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Are you in the mood for an ensemble romp, some familiar stories, an ethics-heavy main character, beautiful harmonies and a good meal? In GODSPELL at Toby’s, a cast of stalwart Toby’s regulars create beautiful moments individually and in groups. Directors Mark Minnik and David James update the storytelling to include contemporary iconography.

Attending the musical ELF in July, (and August) in the air-conditioned comfort of Toby's, which is featuring reduced capacity pod seating until further notice, is a sweet novelty, and a community-supportive way to emerge from seventeen months of dormancy. You're in for holiday sweetness with heart and soul and singing and dancing and sparkle and jolly and a side of cheese. It's delicious food for the soul.

Grab your sexy heels and see KINKY BOOTS: Outstanding newcomers and perennial favorites get their kicks on at Toby's Dinner Theatre in Columbia, Maryland. Mark Minnick directs an unconventionally heartwarming story exploring relationships not often spotlighted in theatric productions. DeCarlo Raspberry dazzles as Lola, and Matt Hirsch masters Charlie Price in Toby's intimate dinner theater setting, creating an evening jam-packed with sparkle, surprise and songs by Cyndi Lauper.

Hang your stockings, mull your beverage of choice and light up your leg lamp, then go to Toby's in Columbia to see A Christmas Story, The Musical, music and lyrics written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, book by Joseph Robinette. It's a sweet series of youthful holiday escapades full of quirky characters, brought to you with a wealth of warm fuzzies, in Toby's usual heartwarming style.

There's much to like about this production of THE BODYGUARD, story aside. It's predictable, superficial and just barely passes the Bechdel-Wallace test. The script is measurably better than the story and the performance is even better than the script. Ross Scott Rawlings' accompanying mini-orchestra is flat-out terrific, and there are some extremely interesting tech things happening. Overall, a strong thumbs-up.

Ready for some young energy at Toby's in Columbia? Here's a whole high school musical of less-frequently featured faces! The company dances Mark Minnick's fun choreography like they go together forever, bedecked in rolled denim jeans, wiggle skirts, saddle shoes, Chuck Taylor sneakers, product-heavy hair and pink satin jackets- in short, just what you expect of GREASE.

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG is a farce about a whodunnit that keeps going in spite of itself. It begins at 'funny,' blazes past 'hilarious' and 'side-splitting' straight to 'uproarious,' then ramps it up in Act II. The award-winning script includes slapstick, repetition, mispronunciation, callbacks, prop comedy, crowding, unexpected entrances, pantomime, reversals, costume malfunctions, role switching, overacting, inappropriateness and an astonishing number and variety of spit-takes. The eight cast members are in every way awe-inspiring and terrific. Get it right and go to THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG. Being left out of the fun would be an awful shame.

Is Hamlet mad or not?What is his moral duty? Is he always an ass, or just going through a rough patch? To be or not to be? Baltimore Shakespeare Factory delivers HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK in Original Pronunciation with verve and depth, while answering some important questions. BSF, dedicated to accuracy and education, presents one show a season in Original Pronunciation, a must-do experience for Shakespeare nerds. The pre-show festivities, finely done and recommended, are in Original Pronunciation to attune one's ear.

Director Lance Bankerd and a top-notch cast deliver Tom Stoppard's ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, an existential comedy favorite, at Fells Point Corner Theatre in a way that is familiar, fresh, hilarious, pathetic and inevitable. Lighting is well-timed, sound cues unflawed, and acoustics of the theater render whispers and mutterings indistinct yet audible, and you could even be chosen to become part of the show, if you so consent.

Victor Hugo's 1833 love letter to an old cathedral is set in 1482, and it's curious to note that in the nearly six hundred intervening years, there is much that is unchanged regarding social injustice, racial persecution and sexual abuse by religious leaders. Production values are high, while fancy choreography steps aside in service to imaginative vertical and distance movement sequences. The whole production relies on human-centric theatrical artifices THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME plays at Toby's through May 19th, 2019

THE KING AND I plays through Sunday, February 24th at the Hippodrome in Baltimore. Singing and dancing along to the oh-so-familiar tunes is going a bit far, though some members of the audience are humming to themselves as the orchestra begins to tune.

The young, energetic cast of ROCK OF AGES' 10th Anniversary Tour is too young to have even been conceived on any Prom Night before 1993, but they don't seem to mind. The script, such as it is, builds stock scenarios and characters to form a through-line for more than 30 big-hair eighties rock standards that are the backbone and muscle of the ROCK OF AGES experience. The band is top notch, handling all the quirks and signatures of big-hair rock like champions. Enjoy this revisitation of your youth as performed by the greatest '80s cover group you're likely to encounter.

Cathy Mundy as Momma Rose creates a faceted character with depth, backstory and motivation. The Ensemble is full of experienced leading men and women who blend beautifully and as Louise, MaryKate Brouillet manages to look about fourteen years old for most of the show before her Act II transformation. Full of catchy tunes, powerhouse vocalists, lively choreography and adorable children, Toby's Dinner Theatre in Columbia's production of GYPSY is an impressive crowd-pleaser.

Though it's not billed as a musical, there's quite a bit of singing in Chesapeake Shakespeare's A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Anchored by strong character work, the production diverges from the format of 'straight play' by featuring wonderful harmonies and active, authentic-looking dances. Visual interest is high with action on three levels of staging, brisk pacing, brilliant costuming and dramatic special effects. Charles Dickens' effervescent dialogue and narrative paired with writer Ian Gallanar's adjustments create a classic rendition with a special Christmas In Baltimore flourish, a successful adaptation full of little surprises.

Toby's Dinner Theatre Of Columbia presents Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID through March as its holiday show. THE LITTLE MERMAID is lively, fun, and a genuine kid-pleaser. It's packed full of A-list Toby's veterans, with technical trappings that are dazzling to behold. Director Mark Minnick puts top-notch talent to work with energetic staging that's clean and inclusive of the in-the-round audience. THE LITTLE MERMAID will ring true for parents, teens, and anyone who has felt like a fish out of water. It's a story of acceptance, which is the best of gifts, at the holidays and always.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF is a wonderful show about joy amidst harsh circumstances, the importance of family and community. It's also about Tradition! It's nice to see familiar things updated but not bastardized. The cast is consistently wonderful with harmonious singing and excellent dancing throughout the show, with visually striking staging of sequences that don't technically qualify as dances.

BAROCOCO is all-of-a-piece, a day in the life, or perhaps a year elapses. It's hard to tell. It's a study in contrasts, a lace-trimmed veil across the face of Godot. It's resplendent and silly, ridiculous and desolate, hilarious and horrible. In BAROCOCO, Happenstance Theatre is making Important Social Commentary. A historic piece which is currently relevant, beautiful and funny is a rarity in the world. Treat yourself to this fabulously stunning morsel of meaningful ephemera.

Are you looking for a rollicking good cabaret show and a hearty meal? Are you in the mood for a musical history lesson? How about both? Toby's in Columbia presents AIN'T MISBEHAVIN,' The Fats Waller Musical Show through November 4th, and you should sit right down and buy yourself a ticket.

REP delivers a punk treatment of Sweeney Todd that is astoundingly compact, hideously dynamic and impressively submersive. The set is efficiently arranged, a versatile, vertically integrated playing space, full of grunge and London-isms. The Company members display powerful, accurate and impressive vocal prowess. Every one of them is physically precise, flexible and compelling. Director Joseph Ritsch has confidence in his cast's ability to manage multiple roles, so they form the Ensemble as well. This retro-modern treatment of Sondheim's popular opera makes salient points about who are the most fragile and disenfranchised people of a community and the destructive powers of a personal agenda.

Musical theatre is about happy endings: if you like them, see MAMMA MIA!, at Toby's through September 9th. Heather Marie Beck and Maggie Dransfield as mother and daughter Donna and Sophie Sheridan are delightful and heartwarming. Disco, universally accepted as delicious, is the keystone of this show, whether or not you love or have heard of ABBA. In today's tumult, an escape to a tropical paradise where conflict stems from wedding angst and family drama seems a wonderful notion.