author: Leonard Taube
Somebody hold me too close. Somebody hurt me too deep. Somebody sit in my chair and ruin my sleep and make me aware of being alive. That’s the plea of protagonist Bobby in Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company (book by George Furth) which is being produced by community theatre group Players On Air and gracing the stage of the Coppermine Pantherplex in Hampstead, MD. Originally produced in 1970 Company was nominated for 14 Tony Awards and won six.
Nunsense is habit forming— and it’s a habit you should all take up again! Well, the habit of going to see live theatre, in person, as a real audience, in an actual auditorium! And Players On Air is serving up a bucket, barrel, and big old vat of laughs (be grateful they aren’t serving Sister Julia’s— Child of God— vichyssoise soup!) and it is exactly the kind of feel-good, laugh-out-loud humor that the world needs right now.
Doors and sardines! On and off! That’s farce. That’s theatre. That’s life! And it’s farcical live theatre at Players On Air this October with their production of Noises Off directed by Michael Livingston. It’s a madcap comical farce of actors acting, drama being highly over-dramatized, and bloody sardines pulling a spectacular Houdini act! It’s a barrel of laughs, a bucket of fun, and a show you won’t want to miss.
Anyone familiar with Michael Frayn’s iconic play Noises Off will immediately recognize the set as a chaotic character and law onto itself.
Superb— (adjective.) “excellent; impressively splendid; marked to the highest degree by grandeur, excellence, brilliance, or competence.” The Collegiate Players, the college-arm of Players On Air, has the most superb production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee appearing on their stage for just four performances, this weekend only! S-U-P-E-R-B. Directed by Justin Patterson, with Musical Direction by Maggie Flynn-Lebischak, and Choreography by Abby Upshaw, this delightfully comical musical, a tried-n-true musical chestnut of the more recent stage vintage,