All is not well in paradise. Granted, one may not think of the North Pole as “paradise” per se, however it is the pulsar of merriment, good cheer and free crap for kids who do the dishes on command and choose their school books over their Wi.
The Temperamentals
Sometimes we forget, my friends and I: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Proposition 8. The Defense of Marriage Act. All anti-gay legislation which have been successfully challenged or repealed in my lifetime.
Legally Blonde the Musical
I have a confession. I love Legally Blonde the Musical. Not a vague kind of love, reserved for cute animals and free parking, and not a brooding kind of love, the way many English majors feel about Shakespeare or James Joyce.
Las Meninas
How many faces have historians and powers-that-be overlooked in favor of a cleaner ending, or a more convenient moral? History has captives and casualties, buried in basements and the minds of those that witnessed these crimes for themselves. Lynn Nottage’s Las Meninas, directed by Eve Muson at Rep Stage, pauses to examine these crimes, peering […]
The Belle of Amherst
When most actors walk on to a stage, an audience sees just that: an actor. A charismatic actor, maybe, or a compelling actor. Comically gifted, or sullen, possibly sympathetic. It is a demand of the craft to take this title off the table completely, and out of the mind of the audience. A good actor […]
The Addams Family
They’re creepy. They’re kooky. They’re currently infesting Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre. The Addam’s Family. (And holy Gomez, can they sing.)
Smokey Joe’s Cafe
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.
Love Letters
“Because paper has more patience than people.” So wrote Anne Frank, and so declares Love Letters, the half-a-century-spanning story of two people falling in and out of love though paper, pen, and the twists and turns that make our lives worth writing down.
The Lion King
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 […]
Annie
When I was six years old, tragedy struck. Tantrum-throwing, heart-wailing, tragedy. My beloved VHS copy of Annie had been “accidentally destroyed,” (the circumstances of which are still suspect) and I was instructed to move on to greener pastures and less obsessive pastimes. So when the opening notes of “Someday” floated through Toby’s Dinner Theatre Sunday […]
The Book Club Play
These days, asking how someone takes their books will yield more answers than asking how they take their coffee. Hardback? Paperback? Nook? Kindle? Barnes and Noble? Amazon? iPad? Google? Walmart? Library? The used book store around the corner that has what you need more often than what you want? The avenues for reading are endless, but no matter how we now take our books, […]
Mad Forest
Revolution. The word is brimming with power, strength, and a sensationalist quality of seduction. America tends to salivate over a good old tale of revolution, sometimes getting so hungry for the next that it neglects to reflect and fully grasp previous movements which have given the world its shape. Perhaps my history classes were too […]