This a Bronx Tale and just like they all do, it starts right here on Belmont Avenue. Well, the mockup of Belmont Avenue by way of Dundalk Community Theatre. Making its area premiere, A Bronx Tale: The Musical (Book: Chazz Palminteri, Music: Alan Menken, Lyrics: Glenn Slater) is based on the play of the same name and has the musical atmosphere of Hairspray and Jersey Boys with some plot structures along similar lines.
It’s a science fiction— whoa-ooh-ooh double feature— well… maybe just a singular two-act musical feature? It must be spooky season because Stand Up For… Theatre has got The Rocky Horror Show bouncing all over its stages! Directed by Ed Higgins with Musical Direction by William Zellhofer & Andy Kay Wojciehowski, and Choreography by Lilou Altman, this bawdy cult classic has all the iconic, recognizable numbers and some of your favorite Halloween characters to make your evening wild.
Look who’s evil now!! Wait— no— they’ve always been evil. Evil Dead: The Musical, that is. Deer In The Spotlight Productions returns for its annual Charm City tradition of bathing audiences in blood, blasting music and guts (quite literally) all over their Deadite-fan-groupies, and a hellishly good time guaranteed.* Directed by Bob Denton with Musical Direction by Shane Jensen, and choreography shambled, re-animated, and assembled by Tigga Smaller, Parker Bailey Steven, and Lanoree Blake,
Nine. The number of positions to be fielded in baseball. Nine. The ball that kept hitting the poor mouse as we learned multiplication from School House Rock. Nine. The levels of Dante’s hell. Nine. The number of actors needed for Jeff Dunne’s Hellbent at Laurel Mill Playhouse.
The Director, and Playwright of Hellbent has really out Dunne himself. Having read several of Dunne’s plays through the Baltimore Playwrights Festival,
Are you ready for your one-way ticket to nightmarish places? Ghastly things and ghoulish notions to put you in the mood for the season of the macabre? In their live-stage-performance debut, The National Edgar Allan Poe Theatre brings Blood, Sweat, and Fears to the FPX Events stage just east of Poe’s beloved Baltimore. Directed by Jay Brock the conceptualized work formulated by Jennifer Restak and Richard J. Hand with Alex Zavistovich, will have some of Poe’s lesser known works on display for your darkened sense of entertainment.
Do you suffer from ADHD and Dyslexia? Does trouble follow you everywhere you go? Do seemingly random people in your day-to-day life that nobody else can remember being there spontaneously turn into scary monsters trying to kill you? You might be a Demigod! A word of caution: when attempting to self-diagnose Demigodism, move at the speed of a mortal: very, very slowly. Or maybe you’re just thrillified that Silhouette Stages is producing The Lighting Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical.
This is not a moment; this a movement. Though it really feels like it’s only here for a moment— the movement inside will move you. And everybody wants to be in the room where it happens. And Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre is the room where it’s happening— Hamilton— now through the end of the month. The Tony Award-winning Broadway sensation, directed by Thomas Kail with musical supervision and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire, and choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler,
What’s playing at The Kennedy Center? I’ll tell you what’s playing at The Kennedy Center! A musical by Frank Loesser set in New York in the 20’s & 30’s with sinners and saints at the plot’s center— that’s what’s playing at The Kennedy Center. What’s in the Eisenhower Theater? I’ll tell you what’s in the Eisenhower Theater! It’s a star-studded cast, singing and dancing their hearts out to entertain you— that’s what’s in the Eisenhower Theater.
Representing the triumphant return of the Iron Crow Theatre after their long pandemic hiatus, Mankind – written by Robert O’Hara, and directed by Ann Turiano – is a bold and beautifully-presented madcap satire that throws stones at such formidable topics as religion, anti-abortion legislation, and an upside-down world where “FEMINISM!” is a battle cry while women themselves are an afterthought.
This frenetic cyclone of ever-escalating absurdity takes place in a future where women have been extinct for over a century,
We love a good night at the theatre, especially when time flies. With a running time of over 2.5 hours with intermission this musical, Tina, still just flew by and had the audience on their feet, at the end. To be honest, the audience would have been just as happy if the lead, Naomi Rodgers playing Tina Turner, had simply recreated a Tina Turner concert. The book for this musical by Katori Hall isn’t bad,
What great ones do the less will prattle of— and here be the great ones: Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, in their 20th Anniversary season, presenting to you something certainly worth prattling about! Twelfth Night, directed by the company’s founding Artistic Director, Ian Gallanar, is arguably one of The Bard’s more sensible comedies and CSC does it a great justice with excellent performances, lively music, and a charming aesthetic that would float anyone’s boat.
Set in Memphis during the Great Depression, Hoodoo Love – written by Katori Hall, directed by Rain Pryor, and currently playing at the Spotlighters Theatre – exists at the seamy and sultry crossroads where superstition, the blues, and matters of the heart converge… the sort of crossroads where Tommy Johnson, referenced in this piece (along with a great many other blues legends), might well have stood at midnight and sold his soul for his music.
Story is the way organize our lives. Narrative is how we make sense of what’s happening around us; it serves as a way to conceptualize, to frame our existence. But what about truth? What about facts? And where do they fit into our narrative? Our story? Opening their 25th Anniversary season with a play that feels topically relevant to this day and age, with a prescience that is unmistakable given that the essay, book, and play itself predate the concept of ‘fake news’,
Hey— y’all hear? CPM is doin’ a show! Children’s Playhouse of Maryland is doing a show! So get ready to come and meet those dancing feet— on the avenue they’re taking you to—42nd Street (youth edition.) All the glamor, glitz, and glory of your favorite tunes, with all of the dusty treacle trimmed out for a succinct bullet (over-Broadway) point version of the iconic musical with a sensational score of tap-dancing youth ready to knock your socks off!
With Cats some say one rule is true: get your tickets for Tidewater Players’ production this fall. It is like no other production of Cats ever seen or that will ever be seen. The stunning immersive world of T.S. Eliot and Andrew Lloyd Webber come swirling together in a mystical, magical, Jellicle production directed and choreographed by Bambi Johnson with musical direction by Chris Rose. There are singing cats, there are dancing cats,
“Madness is that much closer to death”
No Place to Go by Ethan Lipton is the antithesis of the Frank Loesser musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying—it’s about the experience of losing a job, and a sense of purpose, without trying. It is also a comedic look at our modern society that smacks you in the face with how honest and real it is, and I loved it.
The story is simple enough: George is a middle-aged man with his own small band who has been working the same day job for the last 10 years as a “permanent part time” employee.
“Do you think he’s gonna show the letter to other people?”
“He’s going to ruin your life with it”
Dear Valued Reader,
Today is going to be a great day and let me tell you why. Because today (and most days between today and Sunday, September 25th), you have the chance to buy tickets to see the incomparable Dear Evan Hansen at the Kennedy Center!
This is the time where I can tell you how Dear Evan Hansen is the winner of six Tony Awards,
Forget regret. Or life is yours to miss— no day but today… and tomorrow, Sunday, and next weekend. Those are the chances you have to see Rent at The State Theater of Havre de Grace. Directed by Patrick Yarrington & Lauren Vitalo, with Musical Direction by Anthony Vitalo, and Choreography by Karlie Burnham, this production of Rent is textbook true in its presentation to Jonathan Larson’s original vision. Strong cast, strong moments that percolate in the background,
What is a reasonable doubt? Google + Merriam-Webster says, “A reasonable doubt exists when a factfinder cannot say with moral certainty that a person is guilty or a particular fact exists. It must be more than an imaginary doubt, and it is often defined judicially as such doubt as would cause a reasonable person to hesitate before acting in a matter of importance.” Perhaps we’re not asking the right question. Perhaps the question should be “what causes someone to have reasonable doubt?” If you want the answer to that,
It is a joyful noise unlike any other. Signature Theatre’s production of The Color Purple will take you to church— in the most inspiring, healing, and joyous fashion possible. Directed Timothy Douglas, with Musical Direction by Mark G. Meadows, and Choreography by Dane Figueroa Edidi, this rapturous production is stellar beyond compare and leaves the heart bursting with indescribably hope.
It’s a humble set and yet the vivid life that spring forth both from behind the slatted wooden shutters and on the planks itself are worth exalting to the heavens.
This is the IRS. If you do not give us your social security number, your overdue back-tax payments will force you to become arrested. This is your boss. I need you to buy ten $500 Amazon gift cards— send them straight away and keep the receipt. I’ll reimburse you when you get back to the office. The Prince of Nigeria has named you his successor. You stand to inherit $74,263,879 but a nominal wire transfer fee of $250 as well as your bank account and routing number are required to complete this transaction.
Experimental, absurd, and downright surreal new works seem to be dominating playhouses lately, and why not? If art reflects the times in which it is conceived, then it’s no wonder that the larger-than-life senselessness we’ve collectively been adrift in for the past several years has provoked playwrights and directors to express themselves in weirder ways, eschewing formal dramatic structures and revivals of familiar shows for endeavors which feel more like cultural primal screams.
Pieces meant to confuse and challenge us – to shake us out of our complacency and remind us of the horribly high stakes of just being alive at this precarious point in history.
Nostalgia is a disease. Sounds bitter and jaded, right? Or maybe it’s a lens of reality that should be more closely examined— lingering too long in the past can make it difficult to progress into the future. 2nd Star Productions, in shared residence at Bowie Playhouse, is currently producing Sweat, written by the Pulitzer-prize-winning playwright, Lynn Nottage. Directed by Miss Cody Jones, the play itself is a powerful social commentary about classism,
See the headline:
Newsies Make Front Page News At Beth Tfiloh Community Theatre Summer 2022
That’s right! They’ll be out there— for two more performances— carrying the banner, side by side! Yes, they’re out there— filling all their parents’ (and friends and families’) hearts with pride! Newsies on a mission— kill the competition! They are out there— giving one of the most rousing, engaging, and talented productions of Disney’s Newsies that the Baltimore area has seen in quite a long,
In the program for Captain Hook: My Story, Or How I Clawed My Way To The Top – currently playing at Spotlighters Theatre, in partnership with the Baltimore Playwrights Festival – Writer Peter Boyer tells us that he penned this script based on his curiosity and fascination with the backstory of the legendary storybook villain and his antagonistic relationship with his ever-youthful nemesis. He sifted through the tidbits of Hook’s history mentioned here and there in the source material,
Do you remember the good years in Glyndon? The summers were endlessly gold! The gymnasium was a patchwork of set pieces and costumes; there were songs being sung wherever you’d go. It’s funny, but since the Pandemic, they’d gone to the other extreme— for two years they were dark and sad! And how we missed them oh so bad— but now they’re back! (YES!!) And telling— Joseph’s Dream! Those Glyndon days! Are here to stay!
One would think that even 26 years after its creation, Jonathan Larson’s opus Rent would be more relevant than ever in these days of widespread poverty, desperation, unction toward landlords, and overall societal decline. It certainly seems to be evergreen due to its inherent diversity, minimalist set, and countercultural appeal. Nevertheless, from the pre-show playlist to the excessive flannel of the costumes, ArtsCentric’s production – Directed by Kevin S. McAllister – has a strong feeling of romantic anachronism,
Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now.
I’m not going to drop hot beats and flawless rap-rhymes like Lin-Manuel Miranda. But that line— after two years (and in some places more) of living in uncertainty as to whether or not live, in-person theatre would ever come back to us? After everything we all went through, collectively, individually, as a young nation struggling (not unlike the time and place where this whole thing called Hamilton is set,
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives! This is their lives on holiday! Take a holiday from your summer holiday and get all the gritty, grungy, emotional-super-charge you need to power through the back-half of this blistering, climate-change-infested, politically unstable nightmare that is the America that we now live in. Don’t want to be an American Idiot? Then get your ass up to Rising Sun and check out Street Lamp Community Theatre’s production of Green Day’s American Idiot.