Reviews

Nova Y. Payton in The Color Purple. ????Christopher Mueller

The Color Purple at Signature Theatre

Reviews August 29, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

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.

Jake Devries (left) as Bartender with Randi Seepersad (center) as Bobbi, and Darian Grade (right) as Suzie Lemonade in Scam Artist. ????Marshall Logan Gibbs

Scam Artist at Truest Ethos Theatre Company

Reviews August 26, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

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.

Kiss Me, Mr. Musk: A Climate Change Parable at Single Carrot Theatre

Kiss Me, Mr. Musk at Single Carrot Theatre

Reviews August 24, 2022 Joshua Bermont

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.

(L to R) Cheryl Thompson as Cynthia, Brian Binney as Stan, Rose Talbot as Jessie, and Pamela Northrup as Tracey in Sweat. ????2nd Star Productions

Sweat at 2nd Star Productions

Reviews August 24, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

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,

Newsies at Beth Tfiloh Community Theatre

Reviews August 23, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

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,

Captain Hook, My Story or How I Clawed My Way To The Top at Spotlighters Theatre

Reviews August 16, 2022 Joshua Bermont

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,

Fr. Gerard Francik (left) as Jacob, with Henry Cyr (center) as Joseph, and Colleen Esposito (right) as Narrator, and the cast of Joseph &... ????Alison Jones

Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Glyndon Area Players

Reviews August 8, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

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!

Rent at ArtsCentrics

Reviews August 8, 2022 Joshua Bermont

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,

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.