Baltimore Theater Reviews

BWW Reviews: IN THE HEIGHTS at Toby's Dinner Theatre of Columbia - A Smashing Success

Tony-winning musical brings a breath of fresh air to dinner theatre patrons. (more...)

BWW Reviews: Knowing Your Place - BENEATHA'S PLACE

Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry's 'A RAISIN IN THE SUN,' Kwame Kwei-Armah's 'Beneatha's Place' muses on what might have happened when Beneatha Younger and Nigerian political activist Joseph Asagai, left Chicago to live in a Nigeria still fighting for independence from British rule. (more...)

BWW Reviews: Brian Stokes Mitchell In Concert at the Kennedy Center

Packed audience at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall hears a perfomrance to treasure. (more...)

BWW Reviews: IN THE HEIGHTS at Toby's - Energetic But Inaudible

In The Heights is not standard Maryland dinner theater fare, concerning, as it does, the residents of a largely Dominican and Puerto Rican barrio at the northern end (and highest part) of Manhattan. The lyrics are often in Spanish, often delivered in rap monologue, and largely assume a kind of cultural literacy not common among Maryland dinner theater patrons: knowing, for instance, what it means for someone to say she comes from La Vibora or from Vega Alta (things I had to look up after the fact) or what kind of comestible a mamey might be (ditto), or what it means to yell 'Wepa!' (ditto again). This is probably a good thing; all of us should constantly be looking to broaden our horizons, especially in our theatergoing. At the same time, as much help as possible should be extended to make the proceedings as comprehensible as possible for us Anglo newbies. And sadly, barring a half-page insert of explanation in the program, that kind of help was in scant evidence in Toby's new production. (more...)

BWW Reviews: Green Day's AMERICAN IDIOT Rocks the Hippodrome But Lacks Story

Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong, who wrote this rock opera's lyrics, and his punk rock band that created its unstoppably vibrant music weren't going for "comfortable." They were aiming, along with co-creator and director Michael Mayer (who picked up a Tony for his direction of Spring Awakening), to offer a musical production that breaks ground for its in-your-face punk rock approach to storytelling and its entirely unapologetic tale of sex, drugs and (punk) rock n' roll. And while there's lots of all of the above-and all very well done-there's not so much in the way of a plot with any depth. (more...)

BWW Reviews: TOPDOG/UNDERDOG at Everyman is Mesmerizing

Another Pulitzer Prize winning play in Baltimore will help fill the seats at the new Everyman Theatre space. (more...)

BWW Reviews: CLYBOURNE PARK at Center Stage - Is Everyone a Little Bit Racist?

Superb cast makes CLYBOURNE PARK a hit at Center Stage. (more...)

BWW Reviews: Cheers for CHESS at Dundalk Community Theatre - Go for the Voices!

You only have until May 5 to hear some great melodies by the team that brought you MAMMA MIA! (more...)

BWW Reviews: Life's A Joke: TOPDOG/UNDERDOG at Everyman

Two African-American brothers named Lincoln and Booth were left to live on their own with any parents, surviving as street hustlers. Now grown men, their names and histories haunt them in Suzan-Lori Parks' play, TOPDOG/UNDERDOG, now at the Everyman Theatre. (more...)

BWW Reviews: BOEING BOEING Rep Stage - Go for the Laughs

Hit French farce I'm sure will improve with age. (more...)

BWW Reviews: An Actorly SPRING AWAKENING at Towson

This was an undergraduate audience, clearly, and they were rapt and engaged. Yet it was a knowing engagement. By that, I do not mean that the kids came in knowing the tunes and humming along, in fact it was obvious from the laughs and the gasps when funny or shocking things occurred that a large part of the contingent on hand had no idea what was coming. What I mean is, the viewers got it, they understood it on both intellectual and instinctive levels, agreed and approved; the raucous curtain calls demonstrated this, and the audience's identification with what they were seeing. (more...)

BWW Reviews: BOEING BOEING: Howard's REP Outdoes Itself with a Delirious Farce

We have not only laughed our heads off, not only witnessed the fulfillment, however temporary, of transgressive bachelor-in-paradise fantasies, but also been treated to something rarer: a visual reimmersion in the colors and sights of the most carefree part of an era: the coordinated uniforms and flight bags, the electric blue paint on the wall, the miniskirts, the smoking-jacket-and-ascot, not to mention the final payoff: a curtain-call that will remind viewers of the way singing groups used to present on television before rock videos and MTV. (more...)

BWW Reviews: SPAMALOT at the National Theatre - You Will Laughalot!

You will laugh out loud, even though you know what's coming next. (more...)

BWW Reviews: Superb EQUUS at the Spotlighters

With EQUUS, the Spotlighters Theatre puts on what may well be the best show I've seen them perform. All aspects of the production are superbly executed, and the intimate space is an ideal venue for this taut psychodrama written by Peter Shaffer (Amadeus). (more...)

BWW Reviews: THE LAST FIVE YEARS at Signature Theatre is Simply Sensational

Jason Robert Brown's wonderful musical is given top rate production. (more...)

BWW Reviews: Iron Crow's SLIPPING Celebrates Self-Realization and Hope

Raw. Unadulterated. Unfiltered. Rich and ragged. Daniel Talbott's Slipping explores the jagged corners of adolescence-the ones that usually go unexplored or are polished smooth by the propriety of adulthood-and brings with it some light and, eventually, a good deal of hope. Unblinkingly, it faces the reality of survival, because that's what it is, in a society that still has a long way to go toward accepting queer youth, or queer anything. It unveils the deep scars, the blood and bruises, the barren wastelands of denial and disgust. But it also celebrates the tenderness of self-realization and wide-eyed discovery. (more...)

BWW Reviews: GOD OF CARNAGE at Everyman Theatre is Fresh Farce

Funny night of theatre features superlative cast. (more...)

BWW Reviews: GOD OF CARNAGE Makes You Squirm While You Laugh

Two young boys get into a fight on the playground.Their parents meet to talk it out.Then four grown adults use their words to tear the flesh off each other.Welcome to God of Carnage at Everyman Theatre. (more...)

BWW Reviews: MUD BLUE SKY at Center Stage is World Premiere

Can fine acting save a play? (more...)

BWW Reviews: It's a Jolly Good Time at the Pumpkin Theatre's Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz

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BWW Reviews: FANNY AND ALEXANDER at the Kennedy Center - in Swedish, with Surtitles, and Scrumptious

Part of the Kennedy Center celebration of everything Scandenavian, 'Nordic Cool' is overwhelming. (more...)

BWW Reviews: A 'Deliciously Disgraceful' Tallulah Lives on in LOOPED

The star in question is the in her own words "deliciously disgraceful" actress and celebrity Tallulah Bankhead, channeled, in a very interesting bit of casting, by Stefanie Powers. Stefanie Powers was actually herself part of the event being dramatized, having co-starred with Bankhead in the very movie in question, and given that Powers has of late distinguished herself as another faded and dotty star, namely Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, she is an utter natural for the role. (more...)

BWW Reviews: THE LAST FIVE YEARS at Spotlighters is a Delight

Jason Robert Brown's score is worth the visit. (more...)

BWW Review: Ease on Down and See THE WIZ at Toby's

What really puts the show across, however, is the songs. The wealth of black pop of the mid-70s is on display here, including power-pop ballads (THE FEELING WE ONCE HAD) and disco (EMERALD CITY BALLET), with definite echoes of the Shaft Theme in the TORNADO BALLET. And here this great music is put across by pros. (more...)

BWW Reviews: ASHLEY BROWN'S BROADWAY with the Baltimore Symphony – Young Talent Charms Strathmore Audience

Ashley's joy at performing is infectious and she has the talent to back it up. (more...)