When the world you've known your whole life starts falling apart due to forces outside of your control, are you able to roll with the punches? When the bubble you've lived in for years starts imploding upon itself due to the choices made by others, are you able to move forward with compassion and un... (more...)
While basic questions about what the characters are doing or why are never fully resolved (nor do they need to be), the debatable and sometimes contradictory answers each character gives to these questions form the basis of a relationship that dramatically and comically changes as the play progresse... (more...)
This industrial Eden will not end well. And end badly it does, as playwright Lynn Nottage tightens the grip of the catastrophe step by slow step. We all know the historical outlines of the story enough to have a general idea what to expect: management ready to break unions to exact wage and benefits... (more...)
Audiences should approach Stick Fly, with the expectation that they will not understand all of it, fully grasp any character's motives or thoughts and/or playwright Lydia R. Diamond's position on many of the issues she aerates - and that that's okay. The fun is in just watching it happen.... (more...)
It seems fitting that I would attend Just Off Broadway's thrilling performance of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR on the 41st anniversary of the classic Andrew Lloyd Webber show. Their production was the perfect way to celebrate the beauty and importance of the piece. You could say that I was predisposed to ... (more...)
With acting and singing at this level, and with such a strong, moving work, this rendering of Spring Awakening packs a punch, and will reward any evening's theater-going.... (more...)
Les Miserables is a 'classic' many theatergoers have seen over and over again, with a reputation that comes with its own set of expectations. Because the show is practically timeless, new productions are faced with the challenge to come up with fresh ways to tell the story of Jean Valjean, while kee... (more...)
A musical comedy starring a very funny leading lady winning her prince simply by being herself, is the perfect anecdote for these stressful times. That's why it's perfectly fitting that Artistic Synergy of Baltimore (ASoB) chose to present ONCE UPON A MATTRESS as the opening show to their 2018-2019 ... (more...)
When I read that Studio Theatre would be presenting playwright Steven Levenson's IF I FORGET I was very excited. Why? Levenson won a Tony Award for his great book for hit musical DEAR EVAN HANSEN. Then I read the play won the Drama Desk Award for Best Off-Broadway play at the Roundabout Theatre in N... (more...)
Because Williams has so successfully gotten us cheering for Maggie, we in the audience would very much like to see Maggie triumphantly dragging Brick into bed in the final frame, and an interpretation like director Judith Ivey's, which all but promises that, is bound to be a crowd-pleaser. But if a ... (more...)
Your sense of home lives in the boundaries of childhood memory. Aspects of the larger world are distilled to smaller moments that define each person's life. The intricate patterns of past and present, memory and reality choreograph the story of Everyman's DANCING AT LUGHNASA, Brian Friel's 1991 Tony... (more...)
In a short 2016 profile in American Theatre, Russian emigre director Yury Ornov expounded on the freedoms of theater: 'You can hate people; you can do a hate show about Putin, for example, or about your ex-wife.' It seems that Lola B. Pierson's Putin On Ice (That Isn't the Real Title of This Show) i... (more...)
The play will certainly keep challenging you the way a puzzle does. It begins, no doubt portentously, with a question that it never completely answers (Olivia to Ethan 'Who are you?') and it ends with deliberate lack of clarity over whether the characters have any future. In short, this is theater w... (more...)
Rep Stage Producing Artistic Director Joseph W. Ritsch Directs, Choreographs, and does the Set Design for a 'hair-raising' rendition of this Stephen Sondheim classic musical.... (more...)
Many of my readers know my connection with MAMMA MIA! on Broadway (see my bio below). When I saw many months ago that Toby's Dinner Theatre in Columbia would be presenting it (the professional regional premiere) I knew it would be a money maker and knew, after seeing many Toby productions, it would ... (more...)
I do not believe I have ever seen a more 'kid-friendly' theatrical event than the Olney Theatre Company's H.M.S. PINAFORE. Olney has welcomed back 'The Hypocrites' Chicago based troupe (they last appeared during the summer of 2016) who have taken their productions of both PINAFORE and PIRATES OF PEN... (more...)
Bianca Laverne Jones gives us a Berta a man would want to compose a song about. Her face, her eyes, the modulations of her voice, like the song Berta, Berta itself, communicate so much more than the lines she delivers. 'Berta is a voluptuous, stately Black woman with a striking countenance,' say the... (more...)
It is plain that Della's resolution of the issue whether to bake a cake for Jen's same-sex wedding will call for a gingerly reassessment of her faith and her life. Realistically, it will not be solved wholesale by Della's discarding of her allegiance to what Macy dismisses as 'a book that's thousand... (more...)
Alexandra and Frankie are shown tacitly agreeing to steer clear of the secret not merely because such circumspection is calculated to heighten audience interest; once we understand what the secret is, we can see that the characters know that if they address it, a long-buried grievance between them w... (more...)
There is a thing Terrance can't let go of, like Lear, like Othello, like Richard II. And if you're a tragic hero and you can't let go when you ought to, then bad things will happen to you and those you are close to.... (more...)
KING OF THE YEES at Baltimore Center Stage - A Challenging Take on the Chinese Experience
ANASTASIA at the Kennedy Center - Talented Cast Cannot Save a Disappointing Musical
Wild Wilde: A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE at Scena Theatre
BWW Review: SWEAT at Everyman Theatre
'Not Entirely Honest' an Understatement in REP Stage's Obscure But Funny THINGS THAT ARE ROUND
How The Assembly Line Ended: SWEAT at Everyman Theatre
BWW Review: Drinking from a Firehose with STICK FLY at Fells Point Corner Theatre
BWW Review: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR at Just Off Broadway is a Beautiful and Creative Take on an Old Classic
SPRING AWAKENING Well-Sung and Well-Performed by Stillpointe
BWW Review: LES MISERABLES at Hippodrome Theatre
BWW Review: ONCE UPON A MATTRESS at Artistic Synergy Of Baltimore is a Royally Fun Romp
BWW Review: IF I FORGET at Studio Theatre - Truly an Unforgettable Theatrical Event
Judith Ivey Enjoyably Gives Us CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF As A Love Story at Center Stage
BWW Review: DANCING AT LUGHNASA at The Everyman
Mocking a Personality Cult: PUTIN ON ICE at Single Carrot
Literary Lovers, or Just Canny Operators?: SEX WITH STRANGERS at FPCT Makes You Decide
SWEENEY TODD THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET at Rep Stage - This is SWEENEY like you have never seen it before!!
PASSION at Signature Theatre - A Musical About Obsession and Romance
BWW Review: MAMMA MIA! How Can You Resist This??
BWW Review: DAVE, A World Premiere Musical at Arena Stage - Looks Like It is Destined for Broadway
BWW Review: H.M.S. PINAFORE at Olney Theatre Center - Bring the Kids and Enjoy This Spoof of the Famous Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta
A Work Song Becomes A Play: BERTA, BERTA at Contemporary American Theater Festival
BWW Review: Delicious Fun in THE CAKE at Contemporary American Theater Festival
BWW Review: THE HOUSE ON THE HILL Revisits a Trauma in Tears and Anger and Healing at the Contemporary American Theater Festival
Post-Apocalyptic, Classically-Imagined Tragedy: THIRST at Contemporary American Theater Festival
