Jeffrey Shankle

The fairytale magic of Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST The Musical is on opulent display at Toby's Dinner Theatre in Columbia, directed by Mark Minnick. This family favorite, packed with stunning performances and resplendent costumes, delivers the enchantment of live theater through June 16th, 2024

Tonight, at a celebration honoring outstanding theatre on stages across the Washington area, theatre artists, administrators, patrons, and special guests gathered at the ATLAS Performing Arts Center for Theatre Washington's announcement of nominees for the 40th Helen Hayes Awards.

Toby’s Dinner And Show in Columbia, MD, presents Meredith Wilson’s Miracle On 34th Street, the Musical through January 7th, 2024, and it’s a fun holiday outing that gives the feel of New York City in December. Dress up for the occasion if you wish, and step into a traditional holiday favorite, live and in full color. 

GREASE, a perennial favorite for theaters and theater-goers, is quite the crowd-pleaser at Toby's Dinner Theater in Columbia, Maryland. It's full of fun songs you already know, excellent dancing and a tiny bit of plot. The cast is excellent and the staging is lively. It has many elements in common with the movie, but a PG rating isn't one of them.

Designed for fans of musicals, SOMETHING ROTTEN! is a Queen's farthingdale full of fun. It’s lighthearted, full of color and movement, funny, packed with references to amuse Broadway lovers and Shakespeare scholars, with familiar four-second musical riffs scattered through the show. Toby’s Dinner Theater delivers again with SOMETHING ROTTEN!

What did our critic think?If you don't have cable, watch SpongeBob Squarepants nor any clue why SpongeBob should be a Broadway musical, no worries. Everything is made clear for those entering Bikini Bottom for the first time. It's packed with family theater elements: bright colors, important themes, messages of friendship, catchy tunes and slapstick comedy. Best day ever!

The members of Monty Python's Flying Circus are expert practitioners of this alternative therapy, producing ridiculosities that have spanned five decades so far. SPAMALOT! which originally was scheduled to play at Toby's in the summer of 2020, assures that the Python iconic silliness will continue amusing live audiences for many additional decades.

This is the last chance to vote for the 2021 BroadwayWorld Baltimore Awards! The 2021 Regional Awards honor productions which had their first performance between October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.

Time is running out to vote for for the 2021 BroadwayWorld Baltimore Awards! The 2021 Regional Awards honor productions which had their first performance between October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.

In the tradition of ‘40s musicals, WHITE CHRISTMAS tugs heartstrings and brightens spirits. The timeless music of Irving Berlin combined with the dedication and talent of Toby’s yields a family-friendly show sure to give you cocoa-and-fireplace feelings no matter the weather

Attending the musical ELF in July, (and August) in the air-conditioned comfort of Toby's, which is featuring reduced capacity pod seating until further notice, is a sweet novelty, and a community-supportive way to emerge from seventeen months of dormancy. You're in for holiday sweetness with heart and soul and singing and dancing and sparkle and jolly and a side of cheese. It's delicious food for the soul.

Hang your stockings, mull your beverage of choice and light up your leg lamp, then go to Toby's in Columbia to see A Christmas Story, The Musical, music and lyrics written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, book by Joseph Robinette. It's a sweet series of youthful holiday escapades full of quirky characters, brought to you with a wealth of warm fuzzies, in Toby's usual heartwarming style.

There's much to like about this production of THE BODYGUARD, story aside. It's predictable, superficial and just barely passes the Bechdel-Wallace test. The script is measurably better than the story and the performance is even better than the script. Ross Scott Rawlings' accompanying mini-orchestra is flat-out terrific, and there are some extremely interesting tech things happening. Overall, a strong thumbs-up.

Ready for some young energy at Toby's in Columbia? Here's a whole high school musical of less-frequently featured faces! The company dances Mark Minnick's fun choreography like they go together forever, bedecked in rolled denim jeans, wiggle skirts, saddle shoes, Chuck Taylor sneakers, product-heavy hair and pink satin jackets- in short, just what you expect of GREASE.

Victor Hugo's 1833 love letter to an old cathedral is set in 1482, and it's curious to note that in the nearly six hundred intervening years, there is much that is unchanged regarding social injustice, racial persecution and sexual abuse by religious leaders. Production values are high, while fancy choreography steps aside in service to imaginative vertical and distance movement sequences. The whole production relies on human-centric theatrical artifices THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME plays at Toby's through May 19th, 2019

Cathy Mundy as Momma Rose creates a faceted character with depth, backstory and motivation. The Ensemble is full of experienced leading men and women who blend beautifully and as Louise, MaryKate Brouillet manages to look about fourteen years old for most of the show before her Act II transformation. Full of catchy tunes, powerhouse vocalists, lively choreography and adorable children, Toby's Dinner Theatre in Columbia's production of GYPSY is an impressive crowd-pleaser.

Toby's Dinner Theatre Of Columbia presents Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID through March as its holiday show. THE LITTLE MERMAID is lively, fun, and a genuine kid-pleaser. It's packed full of A-list Toby's veterans, with technical trappings that are dazzling to behold. Director Mark Minnick puts top-notch talent to work with energetic staging that's clean and inclusive of the in-the-round audience. THE LITTLE MERMAID will ring true for parents, teens, and anyone who has felt like a fish out of water. It's a story of acceptance, which is the best of gifts, at the holidays and always.

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 be done well. Well, not only have they done well, this edition of MAMMA MIA! is just plain superb.

Musical theatre is about happy endings: if you like them, see MAMMA MIA!, at Toby's through September 9th. Heather Marie Beck and Maggie Dransfield as mother and daughter Donna and Sophie Sheridan are delightful and heartwarming. Disco, universally accepted as delicious, is the keystone of this show, whether or not you love or have heard of ABBA. In today's tumult, an escape to a tropical paradise where conflict stems from wedding angst and family drama seems a wonderful notion.

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, THE MUSICAL is packed with horrifying puns, die-laughing comedy, frightfully fabulous wigs, knock-em-dead singing and every iconic line you loved from the movie- Get tickets now to see it through Marc 11 at Toby's Dinner Theatre in Columbia and avoid horrified screams of disappointment.