Baltimore

Review: ‘Dad Jokes: A Stand Up Tragedy by Emily Hall’ at Annex Theater

Dad jokes are an odd construct. As likely to make you cringe as to laugh, they are both funny and not funny at the same time. You may laugh at a dad joke, but you almost feel bad that you did. On...

Review: ‘Henry V’ at Cohesion Theatre Company

I was a bit skeptical when I first heard about Cohesion Theatre Company (“Cohesion”) setting its production of Shakespeare’s Henry V in Appalachia, smack dab in the middle of the feud between the...

Review: ‘Mom Baby God’ at Single Carrot Theatre

Sinister things are lurking just below the surface at the “2018 Students for Life Conference” in Washington, DC, which is where Madeline Burrows’ disturbing solo show Mom Baby God, about the youth...

Here Are This Year’s WATCH Award Winners

Announcement Of Awards 17th Annual Washington Area Theatre Community Honors THE WATCH AWARDS Nominations Announced January 15, 2017 – 7:30 pm at The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA Award Ceremony Sunday,...

WATCH Award Winners To Be Announced Tonight Beginning at 7 PM. Here Are This Year’s WATCH AWARD Nominations

HERE ARE THE 16TH ANNUAL WATCH AWARD 2017 NOMINATIONS Nominations for outstanding technical achievements. ____ Outstanding Set Design in a Musical (5) Jared Davis – Man of La Mancha – Arlington...

Review: ‘The White Snake’ at Baltimore Center Stage

It was a thrill and a privilege to be at the grand reopening of Baltimore Center Stage last night. I felt like a movie star walking up the red carpet, past the searchlights, into the shiny new lobby....

Review: ‘The Bodyguard’ at Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center

Fans of The Bodyguard, The Musical are legion. And boisterous. Also very loyal. Large numbers of them turned out for opening night in Baltimore February 28, when the national tour arrived for a...

Review: ‘Colorblind: The Katrina Monologues’ at Arena Players-ONE MORE PERFORMANCE TODAY AT 4 PM

One More Performance – See Colorblind: The Katrina Monologues at Arena Players TODAY at 4:00 PM This Friday, it was my good fortune – courtesy of Artistic Director Donald Owens – to experience Arena...

Review: ‘The Women’ at Spotlighters Theatre

Fangs for the Memories The Women by Clare Booth Luce, which opened on Broadway Christmas week in 1936 after its premiere in Philadelphia three weeks earlier, and included an actress named Doris Day in...

Review: ‘Motherhood Out Loud’ at Vagabond Players

There’s no one like your mother, as an old song goes. Vagabond Players’ production of Motherhood Out Loud, wonderfully directed by Rikki Howie Lacewell, explores that theme and nearly every angle of...

Review: ‘Great Expectations’ at Everyman Theatre

Everyman Theatre (“Everyman”) continues its 2016/2017 season with an ambitious production: Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. A work of literature epic in scope and scale, the most notable challenge...

Review: ‘Trust’ at Fells Point Corner Theatre

What’s the nature of trust? What specifically makes a person choose one partner over another? These questions and more are brought up by Fells Point Corner Theatre’s production of Trust, by Steven...

Review: ‘Richard III’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

It’s notable that a play based on England’s War of the Roses has many parallels to power plays that take place today, both in everyday life and TV and film. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s (CSC)...

Review: ‘Fucking A’ at Iron Crow Theatre

There is so much than can be talked about when it comes to Suzan-Lori Parks’ 2000 riff on The Scarlet Letter, the half-jokingly entitled Fucking A. There is the unsettling setting, the surprising...

Review: Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’ at Everyman Theatre

Charles Dickens career as a writer, journalist, and editor was well-established when he wrote Great Expectations. He did not disappoint. Originally published in All Year Round, a weekly magazine...

Center Stage Has A New Name, A New Logo, And A New Website

Center Stage Announces Name Change, New Logo and Website Center Stage is pleased to announce several changes in advance of its grand re-opening—an updated name, new logo and new website. From Artistic...

Review: ‘The Tempest’ at The Baltimore Annex Theater

It’s only the end of January and, with its production of The Tempest, The Baltimore Annex Theater (“Annex”) has already set a very high bar for my 2017 theater viewing. Founding Artistic Director Evan...

Review: ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ at The Hippodrome Theatre

Little Carol Klein of Brooklyn, New York, did herself proud when she blossomed into songwriter Carole King. In 2013 her hit-parade of a life came to Broadway as Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. A...

Review: ‘Samsara’ at Single Carrot Theatre

Samsara isn’t a person’s name (despite seeming like a blend of “Sam” and “Sara.”) It is defined as either the process of coming into existence as a differentiated, mortal creature (Buddhism) or the...

TODAY – Spotlighters Theatre Taking Part in the National Ghostlight Project

TODAY at 5:30 p.m. in each time zone across the country, members of the theater community – from Broadway to regional theaters to high schools and colleges and community theaters – will come together...

Review: ‘The Three Penny Opera’ at Spotlighters Theatre

Ever-willing to mount bold musicals with large casts you’d never expect to see in such an intimate, cozy space (remember last year’s gorgeous Evita?), Fuzz Roark at Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre...

Review: ‘The Call of the Wild’ Starring Charlie Bethel at Baltimore Theatre Project

A man with a club is a lawmaker. Charlie Bethel walks casually onto the stage, a metal coffee cup in hand, and gazes into the distance. He strolls past the shiny dog food bowl at center stage to a...

Review: ‘Exit Pluto’ at Strand Theater Company

Continuing “The 100 Percent Season” – an entire season consisting exclusively of works written by women – Strand Theater Company (“the Strand”) presented the World Premiere of Amy Bernstein’s Exit...

Review: ‘Blackbird’ at Fells Point Corner Theatre

When Una, the 27 year-old British woman at the center of David Harrower’s startling and complex play Blackbird, tells a man named Ray, 15 years her senior, that he made her into a ghost, there is no...

Here Are This Year’s WATCH AWARD Nominations

Announcement of Nominations 16th Annual Washington Area Theatre Community Honors THE WATCH AWARDS Nominations Announced January 15, 2017 – 7:30 pm at The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA Award Ceremony...

Review: ‘Grey Gardens’ at StillPointe Theatre

Grey Gardens is the latest show in StillPointe Theatre’s 2016 – 2017 season. This musical is based on the eponymous 1975 documentary about the lives of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (“Big Edie”) and her...

Best of 2016 #15: Best Performances in Plays in Community Theatres in DC/MD/VA

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #15: Best Performances in Plays and Ensembles in Community Theaters in DC/MD/VA Area Area Mark T. Allen as John Barrymore in I Hate Hamlet at Laurel Mill Playhouse....

Review: ‘Mamma Mia!’ at Hippodrome Theatre

Countering the brisk winter temperatures outside, Tony-nominated Broadway jukebox musical sensation Mamma Mia! unleashed flash bolts of pulsating heat with bold bright lights, zesty dance numbers and...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #14: Best Design in Professional and Community Theaters in DC/VA/MD

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #14: Best Design in Professional and Community Theaters in DC/VA/MD Are: John Alexander for his lighting for Blackberry Winter at Forum Theatre. John Alexander for his...

Charlie Bethel on His One-Man Show ‘The Call of the Wild’ at Baltimore Theatre Project Which Plays 1/12-29th

Tomorrow – Thursday, January 12, 2017, master storyteller Charlie Bethel returns to Charm City to perform his newest adaptation – a one-man show of Jack London’s The Call of the Wild at Baltimore...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #13: Best Direction and Musical Direction in Musicals and Best Direction of Plays in Community Theatres in DC/MD/VA

The staff of DCMetroTheaterArts Best Direction and Musical Direction in Musicals and Best Direction of Plays of 2016 in Community Theatres in DC/VA/MD Are: BEST DIRECTION AND MUSICAL DIRECTION IN...

Center Stage’s Final “Wright Now Play Later” Starts TODAY

In October, after several seasons of success with their Wright-Right-Now (“WRN”) program – the micro-commissioning series in which playwrights produce patron-prompted short plays on demand – Center...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #12: Best Direction of Plays in Professional Theater in DC/MD/VA

Here are the DCMetroTheaterArts Staff’s honorees for Best Direction of Plays in Professional Theaters in 2016. Congrats to all our honorees! THE BEST DIRECTION OF PLAYS in 2016 IN DC/MD/VA ARE: Paul...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #10: Best Direction in Musicals in Professional Theatres in DC/MD/VA

Here are the DCMetroTheaterArts Staff’s honorees for Best Direction of Musicals in Professional Theaters in 2016. Congrats to all our honorees: David James for A Christmas Carol at Toby’s The Dinner...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #9: Best Performances and Ensembles in Plays in Professional Theaters in DC/MD/VA

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #9: Best Performances in Musicals in Professional Theaters in DC, MD, and VA Are: Gassan Abbas in I Shall Not Hate at Mosaic Theater Company of DC. Lizzi Albert as...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #8: Best Performances and Ensembles in Musicals in Community Theaters in DC/MD/VA

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #8: Best Performances in Musicals in Community Theaters in DC/MD/VA Area: Lauren Alberg as Lucille Frank and Tommy Eyes as Leo Frank in Parade at Drama Learning...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #7: Best Performances and Ensembles in Musicals in Professional Theaters in DC/MD/VA

Here is the staff of DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #7: Best Performances in Musicals in Professional Theaters in DC/MD/VA: Scean Aaron as Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Show at Iron Crow Theatre....

Review: ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder’ at The Hippodrome Theatre

From time to time in the mock-Edwardian musical farce A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder you may be reminded of the inspired antics of an old “Carol Burnett Show.” When actor John Rapson cavorts on...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #5: Best Plays In Community Theaters in DC/MD/VA

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #5: Best Plays In Community Theaters. And the honorees are: Almost Maine at Providence Players of Fairfax. All My Sons at Vagabond Players. Amadeus at Providence...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #4: Best Plays in Professional Theaters in DC/MD/VA

Here are the DCMetroTheaterArts Staff’s honorees for Best Plays in Professional Theaters in 2016. Congrats to all our honorees! A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas at Olney Theatre Center. A...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #2: Best Musicals In Community Theaters in DC/MD/VA

Here are The staff of DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best Plays of 2016 in Community Theaters. Congrats to all the honorees. A Grand Night for Singing at Montgomery Playhouse and Arts on the Green. Anything Goes...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #1: Best Musicals in Professional Theaters in DC/MD/VA

Here are the DCMetroTheaterArts Staff’s honorees for Best Musicals in Professional Theaters in 2016. Congrats to all our honorees! A Christmas Carol at Toby’s The Dinner Theatre of Columbia. A...

‘Take A Bow!’ Part 3: The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts’ Favorite DC/MD/VA Fall 2016 Performances/Directors/Designers by DCMetroTheaterArts Staff: DC/MD/VA/PHILLY/NYC AREAS

Here is the staff of DCMetroTheaterArts’ 3rd series of ‘Take A Bow!’ Fall 2016 honorees: Caroline Clay as Florynce Kennedy in (Re)Acts: Where Do We Go From Here? at Forum Theatre. It was a...

Vote for Your Favorite Center Stage Write Now, Play Later Play TODAY!

In October, after several seasons of success with their Wright-Right-Now (“WRN”) program – the micro-commissioning series in which playwrights produce patron-prompted short plays on demand, Center...

Review: ‘Dot’ at Everyman Theatre

There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays. When Everyman Theatre (“Everyman”) Founding Artistic Director Vincent M. Lancisi left the Humana Festival of New Plays in Louisville, Kentucky last year,...

‘A Christmas Carol’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Refreshing Charles Dickens’ beloved family holiday classic with a Baltimore-centric twist, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (CSC) spices up A Christmas Carol with local cultural history, festive music...

Review: ‘Seussical’ at Greenbelt Arts Center

Greenbelt Arts Center’s Seussical (The Musical), directed by Jon Gardner, is a magical spectacle. With lyrics and book by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, and musical direction by Mac Fancher,...

‘Take A Bow!’ Part 2: The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts’ Favorite DC/MD/VA Fall 2016 Performances/Directors/Designers

The Bald Ballerina in Dancing for Divas: A Labor of Love at Howard Community College. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house after Margaret “Maggie” Kudirka’s heart-wrenching solo at the Dancing for...

Review: ‘A Christmas Story: The Musical’ at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre

Humorist Jean Shepherd left us in 1999 but his folksy memories of being a child in Indiana at Christmas time live delightfully on in A Christmas Story: The Musical. Now making its Baltimore debut...

Review: ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ at Center Stage

“Love and revenge, two of your favorites.” It’s the eve of the French Revolution and the crème of the French aristocracy – the “original one percent” so aptly described by Artistic Director Kwame...