Reviews

Our Town at Dundalk Community Theatre

Reviews March 7, 2023 Angelica Peaco

“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?” That is the question that the incredibly talented cast from Dundalk Community Theatre’s Our Town poses to the audience. Written by Thornton Wilder and Directed by Jennifer L. Gusso, this production brings this classic piece to life with a clean and straightforward approach. Set in the small New Hampshire town of Grover’s Corners (Population:2,642) a character referred to only as the Stage Manager helps guide the audience through the multiple stages of small-town life at the start of the 20th century.

Hillary Mazer as Lillian in Do Not Go Gentle. ????Matthew Peterson

Do Not Go Gentle at Spotlighters Theatre

Reviews March 4, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Everything that happens to you is your story. How you choose to tell it? And who you let tell it? That’s up to you. A surprising drama with heart and emotional heft, Suzan Zeder’s Do Not Go Gentle is a rarely produced play— at least in these parts— and is currently making its way onto the stage at Spotlighters Theatre. An estranged son? A moody granddaughter? A spastically over-the-top estate agent? And a ghost.

Beauty & The Beast at Phoenix Festival Theatre. ????Matthew Peterson

Beauty and The Beast at Phoenix Festival Theatre

Reviews March 3, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Well, who’d have thought? Well, bless my soul! Well, who’d have guessed? Well, who indeed? That Phoenix Festival Theatre would be sold out before you could be their guest? Just wait and see— standing room at least— that’s all that’s left for their stunning production of Beauty and The Beast. Disney has a funny way of enchanting ticket buyers to purchase tickets before the run even truly gets underway. Good luck finding someone who wants to give up their ticket to this sold-out performance.

Neagheen Homaifar (left) as Leyla with Yousof Sultani (center) as Jawid and Mazin Akar (right) as Taroon in Selling Kabull. ????Christopher Mueller

Selling Kabul at Signature Theatre

Reviews March 2, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

The year is 2013. The United States is withdrawing troops from Afghanistan as the Taliban take control; Afghans are fleeing the country.

The year is now 2023. The United States started withdrawing troops from Afghanistan two years ago as the Taliban took control; Afghans are fleeing the country. Again. How can a decade have passed and a harrowing event impacting millions still be happening as if nothing has changed in ten years’ time.

Arcadia at Greenbelt Arts Center

Reviews March 1, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

One might have to be a sage of lunacy to willingly sit through a production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcardia, regardless of how strong some of the performances are, or how pretty the costumes, how exquisitely detailed some of the props are. It’s a curious choice for Greenbelt Arts Center to be producing this play, given the unforgiving and unapologetic chauvinistic male dominance in the character who hardly gets much of a comeuppance as he commandeers most of the script— at least in modern times— once his character is introduced.

The Company of Into The Woods.????Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman for Murphymade

Into The Woods at The Kennedy Center

Reviews February 27, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Every moment is a moment when you’re in the woods. Be careful what you wish for, bring a slotted spoon to catch the potato, and nice is different than good. Direct from Broadway (including an opening weekend surprise of Andy Karl re-joining the company for the weekend), the darkened Sondheim Fairytale launches its National Tour debut from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Are you ready to go Into The Woods?

The Prom at Tidewater Players

Reviews February 25, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

“I don’t want to start a riot. I don’t want to blaze a trail. I don’t want to be a symbol or a cautionary tale.” Musical theatre is story first. Always has been. It’s the lyrics in the music which transports the story to the audience and at the end of the day, the story at the heart of The Prom is just about a person wanting to live their life like any other normal person and get to have all the things that any other normal person has.

Clue at Stand Up For…Theatre

Reviews February 24, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Stand Up For…Theatre did it!

In the DoodleHATCH!

With a play!

That’s Clue in a nutshell, right? Whodunnit, with what, and where? And that’s what you get with SUFT’s current production of the iconic boardgame-turned-movie-turned-play. Clue, directed by Ed Higgins, is a madcap chase of characters all throughout Boddy Manor in an attempts to solve the age-old question of whodunnit? as the bodies pile up throughout the evening.

Jessie Duggan (left) as Karly and Britt Martin (right) as Laura. ????Jessie Duggan and Samantha Murray

Whose Wives Are They Anyway? at Artistic Synergy of Baltimore

Reviews February 17, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

I don’t believe it! There’s an American farce!? And it’s here in Baltimore!?!? With a first-time director and at Artistic Synergy of Baltimore!? I don’t believe it! Well, believe it! Because Whose Wives Are The Anyway? an American farce written by Michael Parker is here for a two-weekend engagement with Artistic Synergy and its being directed by first-time-director Cory Bauer. It’s an antics-loaded, shenanigans-laced nonsense show that will certain have you chuckling as the characters trip over one another,

Amy Hebb (left) as Annie Wilkes and Jeff Wine (right) as Paul Sheldon in Misery. ????Stephen Knapp

Misery at Other Voices Theatre

Reviews February 15, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

You mustn’t cheat your readers. Ever. Or in this case, your theatergoers. Worry not, attendees of Other Voices Theatre, the current production of Misery won’t cheat you out of anything. This thrilling, edgy, and suspenseful drama— with the subtle flavoring of a dark comedy— may be a departure from the usual productions offered by the company but it’s a stellar performance that is brilliantly set down for an intense two hours’ stage traffic.

Angels In America Part 1: Millennium Approaches at The Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews February 13, 2023 Jimi Kinstle

Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America, was ambitious in 1993, taking on difficult subject matter, and the Maryland Ensemble Theatre is ambitious to take on such a challenging production. ‘Set in the mid-1980s amid the AIDS crisis and the Regan administration, the characters struggle with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell’*. Originally intended for a season three years ago but sidelined by COVID, Angels now marks the MET’s 150th production overall and falls during its 25th anniversary,

Scott Alan Small, Kathryne Daniels and Shaquille Stewart in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged).???? Kiirstn Pagan Photography

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] [AGAIN] at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews February 13, 2023 Leonard Taube

What do you get when you mix three actors clad in colored and patterned tights, a giant prop box filled with an assortment of goodies, and a script full of comic gold? Hilarity, that’s what. Baltimore’s Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s (CSC) production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] [Again] opened to a boisterous house, complete with a swanky after-party in their upstairs lounge.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) was conceived and written by Adam Long,

Mary Poppins at The St. Demetrios’ Suburban Players

Reviews February 11, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

If you reach for the stars, all you get are the stars, but The Suburban Players of St. Demetrios have found a whole new spin! They have reached for the heavens— and they got the stars thrown in! Their current production of Mary Poppins is heartwarming, impressive, loaded with love and with talent, and above all it’s— Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! That fantastical nonsense word which means great joy, fantabulosity, and all things wonderfully excellent! Produced by Smaro Cook &

"One Day More" from Les Misérables ???? Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Les Miserables at The Hippodrome Theatre

Reviews February 8, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Do you hear the people sing? Do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes! And tomorrow has finally arrived once again in Baltimore as the critically acclaimed national tour of Les Miserables arrives in Charm City, gracing the stage of The Hippodrome Theatre in The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center. The music is both iconic and memorable; the story is powerful and timeless. And this current national tour— a Cameron Mackintosh and NETWORKS presentation— is of the finest quality,

Sunset Boulevard at Broadway Center Stage at The Kennedy Center. ???? Jeremy Daniel

Sunset Boulevard at The Kennedy Center

Reviews February 3, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Teaching the world new ways to dream. But what happens when the shimmering gold of dreams fades to a distant silver of memory. Age comes for us all in the end does it not? The tragically beautiful and strikingly dramatic score of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard is sweeping the stage of the Eisenhower at The Kennedy Center this February as a part of the Broadway Center Stage series. With book & lyrics by Don Black &

The Belle’s Stratagem at The Rude Mechanicals

Reviews February 2, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Men are all dissemblers, liars, deceivers! Or something like it, so says playwright Hannah Cowley, author of The Belle’s Stratagem. Not to be confused with The Beaux’ Stratagem, by George Farquhar (though if you stick around in a few weeks’ time, you may see exactly that show on The Rude Mechanicals’ stage!) Belle hit Drury Lane in 1780 whereas Beaux debuted quite a few decades before (and at Theatre Royal) in 1707.

High School Coven at The Strand Theater

Reviews February 1, 2023 Mike Zellhofer

Curse, comfort, conjure; three words that Director Lee Conderacci uses in her “feminist practice and in her theatre art.” (words directly from Conderacci.) This time her artistic undertaking is Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin’s High School Coven, at The Strand Theater. Three words that individually bring forth a myriad of thoughts, ideas, and emotions. Three words that together allow us to see the world through the eyes of Conderacci, even for a brief two hours;

[Title of Show] at Spotlighters Theatre

Reviews January 24, 2023 Angelica Peaco

Fierce! Original! Hysterical! All adjectives that one could use to describe [title of show] at Spotlighters Theatre. Written by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell with Music & Lyrics by Jeff Bowen, and the Book by Hunter Bell, this show creates a world in which a theater patron can see the time, blood, sweat, and tears that it takes for an original musical to make it all the way to the Great White Way.

Hurricane Diane at Iron Crow Theatre

Reviews January 22, 2023 Leonard Taube

OK, listen up folks. Do you believe climate change is real? Do you have a penchant for HGTV? Do you secretly binge watch “Real Housewives of New Jersey”? If the answer is yes, have I got a show for you! Even if the answer is no to all or at least one of those questions, Iron Crow Theatre’s production of Hurricane Diane is one that promises to please nonetheless. And make you laugh.

Zelda: A Staged Concert at CCBC Essex

Reviews January 21, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Dazzling.

In a word. To add another, dizzying and astonishing, though technically that’s two. As a writer I often find it a challenge, though one I’m ready to embrace, to put the right words to paper (digital though it may be in this day and age) in order to describe an experience, relate a situation, review a performance. I cannot recall a time in recent memory (even before the Pandemic) where such a challenge befell me and I was honestly at a loss for words.

he Sound of Music at Third Wall Productions ???? Kevin A. Clasing

The Sound of Music at Third Wall Productions

Reviews January 20, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand? Third Wall Productions will show you how with their stellar production of Rogers & Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. Having changed venues again, to what is hopefully now their theatrical-forever-home, the hard-working community theatre brings its 2023 stage productions to the stage & hall of Chestnut Grove Presbyterian, and is settling into the space a bit like Maria Rainer is settling into the von Trapp household,

The company of The National Tour of Cats. ????Matthew Murphy, Murphymade

Cats at The National Theater

Reviews January 19, 2023 Charles Boyington

Cats, Now and Forever! Do you need to see Cats? Yes. You do. You need to see a professional production of Cats in person in a live theatre. It was a terrible movie. Watching a video of the original Broadway show is underwhelming. However, when you are in a live theatre and you witness these triple threat performers working their asses off for you, it is amazing.

Michael Hegarty (center) as Alfred P. Doolittle and the company of My Fair Lady. ???? Jeremy Daniel

My Fair Lady at The Hippodrome Theatre

Reviews January 11, 2023 Erin Tarpley 2 Comments

“Loverly”

Ain’t it hard to earn an ‘onest livin’ these days? Well, in Edwardian London add in factors like being a woman and being a woman with a thick cockney accent and ‘eaven ‘elp you, guv’nor, but you’re all but done for! OOOOOOOOOOOOooooh, it’s no wonder t’at a character meeting these factors and one t‘at has ‘alf a brain would leap at the opportunity to better ‘er phonetics and elocution ‘if’n it meant she could land a career real proper like,

A Soldier’s Play at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 17, 2022 Erin Tarpley

“Any man ain’t sure where he belongs must be in a whole lotta pain.”

“War! Huh, (good God), What is it good for?” Well, that’s a loaded question for another day. But back in 1944 on a segregated southern Louisiana Army Base, the promise of deployment to the battle front is a dream for many of our young characters of color that yearn for a chance of serving their country, and perhaps getting the chance to see a part of the world that doesn’t follow Jim Crow laws.

Dani Stoller (left) as Judy, with Michael Tacconi (center) as Mark, and Nina-Sophia Pacheco (right) as Actress in Which Way to the Stage? ????Daniel Rader

Which Way To The Stage? at Signature Theatre

Reviews December 17, 2022 Steven Kirkpatrick & Charles Boyington Steven Kirkpatrick & Charles Boyington

Judy (Dani Stoller) and Jeff (Mike Millan) are the musical-theater-obsessed protagonists of Ana Nogueira’s new comedy Which Way to the Stage? at Signature Theatre’s ARK: a playful, yet thought-provoking comedy about friendship, ambition, and what happens when dreams fall just out of reach.

The 30-something best friends, and hopeful actors, are struggling to gain any sort of foothold in an industry into which they don’t really fit. Jeff has resigned himself to the fact that the only parts out there for a femme gay man like him are the ones he creates for himself as a drag queen.

Jennafer Newberry as Glinda and Lissa deGuzman as Elphaba in the National Tour of Wicked. ???? Joan Marcus

Wicked at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 16, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Popular! You know it’s going to be pop-u-lar! It’s the perfect show to see— while you’re in DC— it’s very, green for the hol-i-daaay. You’re simply gonna love it— so don’t wait— get your tickets to-daaay! The musical sensation that’s sweeping the nation once more, Tony Award-winning Wicked has once again landed in Washington DC at The Kennedy Center, having drifted away in an emerald cloud some six years ago. Directed by Joe Mantello,

Lauren Chanel and the company of The North American Tour of Jagged Little Pill. ????Matthew Murphy, Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Jagged Little Pill at The Hippodrome

Reviews December 14, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

And what it all boils down to, my friend, is that everything is just fine…fine…fine… ‘cause I got one hand in my pocket and the other one’s holding a Hippodrome Ticket! The iconic album that framed so many of my generation’s youth, Alanis Morissette’s ‘Jagged Little Pill’ is now a major stage musical. Jagged Little Pill, an odd but not unwelcome choice for the Christmas season, is now appearing at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre for a one-week,

A Christmas Carol at Spotlighters Theatre

Reviews December 11, 2022 Erin Tarpley

“God bless us, every one”

Tis the season for holly, mulled wine, and curing any case of “Bah humbug.” Returning for the second year in a row (and deservedly so!), this one-man show, adapted and edited by Sherrionne Brown and Phil Gallagher returns to Baltimore’s own Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre through December 18th to reprise this wonderful rendition of Charles Dickens’ beloved classic: A Christmas Carol.

It is difficult to find anyone in the English-speaking regions of the world who are not,

Head Over Heels at Iron Crow Theatre

Reviews December 10, 2022 Leonard Taube

Listen up folks! Have you got “the beat”? No? Well then you better get your tickets and pay a visit to The Baltimore Theatre Project in Baltimore where resident company Iron Crow Theatre is putting on Head Over Heels, a jukebox musical comedy based on the songs of the 1980’s female rock bad The Go-Go’s. But before we talk about the show, we must talk about both the company and the venue,

A Christmas Story at Tidewater Players

Reviews December 10, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

It’s almost nearly getting close to counting down to Christmas! It’s almost time to see the tree light up the stage for Christmas! It’s— that’s a lot of counting for one little theatre elf to do, so— fourteen days awaaaay! But right now you can go see Tidewater Players’ A Christmas Story and celebrate with them until the big day! Directed by Dickie Mahoney with Musical Direction by Sophie Daghir and Choreography by Carissa McCool Jackson,