Theatre Reviews

Colonial Players’ The Secret Garden

Spread the word about this haunted place of miraculous possibilities where the crippled are made whole, body and soul

Jane Elkin

“I’m sure there is magic in everything,” says the invalid child Colin in The Secret Garden, “only we have not sense to get hold of it.”

article – Theatre Reviews

– by Jane Elkin – 4/14/16

Twin Beach Players’ The Miser

Catch the second weekend of fun and frivolity

Karen Lambert

Time-travel nearly 350 years from the court of King Louis XIV of France to Twin Beach Players’ version of Molière’s 1668 comedy of manners, L’Avare. The Miser, as English has it, completes performer/director Jeff Larson’s production of a Moliere trilogy, including Tartuffe and the Imaginary Invalid, spanning 14 years of theatrical performances by Twin Beach Players. Through all, he’s teamed with company president Sid Curl.

article – Theatre Reviews

– by Karen Lambert – 4/14/16

Compass Rose Theater’s The Diary of Anne Frank

Life, love and inspiration from a humble hiding place

Jim Reiter

The miracle of Anne’s work is that no matter our background, it feels like she is talking directly to us. Indeed. Those are the words of Steve Tobin, the director of Compass Rose’s beautifully constructed production of The Diary of Anne Frank.

article – Theatre Reviews

– by Jim Reiter – 3/24/16

The Wit Hits the Fanjet, and the Laughs Soar

Colonial Players presents a laugh-filled farce with Boeing, Boeing

Jim Reiter

French playwright Marc Camoletti’s Boeing Boeing made a successful takeoff overseas in 1962, playing for seven years in London. But on Broadway three years later, it stalled after 23 performances. A movie version with Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis was widely ignored. But a 2008 Broadway revival was a hit, and that version has landed at Colonial Players in Annapolis.

article – Theatre Reviews

– by Jim Reiter – 2/25/16

The Philadelphia Story

2nd Star Productions updates this classic with color-blind casting

Jane C. Elkin

Legendary acting gave The Philadelphia Story its fame. Philip Barry’s so-so comedic drama about high society marriage and divorce in the 1930s is synonymous with Katherine Hepburn, who debuted the show on Broadway and starred on screen opposite Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. That’s a hard legacy to live up to. Renowned for outstanding musicals, 2nd Star Productions tries to update this classic with color-blind casting. But this time the troupe aims higher than it can reach.

article – Theatre Reviews

– by Jane C. Elkin – 2/11/16

Cat On a Hot Tin Roof

Compass Rose shows why Tennessee Williams deserves his reputation

by Jim Reiter

Reportedly Tennessee Williams’s favorite of his plays — which is saying something — and what many consider his best — which is also saying something when you consider his prolific output — Cat on a Hot Tin Roof premiered on Broadway in 1955 and won that year’s Pulitzer Prize for drama.

article – Theatre Reviews

– by by Jim Reiter – 2/11/16

Three Sisters

Annapolis Shakespeare Company delivers a deep play for thoughtful viewers

Jane C. Elkin

Director Donald Hicken, a Helen Hayes winner and Tony nominee, has adapted Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters to convey with elegant simplicity and exquisite bleakness the provinciality of a place so depressing it is identified only as “not Moscow.” This show is the company’s strongest production to date. But it is not for playgoers with seasonal depression.

article – Theatre Reviews

– by Jane C. Elkin – 2/11/16

Colonial Players’ Venus in Fur

Reconsider what you think you know about relationships, sex and power

Jim Reiter

“Colonial Players might just want to bring playwright David Ives on as a resident artist. Last year, Ives’ witty version of the 17th century French farce The Liar won the company the coveted Ruby Griffith Award from the British Embassy for best all-around production by a Washington-area community theater. Now, Venus in Fur — Ives’ take on a stage version of Venus in Furs, the 1870 novel by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch — is equally entertaining and a perfect fit for Colonial’s intimate theater-in-the-round.

article – Theatre Reviews

– by Jim Reiter – 1/14/16

Twin Beach Players’ A Christmas Carol

The characters we know and love reimagined to renew your spirits

Karen Lambert

After penning A Christmas Carol in six weeks, Charles Dickens explained himself: “I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.” Over 172 years later, a mixed cast of children and adult actors from Twin Beach Players is keeping their spirits into his Ghost of an idea.

article – Theatre Reviews

– by Karen Lambert – 12/10/15

Colonial Players’ Morning’s at Seven

A funny, heartwarming holiday present from a local theater company that has been making Annapolis grateful for 67 years

Jim Reiter

Morning’s at Seven could be dated or boring, this 1930s’ play written about a quartet of aging sisters in Middle America. Instead, Annapolis veteran Rick Wade’s deft direction combines with a timeless script by playwright Paul Osborn and some of this area’s most experienced actors to make us laugh while tugging at our heartstrings.

article – Theatre Reviews

– by Jim Reiter – 12/3/15

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