Arts and Culture (Theatre Reviews)

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Davina Grace Hill - 7/5/12

Bay Theatre Company’s Rumple Who?

Who — regardless of age — doesn’t love a good story?

Will Bartlett’s light musical adaptation of Rumplestiltskin has run continuously off-Broadway since 1985 with good reason. With its cantankerous characters and timeless moral, Rumple Who? makes an entertaining way for parents and grandparents to share love of theater with their children. The familiar story is distilled, updated and less Grimm than the original with musical summaries for each plot development. In this version, Rumpelstiltskin is a kinder and gentler...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Richard Wilson - 6/28/12

Twin Beach Players’ Twelfth Night, or What You Will

Teens play Shakespeare’s silliest for fun

Put Will Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will, in the hands of the junior corps of Twin Beach Players and what do you get? A celebration performed by actors who seem to be playing for the joy of it. The Players’ uninhibited festival of uncertain purpose may be just what Shakespeare had in mind. As a performance in a carnival spirit, this party is appropriate, given that for Shakespearean England the 12th night after Christmas was occasion for a no-holds-...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 6/21/12

Sisters of Swing

Infinity Theatre presents a gem of a time capsule that sets a new standard for local entertainment

Infinity Theatre Company opened a second summer season at the Children’s Theater of Annapolis to a full house Saturday night with Sisters of Swing, a musical memoir about the Andrews Sisters. With a savvy marketing plan that brings New York talent and tourists to our Capital city — plus kids’ shows at the Bay Theatre Company — Infinity sets the new standard of excellence for local entertainment. The Andrews Sisters — Patty (Julia Burrows), the...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 6/14/12

2nd Star Productions’ Fiddler on the Roof

You’ll come away humming all the standard hits and ready to rent the classic film

Fiddler on the Roof, Broadway and Hollywood’s golden chestnut, is rich as rugelach, oozing joy and pathos. The tale of a Jewish village in Revolutionary Russia was destined for success in the hands of 2nd Star Productions, a troupe with a track record of musical triumphs. But Oy! God is not always so quick to grant his blessings. Such an ambitious enterprise demands more chutzpah from its 39 chosen people than was evident on opening night. Surely you know the story:...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Davina Grace Hill - 6/14/12

Moonlight and Magnolias

Colonial Players explores what It took to make Gone with the Wind

Margaret Mitchell’s publishing blockbuster Gone with the Wind became an iconic American film, but first a screenplay had to be written. Playwright Ron Hutchinson whimsically, hysterically and sometimes seriously turned the Hollywood lore of the scriptwriting into Moonlight and Magnolias, now playing at Colonial Players of Annapolis. Three weeks into filming, without an acceptable script and slow production work by director George Cukor, producer David O. Selznick...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Davina Grace Hill - 6/7/12

Stones in His Pocket

Two actors expand themselves into 15 characters in this Dignity Players performance

Stones in His Pockets, now at Dignity Players, has a wonderful premise: an American film crew comes back to the Irish town where The Quiet Man was filmed decades ago to make another movie. The return provides for a clash of cultures and nationalities, heightened by the incongruities of filmmaking and stereotypical star and fan behaviors. Stones in His Pockets was written by Marie Jones, a writer celebrated in Ireland and the United Kingdom and deserving of greater American...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 5/31/12

Anything Goes

Shining stars illuminate the night with great singing, dancing, Vaudevillian humor and escapist glamour in Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre’s opener

If you hear thunder in historic downtown one of these balmy evenings, don’t run for cover. It might just be the thunder of a synchronized 21-tap salute. The heat is on and so is Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, opening a 46th season with Cole Porter’s 1934 nautical classic Anything Goes. The predictable collides with the absurd, spinning madcap confusion whose sole purpose is to showcase great singing, dancing, Vaudevillian humor and escapist glamour. Think The...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 5/10/12

Going to St. Ives

You’ll see Colonial Players at its best in the cat-and-mouse game of two women

What could be more suitable for Mothers Day than the tale of two mothers sharing tea and sympathy over Blue Willow china: helping each other deal with life’s unexpected twists and turns, bartering favors tit for tat — life for death? Over the past three years, Annapolis stages have featured four plays by the prolific Pulitzer- and Tony-nominated playwright Lee Blessing: Chesapeake, Two Rooms, Fortinbras and now Going to St. Ives, showing through May 19 at Colonial Players. His work...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 5/3/12

Compass Rose Studio Theater’s Oliver!

I was choked up from the moment the somber workhouse orphans marched onstage

Lionel Bart’s musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic Oliver Twist has seen a lot of action in 50 years: 10 Tony nominations and five Oscars, including 1969’s Best Picture. It’s the tale of an innocent orphan among a den of thieves in Victorian London, a story I’ve seen and performed countless times. Yet Compass Rose Studio Theater’s production is in some ways the most memorable, the most heart-wrenching. I was choked up from the...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 4/26/12

The Belle of Amherst

This Bay Theatre Company show will appeal to any with emotion and ears to hear

“How was the play?” my son-in-law, the family sports, poker and comics buff, asked. “Good,” I said, “but two hours of Emily Dickinson wouldn’t be your style.” “Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell,” he said. Poem 96 of her 1800 published posthumously. He knew it by heart. You could have knocked me over with a fountain pen, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Dickinson’s...