Maryland

Review: ‘Silent Sky’ at Silver Spring Stage

Friday marked the opening at Silver Spring Stage of a very timely drama, Silent Sky, by Laura Gunderson. Produced by Seth Ghitelman and directed by Bill Hurlbut, Silent Sky is the fascinating story of...

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...

Kathleen Madigan: ‘Bothering Jesus Tour’ Comes to the Weinberg Center for the Arts This Saturday, January 14, 2017 at 8 pm

Kathleen Madigan: Bothering Jesus Tour at the Weinberg Center for the Arts With a refreshing take on life’s absurdities and a brand-new Netflix special (“Bothering Jesus”), prolific comedian and...

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...

Review: ‘Twelve Angry Men’ at Sandy Spring Theatre Group and Arts on The Green

What goes on in the secret deliberations of juries? And what lessons are there for all of us in terms of group dynamics and how to persuade people? The answers to these interesting questions are the...

Meet the Cast of ‘The City of Conversation’ at Colonial Players of Annapolis. Part 3: Kathleen Ruttum

In part three of a series of interviews with the cast of Colonial Players of Annapolis’ The City of Conversation, meet Kathleen Ruttum. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where local...

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...

Meet the Cast of ‘The City of Conversation’ at Colonial Players of Annapolis. Part 2: Rebecca Gift

In part two of a series of interviews with the cast of The City of Conversation meet Rebecca Gift. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where local audiences have seen you recently on...

Meet the Cast of ‘The City of Conversation’ at Colonial Players of Annapolis. Part 1: Josh Mooney

In part one of a series of interviews with the cast of Colonial Player’s of Annapolis’ The City of Conversation meet Josh Mooney. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where local...

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...

Review: ‘Salute to Vienna: A New Year’s Concert’ by Strauss Symphony of America at The Music Center at Strathmore

The Music Center at Strathmore celebrated the start of 2017 with Salute to Vienna. This annual tour, produced by Attila Glatz Concert Productions, featured the Strauss Symphony of America, conducted...

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...

Review: ‘We Three Kings’ at Restoration Praise Center

We Three Kings is a brilliant Biblical story with many teachable moments. Written and directed by local playwright Solon Phillips and with songs sung by Phil Simmons and Angela Bryant-Brown, We Three...

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...

Review: ‘A Christmas Carol’ at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is arguably the definitive Christmas story, beating out such classics as It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Miracle on 34th Street and The Nutcracker. Wolf...

Post-Play Palaver: ‘Soft Revolution: Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah’ at Venus Theatre

Post-Play Palaver is an occasional series of conversations between DCMetroTheaterArts writers who saw the same performance, got really into talking about it, and decided to continue their exchange in...

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: ‘The Greatest Holiday Special (N)ever’ at Silver Spring Stage

The Greatest Holiday Special (N)ever, by Silver Spring Stage in collaboration with The Coil Project (a local company that writes and produces original work), is the perfect Christmas show for those...

Review: ‘Mannheim Steamroller Christmas’ By Chip Davis at Strathmore

A large, stylish Christmas crowd was on hand Sunday night as Mannheim Steamroller “steamrolled” into Bethesda’s Music Center at Strathmore to perform Mannheim Steamroller Christmas By Chip Davis,...

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,...

Review: ‘Camelot’ at Compass Rose Theater

Is all fair in love and war? As Compass Rose Theater’s production of Camelot shows, both can leave hearts broken. Produced and Directed by Lucinda Merry-Browne, this iconic musical infused with...

Eddie’s Travel Picks: Milton Inn, Cunningham’s, and Citron

If you’re not hungry now, you will be when you reach the end. We are about to embark on a visit to three rather upscale restaurants. We’ll begin in Sparks Maryland. Here located on York Road is the...

‘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,...

Review: ‘A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play’ at Howard Community College’s Arts Collective

We all could use a bit of good tidings during this winter of our discontent. Fortunately for Howard County theatergoers, this weekend is filled with holiday cheer with four productions of The...

Review: “Romeo and Juliet” at The Maryland Shakespeare Players at The Clarice

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, The Maryland Shakespeare Players’ Romeo and Juliet, expertly directed by Vera Belaia, was a fantastic voyage into both Shakespeare’s tale of forbidden love, and a...

Review: ‘A Christmas Carol’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

Ebenezer Scrooge would be a terror on Facebook. He’s just not your social media type of guy. Bahhumbug would be his Twitter log-on. And if he’s your boss, like poor Bob Cratchit, don’t even think...

‘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 # 2: ‘The Comedy of Errors . . . at Colonus’ at Lumina Studio Theatre (Green Cast)

If you’re a lover of impossible opposites, or have ever wondered what it would be like to wander into a mirthful merge—or, in the company’s assuredly less elegant, but admittedly (and amusingly) more...

Review: ‘It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s production of It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play is a delightfully entertaining show. Written by Joe Landry based on the Frank Capra film and directed by Donald...

Review: ‘The Nutcracker’ at Metropolitan Ballet Theatre

Metropolitan Ballet Theatre’s 28th annual production of The Nutcracker is a veritable feast for the senses. With a gorgeous array of costumes, a set that will evoke contented sighs from any Downton...

Review: ‘Spring Awakening’ by Ovations Theatre

The cast of Ovations Theatre’s production of Spring Awakening could sing the phone book and still be entrancing. Director Darnell Patrick Morris brought a fresh approach to the Tony Award-winning...

Review: ‘Merlin: A Traditional British Panto’ at The British Players

If your kids squirm through The Nutcracker, it might be time to consider a new Christmas theater tradition: the annual British Pantomime produced by The British Players. Pantomimes are traditionally...

Review: ‘Foxfire’ at Bowie Community Theatre

Foxfire is a heartwarming and poignant story that will have audience members laughing and teary-eyed in the same moment. Currently in production at Bowie Community Theatre, Foxfire is a drama by Susan...

Review: ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ at Adventure Theatre

Once again I was faced with the question: “How are they going to pull this off?” I mean a two person cast with easily a dozen significant characters in the original text – somethings gotta give! Well...

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...

Review: The Capital Hearings at AMP by Strathmore

I came to review the venue as well as the performance so I need to share a bit about both. First of all AMP by Strathmore is a swanky nightclub nestled at the corner of Montrose Road and Rockville...

Review: ‘The Dancing Princesses’ at Pumpkin Theatre

My wee littles stopped being wee little some time ago so, until yesterday, it’d been a number of years since I’d been to see children’s theatre. I’ve been hearing a lot of positive things about...

Review: ‘The Comedy of Errors…at Colonus’ at Lumina Studio Theatre (Blue Cast)

The Comedy of Errors at Colonus: Uauthorized by William Shakespeare and Sophocles, adapted and directed by David Minton on December 3, 2016, at 7 PM, performed by the blue cast. I wonder if there’s...

Review: ‘Handel’s Messiah; with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Strathmore

George Frideric Handel’s Messiah was first performed during Easter in Dublin close to 275 years ago, and I saw why it has become an annual Christmas tradition. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with...

Review: ‘Black Nativity’ at ANKH Repertory Theatre and The Finest! Performance Foundation

Productions of Langston Hughes’ holiday classic Black Nativity are numerous in the DC area this holiday season, but the joint production by ANKH Repertory Theatre and The Finest! Performance...