tony awards

Form the creators of "Next to Normal," "If/Then" features the dynamic Idina Menzel in a sometimes confusing musical about a woman restarting her life in New York.

Irish playwright Martin McDonagh's "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," on stage at Laurel Mill Playhouse through Nov. 24, is a dark comedy that mocks political violence. FIrst performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London 2001, "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" earned a Tony Award nomination for best play on Broadway in 2006.

Abstract Expressionist Mark Rothko is the subject of a play that explores the philosophy and ideals of art, all given vivid life in Everyman Theatre production.

'Jersey Boys' opens Nov. 12 at Hippodrome

if you want proof that truth can be stranger than fiction, check out Doug Wright's "I Am My Own Wife." It's a documentary-style play based on interviews this contemporary American playwright did with an elderly transvestite who lived openly during the German Nazi regime and subsequently the East German communist regime.

"The Velocity of Autumn," starring Academy Award-winner Estelle Parsons, is a powerful play that's funny, serious, sentimental, and a realistic take on the ups and downs the elderly and their friends and family often go through if the aging process gets complicated.

Dignity Players' current production of the play, "Art," is a near-flawless effort — a must-see work for everyone who values friendship and realizes what art contributes to life.

It was a sunny October afternoon in 2011 when Caroline Bowman's childhood dream came true.

One of the top television series of the summer of 2013 has a Harford County native among its cast members, an actor who has spent nearly 25 years working with some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry.

Long before Kevin Liles became a Grammy-winning songwriter and hip-hop music mogul, well before he reached millionaire status, and began to hobnob with Oprah, Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama, he grew up humbly in West Baltimore.

"Les Miserables" made history long ago.

Columbia Digest

At Kennedy Center, Tony Award-winning religious farce is disarmingly nutty

The recent opening of the musical "Annie" at Chesapeake Arts Center was, for the Pasadena Theatre Company, a homecoming celebration.

For two evenings last week, heavy rains delayed the scheduled opening of Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre's current show — which seemed appropriate for a musical entitled "[title of show] (clean version)" about the obstacle-laden process of creating a musical.

Infinity Theatre Company starts its third season of bringing Broadway-caliber productions to Broadneck Peninsula with "Always …Patsy Cline," a show that may very well top the troupe's offerings to date in its emotional power, conveying the relationship between two women friends.

We'll never know what Hansberry might have had in store for the Younger family if she had written a sequel, but at Center Stage in Baltimore, the works of two playwrights who have given it a shot are currently on stage. Last month, the theater kicked off its "Raisin Cycle," in which two spinoffs of "A Raisin in the Sun" are running in rotation, using the same actors and stage, through June 16.

In offering the regional premier of the 2008 Tony award-winning musical "In the Heights," Toby's Dinner Theatre of Columbia has reached a new height of its own.

From its start, Infinity Theatre Company has had a mission to bring New York City productions to Anne Arundel County. It was a goal fulfilled in the troupe's first full season in 2011 with the show, "My Way," that played in Annapolis after it had previewed in Manhattan two months before.

Kwame Kwei-Armah's absorbing, provocative new play is inspired by the Lorraine Hansberry classic 'Raising in the Sun' and the Bruce Norris hit 'Clybourne Park.'

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre will begin its 47th season of theater under the stars on May 23 with Paul Kelly's "Swing."

As a Broadway musical with a Latin beat, "In the Heights" rises pretty high. Set in the Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, it fuses the traditional sound of Latin music with contemporary hip-hop energy. The vibrant result makes for a lively show at Toby's Dinner Theatre of Columbia.

Actress appears in 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike'; producer is Baltimore native Cricket Hooper Jiranek.

Michael Mayer teamed with punk rock star Billy Joe Armstrong to make hit musical, coming to Hippodrome.

Bruce Norris' Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play 'Clybourne Park,' a kind of sequel to the 1959 classic 'A Raisin in the Sun,' receives a vibrant Baltimore premiere from Center Stage.

The Colonial Players' production of the musical "1776" reminds us that fiery debate has been with our nation from the outset.

Yasmina Reza's biting, Tony Award-winning play 'God of Carnage' gets an effective staging from Everyman Theatre.

Mel Brooks' "The Producers" is a good show about a bad show.

Stefanie Powers, stepping into the role for Valerie Harper, brings the inimitable Tallulah Bankhead to life in Matthew Lombardo's comedy 'Looped,' now onstage at Baltimore's Hippodrome.

'Home,' an endearing, fable-like play by Morgan State alum Samm-Art Williams about the life-journey of a young African American farmer, receives an effective production from Rep Stage.

Tidewater Players, the community theater of Havre de Grace, is tackling the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning drama, "Proof," by David Auburn.

Film evolves again, into concert form, with the BSO handling the music

Fred Lazarus, Tom Hall, other arts figures attend opening

Vibrant production provides a fitting display for the handsome new facility.

Theatergoers in search of a dark comedy, a light musical or an adventure told in imaginative stage action will find all three in productions now showing at nearby venues.

In this new year, we're enjoying memories from last year's highlights on Anne Arundel's theater scene - and looking forward to encore performances in 2013.

A British coal mining strike in 1984 seems like a rather sooty setting for an inspirational story, but that gave audiences all the more reason to root for a miner's son who aspires to be a ballet dancer in the 2000 movie "Billy Elliot." Its theatrical adaptation won 10 Tony Awards in 2009, including best musical, and now that touring Broadway show has come to the Hippodome Theatre.

Issues in 'Billy Elliot' resonate with boys studying ballet at Peabody Preparatory

Directed by veteran theater artist and Laurel resident Michael V. Hartsfield, Laurel Mill Playhouse's holiday production of "Annie" proves as fresh as it is familiar. Drawing from excited local talent of all ages and assisted by debuting musical director Alice Laurissa and executive producer Maureen Rogers, of Laurel, the Playhouse's performance of the classic easily steps up to focus on the enduring power of optimism.

Anne Arundel County Briefs

Howard County datebook

Harford County school officials have announced the Bel Air Drama Company's (Bel Air High School) fall production dates and times for "13: The Musical" have changed, as a result of this week's storm-related school closings.

Comedian and actress Whoopi Goldberg brings her stand-up show to Baltimore's Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric.

Singer to feature program of pop, jazz standards in Baltimore concert