135 stories by "John Harding"
Don't let those off-putting promos for Kill Move Paradise at Rep Stage Co. stop you from turning out for its solid regional premiere at Howard Community College. This 2016 piece of theater i…
Sizzle sells, or as Kinky Boots proved on Broadway in 2013, "The Sex Is In the Heel." Â Why was the musical named Kinky Boots? Maybe Fetish Footwear didn't have quite the same kick. … S…
Jesus wears his hair in a man-bun and Mary Magdalene appears a bit like a millennial caught outside her "safe space""but there's still plenty of power and glory on display in the new 50th An…
On stage, Aladdin starts out as the perfect musical for nine-year-olds. But by the time its two swooning lovers have hopped aboard a flying carpet for a trip to the moon, all moms and dads i…
At Rep Stage in Howard County, Bob Bartlett's new play E2 certainly proves it can make a head-turning entrance. This bold and sensuous take on the oft-told tale of King Edward II unfolds aga…
Baltimore's fussy old Hippodrome Theatre is the ideal setting for any show dealing with fin de siècle madmen acting out obsessive love fantasies. So consider it a reward to have a thrilling…
Suspense-thrillers used to make up a sizable portion of every dinner theater menu, but the days of Death Trap and Agatha Christie yarns have given way to a nearly non-stop diet of musical en…
The notion that "history has its eyes on you" animates and obsesses the title character in Hamilton. A similar shadow of destiny heralded the Maryland debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda's unstoppab…
For Rep Stage Co.'s The 39 Steps, disaster is never more than one step away. With only four actors re-enacting an entire vintage spy movie right before our eyes and assuming some 140 differe…
Ideally, Come From Away should be seen in the round, with the audience gathered so close by that it can share the claustrophobia, fear and love of all those grounded passengers. It's a pity …
Tucked inside the new live musical retelling of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Toby's Dinner Theatre is an altogether wonderful concert staging that should not be missed. The s…
Ticket holders for The Book of Mormon national tour had better be prepared to exercise a muscle that doesn't get much of a workout these days " the one that controls the "personally offended…
Thanks to some first-rate shape-shifting at Rep Stage, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 is almost as much a work of animation as it is a documentary. Oh, and let's not forget magic act. Danielle …
We can hold our breath but we're never likely to get another musical as perfect as Gypsy. Sixty Broadway seasons ago it caught the unique charms and pathology of show business in a magic bub…
With a winning young actor in the lead role, any ticket to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is good as gold. Eleven-year-old Rueby Wood made the perfect Charlie Bucket the night we attended…
There's nothing wrong with Anastasia: The New Broadway Musical that a little modern relevance wouldn't cure. It certainly looks sensational inside the grand proscenium framing of Baltimore's…
The Little Mermaid is bringing big waves of happy little faces to Toby’s Dinner Theatre. Whether they come adorned in magical gowns with sparkling tiaras or sneakers that light up with…
The spirits of displacement and change hang heavily over Fiddler on the Roof these days. What keeps it all from becoming, well, dispiriting is the heartfelt humanity evident in every timeles…
The mental province that stretches from magical thinking to ordinary self-delusion is given a new survey in Callie Kimball's Things That Are Round, now having its world premiere via the Equi…
The Hippodrome Theatre has bookended its 2018 season with a pair of heavy-lifting musicals about democracy and revolution. For openers, it has that 30th-anniversary touring production of Les…
Just months after finishing its final pro tour, Mamma Mia! has hit us closer to home at Toby's Dinner Theatre. In the hands of Director-Choreographer Mark Minnick, the pro caliber of this st…
Politics may have played a key role in driving the future Gloria Estefan from her home in Cuba and positioning her for eventual world acclaim in Miami. But politics hardly merit an "air guit…
Think of the latest "new" Gershwin touring show up at the Hippodrome Theatre " An American in Paris " as a G.I. "jukebox musical" with legs. About a hundred of them, it seems. And, boy oh bo…
America lost its most distinctive theater voice of the 1980s with the passing of Sam Shepard. But that voice still resonates through works like True West, getting a welcome return by Rep Sta…
The fun of seeing Motown the Musical starts a few hours before leaving for the theater. Just the promise of that glorious oldies playlist is like inner ear foreplay. There isn't much that pu…
