Sometimes you can only shake your
head and ask, “Why?” Why the need to turn everything into a musical? Shows like
Pipe Dream, Kelly, and Via Galactica top Smithsonian.com’s list
of Broadway’s Top Ten Musical Flops; also
making the list, Carrie the Musical. Carrie opened on Broadway in 1988 and
after 16 previews and 5 performances it closed. In 1991, Ken Mendelbaum wrote a
book chronicling the history of Broadway musical flops,
Have you ever taken one of those intro to acting classes
where nobody’s really sure they want to be there but they all desperately want
to learn all the secrets behind good acting? Then this show might be for you.
Have you ever taken one of those acting classes where all of the exercises that
are supposed to be revealing all the secrets to good acting feel a bit like the
instructor is trying to unload some of their own personal garbage from
childhood onto the students?
If you long for a simpler time, you’re not alone. In that
simpler time— in those days— you just spoke to people. Nowadays it’s all
digital, no one really knows how to connect. If you’re longing to connect with
nostalgia, or traipse lazily down memory lane— not your own, of course, but one
perhaps like it? Then Quotidian Theatre Company offers up a fine ghost of a
different past for this haunting autumnal season. Putting Conor McPherson’s Port
Authority on their stage as the final production of the 2019 calendar year,
I am standing here with poison in my pocket…one eye on the
target, one eye on the clock— which is running out— only three more chances to fancify
your theatrical endeavors with this refined production of gruesome murder and
grisly mayhem. Why, it’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, a
serious undertaking for Dundalk Community Theatre this autumnal season. Directed
and Choreographed by Todd Pearthree with Musical Direction by Catina McLagan,
A Shayna
Maidel is a play I had never heard of, and that’s really a shame,
because it was a powerful experience that left me thinking, for days. I’ve seen favorite plays performed in an
underwhelming way, and also saw a play I didn’t anticipate liking performed by
such talented thespians that I was converted to a fan, but the real treat with
this particular production of A Shayna Maidel,
Talent. Either you’ve got it. Or you don’t. Luck for you,
The Heritage Players production of Ruthless! has got it. And they’ve got
it pouring out of their wazoos in spades. Directed & Choreographed by
Ashley Gerhardt with Musical Direction by Michael Clark, this zany and
uproarious musical send-up will have your gut aching with laughs. Nobody’s in
the mud, nobody’s in distress in this production— except the characters
themselves— and it’s a madcap scream from simple start to diabolical finish.
This is the moment! This is the time! When their momentum
and their moment is in rhyme. Free Range Humans is bringing you a deliciously
devious rendering of Jekyll & Hyde, unlike you’ve ever seen, felt,
heard, or experienced it before. Remarkably transcendent into the emotional
core of Leslie Bricusse (book & lyrics) and Frank Wildhorn (music)’s staged
conceptualization (with Steve Cuden) based on the gothic novella— Strange
Case of Dr.
“Who is the colored man? Is he a king or is he a slave?” Profound
question contained within Kennan Scott II’s Thoughts of a Colored Man,
now playing at Baltimore Center Stage in the Pearlstone Theatre. Directed by
Steve H. Broadnax III (as a co-production with Syracuse Stage in association
with Brian Moreland and Ron Simons), this evocative dramatic theatrical
experience presents the inner monologues of men of color to the audience in a
series of loosely interconnected vignettes,
Right is right and right don’t wrong nobody. A strong decry
of truth and justice in a time when its sorely needed; to think such words
originated from August Wilson just 14 years ago (taking place a mere decade
before that) in Radio Golf, the last in Wilson’s Century Cycle play
series. Now appearing on the main stage of Everyman Theatre as the second dramatic
offering in their 2019/2020 season, Radio Golf,
17th
century poet Francis Quarles wrote, “Judge not the play before the play is
done.” Great advice for anyone seeing their umpteenth version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,
especially if you are seeing Just Off Broadway’s latest offering. I don’t care how many times you’ve seen Joseph…, Director Tammy Oppel will show
you that you don’t know Joe! Oppel brings us a delightfully staged version of
the show unlike any that I have seen.
Do you ever feel like what makes you a person is what keeps
you from being a person? Poignant question from Wendy Wasserstein’s s The Heidi
Chronicles, which just so happens to be on the stage of The Salem Players
this fall under the direction of Kate Leisner. What if what makes you who you
are is what keeps you from being who you are? The show itself, while a Pulitzer
Prize-winning piece of theatrical drama from the late 80’s,
Thank you, Madam (and gents and everyone), do come again, do
come again— to Silhouette Stages to see a rather invigorating production of She
Loves Me, Directed by Stephan Foreman with Musical Direction by Andrew
Zile. The dated and somewhat stale musical finds a vivacious new life under
Foreman’s magical direction; his attention to detail, precision casting choices,
and overall approach to the performance gives it a bubbly exuberance that makes
for a thoroughly enjoyable evening of musical theatre (even if they are
tricking you into your first Christmas show of the 2019 calendar season— in
mid-October.)
The Biltmore Garage wants a
grand, but we ain’t got a grand on hand. And they now got a lock on the door to
the gym at Public School 84. There’s a stock room behind McKlosky’s Bar, but
Mrs. McKlosky ain’t a good scout. And things being how they are, the back of
the police station is out! So, come on down to Artistic Synergy of
Baltimore ‘cause that’s where the action is. Shhhhh!
ASoB The cast of Artistic Synergy’s Guys &
As I
watched The Last Night of Ballyhoo, written by Alfred Uhry and directed
by Ilene Chalmers, at the Bowie Community Theatre, I had a thought somewhere during
Act I, Scene 4: “This play really is about something.” This is
not to say that I disliked the production before that; even before coming to
that revelation I would have acknowledged the stellar set and the faultless
performances from the cast.
In the
summer of 1984, a little movie with a big soundtrack took the world by storm
and launched a young up-and-coming leading man for whom at the time you’d be
pressed to find movie connections of two degrees into the stratosphere as the
ubiquitous megastar Kevin Bacon. Filling out the cast with veteran actors like
John Lithgow and Dianne Weist along with breakout performances from young
actors like Lori Singer, Chris Penn, and Sarah Jessica Parker,
Night time sharpens, heightens each sensation…darkness wakes
and stirs imagination…open up your mind…let your fantasies unwind…because it’s
here— The Phantom of the Opera! The much-awaited, long anticipated
return of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical masterpiece, wearing its new-age millennial
skin, The New Production of The Phantom of The Opera tells Broadway’s
most haunting love-adjacent story with much more smoke and whistles for the new
age of theatergoers. Directed by Laurence Connor with Choreography by Scott Ambler,
They say try and remember the good times, or think about the
good memories, when doling out advice for how to cope with the loss of a loved
ones. But good memories get ruined by grief; they make you wish you could
forget entirely. What if there was no more need for forgetting? What if loss
was no longer necessary? Enter Proxy, the last show on the Rapid Lemon stage
for their 2019 calendar season.
You may not know where you’re gonna go when the volcano
blows but three chords is all it takes to find yourself wasting away with a
cheeseburger in paradise. If you want a license to chill, The National Theatre
in Washington DC has just the thing for you (and all your Parrotheads out
there!) Escape to Margaritaville, the Jimmy Buffet Musical, is making a
one-week vacation in the nation’s capital and has 25 different songs on the
Buffet buffet for all your relaxation needs.
Deadites always like to get their freak on! And when they
get together, they do the NECRONOMICON!!! It’s that time of year— that’s right,
fellow S-Mart shoppers! Time to pick up your BOOM Stick, lend good ol’ Ash a
hand, and— what the f*ck was that!? OH. It was Deer in the Spotlight Productions
bringing their sold-out sensational annual production of Evil Dead: The
Musical to Baltimore for just two weekends this October.
In the house of Borden, there’s a lock on every door. And a
story with those 40 whacks— here’s your chance to learn much more! About Lizzie
Borden— more than just the creepy nursery rhyme about the girl who gave her folks
40-ish whacks with an axe to do them in. Guerrilla Theatre Front is putting up Lizzie
as their fall offering to the musical theatre community and it’s a stellar
show. Directed by Greg Bell with Musical Direction by Megann Baldwin,
Before we plunge into the guts of
this review, let me offer an admission: I am not generally a fan of musicals.
That said, I am incredibly fond of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case
of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. I even reread it in preparation for reviewing
Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical, with book and lyrics by Leslie Briscusse
and music by Frank Wildhorn. I imagined that my affection for the source
material would,
The
little black box theatre that could, Street Lamp Productions in Rising Sun, closes
out their 4th season with a fan-favorite show that had a short life on Broadway
but has quickly become a modern classic staple of community and regional
seasons, The Addams Family, directed by Jamie and Andrew DiMaio.
Amanda N. Gunther | TheatreBloom
Marshall
Brickman and Rick Elice’s book may be short on Addams’ culture (with 80 years’
history of rich Addams pop culture to draw upon—the original New Yorker comic
panels,
Aaron
Sorkin’s A Few Good Men, directed by Todd Starkey, opens up to
one of our only moments watching Greg Stiffler give us a reason to care about
the tragedy the play is built around, by making him a vulnerable guy. A man is dead and Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson
(played by Lamar Leonard) and Pfc. Louden Downey (played by Jordan Baumiller)
stand accused of murder. Moises
Estrada’s lighting and sound design built atmosphere as Eva Grove’s costume
coordination lent an air of authenticity to these characters,
It’s a shocking revelation when you’re evicted from your own
life. As it turns out the well-traded promise of “a baby won’t change the way
we live” is in fact, as many have suspected for years, a lie. Popping into The
National Theatre of DC for just six performances, Mike Birbiglia’s The New
One is a poignant and hilariously engaging telling of his experience of becoming
a new father. The one-man comic show is a bit like narrative stand-up only with
deeper meandering trails that dance all around the core of the story.
There is something delightfully universal about a book club
that almost anyone can relate to. So believe the characters of Karen Zacarías’s
The Book Club Play when their perfectly ordinary book club has been
selected to be featured in a documentary about the phenomenon. As the cameras
roll, and the club members find their lives under scrutiny, their perfect
social circle begins to unravel. Silver Spring Stage’s production, as directed
by Karen Fleming,
I hope life treats you kind. And I hope you have all you’ve
dreamed of. And I wish to you joy and happiness— but above all this, I wish you—
to go and see the stellar regional premiere production of The Bodyguard at
Toby’s Dinner Theatre of Columbia. Directed by Mark Minnick and Toby Orenstein
with Musical Direction by Ross Scott Rawlings and Choreography by Shalyce
Hemby, the iconic 90’s film turned stage musical finds its footing with a true
focus on the story in the well-seasoned hands of Mark Minnick,
Every new beginning feels so heavy; only the trees know
everything. In life and death, in grief and suffering, we experience things
differently. Regardless of your cultural heritage, your geographical
upbringing, or your placement in life, grief and loss come to each in their
time in their own way. Debuting its 69th women-empowering script,
Venus Theatre is pleased and proud to present the Western Hemisphere and North
American premiere of The Finger,
Are you ready with your watching eyes and your listening ears?
OH! And the most important thing of all! Your I-MA-GI-NATION! That’s right! You’ll
need all three of those things to really enjoy yourself with InterAct Story
Theatre’s brand new immersive theatrical experience for young audiences, Bobtail
Bong Bong: A Monkey’s Tail Tale, written and directed by Ali
Oliver-Krueger. Inspired by a Japanese folktale, mukashibanashi, this is
a true exploration of the company’s namesake,
When I grow up… I will be smart enough to know that the real
cool place to go is Children’s Playhouse of Maryland to see all these awesome
kids before they grow up! And now’s your chance to change their story— by
coming to support some of Baltimore’s most talented young performers in their current
full-length production of Matilda, the Roald Dahl story turned stage
musical opening the 2019/2020 theatre season for CPM.
When I was
considering attending Tanya Barfield’s Bright Half Life, I committed a
horrendous crime, in that I read a review containing a summary. A couple starting out like a fire caused by a
comet. The marvelous beginning, the slow
and painful waning, and an end showcasing the doom that was always in store, as
if asking us if it was really worth the good times. Knowing the half-life referred to a
relationship and not a radioactive isotope was all I was after!
