Having remodeled its physical plant, created a small black box playing space, and renamed itself, Baltimore Center Stage has picked a 2017-2018 season designed to shake up its audience’s mind, soul and heart.
Archives for April 2017
Review: Broadway’s Anastasia turns Russia’s Revolution into a Fairytale Monarchist Musical
Pity Terrence McNally, Tony-winning playwright, charged with fashioning the book of a Broadway musical out of a 1997 cartoon, which turned the Russian Revolution into a fairytale, grinding actual history into mush by featuring Rasputin as the anti-monarchy villain, an undead Vampire-like figure with evil ghostly green minions and an albino bat sidekick.
Lydia Diamond’s back at Arena Stage with Smart People (review)
The long awaited Smart People at Arena Stage tackles issues of race and gender stereotypes from the viewpoint of four distinctly different people, each serving as a kind of archetype of history and lineage. Lydia Diamond who penned the well-received Stick Fly sets up each of her characters in separate monologues in the first act, and […]
That Face opens Third Space at Baltimore Center Stage (review)
No longer do we need to shudder to think what Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire and Martha from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf would be like as mothers.
Fun Home justifies its Tonys at The National Theatre (review)
About halfway through Fun Home, which opened Wednesday night at the National Theatre, ten year-old Alison is in a coffee shoppe with her Dad. It’s the second time during the show that father is chastising daughter for not wearing a barrette. Regarding her appearance, Alison resists gender conforming choices, and this frustrates Dad.
Misty Copeland’s curated Ballet Across America at The Kennedy Center (review)
What’s more invigorating than one boundary-pushing ballet company? Three! Wednesday’s audience at the Kennedy Center’s Ballet Across America series was treated to a varied and impressive, though uneven, evening with Nashville Ballet, Jeremy McQueen’s Black Iris Project, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet.
Joel Markowitz interviewed on Fox News Channel 5 last night
Thursday, April 20: Jim Lokay of Fox 5 News interviewed Joel Markowitz on his battle to fight ALS, and the importance of continuing his legacy work at DCMetroTheaterArts.com.
Twyford and company delight in Or, a bawdy tale of mistaken identities and royal intrigue (review)
The true story of Aphra Behn is the epitome of “stranger than fiction.” In Round House Theatre’s rollicking production of Or, director Aaron Posner, Holly Twyford, and company gleefully romp through the fertile comedic ground of Behn’s journey from British royal spy to prison inmate to female playwriting pioneer. It’s sort of a Noises Off or […]
Peter and the Starcatcher well worth catching at MET (review)
Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, den mothers, scoutmasters, youth leaders – okay, anyone who oversees children, please follow directions: Go to the website Maryland Ensemble Theatre (MET) and order tickets for all the children in your life so they can catch the magical and imaginative Peter and the Starcatcher. But better be quick. The show closes May […]
Chesapeake Shakespeare’s next season punctuates classics with the story of the boldest Shakespeare production ever
Chesapeake Shakespeare Theatre’s six-play 2017-2018 season will feature a production of Red Velvet, the story of an extraordinary production of Othello, within a schedule of three well-loved Shakespeare plays, a Christmas classic (I bet you can guess which one), and a tale told by a mathematician, designed to blow your mind.
Lessons in marriage in The Late Wedding at Hub Theatre (review)
The Late Wedding doesn’t have a traditional plot. Instead, the play is more like a lesson plan: Its central theme is introduced and explained methodically, and then the audience is exposed to more complicated examples. Until the end, when, using all it’s learned, the audience gets to understand its final exquisite moments.
Meet the parents: Robert Petkoff and Susan Moniz on playing Fun Home in the nation’s capital
The first national tour of the Tony-Award winning, Broadway hit Fun Home is on stage at the National Theatre through May 13. Adapted by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, the musical is based on an auto-biographical graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. The story jumps back-and-forth throughout Alison’s life from childhood to adulthood, exploring her discovery of her sexuality […]