Maryland

Review: ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

To Kill a Mockingbird, written by the enigmatic Harper Lee and dramatized by Christopher Sergel, opened at the Laurel Mill Playhouse, directed by Jen Sizer and produced by Maureen Rogers. A great...

Review: ‘Into the Woods, Jr.’ at Kensington Arts Theatre’s 2nd Stage

Kensington Arts Theatre 2nd Stage’s Into the Woods, Jr. is a delightful romp through the forest. Perfect for a fall afternoon or evening with your kids. Into the Woods, Jr. takes the first half of...

In the Moment: ‘Jazz4Justice’ at Center for the Arts

Hardy, inspiring community engagement is vital for the continuing health of the performing arts. That is a given. With challenging times for arts funding; the changes in the acceptance of the...

Review: ‘The Color Purple: The Musical’ at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre

Timing could not be better for a professionally mounted, national tour of The Color Purple: The Musical. Call this a reminder-on-wheels that sexual exploitation is not a Hollywood invention. Judging...

Review: ‘Carrie: The Musical’ at Cumberland Theatre

Excellently directed by Kimberli Rowley with crisp musical direction from Daniel Chambers, Carrie: The Musical is an intensely emotional show not to be missed at Cumberland Theatre this Halloween...

Review: ‘Duck’ by Tom Block at the Highwood Theatre

What difference does 1% make? In the case of Duck, a new play by Tom Block currently playing at the Highwood Theatre in Silver Spring, 1% can be the difference between life and death. Duck follows the...

Review: ‘The Woman in Black’ at Fells Point Corner Theatre

I’ve seen one ghost in my life – a woman in a 1980s housecoat on the veranda of a beach house in North Carolina. She stood with her hands on the rail, looking out at the ocean. There was a terrible...

Review: ‘Cry Baby’ at Silhouette Stages at Slayton House

Cry Baby opened at Slayton House in Columbia, MD this week. The play is based on a 1990s movie by John Waters of Hairspray fame and directed and choreographed by Tommy Malek. The play was turned into...

Movie Review: ‘The Florida Project’

The Florida Project covers part of a summer in the life of the denizens of motels along US 192, a stretch of highway right around the entrance to one of Walt Disney’s places. It is a world whose...

Interview: Cristen Stephansky Discusses Peace Mountain Theatre Company’s ‘Lost in Yonkers’

Please tell us about yourself and your theater background. I’m Cristen Stephansky and I’m playing Gertrude, known as “Gert” for short, in Lost in Yonkers. I’ve performed onstage for many years in...

Review: ‘I’ll Get You Back Again’ at Round House Theatre

There’s a lot going on in Sarah Gancher’s I’ll Get You Back Again, now at the Round House Theatre through October 29: A bitter stand-up comedian and her struggles to reconcile and come to terms with...

In the Moment: ‘The Mistress Cycle’ at Creative Cauldron

Illuminating what has been in the shadows, or usually whispered about, Creative Cauldron has provided a delicately rendered musical about the harsh realities women have faced over the centuries when...

Review: ‘Our Town’ at Olney Theatre Center

Thornton Wilder’s New Hampshire creation, Grover’s Corners, sits on some of the oldest rock in the world: “a shelf of Devonian basalt” crossed with “vestiges of Mesozoic shale,” we’re told. The oldest...

Review: ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at The Highwood Theatre

Russian playwright Anton Chekhov believed the role of the artist was to ask questions, not answer them. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Christopher Durang’s 2013 Chekhov-inspired Tony Award...

Review: ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing is an amusing spectacle. Directed by Sally Boyett and set in the 1950’s, it is a visual and musical treat, with talented acting,...

Robin Rothstein’s ‘Derek Jeter Makes the Play’ to Kick Off Best Medicine Rep’s 2017-2018 Reading Series This Sunday, October 8 at 3:00PM.

Best Medicine Rep, Gaithersburg, Maryland’s professional theater company, is proud to present the first of its lineup for the 2017-2018 Play Reading Series. Derek Jeter Makes the Play by Robin...

Review: ‘The Cradle Will Rock’ at Iron Crow Theatre

It takes a lot of Joes to make a sound you can hear. Iron Crow Theatre is on fire right out of the gate with its fantastic season opener, The Cradle Will Rock. Under the expert direction of Artistic...

Review: ‘Love and Information’ at Forum Theatre

The vignette “Secret” encapsulates the ingenuity of Forum Theatre’s production of Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information. Two office workers sit at their computers, back to back. One (Samy El-Noury)...

Review: ‘Julius Caesar’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

“Three or four wenches, where I stood, cried ‘Alas, good soul!’ and forgave him with all their hearts: but there’s no heed to be taken of them; if Caesar had stabbed their mothers, they would have...

Interview: Leah Mazade Discusses Peace Mountain Theatre Company’s ‘Lost in Yonkers’

Please give us your name, part you are playing in Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers, and a brief description of your theatrical background. My name is Leah Mazade, and I’m playing Grandma Kurnitz in the...

Magic Time!: ‘Love and Information’ at Forum Theatre

This is a most peculiar play, but in a very good way. It’s more about its form than its content. And that’s what makes it one of Forum Theatre’s most fascinating offerings. The famously unorthodox...

Review: ‘Stones in His Pockets’ at Keegan Theatre

Engaging with warm-hearted humor and disarming in the depth of scenes about lost boys and bitter men with their dreams crushed, the Keegan Theatre production of the Marie Jones’ Stones in his Pockets...

Review: ‘Shiloh Rules’ at Colonial Players of Annapolis – Final Weekend Starts TODAY

Colonial Players of Annapolis’ production of Shiloh Rules is a funny, yet thought-provoking play, a wonderful way to begin their 69th season. Written by Doris Baizley and directed by Beth Terranova,...

Review: ‘Almost, Maine’ at Rockville Little Theatre

Oh, love! What a fickle proposition you are! In Rockville Little Theatre’s (RLT) production of John Cariani’s Almost, Maine, we witness a variety of romantic love dilemmas, with comical and heartfelt...

Review: ‘The Liar’ at Compass Rose Theater

Compass Rose Theater’s production of The Liar is a hilarious farce with a great deal of charm. Written by acclaimed Restoration French playwright Pierre Corneille in 1642, it became his most famous...

Review: ‘Into the Woods’ at Fredericktowne Players

Into the Woods, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine, is now playing at the JBK Theater at the Frederick Community College, presented by the Fredericktowne Players. Into...

Review: ‘Bernstein on Broadway’ at The Kennedy Center

It was a glorious evening for Leonard Bernstein and musical theater fans at The Kennedy Center. It was the exceptional, one-night-only opening to the worldwide celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s...

Review: ‘Bridges of Madison County’ at Red Branch Theatre Company

The Bridges of Madison County turns out to be an ideal musical for an ambitious youth theater looking to build bridges to a wider audience of grown-up fans. A sensitive, artfully realized production...

Review: ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ at Port Tobacco Players

Sherlock Holmes is an enduring character in the annals of detective fiction. A master of deduction, Holmes has been the subject of countless movies and plays, one of the most famous of which was The...

In the Moment: Matt Haimovitz Brings Mobile Music to Northern Virginia

In these days of the end of the brick-and-mortar retail shops, and in these times when new audiences are less likely to purchase subscriptions to the performing arts as Baby Boomers once did, what can...

Review: ‘The Addams Family’ at Washington County Playhouse

The Addams Family, made famous by American cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938 in The New Yorker, became well-loved in the 1960s when adapted for television, starring John Astin and Carolyn Jones. This...

Review: ‘Deathtrap’ at Silver Spring Stage

The opening of Ira Levin’s Deathtrap this weekend marked the start of the 50th Season for Silver Spring Stage. The play, which opened on Broadway in the late 1970s, is a suspense thriller with lots of...

Review: ‘Rapture, Blister, Burn’ at Peter’s Alley Theatre Productions

In these days of constant bombast and weaponized words, when sounding reasonable and wanting to be open to another person’s point of view sounds almost quaint, Peter’s Alley Theatre has taken a quiet...

Review: ‘The Christians’ at Baltimore Center Stage

Spearheading a “season of community” and stimulating thought-provoking dialogue, Baltimore Center Stage headlines the first production of its 2017/18 span in electrifying fashion with rising...

Review: ‘Sally McCoy’ at Cohesion Theatre Company

“Every man on earth would kill for somethin’. Any says different – jus’ ain’t found out wha’s worth killin’ for yet.” – Devil Anse Hatfield, in Sally McCoy In the middle of the night of August 9,...

Review: ‘The Canterville Ghost’ at The Montgomery Playhouse

Just as you are taking down your Labor Day bunting and searching for last year’s fall decorations, there arrives a bit of spooky mystery and merriment for the whole family to enjoy. The Montgomery...

Review: ‘I Hate Hamlet’ at Fells Point Corner Theatre

Threading a touch of Shakespeare with campy humor and artful absurdity, Fells Point Corner Theatre (FPCT) introduces its 30th anniversary season with a fun revival of Paul Rudnick’s I Hate Hamlet....

Review: ‘The Legend of Pufferfish Pat’ at InterAct Story Theatre

Pufferfish Pat is hardly your run of the mill Cowboy name. In fact, it’s so unusual that the cowboy it identifies gets “madder than a wet hen!” whenever it is mentioned. His face turns red, he swings...

Review: ‘Disgraced’ at NextStop Theatre Company

What a combustible evening at NextStop’s production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar. Under Thembi Duncan’s adroit direction and with fascinating casting, this in-your-face drama...

Review: ‘Aglaonike’s Tiger’ at Venus Theatre

Aglaonike’s Tiger, written by Claudia Barnett and directed by Deborah Randall, is playing now at the Venus Theatre in Laurel, MD. The drama is based on the first recorded woman astronomer of Ancient...

Review: ‘The Heidi Chronicles’ at Rep Stage

Even successful plays get retired from the workforce after a few seasons. A select few, however, may go on to a new phase of wizened seniority. That is the case with The Heidi Chronicles, now getting...

Review: ‘In the Heights’ at Olney Theatre Center (in a co-production with Round House Theatre)

In a week that began with the repeal of DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – what better way to end it than with a musical about dreamers. For those children – many now young adults, among...

Review: ‘Two Trains Running’ at Spotlighters Theatre

Okay, I’ll say it: the production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running is so packed with dynamic performances under the direction of the multi-faceted Fuzz Roark, it threatens to explode out of the...

Review: ‘An Inspector Calls’ at the Laurel Mill Playhouse

An Inspector Calls, by J.B. Priestly, is currently playing at Laurel Mill Playhouse, produced by Maureen Rogers and directed by Ilene Chalmers. Priestly was from the working class, albeit white...

Review: ‘Dreamgirls’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

Dreamgirls has followed the summer’s closet full of Dreamcoats into Toby’s Dinner Theatre of Columbia. That’s a lot of dreams, providing plenty of rich musical memories for theater fans to cuddle up...

Page-to-Stage New Play Festival: Six Short Plays from Playwrights Collaborative

Some of the most interesting new plays unveiled at this year’s Page-to-Stage Festival–held over the Labor Day weekend at the Kennedy Center–were among those offered by Playwrights Collaborative, a...

Review: ‘Midnight Cigarette’ at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

Onto a landscape of food stamps, broken dreams, and Walmarts, director and playwright William Dean Leary has created an indelible portrait of life in rural America. Leary’s Midnight Cigarette, now in...

Interview: Everyman Artistic Director Vincent Lancisi on Serendipity and ‘M. Butterfly’

There’s a story circulating about Everyman Theatre’s Artistic Director, Vincent Lancisi, and it’s one of the best What I Did on My Summer Vacation yarns around. It involves two continents, 16,000...

In the Moment: ‘Iola’s Letter: The Memphis Crusade of Ida B. Wells’ at Hill Center

So here we are in late 2017. And in the past several months, nooses have appeared in the Washington DC area, on the campus of American University, at the University of Maryland, inside the National...

DCMetroTheaterArts Announces New Editor-in-Chief, Joel Markowitz Named Editor Emeritus

As Founding Editor Continues to Endure Debilitating Effects of ALS, Revitalized Staff Regroups to Carry Forward His Vision Metro DC (September 7, 2017)—DCMetroTheaterArts (DCMTA)—the website that...