Last summer, the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre performed 50 YEARS UNDER THE STARS, an evening of Broadway songs and dances to celebrate their 50th Anniversary. It was such a hit that they decided to mount another production this year, and after seeing their gorgeous production of RENT last summer, I decided I wasn't going to miss it this time around. LIGHT UP THE STARS opened September 15th and will run until September 24th, on the weekends, and I had the pleasure of seeing it on opening night. After the first few songs, I mentally decided that to really do this show justice, I would need to start creating adjectives that would accurately describe just how amazing this cast was. In short, I was blown away.

LYSISTRATA JONES is a show that I knew next to nothing about before seeing the lovely production this past weekend at the Red Branch Theatre. I had heard one song in a concert of Lewis Flynn music, and had loved it. Also, I knew it was about basketball - which is also a topic I know next to nothing about. So I was excited to see what the show would entail.

Back in the late 1970's Wildwood Summer Theater was producing a disco-themed West Side Story in the old Rockville Mall. In that production was a young high school kid named Michael Mayer who was dancing as a Jet. In 2007, that young kid won a Tony Award for directing the new Broadway Musical, Spring Awakening. Since 1965, WST has been producing shows that feature those between the ages of 14 and 25 in every single aspect. From director to orchestra to designer, every person involved is under 25.

There are few things I love more than finding fun and new things to do outside in the dog days of summer. And lately, it seems that others have shared my love for all things sunshine by planning more and more of these events. One of these events is theatre outside, which may not be a new idea, but it seems more companies are participating in these types of shows. For instance, the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory is performing A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM in the garden of the Evergreen Museum in Baltimore County. Don't get me wrong, I love this particular play in all forms, but there's something special about seeing it outdoors in a garden, seeing as that is the actual setting for the play. And while I've seen a few productions outdoors, I need to say that this particular production was probably the best I've ever seen.

WOWEE WOW WOW!! Junie B. Jones and all of her friends are inhabiting Adventure Theatre this summer for a fun-filled tale of missing gloves, true loves, and fast feet. Fueled by a super colossus performance from pint-size dynamo Megan Graves in the title role and helmed by master director Rick Hammerly, Junie B. Jones is Not a Crook proves that you can enjoy a Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) show at any age.

Imagination Stage's production, directed by Kathryn Chase Bryer) takes elements of Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and adds a bit of his poem, 'The Jabberwocky' to create a musical filled with catchy rock and roll tunes.

Everyone in the theater community of Baltimore seems to be talking about the mad-cap, truly hilarious production of NOISES OFF happening at Everyman Theatre this month. After reading a few glowing reviews, I was finally lucky enough to see it this week. And honestly, I'm not sure the reviews did the show justice. It was spectacular! The time and energy that I'm sure it took the actors to learn and master the choreography alone truly showed in their performances. The entire production was a master class in farce, and I'm not sure I've ever laughed so much in a theater before.

A farce should be full of slamming doors, confusion and missed opportunities. Because of this, you need a stage that's able to accommodate the action and actors that understand exactly what's happening at every point, even if the characters they're playing do not. In the case of SEE HOW THEY RUN playing at the Vagabond Theatre, you have the makings of everything that creates a great farce, even if you don't have the best script.

It must be said. TITLE OF SHOW is an enigma. It's one of those shows that, even after someone has explained it to you, you don't really know exactly what to expect until you take your seat in the theater and the curtain goes up. It's a tricky premise - a show about its own creation. If you really start to think about it too closely, you may come to some sort of philosophical conclusions about life and its meaning. If you just go with it and don't contemplate too much, you'll have a fairly fabulous night at the theater. And honestly, a few good nights at the theater, could lead to a pretty happy life, so I suppose you could thank TITLE OF SHOW for providing you that…

Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book has seen no shortage of adaptations. In addition to its original print form, it's the source for two Disney movies, and a stage adaptation at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago a few years back. Would-be adaptors face as slight problem in that while there is lots of fun within Kipling's stories about a human child named Mowgli being raised by wolves, the story also has a dark side to it that might not work well for the youngest of theatregoers. Imagination Stage in Bethesda, Maryland is currently presenting a new adaptation by Greg Banks of Kipling's work, which will leave your little ones engaged from beginning to end without clawing you to go into the lobby. Older kids and adults are also likely to enjoy themselves, making it a theatergoing experience for the whole family.

The Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland's School of Music is a two-year program for graduate students in Opera Performance. Their ambitious The Orpheus Adventure is a gorgeous endeavor between the School of Music, along with the Theater and Dance Departments.

“Men are like weapons. Women are like wounds.” That is a poignant line and an apt summation of the first part of Forum Theatre's #NastyWomen ethos. The first piece in this horrifying, yet deeply moving, work is Monica Byrne's What Every Girl Should Know, which takes place in 1914 and follows four teen girls in a New York reformatory.

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE: THE SONGS OF TIM RICE IN CONCERT was nothing less than a case study in ambition.

Imagine you've been cast as every actor's dream role - Hamlet in Shakespeare in the Park. Then imagine as you're deciding whether or not to take the role, the ghost of the best Hamlet of all time - John Barrymore - starts haunting you. That's the premise of Dundalk Community Theatre's delightful production of I HATE HAMLET. For lovers of Shakespeare, you can't go wrong with seeing this play. Contrary to its title, the show is basically a love letter to the Bard.

THE BODYGUARD, which officially opened last night in Baltimore at the Hippodrome, is a strange little hybrid of a musical. On one hand, it's a pretty straightforward love story about a girl falling for a boy who has been hired to protect her. On the other, it's a jukebox musical using the works of Whitney Houston as a jumping off point. Both have their positives and negatives but therein lies the problem. Since the producers were so focused on making the show both a love story AND a jukebox musical, neither part received the attention it deserved, and both parts suffered because of it.