CARDINAL HICKEY ACADEMY

by Cybele Pomeroy - April 09, 2024

The fairytale magic of Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST The Musical is on opulent display at Toby's Dinner Theatre in Columbia, directed by Mark Minnick. This family favorite, packed with stunning performances and resplendent costumes, delivers the enchantment of live theater through June 16th, 2024...

by Jack L. B. Gohn - February 19, 2024

There are great depths here, and great wisdom, and Playwright Ellen McLoughlin’s handiwork and that of Chesapeake Shakespeare convey them well. It is good to see a Shakespeare-oriented theater applying its tools and insights to other material from time to time, particularly classical material that i...

by Cybele Pomeroy - February 04, 2024

A CHORUS LINE at Toby’s in Columbia through March 10th, 2024- Staff are warm and helpful, the atmosphere is welcoming and the production is wonderful. If you’re a fan of musical theater, A CHORUS LINE will resonate. It’s a visual and auditory delight, with complex dance numbers and Marvin Hamlisch’...

by Cybele Pomeroy - January 30, 2024

RENT is an assemblage of romantic tragedy interspersed with moments that touch your heart, rattle your nerves or tickle your funny bone, set in the gritty underbelly of New York at the height of the AIDS epidemic. The show is a tribute to the spirit of people undaunted by poverty, addiction and illn...

by Jack L. B. Gohn - January 15, 2024

Playwright Suzan Lori-Parks evidently likes to swing for the fences. In The Book of Grace, now being presented by Rapid Lemon, he is fearless in presenting an extravagantly exaggerated and often violent version of the realities she sees in our country today. Despair seems the only reasonable respons...

by Cybele Pomeroy - November 13, 2023

Here is wonderful dark magic at work. The wizarding workshop is Do Or Die Productions, its owner/ director/ writer, CJ Crowe, the magician, and her brainchild, POE'S LAST STANZA the spell. The magic of live theater, collective imagination, and audience-driven improvisation are the ingredients in Cro...

by Jack L. B. Gohn - November 06, 2023

Scena Theatre productions are never mere theatrical comfort food; they generally have classical or European roots and, whether comic or tragic, they are always intellectually serious affairs, out to show us or make us think about interesting matters. And this show is no exception. With not only [Nob...

by Timoth David Copney - October 25, 2023

What did our critic think of FUNNY GIRL at The Hippodrome? When I was a kid, I wanted nothing so much as to be Barbara Streisand in Funny Girl. I mean, it literally shaped my career aspirations. And I desperately wanted to see the stage version, having practically worn out my LP of the Broadway musi...

by Cybele Pomeroy - September 19, 2023

SISTER ACT at Toby's in Columbia is a delightfully energetic show that is woman-driven and relationship-positive. Songwriter Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater (of Disney fame) create numbers specifically for theatrical production of the movie-inspired script. Ear-pleasing harmonies abound in an ...

by Jack L. B. Gohn - September 10, 2023

A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, translated, adapted, and directed by Joanie Schultz, runs through September 28, at Everyman Theatre. Read our review of A Doll's House here!...