Jen Poiry

The wait is finally over. One of Fort Wayne's favorite holiday traditions, the Holiday Pops, is back at the Embassy Theatre. The Fort Wayne Philharmonic's two-week, five-performance event doesn't disappoint.

Just in time for the Halloween season, Arena Dinner Theatre brings back a creepy old theatrical thriller, 'Veronica's Room.' Written by Ira Levin, who also wrote 'Rosemary's Baby,' the 1973 play has an early '70s horror vibe that isn't seen onstage much these days. But given audience reactions on opening night and at the preview performance, maybe it should.

It's not often that a theatrical production makes me laugh until I cry during the opening number and continue sniffling with laugh-tears for almost 90 solid minutes. But that was my experience at opening night of '[title of show]' at Three Rivers Music Theatre.

It's a shame that Noel Coward plays aren't produced more often. With online TV series trending toward witty dialogue, it seems like theatre audiences might be ready to be re-introduced to the English playwright-who also happened to be a songwriter, director, actor, and singer. Opening weekend audiences of the First Presbyterian Theater production of his semi-autobiographical comedy Present Laughter certainly enjoyed themselves.

Star Spangled Girl at Arena Dinner Theatre

Arena Dinner Theatre closes out its 2017-18 season with Stephen Sondheim's brilliant A Little Night Music. The 1973 hit musical weaves the stories of multiple love triangles involving an actress, a count and his wife, and a lawyer and his family, as facilitated by a Greek chorus of servants (sung by Brad Davis, Renee Gonzales, Andrew Gross, Leah Wedler, and Mineli Manoukian). Both hilarious and romantic, the show takes the audience on a wild weekend in the country where everyone plots to find love with the person of their choice.

Arena Dinner Theatre specializes in charming comedies featuring middle-aged women, and its latest production, Calendar Girls, fits right in.

One of the true joys of the Arena Dinner Theatre is its ability to pack a wide variety of styles and genres into a single season. After a musical drama, a murder mystery, and two comedies, Arena gives us a classic drama: 'The Glass Menagerie.' The semi-autobiographical play by Tennessee Williams was written in 1944, it takes place in 1937 during the Depression. It gives a fictionalized back story of his mentally unstable sister, their overbearing mother, and his own escape from the harsh reality he grew up in.