Sometimes Christmas can seem like a rerun of itself: if you like ballet, you see The Nutcracker each year. Melodrama? Ah, that’s always Dickens’ Christmas Carol. If your taste runs to cartoons? The Grinch, of course. And if each you want to see the quintessential Christmas movie, it must be none other than Frank Capra’s […]
Spectacular Broadway-style Ragtime at Toby’s Dinner Theatre (review)
Sumptuous costumes that take your breath away. Glorious voices in soaring harmonies, accompanied by a live orchestra. Corseted ladies on swings, and a storyline that encompasses the sweep of American history at the turn of the century. That’s Ragtime at Toby’s Dinner Theatre. Beautifully, beautifully executed.
Into the Woods at Toby’s Dinner Theatre
Stray from the path to Columbia and get thankfully lost in Toby’s enchanting, enjoyable production of Into the Woods.
Birth of a nation: 1776 at Toby’s Dinner Theatre (review)
The founding fathers are looking spry and lively at Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia right now as they once again fight for independence in the musical 1776. It’s a masterpiece, I say, and I cheered every word and every letter. I hope you will feel that way, too.
The Addams Family at Toby’s, kooky and terrific
How fitting to share an evening with the kooky, creepy and lovable Addams Family on one of their cherished holidays, Friday the 13th. The night was as cold as a tomb but Toby’s Dinner Theatre was warmed by the passion shared by Mr. and Mrs. Addams, Gomez and Morticia. Their hot-blooded romance – and how […]
Mary Poppins at Toby’s Dinner Theatre
Certainly there are elements of the much-beloved Mary Poppins tale that could, in the retelling, seem sinister. She flies in on the wind with an umbrella—not much of a departure from the black-clad ladies in pointy hats who take to the sky on brooms. She’s not overly affectionate with the children—indeed, she’s critical, demanding, and […]
There’s something about Mary (Poppins, that is)
As a young child, Maura Hogan was somewhat obsessed with Mary Poppins, watching the movie over and over the way kids today watch Frozen or The Avengers. “I used to watch it all the time. I knew the whole movie and could recite it backwards and forwards,” she says. “It was a key part of […]
Memphis: the Musical at Toby’s Dinner Theatre
One of the things you have to know about Memphis: the Musical is that the hardest and hardest-working gig on the DC theatre scene has to be an actor/server at Toby’s Dinner Theatre. They hustle for a whole night, starting as waiters for the buffet-style restaurant, taking drink and dessert orders all before they prep […]
Memphis stars open up about race, love and friendship
It had been more than three years since Greg Twomey last took to a stage—a much acclaimed performance as Xanadu’s Sonny in Toby’s Dinner Theatre, Baltimore location—so the actor admits, he was somewhat off his game when he was cast as Huey in Toby’s current production of Memphis, playing at Toby’s Columbia location.
The Pirates of Penzance
Ceaseless motion, vibrant energy, rampant silliness, and one superb voice among many good ones. These are the substantial merits of the Toby’s Dinner Theatre production of the Gilbert and Sullivan favorite, The Pirates of Penzance.