Smokey Joe’s Cafe
February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Winter holds a certain charm before the holidays, with turkeys and caroling and gifts and gift-wrapping. But then comes months of gray skies and tax season. The soul begins to demand summer. Toby’s Dinner Theatre of Baltimore is packing a pocketful of summer, delivered in the form of Smokey Joe’s Café. [Read more...]
A Skull in Connemara
February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Though Martin McDonagh’s A Skull in Connemara, is set in Leenane, Ireland, it’s hard not to think of a front yard in Hampden during Halloween. In Todd Rosenthal’s set for CenterStage, the grey (plastic) headstones stick up at awkward angles, creating a cheap Hollywood gothic. Then the lights go down, and as they do, the gravestones start to look real, and the shadows add a weird dimension: a drab palette of exhaustion. [Read more...]
Fifty Words
January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A night off. No kids, no responsibilities. Just a husband and wife, Chinese takeout, and a bottle of wine.
This rare “just the two of us” evening proves to be a dark night of the soul in Michael Weller’s taut Fifty Words, a piercing examination of how in the hell any relationship survives, much less endures. Director Donald Hicken brings out both the vitriol and vulnerability of Jan and Adam, played with bristling force by Megan Anderson and Clinton Brandhagen. [Read more...]
Gleam
January 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Based on Zora Neale Hurston’s masterpiece, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Gleam hits a glorious stride at Centerstage in Baltimore, mainly because of the well-tuned script by Bonnie Lee Moss Rattner in the capable hands of director Marion McClinton. [Read more...]
New year, big deal for Baltimore
January 6, 2012 By 1 Comment
I started writing this article as a retrospective of Baltimore theatre in 2011. But I couldn’t help thinking a little bit about what Baltimore is looking at in 2012. In Baltimore, thanks to the Orioles, (and in DC, thanks to the Nationals), we’re sick of hearing that next year Could Be the Year. But things are changing fast. It’s the year of the Apocalypse, true enough. But even so, before doomsday arrives (early Spring) Baltimore is going to be making a serious play to become a nexus for theatre in the DC region. [Read more...]
A John Waters Christmas
December 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Who better than the Prince of Puke to put you in the Christmas spirit? Forget that weenie Michael Buble or heartwarming holiday pageants. The true spirit of the season is embodied by filmmaker and author John Waters, clad in a poinsettia-red velvet Issey Miyake suit, his trademark licorice-whip moustache firmly in place, putting the filth in “Feliz Navidad” during his one-man show at the Lyric Performing Arts Center in Baltimore. [Read more...]
Baltimore and Bulgarian theatremakers meet
December 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Nathan Cooper, the artistic director and actor for Baltimore’s Single Carrot Theatre, recently returned from the Festival for Independent Performing Arts in Sofia, where he spent four days with Lola Pierson (playwright and founding member of Baltimore’s UnSaddest Factory Theatre Company) on a grant from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. [Read more...]
The Lion King
December 15, 2011 By 1 Comment
When one mentions The Lion King, a succession of impressive numbers may come up, if the crowd is right. Take, for instance, 7, as in the 7th longest running Broadway musical in history. Or 70, as in 70 global theatre awards won. Fifty-four million audience members. Two hundred puppets. Twenty five types of wildlife. One very dedicated cast and crew. [Read more...]
American Buffalo
November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
CenterStage’s American Buffalo hits its high point when Teach (Jordan Lage), a bald guy with a mustache who sports a leisure jacket and bellbottom highwaters, pulls out a shiny silver gun and starts to load it. He’s sort of trying to hide it from Don, the other guy in the store. In other words, he’s trying to hide it, but hide it in a way that makes Don notice that he’s hiding it. And then Don (William Hill) asks what’s going on. [Read more...]
Private Lives
November 12, 2011 By 3 Comments
Like the character Amanda Prynne’s (Deborah Hazlett) heart, Private Lives is jagged with sophistication. Noel Coward’s oft-produced 1930 play—which he starred in with his great friend and co-conspirator Gertrude Lawrence—combines Brit wit, class and style in its wicked laceration of upper-class manners and unconventional mores. [Read more...]
