of them is— quite as impressive as this show of Les Mis. The National Theatre has the distinguished honor of hosting the current touring production of the infamous and iconic Broadway musical Les Misérables this festive holiday season and there’s none better a show to welcome to the stage at this season of year,

An American in Paris at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 18, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

When you think of Paris, what comes to mind? Is it the irresistible city of lights? Parisian art? The people? All of those miraculous, wondrous, lively attributes that radiate from the cultural capital of France are what vividly and readily come to mind. But what about when the city of light was darkened by the days of war? When Nazi occupation dimmed even the brightest bulbs of creativity? In the stellar screen-to-stage adaptation inspired by the motion picture,