Play peels back layers of family mystery
A man, struck with the shocking, tragic loss of both parents in a car accident, comes across a small, nondescript suitcase among his father’s detritus. Opening it, he finds letters — scores and scores of letters in a language he can’t decipher, many imprinted with an emblem known throughout modern history as a symbol of absolute evil — the swastika. The actions — and... READ MORE
Energetic cast enlivens Disney’s Newsies
The ragtag group of orphans and homeless youth who hawked newspapers on street corners in 1899 never could have dreamed how the delivery of news would be transformed 120 years in the future. Nor could they have imagined that their story would be danced across stages throughout the country. But the story told by Newsies has quite literally leapt from a dusty corner of history into an... READ MORE
How did Dr. Ruth come to be who she is?
“I’m so glad you’re here,” Dr. Ruth tells the Theater J audience. “This is much better than talking to myself.” So for the next 90 minutes, the famous short, sweet, giggly, no-nonsense, common-sense sex therapist — as wonderfully performed by Naomi Jacobson in the one-woman show, Becoming Dr. Ruth — tells us all about her life and loves (three husbands, two children),... READ MORE
It’s alive! Young Frankenstein at Toby’s
Prepare for some wild, thoroughly irreverent fun at Toby’s Dinner Theatre with the current show Young Frankenstein, the musical based on Mel Brooks’ hit cult/comedy film from 1974. The musical version was created much more recently, in 2007, but it’s definitely true to the original movie — not surprising since the music and lyrics are also by Brooks himself. Coming on the heels... READ MORE
World premiere focuses on Cone sisters
What’s it all about — art, literature, love, life? Those are questions the play All She Must Possess attempts to explore to varying degrees in Baltimore playwright Susan McCully’s meta-theater premiere, being presented by Rep Stage at Howard Community College. The 80-minute, one-act play doesn’t just break the “fourth wall,” it tears it down completely. Here, “the... READ MORE
Premiere brings Matisse to life
After more than 100 years, the art collecting Cone sisters of Baltimore, the great French artist Henri Matisse, and the modernist literary icon Gertrude Stein are together again — on stage, at least, at the Howard County Community College in Columbia. They are the leading characters in All She Must Possess, a world premiere play by Baltimorean Susan McCully, being presented at the Rep... READ MORE
Hamlet in the age of Twitter and Snapchat
To be or not to be. Is that really the question a twitchy millennial — a man-child with little self-awareness and a slippery grasp on reality — might be asking himself in the midst of existential angst? Apparently not, if Michael Kahn’s uneven wreck of Hamlet, onstage at the Shakespeare Theatre Company through March 4, is to be believed. And that’s why we see the Danish prince ... READ MORE
Crazy about a Gershwin musical revival
Though the end-of-year holidays are over, it’s not too late to experience some of that seasonal spirit at Arlington’s Signature Theater, where the revival of Crazy for You continues through Jan. 14. The musical originally opened in 1992 as a brand-new production largely inspired by George and Ira Gershwin’s 1930 musical Girl Crazy, and featuring other songs by the famous... READ MORE
