Concert Review: Jackie Evancho ‘Songs of the Silver Screen Tour’ with BSO at Meyerhoff

Jackie Evancho. Photo by Keith Munyan.

“America’s Got Talent” child prodigy singing sensation Jackie Evancho made her local concert debut at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore with her Songs of the Silver Screen Tour. Jackie Evancho performed with the world-class Baltimore Symphony Orchestra led by conductor John Mario. The song choices, featuring splendid musical arrangements, ranged from movies and musical theatre [...]

Theatre Review: ‘The Cricket in Times Square’ in Concert performed by the NSO and Guest Artists at the Kennedy Center

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Here is the scenario. A cricket in Connecticut gets a whiff of some food in a picnic basket and ends up in a busy Times Square subway station where he becomes a sensation for his musical talents. How do you translate this to the stage? Well…. you commission a second generation world class musician to [...]

Theatre Review: ‘Show Boat’ (second cast) by Washington National Opera at Kennedy Center

Talise Trevigne and Jennifer Holloway. Photo by Scott Suchman.

The Washington National Opera revives the Broadway standard Show Boat for local audiences. In the program notes by Thomas May, we find out the original Hammerstein libretto was first performed in Washington DC at the National Theatre on November 15, 1927. Originally running 4 hours, this racially charged stage show is an adaptation of Pulitzer [...]

Theatre Review: ‘The Full Monty’ at Silhouette Stages

The men of Hot Metal (l-r, Malcolm [Matthew Acquard], Dave [Micah Chalmer], Jerry [Dean Allen Davis], Ethan [John Aquila], Harold [Matt Melenas], and Horse [Bobby English].

Silhouette Stages’ production of The Full Monty strips bare and shows more of men’s hearts than of their “unmentionables.”  Co-directors Conni Ross and Debbi Mobley have put together a cast that works well together.  I felt their hardships and pain, from their struggling employment situations and relationships  to their lost loves and their determination to [...]

Concert Review: Kathleen Battle and Cyrus Chestnut with the Heritage Signature Chorale in ‘Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey’ at Strathmore Music Center

Kathleen Battle.

It is a rare and valuable moment when music brings out a collective emotional experience. When it goes beyond something that’s pleasing to the ear, to touching something deep inside our humanity, “Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey” was just that – a journey through a musical time period, characterized by the deep longing of a [...]

Concert Review: Ute Lemper performs ‘The Last Tango in Berlin’ at Sixth and I Synagogue

Ute Lemper

Echoing out of 1920′s Berlin, songstress Ute Lemper brought the songs and history of her homeland to the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue this past Saturday. Singing the songs of Weill and Brecht, as well as other period classics, the German-born Lemper wove a tale of memories, evoked and brought to life through music. Her [...]

Theatre Review: ‘The Little Dog Laughed’ at Silver Spring Stage

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Yes, “the little dog laughed” is a familiar line from a beloved children’s nursery rhyme; but make no mistake, the play by the same name is exclusively for grown-ups. Playwright Douglas Carter Beane’s rendition may have an ending reminiscent of “Hey Diddle Diddle,” but his 2006 comedy drama is a far more brazen fable about [...]

Theatre Review: ‘Beneatha’s Place’ at Centerstage

Jonathan Crombie, Jenna Sokolowski, Charlie Hudson, III, Jessica Frances Dukes.
Photo by Richard Anderson.

Centerstage is up and running with the second half of their Raisin Cycle, Beneatha’s Place, Playwright and Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah’s impressive complement and response to their concurrent production of Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park. While the latter play expands the story of the family home in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha’s Place [...]

Opera Review: ‘Rigoletto’ at The Lyric Opera Baltimore

The Duke of Mantua (Bryan Hymel) looks forward to his seduction of Gilda with his courtiers.

To help celebrate the bicentennial of Verdi’s birth, The Lyric Opera Baltimore is presenting his tragic opera Rigoletto as the final selection for their season. If you are familiar with the design of The Lyric, you will know that the names of famous classical composers are etched magnificently on the top portions of the walls surrounding the [...]

Concert Review: ‘The Wizard and I: The Musical Journey of Stephen Schwartz’ at the Kennedy Center

Stephen Schwartz. Photo by Joan Lauren.

The current popularity of composer Stephen Schwartz begins and ends with Wicked, so a National Symphony Orchestra Pops Concert saluting him at the Kennedy Center does so as well.  Conductor Steven Reineke began with a medley of themes from the Oz derived musical marking its 10th anniversary and he ended with Jennifer Laura Thompson and Julia [...]

Theatre Review: ‘The Winter’s Tale’ by Shakespeare Theatre Company

Heather Wood as Perdita,  Mark Harelik as Leontes, Hannah Yelland as Hermione and Todd Bartels as Florizel (background) in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Winter’s Tale, directed by Rebecca Taichman. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

Washington, DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company is well known for its remarkable talent, fearlessness, and ingenuity in reproducing the Bard of Avon’s plays for a contemporary audience. The Winter’s Tale constitutes a particular challenge, because its tone shifts between the third and fourth acts between tragedy and comedy (the reason it is sometimes grouped with Shakespeare’s [...]

Theatre Review: ‘In the Heights’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre of Columbia

Benny (Marquise White), Sonny (Ryan Alvarado), and Usnavi (David Gregory). Photo by  Kirstine Christiansen.

Photo by Kirstine Christiansen.

Toby’s Dinner Theatre of Columbia has hit all the marks with its fabulous regional premier of the four-time 2008 Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights. With music by Lin-Manuel Miranda and book by Quiara Alegría Hudes, it can best be described as a spicy stew of rap/hip-hop/musical/operetta. It is as fresh and infectious as the [...]

Theatre Review: ‘The Submission’ at Olney Theatre Center

Kellee Knighten Hough and Frank De Julio.  Photo by Stan Barouh.

If you’ve ever participated in a writing class or workshop, you’ve likely been told to “write what you know.” It’s pretty standard advice for beginner artists, but may not yield much material if you’ve a limited supply of life experiences. Not to mention, telling someone else’s harrowing tale appeals to the people-watcher in all of [...]

Theatre Review: ‘In The Next Room, or the Vibrator Play’ by the Colonial Players of Annapolis

Lelia TahaBurt (Catherine Givings) and Aricia Skidmore-Williams (Elizabeth). Photo courtesy of Colonial Players.

The Colonial Players of Annapolis, a community fixture for decades in Maryland’s capital, has branched out into new and intriguing territory with its production of Sarah Ruhl’s Tony-nominated comedy about the wages of ecstasy, In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play.  Director Carol Youmans has assembled a wonderful cast and created just the sort [...]