Throw the rulebook right out the window. It won’t help you anyway. And forget what you think you know about Chess as that won’t help you here either. Can’t even say “not your Grandfather’s Chess” because there are so many different variations on this concept album-turned-musical-come-concert-album that it’s hard to pinpoint which one is the one for a standard basis of comparison. Based on an idea by Tim Rice, inspired wholly if not incompletely by historical events.
This a Bronx Tale and just like they all do, it starts right here on Belmont Avenue. Well, the mockup of Belmont Avenue by way of Dundalk Community Theatre. Making its area premiere, A Bronx Tale: The Musical (Book: Chazz Palminteri, Music: Alan Menken, Lyrics: Glenn Slater) is based on the play of the same name and has the musical atmosphere of Hairspray and Jersey Boys with some plot structures along similar lines.
“…truly a singular sensation…full of heart, full of feeling, full of beautiful sounds and amazing dance routines…”
Ayup! Hullo there, Bawlmer! Ayup! There’s a secret waitin’ fer ya o’er in Bolton Hill, but ya need th’ key ta get in. Jus’ remember, when a thing is wick it has a will to grow— and grow is what Memorial Players is doing with their current production of The Secret Garden. Directed by Bill Kamberger with Musical Direction by Gregory Merle Satorie-Robinson and Musical Conduction by Tim Viets, this astonishing musical masterpiece is a Charm City lullaby that will enchant you off to dreamland before you can say,
Tale as old as time. Executing a Disney stage musical is always a tricky endeavor because one is competing with decades of iconic memories perfected and preserved in flawless animation. Even the best of the Disney stage shows suffer from the same stock problems: primarily easy to animate but difficult to stage scenes, added music significantly less stellar than the original scores, and inflated books from stretching the perfectly tailored 97-minute movie to two and a half hours of stage time.
Well, Jeely kly! Baltimore’s got trouble! Trouble? Right here in Charm City! They got a theatre troupe— that starts with ‘T’ which rhymes with ‘P’ and that stands for pool! Meredith Wilson’s one hit wonder takes to the stage as the Charm City Players close out their second season at St. Timothy’s school. The Music Man is their sixth show to date and the company is proving that they know the territory of musical theatre.