Jeffrey Shankle News

There's nonsense delivered in true Cantabridgian style, i.e. with insane argumentative rigor. There are dazzling scantily-clad showgirls and showboys. There are songs that are wonderfully self-referential and songs that push the limits of taste. And there are lots of tag-lines and tropes for Monty Python fans - and who isn't? Hard to quarrel with an assemblage of attractions like that.

You may know it as Here's Love. You may know it as It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. (The show has been produced under both titles.) Currently the 1963 Meredith Willson musical based on the film Miracle on 34th Street goes under the name of its source material, the 1947 classic movie, and Toby's Columbia is presenting it in a very impressive revival.

Fiddler traffics in the safest kind of nostalgia, reminiscences of a world no one would want to return to. It's a lovely flirtation with a way of life that is safely dead. The only real question is whether it is done well. And I'm pleased to say that it's done very well by Toby's.

Votes are cast, polls are closed, and results have been tabulated! This was our BIGGEST year yet! After a record number of voters in over 30 regions worldwide, BroadwayWorld is VERY excited to announce the 2012 Washington, DC Winners! Thanks to all who voted and HUGE congrats to all the winners!

Voting is now underway for the Washington, DC Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January.

Voting is now underway for the Washington, DC Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below.

Voting is now underway for Baltimore and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below.

Voting is now underway for the Washington, DC Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below.

Voting is now underway for Baltimore and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below.

Voting is now underway for the Washington, DC Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below.

Voting is now underway for the Washington, DC Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below!

Voting is now underway for Baltimore and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below!

Voting is now underway for the Washington, DC Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below!

Voting is now underway for Baltimore and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the current standings here!

If you are in the mood for some high energy fluff, Toby's Dinner Theatre has just the thing - Legally Blonde, The Musical. Based on the 2001 movie, Legally Blonde follows the story of Elle Woods, a seemingly vacuous sorority girl. After being dumped by her Harvard Law bound boyfriend, Elle is determined to win him back. So, she packs up her Pradas and her pooch and heads to the Ivy League school.

Rodgers and Hammerstein designed the ending to reduce you to tears, and they knew what they were doing. Resist, even at this excellent revival,and think about the conundrums of race, class and gender that that lie just beneath the surface.

Put on your most cynical mood, the one in which you laugh at the predictable folly, venality and dishonesty of the human race, mix it with your ear for Jazz Age syncopation and great singing, get your buzz on for chorines flouncing athletically and with rhythmic precision in their undies, and go!

The new DC area theatre season begins in September. Over 50 shows are opening in our professional and community theatres. But before we move on to the new season and what's opening in September, let's look back at my personal favorite musicals, plays, and performances in both musicals and plays in the DC area - from August 2010 to August 2011.

The DC area stages' theatre choices in March are dizzying! There's a new play by Terrence McNally at the Kennedy Center, and an off-Broadway gem at Signature Theatre. Adam Guettel's gorgeous Tony Award-winning harmonies will fill Arena Stage in Crystal City. Fagin and his orphans and zaftig Edna Turnblad and her daughter Tracy - will be singing and dancing at Toby's Dinner Theatre in Baltimore and Columbia, MD, and a blood-thirsty musical will be establishing roots at Ford's Theatre. With over 30 shows opening this month, come visit the DC area's 205 theatre venues, and have a monumental time!

There are two things you should know about me: I am a musical theatre lover, and I love to schmooze with actors and composers. I am very fortunate to live in the DC area where our theatre community is growing by leaps and bounds. There are so many productions opening in September in DC, Maryland and Virginia theatres, my head is spinning trying to figure out which ones I will see.