Reviews

National Touring Company of Hamilton ????Joan Marcus

Hamilton at The Kennedy Center

Reviews August 5, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

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,

Mikey Floyd (left) as Will with Eric Bray Jr. (center) as Johnny and Austin Barnes (right) as Tunny in American Idiot. ????Matthew Peterson AUGUST 2022

American Idiot at Street Lamp Community Theatre

Reviews August 5, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

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.

Chicago: Teen Edition at STAR Ltd

Reviews July 29, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Pop.

Six.

Squish.

Uh-uh.

Cicero.

Lipschitz.

And now, the STAR Ltd kids of the Chesapeake Arts Center, in their rendition of Chicago: Teen Edition. Ladies and Gentlemen and Enbees: you are about to see a story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery, and treachery… tamped down a bit, because “teen edition”…but still, it’s all those gruesome, scintillating sins that every lover of the Kander &

Sweet Charity at Cockpit in Court

Reviews July 27, 2022 Mark Briner

Most shows feature a tried-and-true pattern of opening with a traditional “I Want” song, which details the leading character’s hopes and wishes for the rest of the story. Sweet Charity, currently playing on the main stage at Cockpit In Court at CCBC Essex, Directed by Cockpit veteran Eric Potter, is an entire show full of hopes and dreams and wants and desires, most of which are quickly dashed for the taxi dancers at the Fandango Ballroom,

Allison Fitzgerald as Jo in Little Women????Jeffrey Salmore

Little Women at Montgomery College Summer Dinner Theatre

Reviews July 27, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

We don’t live for society; we live for what’s inside of us! And Montgomery College Summer Dinner Theatre is living for what’s inside of them; an astonishing production of Little Women, the musical, based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, with Book by Allen Knee, Music by Jason Howland, and Lyrics by Mindi Dickstein. Directed and Choreographed by Ashleigh King with Musical Direction by Marci Shegogue, this empowering tale of the four March sisters,

DOT at Cockpit in Court

Reviews July 25, 2022 Cybele Pomeroy

A Black family at Christmas finds love and humor dealing with Mother’s cognitive issues.

Cockpit In Court at CCBC Essex (formerly Essex Community College) presents DOT at the Cabaret Theatre in the Robert and Eleanor Romadka College Center. DOT, a relatively new play, (2016), describes itself as ‘twisted and hilarious’ but that’s not entirely accurate. Let me get through this intro and I’ll explain. It’s a family show that isn’t remotely family-appropriate,

Romeo & Juliet at The Bard’s Wagon Players

Reviews July 22, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Ay, me! What’s in a name? Would a show by any other name still be so tragic? Probably. The Bard’s Wagon Players have surfaced for their annual summertime “Shakespeare in the Park” production! And this year— the sizzling summer of 2022— it’s none other than the infamous tragedy, Romeo & Juliet. Directed by Nathan Rosen, Produced by Bob Frank, and Stage Managed by Liana Olear, this outdoor offering has two different locations— Hannah More Park in Reisterstown and Catonsville Community Park in Catonsville— over the course of two different weekends,

Blue Man Group at The Kennedy Center

Reviews July 22, 2022 Charles Boyington

I am pretty sure that everyone has heard of Blue Man Group. You know that they paint themselves blue, play percussive instruments, have a fondness for primary colors and making a mess, all the while never saying a word. None of this is a plot spoiler. You walk into a theatre with moody lighting and a huge Syfy tech set with lots of LED lights and tv screens apparently showing random things – heck I even noticed a game of Pong.

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying at Players On Air

Reviews July 21, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

This irresistible, Players On Air ‘original’, I’m seeing tonight! ‘Specially for them! Okay, okay, so it’s not an “original”, as they didn’t write it— that’s Music & Lyrics by Frank Loesser with Book by Abe Burrows, Willie Gilbert, and Jack Weinstock— but it is their very first time putting it on the main stage! And they are indeed succeeding when it comes to their production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.

One Slight Hitch at Bowie Community Theatre

Reviews July 20, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Expectations are the hobgoblins of the complacent mind. Because nonsense is the new sense when Lewis Black is your playwright. Kicking off summer with a comedic offering, Bowie Community Theatre is retro-tripping back to the summer of 1981 with Lewis Black’s One Slight Hitch. Directed by Jennifer L. Franklin, this show has all the potential hallmarks of a farce and might even make you giggle.

The players do well with this script but the show is not without issues and the majority of those issues come from playwright Lewis Black.

Squidsbury at Truepenny Projects

Reviews July 20, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Is human life too demanding? Too structured? Try squid life! It’s great. All tentacles and rage-temper-tantrums as you bust out of your human-skin-suit to show your true pink, squishy, sucker-covered colors. Sound appealing? Or at least piquing to your interests? Then Squidsbury at Truepenny Projects is for you! Making its world premiere as a full-length, staged production, this quirky play, penned by playwright Chad Short, is as endearing as it is darkly mysterious,

High School Musical at Cockpit In Court Jr.

Reviews July 16, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

They’re soarin’! Flyin’! There’s not a star in heaven that they can’t reach! Because they’ve got their heads in the game! That’s right! Cockpit in Court Jr. is bringing you millennial Grease AKA— Disney’s High School Musical. Serving as the high-school show of the early 00’s, this Disney show gives agency to characters who are too often pigeonholed into a particular stereotype. Two things can be true and when you live your best life?

Rent at The Heritage Players

Reviews July 15, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Christmas bells are ringing! Christmas bells are singing! Somewhere else— Bal-ti-more! That’s right, the Christmas bells— from Jonathan Larson’s Rent are ringing (in July, no less!) at The Heritage Players, set currently in The Chesapeake Arts Center’s black box theatre. Directed and Choreographed by Tommy Malek with Musical Direction by Rachel Sandler, Rent is an iconic tale from the musical theatre canon which reminds us all of how precious life truly is,

Six at The National Theatre

Reviews July 14, 2022 Charles Boyington

Most of us know the little poem about Henry the 8th wives: Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived. The idea that someone took that little poem and created an 85-minute musical seems incredulous. Add that the wives are reimagined as modern-day pop stars competing to see who had it worse just seems ridiculous. Well, we need ridiculous right now.

This delightful pop concert is the brainchild of Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (directed by Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage),

Tune In, Turn On, and Drop Dead at Do Or Die Productions

Reviews July 13, 2022 S. Wu

This month’s Do Or Die Productions’ interactive murder mystery, Tune In, Turn On, and Drop Dead was a treat to watch. It brought audience members into the scenario of a launch-party for a new and upcoming show, The Flower Power Hour, staring the icon of the Counter-Culture Movement, Timothy Weary (Pat McPartlin). Watch Weary, Acting Police Commissioner Lynette Frump (CJ Crowe), and Weary’s co-stars Buck Avari (Matt Wetzel), Noodles (Erin Tarpley) and Albatross (Amanda Gunther) butt heads in this melding of old and new,

Nadina Hassan (standing, center) as Regina George in Mean Girls. ????Jenny Anderson

Mean Girls at The Hippodrome

Reviews July 13, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Is butter a carb? Yes? Grool. I mean— that’s SO FETCH! (never stop trying to make FETCH happen!) And now you don’t have to! Now all you have to do is get your tickets to see Mean Girls on the national tour as it sweeps through Baltimore for a one-week engagement at The Hippodrome. Based on the iconic screen-gem with book by Tina Fey, Music by Jeff Richmond, and Lyrics by Nell Benjamin,

Bright Star at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre

Reviews July 9, 2022 Erin Tarpley

“Joy and sorrow never last, I’ll die trying not to live in the past”

Banjos, bluegrass, and bright dreams grace the stage at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre this summer with their production of Bright Star. Playing now through July 23rd, appropriately under the bright stars shining over Annapolis in the summery open air, Bright Star will delight audiences with its wholehearted Americana folksy twang.

Bright Star follows the tales of a young aspiring writer just back from war who seeks out the approval of a stern but talented editor-in-chief with an aspirational past of her own.

The Band’s Visit at The Kennedy Center

Reviews July 9, 2022 Steven Kirkpatrick & Charles Boyington Steven Kirkpatrick & Charles Boyington

By conventional expectations of what constitutes a smash musical, The Band’s Visit shouldn’t be a success, and yet it is. It has, of course, won numerous Tony awards in the 2017-18 Season, and after seeing the production at the Kennedy Center, we can understand why it is well loved.

The musical begins with the same words that opened the 2007 Isreali movie that inspired it: “Not so long ago, a group of musicians came to Israel from Egypt.

Zanna Don’t! at Spotlighters Theatre

Reviews July 9, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Garbage punctuated by art. Isn’t that what life is? Sure feels like it sometimes. If you’re feeling like the garbage part of your life is overwhelming, The Audrey Herman Spotlighters theatre has a magical hall-monitor from a parallel universe ready to wave their magic wand and give you all the wonderful art and zany comedy one could hope for in a musical called Zanna Don’t! This musical fairytale, created by Alexander Dinelaris and Tim Acito,

The Second City's The Revolution Will Be Improvised. ???? Scott Suchman

The Revolution Will Be Improvised at The Kennedy Center

Reviews July 5, 2022 Erin Tarpley

“The couch is your coffin; and social media the funeral parlor”

Are current events getting you down? Starting to feel the weight of it all? Well The Second City’s The Revolution Will Be Improvised, now playing at the Kennedy Center through July 31st, may be what you need to laugh a little while you cry (or rage).

Performed by an amazingly talented ensemble cast, The Second City’s The Revolution Will Be Improvised does a lovely job of pulling topics from the headlines and poking fun at them while also not forgetting to address the real-world effect these events have on people in the present,

To Kill a Mockingbird ????Julieta Cervantes

To Kill A Mockingbird at The Kennedy Center

Reviews June 25, 2022 Steven Kirkpatrick & Charles Boyington Steven Kirkpatrick & Charles Boyington

If we needed a fresh take on this American classic, then playwright Aaron Sorkin has delivered it. Don’t get us wrong, this is still the Harper Lee story that most of us know and love, but it has been adapted in a 21st century manner, with some characterizations that are a bit more nuanced and, arguably, real. To summarize up front, this is a production we think everyone should see. Unfortunately, like so much entertainment with a powerful message,

Mary-Kate Olsen Is In Love at Strand Theatre

Reviews June 24, 2022 Mike Zellhofer

The current production at the Strand Theatre caused me to reflect on not who I am, but rather who I think I am. We all do it. Whether it is second guessing yourself, staying inside not because of COVID but for fear of being seen, or even trying to live up to what we think society wants us to be. Bottom line is we are far quicker to see the worth in someone else before we see it in ourselves.

AntiCone at Baltimore Theatre Project

Reviews June 24, 2022 Joshua Bermont

What can be said about something as bizarre, unexpected, and unapologetically ridiculous as AntiCone, the performance art spectacle written, produced, and directed by Tia Shearer and Natasha Mirny (Happy Theater) currently on offer at Baltimore Theatre Project?

At some point in one’s life – generally when one visits friends who have, in recent years, become parents – one is approached by a group of little kids and breathlessly invited to “see a play they’ve just written.” Naturally,

Falsettos at Montgomery College Summer Dinner Theatre

Reviews June 22, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Homosexuals. Women with children. Short insomniacs. Ex-ex lovers. Happy lesbians. And a teeny, tiny band. What a world they live in— welcome to ‘Falsettoland.’ Give these extraordinary performers a hand— the performers of Montgomery College Summer Dinner Theatre’s Falsettos, that is. This delightfully dizzying musical about LGBTQ+ life in New York as the AIDS crisis is getting underway features some of the most dazzling and haunting music with a striking story. With book by James Lapine &

Much Ado About Nothing at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews June 22, 2022 Erin Tarpley

“Friendship is constant in all other things, Save in the office and affairs of love.”

Love is in the air; but some may need a little meddling, I mean “help,” from their friends to realize it. As for the audience, it is easy to feel the love in Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s Much Ado About Nothing. Playing under the open sky and in the ruins at the PFI Historic Park in Ellicott City now through July 24th,

Tarzan at Phoenix Festival Theatre

Reviews June 18, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Sure as the sun turns to moon— Phoenix Festival Theatre is putting on Disney’s Tarzan and it’s a world of wonder and whimsy, talent and heartfelt experiences! Directed and choreographed by Bambi Johnson with Musical Direction by Nathan Scavilla, this tremendous theatrical undertaking is swinging to wild and vivacious life at The Amoss Center in Bel Air for just three performances! A remarkably refreshing journey through all of your favorite numbers from the animated screen gem,

Night Watch at Cockpit in Court

Reviews June 17, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Are you a night owl? A moon people? Do you stay awake at night seeing bodies that nobody else sees in large, green, wingback chairs in an abandoned apartment slum across the alleyway from your own apartment? Perhaps you are secretly a part of— *gasp*— Night Watch now appearing in the upstairs cabaret performance space of Cockpit in Court. Directed by Linda Chambers, this suspenseful thriller will keep you guessing right up until the end.

Jersey Boys at The Kennedy Center

Reviews June 17, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

They’ve been working their way back to you, DC— and oh what a night do they have in store for you! That’s right— those four fellas standing under a street lamp singing together, making sounds like you never heard before? Jersey Boys is back, baby! For a two-week engagement, passing through The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the second-national tour of Jersey Boys is here, ready to refresh your memory on the heartfelt tale of Mr.

Cheryl Campo (center) as Mama Euralie and The Storytellers????Trent Haines-Hopper/THsquared Photography

Once On This Island at Cockpit In Court

Reviews June 15, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Two different worlds on one island. (Not unlike Cockpit in Court with two different productions in one theatre…one above and one below…) If you’re ready to be swept up in the most astonishing production to wash ashore on Cockpit In Court’s stages since the times of the before, then Once On This Island is the show for you. Directed and Choreographed by Tom Wyatt, with Musical Direction by Elizabeth Fink, the uplifting and joyous music of this stirring tale of love fighting to survive in the face of death is an astonishing experience all its own.

The Company of Hairspray. ????Jeremy Daniel

Hairspray at The Hippodrome

Reviews June 15, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

Ever since this whole world began— the theatre found out if they shook it they could wake up the land and so they’re gonna shake and shimmy it the best that they can today— and all week long— as Baltimore’s very own Hairspray finally touches down here at Charm City’s Hippodrome Theatre. The long-awaited return of the National Tour has is finally shaking and shimmying its way into town— and you can’t stop this beat!