CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY A Small, Sweet Treat at DoodleHatch in ColumbiaJune 15, 2025Stand Up For…. Theatre's anti-bullying, pro-inclusion mission results in casts more diverse than usually seen in community performances. CATCF's cast includes first-time performers, parent-offspring pairs, body and gender positivity, and neurodivergence. Inclusiveness is sufficient reason to support SUFT's production, and also, the show’s quite a lot of fun.
Review: HOW TO TRANSCEND A HAPPY MARRIAGE Sizzles At Iron CrowApril 22, 2025HOW TO TRANSCEND A HAPPY MARRIAGE, directed by Ann Turiano at Iron Crow, is highly polished and lovingly crafted. The Iron Crow team builds an experience that’s immersive, fascinating and a delight to the senses. Excellent acting and snappy dialogue augment unusual situations in this surreal show.
Review: THE MUSIC MAN at Toby's With Capital TApril 17, 2025Salvation in the form of a children's band? Sure, why not? THE MUSIC MAN has captured the hearts of audiences for generations. Now, the beloved Toby's Dinner Theatre in Columbia, Maryland undertakes this winner, through May 18, 2025. It's beautifully done and highly entertaining.
Review: A Brave Take on WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? at Everyman in BaltimoreApril 9, 2025Edward Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? at Everyman Theatre through April 20, 2025, directed by Vincent M. Lancisi presents a contentious couple who return from a faculty party that has lasted past midnight to spitefully host young guests for additional drinks in their campus-adjacent home. It's awful, funny, entertaining, perplexing and satisfying
Review: A Lively Time At Toby's 9 TO 5 In ColumbiaFebruary 12, 20259 TO 5 at Toby’s is a treat for all your senses, with color-saturated visuals, harmonious, heartwarming songs created especially for the show and strong characters you’ll adore. It’s just the thing to relieve winter ‘blahs’ and get your toes tapping. Experienced performers have snappy timing, and dramatic lighting fosters swift set changes to retain the rapid pacing. The buffet is ample, the service is speedy and Toby's devotion to a quality experience is unparallelled.
Brand New HONEY BEE BABY Is Abuzz With Meaning at StrandJanuary 12, 2025Rapid Lemon and Strand, both known for promoting new works, present a puzzle of humanity with HONEY BEE BABY, a new work by Philadelphia-based Erlina Ortiz through January 25th. Elements of acting, theatrical technology and direction augment an unusual and satisfying script that asks hard questions with no pat answers.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC: Catch A Moonbeam at Toby's This Holiday SeasonDecember 22, 2024An evening at Toby’s Dinner And Show in Columbia, Maryland for THE SOUND OF MUSIC is a clutter-free treat for your loved ones. Toby's presents a classic, now entertaining a fourth generation, that feels lush and rich with detail and meaning, and contemporary relevance. An audience favorite since the dawn of the 1960s, this beloved Rogers & Hammerstein standard runs at Toby's through January 12th, 2025.
Review: A FEW GOOD MEN Is More Than A Few Good ActorsNovember 29, 2024Lumina Theatre’s A FEW GOOD MEN at Howard Co. Center for the Arts is More Than A Few Good Actors: visual details and realistic settings offer an intimate angle to audiences of this emerging theatrical company.
A Series Of Shadowy Events: Happenstance Theater's CABARET NOIROctober 31, 2024 Imagine ‘40s fashions, stark lighting, shadow-play, fog, fedoras, fistfights, physical comedy, femmes fatales, torch songs, desperation, dance, and dozens of puns: Happenstance Theater’s CABARET NOIR at Baltimore’s Theatre Project on Preston Street will thrill you with high-contrast comedy, drama and music through November 10th, 2024.
Review: Your Family, My Family, THE ADDAMS FAMILY MUSICAL At Toby's In ColumbiaSeptember 19, 2024Toby’s supports sharing the love of theater with young people. Despite, or perhaps because of, its macabre nature, the embedded message of THE ADDAMS FAMILY is about radical acceptance and inclusion, and always has been, from long before “inclusion” was a buzzword. Every member of your family, weird or not, can enjoy this positively creepy show.
Review: PILLAR RABBIT Hops Lively At Spotlighters through Sunday, August 25thAugust 20, 2024In Mel Holley's PILLAR RABBIT, produced by the Baltimore Playwrights Festival, you’ll meet characters you feel you already know, and laugh and cry with them. Director Ta'Von Vinson assembles an excellent multi-generational cast to perform against a beautiful set at historic Spotlighters Theatre in Baltimore.
The Adorable Debut Of HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MON AMI by Alex and OlmstedAugust 7, 2024Incorporating many elements of traditional puppet shows, Alex and Olmsted's newest piece, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MON AMI, is a miniature adventure in Paree, er, Paris. It tiny, enchanting and exquisite, like a chocolate truffle in a gleaming box. Much of this script is adult-targeted, but it IS suitable for children, even young ones.
Run With THE WOLVES at Spotlighters in Baltimore for One More WeekendJuly 24, 2024THE WOLVES, written by Sarah DeLappe, is an edgy show that garnered a great deal of critical acclaim during its 2016 off-Broadway premier season, and was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Spotlighters in Baltimore keeps this well-written glimpse of young females dealing with impending adulthood onstage for an additional weekend.
Oh What A Night! My Eyes Adore JERSEY BOYS at Toby's in ColumbiaJuly 14, 2024Toby's in Columbia presents the ‘origin story’ of New Jersey natives who became The Four Seasons. The script of JERSEY BOYS is tight, the pace rapid: this script and these songs - the Four Seasons’ catalog, plus others- form a stellar example of a really GOOD jukebox musical. I recommend you go immediately to see this terrific show.
A Big Hand For YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN At DoodleHATCH in ColumbiaJune 20, 2024DoodleHATCH, Columbia's interactive visual art museum hosts diversity inclusive Stand Up For ….Theatre company in an ongoing residency to also foster dramatic arts. YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN, the 1967 version, is sweet, funny and simultaneously nostalgic and contemporary, a delight for every family. Sunday's matinee is sensory sensitive.
Review: A CHORUS LINE at Toby's Sings And Dances Its Way Into Your HeartFebruary 4, 2024 A CHORUS LINE at Toby’s in Columbia through March 10th, 2024- Staff are warm and helpful, the atmosphere is welcoming and the production is wonderful. If you’re a fan of musical theater, A CHORUS LINE will resonate. It’s a visual and auditory delight, with complex dance numbers and Marvin Hamlisch’s memorable melodies.
Review: RENT Rocks At Baltimore's Theatre Project AND M & T Bank ExchangeJanuary 30, 2024RENT is an assemblage of romantic tragedy interspersed with moments that touch your heart, rattle your nerves or tickle your funny bone, set in the gritty underbelly of New York at the height of the AIDS epidemic. The show is a tribute to the spirit of people undaunted by poverty, addiction and illness in the face of a very bleak reality.