Arts and Culture (Theatre Reviews)

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Davina Grace Hill - 10/20/11

Grace and Glorie

A clichéd pairing of opposites turns dying into a Hallmark production in this Bowie Community Theatre effort

Dying is one drama we all star in. This makes it an irresistible subject for playwrights, actors and directors. Grace and Glorie, now playing at Bowie Community Theatre, has death and dying as its focus and personal relationships as its theme. Grace is a dying woman who left hospice to return to her rural home to die alone. Glorie is a hospice volunteer who followed Grace to bring her the pain medications she had left behind. As the play progresses, you learn that Glorie is...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 10/13/11

An Undignified Dramedy

Logistically challenging, Dignity Players’ attention to detail shows.

Sordid Lives, a black comedy about white trash, rode a wave of financial and critical success for over a decade, from L.A.’s theater scene to film and TV credits. Playwright Del Shores did it by playing on stereotypes that feed social discord, from homophobia to fundamentalism, from the country club to the trailer park. His characters are as big as Texas, comic diversions of tragic proportions. Underneath the honky-tonk hijinks is a sweet story about a family’s struggle for unity...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Davina Grace Hill - 10/6/11

Bay Theatre Company’s Wit

Two hours to ponder the bearings on which a life rests

In Wit, Bay Theatre Company tackles a heartfelt and erudite play about a woman coming to terms with cancer. As a professor of John Donne’s literature, Dr. Vivian Bearing — superbly rendered by Rena Cherry Brown — has lived her life immersed in the minute distinctions of words and punctuation. Scholarship and inquiry have ruled her life. Now she approaches death while studying her own life and analyzing the medical profession that, in turn, is analyzing and...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 9/22/11

Colonial Players’ Unexpected Guest

Even the actors don’t know whodunit in this appealing mystery

The works of Agatha Christie, the queen of murder and reportedly the best-selling author of all time, are timeless because her characters transcend their settings. The privileged classes, it seems, are no happier than the rest of us, so we adore their frailties as much as the grandeur that surrounds them. Christie mysteries are box-office gold even when they’re so-so; Colonial Players’ The Unexpected Guest is diamond-studded platinum. As this production’s...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 9/1/11

2nd Star Production’s The Foreigner

After two Irene cancellations, expect pent-up energy to enhance fine acting, staging and special effects in the last seven shows of this comedy about mis-communication

The lines of communication were abuzz all last week as first an earthquake and then a hurricane shook up our complacency. Natural phenomena often herald unwelcome change, and so it is in 2nd Star’s latest comedy about language, Larry Shue’s The Foreigner, which opens as a thunderstorm, ushers two Brits into backwoods Georgia, home of Southern hospitality and small-minded xenophobes. This award-winning show played to critical acclaim at the Bay Theatre last winter...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 8/18/11

This Hairspray Won’t Let You Down

Beneath the fun and fluff is the true history of Baltimore kids caught at the color line

A good hairspray delivers lasting style that looks sleek and natural, and at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre’s final musical of the season that’s just what you get. This story may seem like pure fluff with its comical dance steps and exaggerated hairdos. But it’s based on historical events surrounding a real TV show, Baltimore’s popular teen-dance showcase The Buddy Dean Show, transformed for this script into The Corny Collins Show. It’s a place...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 8/11/11

Dignity Players’ Doubt

No doubt it would be a sin to miss it

Dignity Players has a fine reputation for staging plays of social significance, and Doubt is no exception — except in its quality. It’s so much more than good that it’s pretty near perfect. John Patrick Shanley’s 2005 Pulitzer and Tony award-winning play is riveting enough already for its honest and clever treatment of the clergy pedophilia scandal, but with performances rivaling those of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars — Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Diana Beechener - 8/11/11

Can-Can

Talent Machine’s 13- to 18-year-old thespians bring to life Cole Porter’s Can-Can

Talent Machine’s 13- to 18-year-old thespians bring to life Cole Porter’s Can-Can, a musical about the music, dance, love and artistry of 1890s’ Paris. Featuring the songs Never Give Anything Away, I Am in Love and Come Along with Me. Fri. Aug. 12 & Sat. Aug. 13 at 7:30pm. Key Auditorium, St. John’s College, Annapolis. $12 w/age discounts: 410-956-0512; www.talentmachine.com.

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Davina Grace Hill - 7/28/11

Bowie Community Theatre’s Language of Angels

You may be done with the past, but the past is never done with you.
—Magnolia (1999)

That aphorism sums up the point and the effect of Bowie Community Theatre’s ambitious Language of Angels. Whether they are angels, ghosts or memories, voices from our past accompany, haunt and speak to us throughout our lives. They rarely speak in a linear or logical way, and often we aren’t sure of their message. Playwright Naomi Iizuka sets Language of Angels in a string of North Carolina caves frequented by teens. Tragedies have happened...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 7/21/11

Infinity Theatre Company’s Little Shop of Horrors

Musical comedy doesn’t get any better than this toothy horror story.

Broadway’s most profitable show ever, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s sci-fi musical Little Shop of Horrors, is now playing at Infinity Theatre Company, a professional troupe from New York that is the area’s newest addition to the summer arts scene. If you missed their Annapolis debut with My Way last month, you’ll definitely want to take in this last show of their season. The host venue, The Children’s Theatre of Annapolis, may seem out of the way, but I promise...