John Harding

‘Carrie: The Musical’ at the Teen Professionals Troupe at the Drama Learning Center

A jammed parking lot at the normally quiet Drama Learning Center says all you need to know about the new production going on inside. The TYA Teen Professionals troupe has a genuine hit on its hands...

‘The Whale’ at Rep Stage

A man who refuses to budge often makes for fine drama. Does the same go for a man who cannot budge because he weighs 600 pounds? That’s the first question posed by Samuel D. Hunter’s The Whale at Rep...

‘Mary Poppins’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

Have yourself a little “Mary” Christmas this year, courtesy of Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia. Mary Poppins—The Broadway Musical borrows a “little” here, a “little” there, but it all adds up to...

‘A Year With Frog and Toad’ at Red Branch Theatre Company

You know you’re in for a special evening of theater when half the audience arrives in pajamas. But the comfy-cozy opening night of A Year With Frog and Toad at the Red Branch Theatre Company keeps the...

‘Newsies’ at the Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center

Newsies is a big, shiny helium balloon of a musical. Everything in it is designed for maximum lift and minimum drag — so you’ll have to jump fast and reach high to catch it in its short stay at...

‘I Love Lucy Live on Stage’ at Hippodrome Theatre at The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center

If it has been gnawing at you since 1953 that you missed your big chance to go to the CBS Desilu Studios in Hollywood and watch a live taping of I Love Lucy, take heart: Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre...

‘Triumph of Love’ at the Red Branch Theatre Company

Don’t go to Columbia’s Drama Learning Center just now looking for children’s theater. Triumph of Love, the new Red Branch Theatre Co. production playing there through October 18th, is by and for...

‘Venus in Fur’ at Rep Stage

Rep Stage returns from a busy summer makeover with a new production team and a five-star season-opener, Venus in Fur. David Ives’s 2010 comedy-drama scores big points with its fresh, two-person...

‘You’re Gonna Love Tomorrrow’ at the Red Branch Theatre Company

Musical theater doesn’t get more challenging than Stephen Sondheim — for audiences and performers alike. So hurrah for Columbia’s fearless Red Branch Theatre Co. for bringing us the Sondheim revue...

‘Memphis-The Musical’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

Memphis—The Musical may have won the 2010 Tony on Broadway but it seems made-to-order for Toby’s Dinner Theatre. Here is a show that dazzles with performers rather than spectacle, and reaches across...

‘Once’ at Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center

Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre unfurls a fresh season with a rowdy millennial musical about star-crossed lovers set in the big, blue-collar heart of Ireland. Once is the 2012 Tony Award-winning Best...

‘Ghost: The Musical’ at the Drama Learning Center and TYA

For two hours or so, Ghost: The Musical may have you believing in life after death. But the show’s premiere regional staging at the Drama Learning Center in Columbia enjoyably proves the case for its...

‘john & jen’ at Red Branch Theatre Company

Columbia’s Red Branch Theatre Company is out to test just how spare and lean a musical can get and still hold an audience in a magical spell. The company’s new staging of the off-Broadway 1995 show...

‘The Last Five Years’ at Red Branch Theatre Company

Miss The Last Five Years at your peril. If you fail to catch this season-opener by the Red Branch Theatre Company, you’ll never know exactly when this hard-working Columbia playhouse made its big step...

‘Moby Dick! The Musical’ at Glenelg Country School & Jason Brown Visits Red Branch Theatre Co. by John Harding

Fans of Spamalot may want to hop to and check out a similar boatload of zaniness known as Moby Dick! The Musical, with book by Robert Longden, and music and lyrics by Longden and Hereward Kaye, at...

‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ at Drama Learning Center by John Harding

If you somehow missed the first 24 annual Putnam County spelling bees, can you spell u-n-l-u-c-k-y? Well, you still have a chance to catch The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in a wonderfully...

‘Flashdance-The Musical’ at The Kennedy Center by John Harding

In the Flashdance smackdown between fresh new show tunes and nostalgia-laden 1980s soundtrack hits, the title decision at The Kennedy Center isn’t even close. Showtunes lose the match, although the...

Film Review: ‘All Is Lost’ by John Harding

Can a single character carry an entire feature-length movie with success? Arguments for both sides of that issue will be found in All Is Lost, the lean but brutal, one-person survival-at-sea saga...

‘Tick, Tick … BOOM!’ at Red Branch Theatre Company by John Harding

With Rent, Jonathan Larson wrote one of the seminal musicals of the modern age — though he didn’t live long enough to savor his triumph nor to give the world a chance to know him better. Now the Red...

‘Measure for Measure’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company by John Harding

Director Jonathan Munby has set his fabulous new staging of Measure for Measure in a fanciful 1930s, pre-war Vienna. But it could as well be taking place in any society where the prevailing moral...

‘Pasties & Popcorn’ at DC Shorts by John Harding

The VisArts Center in Rockville is a rather respectable venue for a program titled Pasties & Popcorn. But there you are, amid a nearly full house in the upstairs convention room on Friday, June 28,...

Film Review: ‘Plimpton’ by John Harding

George Plimpton was called a pioneer of “new journalism” by no less a literary master of the art than Tom Wolfe. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Plimpton traveled in celebrated circles...

‘Songs For a New World’ by TYA at the Drama Learning Center by John Harding

Sometimes the biggest talents come in the youngest packages, and there are plenty of both in the new staging of Songs for a New World by TYA (Teaching Young Artists) at the Drama Learning Center in...

Film Review: ‘This Is the End’ by John Harding

The amazing Seth Rogen proved he could hold his own against the force of nature known as Barbra Streisand in The Guilt Trip. But is he ready to meet the Apocalypse? The answer is contained in This Is...

Film Review: ‘The Great Gatsby’ by John Harding

It’s touch-and-go at times for the latest big-screen adaptation of The Great Gatsby. But in a hotly contested three-way wrestling match between Baz Luhrman, 3D technology, and novelist F. Scott...

Andrea Marcovicci at The Barns at Wolf Trap by John Harding

True devotees of the art of live cabaret would go a thousand miles for a fresh serving of Andrea Marcovicci. Witness Saturday night in The Barns at Wolf Trap, where Ms. Marcovicci had only to take the...

Film Review: ‘To the Wonder’ by John Harding

Terrence Malick takes us To the Wonder, and beyond Terrence Malick may be America’s most fuel-efficient filmmaker. Even when one of his movies is average-length it can seem like it will go on forever....

A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine at Glenelg Country School by John Harding

If audiences selected the Cappies Award winners, Glenelg Country School might as well start making room for another trophy in May. To borrow one of the lyrics from the current Glenelg program, its...

Glenelg Country School Performs ‘A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine’ on Wed-Sat 3/6-9 by John Harding

The musical mouthful A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine is just too much for the busy Twitter generation, so it has been redubbed ‘Hollykraine’ by the cast of high schoolers readying a rare...

Glenelg Country School Performs ‘A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine’ on Wed-Sat 3/6-9 by John Harding

The musical mouthful A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine is just too much for the busy Twitter generation, so it has been redubbed ‘Hollykraine’ by the cast of high schoolers readying a rare...

‘The Curious Savage’ at Jewish Theatre Workshop by John Harding.

Baltimore’s Jewish Theatre Workshop kicked off its eighth season Feb. 7 with a curious choice of plays — The Curious Savage, that is. This 1950 social satire may strike some as ripe for rediscovery,...

‘Les Miserables – the Film – Revisited’ by John Harding

Watching yet another of my theater friends join the barricades over the filmed version of Les Misérables, I decided it was time for a fresh viewing. Was it really a failed take on the international...

‘Side Show’ at Drama Learning Center’s T.Y.A. by John Harding

The mainly high school musical cast at Drama Learning Center is a long way from a mid-life crisis, but collectively they have a fixed sight on the midway crisis at the heart of the new T.Y.A....

‘Rent’ at Silhouette Stages by John Harding

The sexy young cast reviving Rent at Silhouette Stages in Columbia is better than a can of Red Bull at delivering a jumpin’ jolt of energy. Here’s a weekend show guaranteed to crank you up and get you...

‘Avenue Q’ at Red Branch Theatre Company by John Harding

In a make-believe Michelin Guide to musical highways and byways, Avenue Q would hardly rank as more than a Broadway roundabout. It’s a tuneful goof on Sesame Street, peopled mainly by sexually...

‘Electra’ at Mobtown Players by John Harding

After 14 seasons of new and often experimental theater, Baltimore’s Mobtown Players is busy re-inventing itself this fall with a slate of classics. If the opening night of Euripides’ Electra on...