Hazel Vogel (center) as Annie and the company of Annie 📷 Matthew Murphy

Annie at The Hippodrome

Reviews January 8, 2025 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

Everything’s humming now! Good times are coming now! It’— Annie! ANNIE! And Annie has returned to Charm City once more (after running their tech week at Baltimore’s illustrious Hippodrome Theatre back in November 2024 before heading out on their national touring circuit!) Annie marks the first Broadway Across America tour to grace the Hippodrome stage this 2025 calendar year and— leapin’ lizards! It’s genius! Charming and heartfelt and a perfect way to carry that holiday spirit well into the new year,

The Sun Will Come Out: Interviewing Baltimore’s Own Hazel Vogel as Annie

Interviews December 29, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

The sun’ll come out! TOMORROW! Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow— there’ll be— well, in Maryland, it could be sun, could be snow, could be 92° with a hailstorm because this is the state where the weather changes on a dime and without much sense or warning. But Towson native Hazel Vogel, currently starring in the titular role of Annie knows all about Maryland weather. And she’s hoping to bring the sunshine with her when the National Tour of Annie returns to her home state for the first full week in January of 2025.

Winnie-The-Pooh Christmas Tail 📷 Mort Shuman

Winnie-The-Pooh Christmas Tail at Small Town Stars Theatre Company

Reviews December 14, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

Oh, bother! There’s a rumbly in my tumbly and there’s something I’m supposed to do! Ooh— think, think, think, think! Hmm. Maybe if I have just a little something…aah, yes. Just a little something— some hunny, perhaps? Oh! Oh, that’s it. I’m supposed to tell you that you should venture out to the Hundred Acre Woods this weekend! Yes! Oh yes, yes, yes, that’s it! To the Hundred Acre Woods for a very lively, very charming Christmas show!

Life of Pi at The Hippodrome Theatre Baltimore 📷 Evan Zimmerman

Life of Pi at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre

Reviews December 11, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

“Every soul is a piece of the Creator so every soul has a whisper of the divine within.” There were numerous quotes sprinkled liberally throughout last night’s production of Life Of Pi, that hit home, strike the heart, spark the mind, inspire the soul, and give theatergoers in Charm City a real chance to connect with a human story this holiday season. Making its national tour debut here at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre,

The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberly at The Strand Theater

Reviews December 9, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

author: Erin Tarpley

“Love is about knowing the other person and allowing them to be the person they are”

With the holiday season upon us, tis the season to be merry, jolly, and joyous. And after a wonderful evening at The Strand watching their rendition of The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, these are three adjectives that I found made even my Grinchy heart grow three sizes that very night!

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory at Children’s Playhouse of Maryland

Reviews December 9, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

There’s so much time so little to do! Wait a minute… strike that! Reverse it! Make some time and find your way to Charlie and The Chocolate Factory at Children’s Playhouse of Maryland this December! The reimagined Roald Dahl classic is now appearing in all its darkly delicious and devious glory on the CPM stage as their winter offering for the 2024/2025 season! Directed by Liz Boyer Hunnicutt with Musical Direction by Charlotte Evans (and live percussion musician Lisa Wood) and Choreography by James Hunnicutt,

Happy Birthday, Mon Ami! an Alex&Olmsted production 📸 Ryan Maxwell Photography

Happy Birthday, Mon Ami with Alex and Olmsted

Reviews December 7, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

Bonjour! Parlez-vous francais? No? Oui? Peut-être un peu? No matter! You will have a glorious good time at Alex and Olmsted’s latest fabrication— Happy Birthday, Mon Ami playing now through December 8th 2024 at Baltimore Theatre Project. Charming, wholesome family fun put together by these majestic creators of puppets, this delightful experience, reminiscent of a proper Punch&Judy show on Brighton Beach with hints of panto and improv thrown right in the mix is a charming outing for the whole family this chilly weekend in December.

Into The Woods at Street Lamp Community Theatre

Reviews December 6, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

Into The Woods without delay! But careful not to lose the way… Into The Woods who knows what might be lurking on the journey. Into The Woods to get the thing that make it worth the journeying— be it cow, wish, potion or festival…Street Lamp Community Theatre makes it worth your journey all the way up to Rising Sun to see their impressive production of the Sondheim beast that is Into The Woods.

A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical 📷Jeremy Daniel

A Beautiful Noise at The National Theatre

Reviews December 5, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

“…a sparking diamond of its time; it truly lives up to its namesake…”

Jimi Kinstle as Charles Dickens in A One-Man Christmas Carol at The Carroll Arts Center

A Christmas Carol at Carroll Arts Center Starring Jimi Kinstle as Charles Dickens

News December 5, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

The originator. The fabricator. The one and only…Charles Dickens. While he’s no Gonzo, (because everybody loves a furry, blue Charles Dickens this time of year) Jimi Kinstle certainly makes quite the impression as the legendary author, out pitching his wares— and by wares we mean his stories, and by story we mean the popular story associated with Dickens at Christmas time…

“Marley was dead to begin with.” The second most-recognized line in the Dickensian classic,

A Very Jewish Christmas a Maryland Ensemble Theatre 📷 David S. Spence

A Very Jewish Christmas at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews December 4, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

“Embracing happiness is f**king terrifying.” ~Sarah Shulman A Very Jewish Christmas

We don’t usually censor words around here but tis the season and you never know which little ones might be reading alongside the adults in hopes that Santa Claus or Hanukkah Harry or whichever present-bringing seasonal deity will see them being a good little offspring, reading the theatre review of the Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s latest new work to grace their mainstage.

Indecent at Endangered Species Theatre Project

Reviews November 23, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

You go to the theatre for a little relief, to be a community of people who laugh together. Or perhaps in this case, clutch their hands to their hearts and cry together. God of Vengeance, a real play by Sholem Asch, written in 1906, was surrounded by controversy, and on March 8th 1923, the Broadway production was cut short when the entire cast, producer, and one of the theatre owners were arrested and indicted (and later convicted) on charges of obscenity…of indecency.

A Few Good Men at Lumina Theatre Company

Reviews November 23, 2024 Erin Klarner

author: Erin Klarner

A Few Good Men – the 1989 play by Aaron Sorkin which he adapted into the famous screenplay – is visiting the Howard County Arts Center for a limited one-weekend run in their black box theater, directed by Meghan Hackett of the Lumina Theatre Company. And it is well worth making time in your weekend to see.

With many short scenes, it is important to keep scene transitions quick so that the pace doesn’t get bogged down and lose the audience’s interest.

Wherever You Find Love It Feels Like Christmas: Interviewing Tidewater Players Merrymaking Christmas Carolers- Bobby Mahoney

Interviews November 22, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

When a cold wind blows— it chills you! Chills you to the bone! But there’s nothing in nature that freezes your heart like years of being alone! It paints you with indifference like a lady paints with rouge. And the worst of the worst! The most hated and cursed— is the one that we call SCROOGE! Unkind as any— with the wrath of many— this is EBENEZER SCROOGE! (And yes, I did that from memory.

Wherever You Find Love It Feels Like Christmas: Interviewing Tidewater Players Merrymaking Christmas Carolers- Jude Mahoney, Ashley Merrill, and Tommy Rinaldi

Interviews November 22, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

You shall be visited by three ghosts, Ebenezer! When the clock strikes one— The Ghost of Christmas Past (Jude Mahoney.) When the clock strikes two— The Ghost of Christmas Present (B. Thomas Rinaldi.) When they clock strikes three— The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Be! (Ashley Merrill.) And we may be crazy trying to visit with all three of these ghosts all at once, but what’s Christmas without a little crazy?

We’ve got you gathered here and the clock hasn’t even struck one,

A Christmas Carol at Tidewater Players

Reviews November 16, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

What a chilly evening! Havre de Grace is all aglow! Don’t it feel like it might snow? Such a merry season! Don’tcha love it so? Merry Christmas, dearie— time to go! To Tidewater Players’ production of A Christmas Carol. Yes, it’s mid-November, and yes Thanksgiving is still two weeks away, but gosh darn it in the infamous words of Auntie Mame (yes, yes, different show, I know) “…we need a little Christmas!

Deathtrap at Spotlighters Theatre

Reviews November 15, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Oh the weather outside is frightful— truly, we just finished having 80º days in mid-November— but the fire is so delightful— and it is, it looks so realistic you might think those are actual manuscripts going up in smoke— and they’re finally open so you can cheer and claps— go to Spots, go to see Deathtrap. The nature of live theatre being what it is, the grand opening of this Ira Levin stage thriller under the superb direction of Stephen Foreman,

The North American Tour Boleyn Company of Six 📷 Joan Marcus

Six at The National Theater DC

Reviews November 15, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Get your hands up, DC! Get this party buzzin’! You wanna Queen Bee? Well, here’s half a dozen! Everybody knows that they used to be six wives… and just for you tonight (and every night through December 1st 2024) they’re live at Washington DC’s National Theater— count them— one…two…three…four…five…SIX. The high-octane, super-sassy musical sensation (by Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss) has landed— once again in the nation’s capital and is here to wake you up,

He’s Here: The Phantom of The Opera- A Quick Chat with Ron Legler about Phantom of The Opera’s 2025 National Tour Launching from Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre

Interviews November 14, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Fondest Greetings, Good Monsieurs…did you think that I had left you for good?

We’ve been waiting. Since Sunday April 16th 2023…when Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera played its final performance at The Majestic Theatre on Broadway. After 35 years and 13,981 performances (marking it as the longest running musical in Broadway’ illustrious history), there was a darkness that overtook The Great White Way, though not without the promise of a return…and that return has finally arrived.

The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals at CJ Productions

Reviews November 9, 2024 Anthony Case

author: Anthony Case

Halloween might be over, but that doesn’t mean we have to leave the thrills and chills of Spooky Season behind. CJ Productions might have just what you’re looking for with their production of The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals. The show, with Music and Lyrics by Jeff Blim and a book by Nick and Matt Lang, gained a lot of popularity online when a professional recording of the original cast was posted by the very popular Chicago based Starkid Productions.

Wherever You Find Love It Feels Like Christmas: Interviewing Tidewater Players Merrymaking Christmas Carolers- Steve Flickinger

Interviews November 9, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Link by link by horrifying link…though I think some prefer the duet from the Muppets. Either way, we’ve got the one— the only— Steve Flickinger as the one and only Jacob Marley for this year’s production of A Christmas Carol, and we’re here to hear him spill his Christmas-y guts all about the feel-good holiday.

We’re thrilled to sit with you Steve. Thanks for joining us! Now this is not your first theatrical soiree.

Wherever You Find Love It Feels Like Christmas: Interviewing Tidewater Players Merrymaking Christmas Carolers- Elliot Lookingland

Interviews November 8, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

God bless us, everyone! In case you hadn’t guessed, the next merry member of Tidewater Players A Christmas Carol is the youngest of the Cratchit children…little Tiny Tim!

Thanks for coming out and sitting here with me! Can you tell me your name?

Elliot Lookingland: I’m Elliot Lookingland.

And who are you playing in this show?

Elliot: Tiny Tim!

And this is your first theatre show ever?

Wherever You Find Love It Feels Like Christmas: Interviewing Tidewater Players Merrymaking Christmas Carolers- Sarah O’Hara

Interviews November 7, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

It’s in the singing of a street corner choir! It’s going home and getting warm by the fire! It’s true, wherever you find love— it feels like Christmas! And it is— the season of the spirit— the message if we hear it— is make it last all year! And since Tidewater Players is getting you into the season of the spirit a good six weeks ahead of time, we figured we could pick some of the featured players’ brains all about their upcoming production of A Christmas Carol.

Evita at Just Off Broadway

Reviews November 6, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Just listen to that! The voice of Argentina! They are loved and adored! Just Off Broadway throwing their hats into the ring for this autumnal season’s offering of Evita. Directed by Jason Crawford, with Musical Direction by Patty DeLisle, and Choreography by Katie Noppinger, this Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Webber operatic musical (with no spoken dialogue) comes to Epiphany Lutheran Church via Just Off Broadway for two weekends only this November and it has its moments and it has its style.

Jabari Exum in Mosaic Theater’s production of The Art of Care 📷 Chris Banks

The Art of Care at Mosaic Theatre Company

Reviews November 4, 2024 Steven Kirkpatrick & Charles Boyington Steven Kirkpatrick & Charles Boyington

author: Steven Kirkpatrick & Charles Boyington

“Can we begin to imagine a world where we put care for one another at the center?”

Running from October 31 to November 24, Mosaic Theater Company is presenting the world premiere of The Art of Care, a theatrical event interweaving storytelling, music, movement and personal memoir to explore how we care for, and are cared for by, others. As part of Mosaic’s 10th anniversary season,

Sweeney Todd at Rockville Musical Theatre

Reviews November 2, 2024 Jake Schwartz

author: Jake Schwartz

Anyone need a shave? Why not come on down to Fleet Street? Or even better – why not come down to Rockville Musical Theatre’s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

We need to start by saying Director Karen Fleming does a PHENOMENAL job with this production. The show was a well-oiled machine, and while the run time was nearly 3 hours: it didn’t feel that way at all.

Once Upon a Mattress at Third Wall Productions

Reviews November 2, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Fill the moat to overflowing and raise the goblet high! Third Wall Productions is giving a ball— wait…no…no that’s not right. They’re building a wall— around the swamp? No…wait a minute…which fairytale-ever-after is this one? (*double checks the program*) Aah! Yes! Once Upon a Mattress! The original swamp-princess and a silly good time with campy good characters, up-tempo music, and a living pea! Directed by Kristen Cooley, with Musical Direction by Will Zellhofer,

The Importance of Being Earnest 📷 Rachel Zirkin Duda

The Importance of Being Earnest at Greenbelt Arts Center

Reviews October 31, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Girls never marry the men that they flirt with! Unless they’re flirting with a handbag! There’s something to be said for a tried and true chestnut of the stage. Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, in its originality, is tried and true and presently on the stage at Greenbelt Arts Center under the direction of Stephen Cox. Humorous, salty, and often silly— the three best things one could want for a period comedy of romance and frivolity— this production is charming and well-paced and will tickle your fancy whether you’re new to Wilde and his wondrous strange notions of romantic comedies or cherish his work with great fondness.

The Guy Who Absolutely Loved Musicals: Chatting with Sammy Jungwirth about CJ Productions’ The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals

Interviews October 31, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Some make you happy! Some make you sad! Some are quite big! Some are quite small! Some are too long— some are just plays with song! And they’re— all— called— MUSICALS! And CJ Productions (a relatively new and upcoming small professional theatre company based in the Baltimore area) is producing The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals. Direct from Team StarKid, this 2018 viral sensation of a musical is making its Charm City debut under the Direction of Sammy Jungwirth (the J in CJ Productions) with area musical director Charlotte Evans at his side.

The Drowsy Chaperone at Scottfield Theatre Company

Reviews October 28, 2024 Anthony Case

author: Anthony Case

Sometimes, you just really need to escape the world for a while, sit in a dark theater, and pray you’re about to see a great show. That was certainly the mood I was feeling sitting in the dark theater at the Opera House in Havre de Grace last night, waiting for Scottfield Theatre Company’s production of The Drowsy Chaperone to start. While not a huge fan of the wink-wink nudge-nudge nature of some similar musicals,