Didja know that one of them actresses in that It’s The Comedy of Errors, Hon! has a baby who shares the exact same birthday as mah nephew? They’re both now eight months old, hon! That’s Smalltimore for ya! And while I didn’t invent that phrase, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is reinventing the wheel with it’s fabulously uplifting, nonsensical production of It’s The Comedy of Errors, Hon! Directed by company founder Ian Gallanar, this zany, down-home Bawlmer Hon production is the joy, the nonsense, the laughter, and the levity that the world at large so desperately needs right at this moment in time.
Look out, old Baltimore, they’re marching in with all sorts of history— everyone from Bawlmer’s beloved son ‘Edgar Allan Poe’ to Frederick Douglas, a giant rat, The Colts, and a bunch of other nifty surprises you just have to see to believe— are parading up and down the Cross Street Market of the CSC stage. Director Ian Gallanar has picked the perfect vessel— Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors— to float on into Bawlmer Harbor just like it’s The USS Constellation! The story may be {mostly} by our bud Billy Shakes but the adaptation and outrageous direction is coming in from Ian Gallanar and his madcap creation team, who feels a little like they’re putting together a Baltimore-based scrapbook of silliness for everyone to absorb, appreciate, and enjoy.
From the pre-show entertainment where performers like Matt Harris are strutting around with Camden Yards-style carry containers full of Fisher’s Old Bay Popcorn, cow-tails, and Natty Boh (and yes, you can purchase them right out of his little container, right from your seat! You can also mosey on over to the bar and get Utz potato chips, and other local treats, like the Lemon Schtick, reminiscent of those peppermint-stick-lemon treats from childhood, only now 100% more adult-friendly!) and the rousing ‘sing-a-long’ of David DuBois’ “Crabs For Christmas” you’re primed before you’re even fully settled into your bench-seats for the tone of the show. It’s unadulterated, unabashed, unrepentant hysterical nonsense; exactly what the world needs to forget about the Eldritch-Horrors that truly exist outside the walls of the theatre in live-time.
Set and Projection Designer Dan O’Brien has given the theatre’s interior the Camden Yards’ treatment, with sports banners for the Orioles, Colts, Ravens, and the Terps hanging around the second-story balcony ledges…and a certain…mascot looming high-above, overseeing the proceedings. Can you guess which one? O’Brien also has an art-sculpture, not dissimilar to something you might find over at Paper Moon Diner, suspended over the stage with important Baltimore icons…like the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower…and a giant rat. It’s really setting the scene for that absurdist Baltimore approach and its epic. You get a lot of great visualizations of Baltimore on the huge drop screens by way of O’Brien’s projection design— too many to list but all are impressive.
If you want Charm City excellence to complete your overall “Hon-tastic” aesthetic, look no further than Costume and ‘Hon’ Wig Designer Kristina Lambdin. Everything from those retro-styled bowling shirts to Mayor William Donald Schaefer’s iconic striped swimming suit and some delectable hon-hives! Lambdin knows her way around Charm City couture for this “Baltimore of the Mind” setting. If you know Baltimore, have ever visited, or were born and raised, Lambdin is taking you there with her outrageously perfect sartorial selection for the show; one might even cheekily say Lambdin’s work is…Divine! #IYKYK
Katie McCreary (lighting designer) and G. Blanston (sound designer) are somewhat of the unsung production heroes of the show, given there are so many other spectacular things happening on stage, it’s easy to overlook their subtle works that really keep the show tight and professionally polished. Add in Shalyce Hemby’s work for things like the Park Heights Strut and the run-around-keystone-cops scene set to Benny Hill and you’ve got this incredibly raucous and rowdy good time that looks great, sounds amazing, and is just enjoyable all the way down in the cockles of your funny bone.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a CSC production without a little pre-show music (as overseen by Musical Director Grace Srinivasan) and features a handful of the show’s Buskers (Holly Gibbs, Jose O. Guzman, Laura Malkus, Brendan Murray, Gregory Burgess, Stephen Torres.) Srinivasan oversees all of the musical maladies popping up throughout the performance, including Gee Blanston’s “The Formstone Song”, commissioned specifically for the piece, and the absurdist delivery of “Coconut” by Harry Nilsson, which features Gregory Burgess wearing some sort of futuristic space suit, singing deadpan through this number while Laura Malkus wears a PanAm 1960’s teal uniform, strumming her guitar while staring dead ahead. Also there’s a gorilla next to the both of them dancing the macarena. Madcap musical numbers thread their way into the production and while at times they’re utterly absurd, you can’t help feel like they’re the quintessential necessity of keeping this play on a realistic keel.
Ian Gallanar has truly embraced his inner lunacy for this one and it’s perfect; it’s the epitome of a walking shenanigan gone superstar on stage. First of all, if you know anything about The Comedy of Errors and you look at the casting for Dromio & Antipholus of Philadelphia and Baltimore (because why not) your jaw might just hang there for a few moments as you ponder, “How in the great Jonny Unitas playbook of plays are they going to pull that off?” Rest assured, they do. Tenfold. Gallanar gives the dueling set of twin roles, more traditionally played by four actors— two just two. And honestly? Those two talented loonytoons are so on-point that it works brilliantly. Gallanar also goes hog-wild with rolling crab-deep into the Baltimore references. It’s not just an aesthetic over-layering or a cheeky nod here or there, it’s the Shakespearean skeleton of Comedy of Errors truly adapted to Baltimore, for Baltimore, by Baltimore. And all of the technical components are lubricated sublimely into play as well. The play moves with expedience; several of the awkward plot-holes that Shakespeare left in this comedy are covered carefully with things like interrupting cameos and scenes that read with pure uproarious laughter— like when Blaze Starr (Holly Gibbs) and Divine (Greg Atkin) have their little meet-on-street encounter. Gallanar’s superb work truly defies description but is an absolute, hands-down must-see of the season if for nothing else but the potential to laugh your tail off at all the on-stage and off-stage antics.
The company of 13 (plus two doppelgangers) are really having a blast up on stage. Their Bawlmer Hon accents are absolutely delectable, totally of the era, and perfectly delivering the vernacular. Dawn Thomas Reidy, Holly Gibbs, and Kathryne Daniels are the Hon-Hive-Vocal-Affectation queens, hands down. Though you definitely get that unmistakable Bawlmer market sound from Greg Atkins when he’s playing the Fish Monger, going on and on about ‘lake trout.’ And the shared sense of playing comedy for truth reads across the board, readily expressed through all 13 performers, whether they’re playing in Shakespeare’s characters or real-life historical figures like Mayor William Donald Schaefer (Brendan Murray) or Gil Mitchell who opens both acts as Baltimore’s favorite son Edgar Allan Poe (complete with raven perched upon his shoulder, compliments of Lambdin’s stitch-witchery!)
The physically comedic antics are flying from all angles in this production, particularly with Jose O. Guzman as Dromio (of Philadelphia and of Baltimore) and Shakill Jamal as Antipholus (of Philadelphia and of Baltimore.) While Jamal leans more heavily on his vivacious facial expressions and explosive body-language, you get more prat-fall-stumble-schtick comedy executions from Guzman, particularly when he’s trying to fish garbage out of the harbor…or his shoe…and eat it. Playing up the ‘ever-hungry-servant’ stereotype with liberal enthusiasm, Guzman has you tripping over yourself with laughter…as he almost trips over the fishing line, complete with yoohoo beverage attached! Jamal, who adapts his vocal inspiration to sound like a little something from The Wire when he’s playing Baltimore-Antipholus and something much more brash-sounding when he’s playing Antipholus of Philadelphia, makes for an exceptional partner-pair against Guzman, and vice-versa. When the duo are interacting with one another, particularly when one is from Baltimore and the other from Philadelphia, intermittently mistaking one for the other, the true ‘mistaken identity’ from which the source-material derives its namesake, is high-octane comedic gold.
The production is just one giant nesting-doll-style Easter egg, with gem after gem of Baltimore culture, Baltimore life, Baltimore history. You get Dawn Thomas Reidy and Holly Gibbs doing the Park Heights Strut (encouraging members of the audience to join them) and you’ve got Elana Michelle, who plays a supporting hon in some scenes but more notably playing as sings as Billie Holiday and sings a striking rendition of “All of Me.” It’s difficult to find the appropriate words to lavish this team of 13 (and two doubles) with praises that due their performances justice. Divine would be proud, maybe even a little jealous of Greg Atkin’s approach to portraying that ferocious Bawlmer Queen. Gregroy Burgess, who in his own right is a Baltimore staple, the stuff of stage legacy & legends, finds his niche in bit-parts in this production. Kathryne Daniels is serving up so much sass in her role as Adriana— that’s Bawlmer-Antipholus’ wife— that her ‘tude is almost higher than her beehive, and that beehive is getting dangerously close to touching the drop-décor that’s strung-up from the ceiling!
Holly Gibbs’ versatility shines like no other in the production as she plays Luce, that servant-wench Hon, Blaze Starr, and a singing busker, who gives you perfectly differentiated characters in every time she steps on the stage in a different outfit, with that red sequin affair being the hit of the show! Matt Harris has that street-easy slick-speak as a Bawlmer-city jeweler circa the 70’s while Laura Malkus is channeling her best inner Catholic strictness when she appears as the Abbess at the end of the show. Elana Michelle alights her songbird voice on the Billie Holiday tune while Gil Mitchell gives us a holy-rolling-tent-revival vibe when he steps out of the illustrious EAP role and into ‘Reverend Doctor Pinch’ late in the performance.
And Brendan Murray makes that Donald Duck-prop (shout out to Props Artisan Issac DeMarchi) look necessary to fully complete the ‘Mayor William Donald Schaefer’ role. Benny Pope has that ‘dazed and confused’ look that so many non-Charm-City folk have on their face when they turn up on our streets, just like he does when the show starts and he plays Aegeon of Philadelphia. And Dawn Thomas Reidy will have you chuckling for days with her ‘Mona from Timonium’ bit. Cause that ain’t true Bawlmer, hon! (And a triple shout-out for Noah Silas, who in addition to being a double doubles up as the arresting guard/officer, and for Stephen Torres, our other double who serves as one of the buskers!) There are too many brilliant performances to accurate describe, let alone praise; even Edgar Allan Poe would have trouble finding the words to best lay it out for the readers of his magazine.
It’s the joy— the laughter— the much needed zany-nonsense-uplift that the world needs right now. Ian Gallanar has masterfully envisioned this nutsy-cuckoo version of Baltimore that we can all relate to and enjoy. And you better not make a bad call like our pal Earl Weaver and wait to get dem tickets, hon, or you’re gonna be outta here! Cause they’ll be sold out!
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 5 minutes with one intermission
It’s The Comedy of Errors, Hon! plays through March 9th 2025 with Chesapeake Shakespeare Company— 7 S. Calvert Street in Baltimore, MD. Tickets are available by calling the box office at 410-244-8570 or purchasing them in advance online.
