Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold - Page 3

Magic mirrors, an evil stepmother, forest creatures who sing and chatter prettily- all familiar fairytale tropes – but then add an empowered maiden, a narcissistic prince, and seven “dwarfs,” who are actually icons of ancient wisdom and culture, and you have a new, delightful musical version of the Brothers’ Grimm tale of Snow White created by Marc Robin & Curt Dale Clark for audiences young and young at heart.  MSMT’s new production sparkles with wit, energy, and visual splendor, featuring a first-rate cast of young professional performers who bring this tale to life with new meaning.

Bursting with energy and pulsating with a heartwarming story of forgiveness and family, Maine State Music Theatre’s new production of FOOTLOOSE serves up both a genuinely poignant tale and a dance extravaganza.  The new production, directed by E. Faye Butler and choreographed by Tyler Hanes, the first revival since 2014 of the 2008 musical by Tom Snow, Dean Pitchford, and Walter Bobbei, offers a new deeper, more probing and more compelling take on this timeless story of teen rebellion, generational conflict, and a journey to forgiveness.

Maine State Music Theatre packs a great deal of excellence and excitement into its 14 weeks season, but for this critic, the most anticipated production for 2025 is WEST SIDE STORY. Directed/ choreographed by the inexhaustibly inventive Marc Robin, the Bernstein Sondheim classic is one of the most perfect stage works ever created.

“For Ren dance is his language.  It’s a form of self-expression – the only way he knows how to express himself and communicate.  When this is taken from him, he doesn’t understand why something so beautiful and alive as dance is not allowed.  He is fighting for self-expression and his very identity.” Actor, dancer, choreographer Tyler Hanes is describing the motivation of FOOTLOOSE’s protagonist Ren McCormack. Hanes, who has a storied resume that includes ten Broadway shows and countless regional credits, has returned to Maine State Music Theatre (which he calls “coming home”) to choreograph their new production of the 1998 musical, FOOTLOOSE, collaborating with director E. Faye Butler. 

MSMT’s second Peek Behind the Curtain panel gathered on July 2, 2025, at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick to discuss the phenomenon of the theatre’s second main stage show this season, the hilarious and touching comedy, TOOTSIE. Participating in the hour-long conversation were stars of the production, together with MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark and BWW moderator Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold.

Following on the heels of a nostalgically, romantic ANASTASIA, Maine State Music Theatre’s second main stage show this season, TOOTSIE, demonstrates the company’s ability to turn on a dime. The 2018 David Yazbek musical, based on the 1982 film starring Dustin Hoffman, is a big, boisterous Broadway show that is joyous, tender, and thought provoking all at once and provides the audience with an evening filled with exhilaration and elation.

“I am always drawn to characters and stories in which there is a deep transformation.  In TOOTSIE Michael’s huge catalyst for change occurs when he begins to step into the shoes of another person – a woman.”  His journey awakens “new empathy, new compassion in him.  He is able to see that Dorothy is a part of him.  All of us have a masculine and feminine side within us; the trick is to balance the two, to dissolve old stereotypes, and to discover how powerful the softer feminine side can actually be.”

As soon as the orchestra launches into the opening bars of Maine State Music Theatre’s current production of Anastasia, there is a frisson of electricity that runs through the house.

MSMT resumed its 11th season of the popular series, Peek Behind the Curtain, on June 11, 2025, presenting a panel of stars from the current production of ANASTASIA together with MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark and BWW moderator Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold. Held at  Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, the event drew through an enthusiastic crowd. Among the panelists were a Mary Ernster (Broadway WAR PAINT, THE NOTEBOOK, Winner 2 Jeff Awards), who portrays the Dowager Empress; Amanda Rose (Broadway MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, WICKED, National Tours of OKLAHOMA, WICKED,HOLIDAY INN), who plays Countess Lily; and Christopher Page-Sanders (THE FROGS, THE WIZ, DREAMGIRLS), who serves as Associate Choreographer and Dance Captain of the show.

Maine State Music Theatre chose to revive one of its most popular titles, Robin and Clark’s ALADDIN as the opener of its Family Series 2025. Read our review here!

Having attended the opening of Anastasia at Maine State Music Theatre the prior night, I decided to return in order to enjoy the stunning production once again – this time without the task of reviewing. 

For more than a century since the Russian Revolution, the mystery and romance of the bygone Romanov era has continued to fascinate audiences. The opulence, the glamour, the faded memories all create the enduring allure of nostalgia. In presenting the Maine premiere of ANASTASIA, Maine State Music Theatre (in a co- production with the Fulton Theatre) has not only achieved an industry coup, but has also masterfully brought to life a compelling journey to the past, as well as a personal story that is poignant, heartfelt and uplifting.

Laden with intrigue, mystery and tumultuous historical events, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s musical, ANASTASIA, opens the Maine State Music Theatre season on June 4. It is tale which has fascinated and enchanted theatre-goers for decades. Perhaps the most dazzling and yet poignant incarnation is the musical version which premiered on Broadway in 2017. It tells the compelling story of the Romanov princess, Anastasia, who was said to have escaped assassination at the hands of the Bolsheviks in 1917, and resurfaced in Paris years later, seeking to be reunited with her grandmother, the Dowager Empress. Maine audiences will now have a chance to relive the drama and romance in a dazzling, lavish new co-production staged by MSMT, in collaboration with the Fulton Theatre.

The Good Theater welcomed a full house of almost 500 to its newly renovated space at Steven Square on April 30 to begin a week of celebratory concerts, marking the theatre’s return to the Portland theatrical landscape after a year’s absence.

Maine State Ballet welcomes spring with a lively production of DON QUIXOTE, the 19th century classic with music by Ludwig Minkus and original choreography by Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorsky.  The colorful, energetic staging by Artistic Director Linda MacArthur Miele, offers the more than forty-member company a chance to showcase some virtuosic dancing.

Lewiston’s Public Theatre’s latest production is a poignant, funny, and sweet ode to sisterhood and the joys of small town life. Set in Nova Scotia, Canadian playwright Norm Foster’s HALFWAY THERE pays tribute to bonds of female friendship forged in the confines of four ordinary lives played out in the hamlet of Stewiacke, whose only claim to fame is its location halfway between the Equator and the North Pole.

Portland Stage’s latest production, Steven Dietz’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s MURDER ON THE LINKS, aims to lighten the winter blues with a comic take on the usually formulaic murder mystery. 

Lewiston’s Public Theatre opens its 34th season to a full house, convulsed in laughter at the Victorian spoof,  DRACULA:  A COMEDY OF TERRORS.  The 2023 Off- Broadway comedy by Steve Rosen and Gordon Greenberg is a sendup of Bram Stoker’s Gothic novel Dracula, but in this delightful comic concoction, horror is replaced with frothy fun and sheer silliness.