Tina Collins - Page 2

A high energy musical history of The Four Seasons that hits all the right notes.

Be their guest at the Hippodrome for Disney's lavish musical, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Ghosts, orphans, broken hearts, gloomy manors, resilient spirits and the healing power of nature spring forth from the pages of the classic story to the stage in this magical producition.

Jane Austen's love story between proud Mr. Darcy and prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet receives a lively adaption at Center Stage.

You're still a good man, Charlie Brown. Even as you cross the minefield of modern adolescence. Even when dealing with loss. Even when questioning while everyone else has the answers. Even when all your friends are falling like dominoes clicking down the line. You, Charlie Brown, once the patron saint of losers, stand strong in the hormonal storm of puberty.

in the East Coast Debut of Kemp Powers new play ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI

The Pumpkin Theatre's ALADDIN & THE MAGIC LAMP is a colorful and charming version of the famous fairy-tale. My delightful five-year-old guest became so engrossed in the story she forgot to sit down and looked like she might fly onto the stage to rescue the hero and his princess from the evil clutches of the dastardly villains. It's always heartening to see the digital generation put aside their gadgets and fall under the spell of classic theater.

For Baltimore theater goers, a show at the Hippodrome is a must-see experience. The ornate charm of this historical gem sets an anticipatory air of excitement for the audience. It's proven to be versatile in its staging of both new and old Broadway whether elaborate or intimate. The most recent production, ONCE, is a successful example of the Hippodrome's ability to stretch and contract its personality to fit the style of a small indie movie as well as any elaborate Disney extravaganza.

A wicked comedy of manners (or lack thereof) that displays our best intentions and our worst behavior.

Sometimes it takes a village, but here, it just takes two very talented actors to bring a village to life. Playwright Marie Jones and actors Clinton Brandhagen and Todd Lawson take an old story and make it new by presenting it as a two-man play. The results are a thoroughly entertaining acting tour-de-force.

TICK, TICK...BOOM is Jonathan Larson's story before he wrote Rent. Social issues, plotlines and melodic phrasing made famous in that rock opera are in formation here. It's simpler than Rent with its own quirky charm. The story is not new, but the performers are refreshing, and the real-life tragedy adds new meaning to the main character's obsession with his looming milestone birthday.

For playwright and physician, Madeline Leong, all the emotions doctors are encouraged to keep in check have found an inspired outlet in her new play STAGE IV. The medical backdrop provides the perfect canvas to display how differently people respond to some of the most critical moments of their life.

Affluent Americans slinging veiled insults and witty retorts is a favorite spectator sport for theatregoers. Family dysfunction transformed into verbal repartee exchanged in a cloud of cigarette smoke and alcohol was especially in vogue in those swinging, drinking eras of the early to mid- twentieth century. First performed in 1966, A DELICATE BALANCE, by Edward Albee (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), is a densely worded drawing room dramedy. It's a well-ordered setting for the messy lives living in it.

With EQUUS, the Spotlighters Theatre puts on what may well be the best show I've seen them perform. All aspects of the production are superbly executed, and the intimate space is an ideal venue for this taut psychodrama written by Peter Shaffer (Amadeus).

Ancient Hebrew mythology describes the Ziz as a bird resembling a Griffin standing so large that its head knocks against the sky, and its wingspan blots out the sun.

If you wish to escape the bleak freeze of January in the happy land of Disney but can't get to Orlando, go to the Hippodrome. Strap yourself into a theater seat and get swept up in the ravishing theatrical ride of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

Enter Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel on the eve of April 4, 1968. It is the last night of Martin Luther King's life.

Sometimes in life what is needed most is editing. And so it goes with the Strand's original production of WHAT A GIRL WANTS. The play centers on a group of women preparing for a charity fashion show. Stacks of clothes next to the stage serve as a metaphor for a play that suffers from clutter. There are too many characters spending too much time carrying and hanging up all those clothes. All the words get lost in the back and forth and coming and going.

Anyone concerned that the digital age has extinguished imagination in the young will find it's alive and well at the Pumpkin Theatre. When the children are asked to participate in its production of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, their delight is infectious.