Review: THE BALTIMORE WALTZ at Rep Stage - A Poignant Play about Love and Death

There are some plays that just stick to you. I first saw Paula Vogel's THE BALTIMORE WALTZ in 1992 at Center Stage where it starred the remarkable Robert Dorfman and was directed by Tony winner Michael Grief (four years before his smash musical RENT). It was an inspirational experience that I still recall.

Hats off to Columbia's wonderful Rep Stage for bringing it back to life once again under the superb and smart direction by Suzanne Beal. This production inaugurates a season featuring the work of contemporary women playwrights in collaboration with the Women's Voices Theatre Festival, in which over 50 professional theaters in the DC area will present a world premiere of a play by a female playwright during the fall of 2015. What a great way to start.

This Obie Award winning play is an homage to Vogel's brother Carl who died of complications due to AIDS in 1988 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. It was initially work shopped in Alaska twenty-five years ago, in 1990, at the Perseverance Theatre where Arena Stage's Molly Smith was Artistic Director and was first produced at the Circle Repertory Company in New York in February 1992, just months before the Center Stage production.

The Rep Stage program includes a note from the playwright in which she recounts that prior to her brother Carl passing, he invited her to join him on an excursion to Europe. Due to the "pressures of time and money", she declined. The play is in essence an homage to her brother and by the use of fantasy, they do actually have that European adventure. It's a play about living and not putting things off.

The brother, also named Carl, is played by Ben Cunis in a simply wonderful performance. I've seen Cunis perform before. He has been a Company Member of Synetic Theatre known for their impressive and earth shattering dance plays. He doesn't need to dance here but does at the very end when he and his sister do a heart-wrenching waltz.

Playing his sister Anna is Michelle Eugene and she is just a joy to watch on stage.

Vogel uses a "third man" throughout and Sasha Olinick is just tremendous playing a plethora of different characters.

THE BALTIMORE WALTZ is a quick 90 minutes without an intermission. It literally flies by. You will be thoroughly entertained. Just make sure you bring your imagination.

Credit to William K. D'Eugenio (Sound Design), Marianne Meadows (Lighting Design), Andrea "Dre" Moore (Properties Design) , Jessica Welch (Costume Design) , and special kudos to Collin Ranney for clever Scenic Design. It's amazing what they can do in the small and intimate Studio Theatre. Check out their very informative "Audience Guide" available at www.repstage.org.

THE BALTIMORE WALTZ is a haunting elegy about life. It continues until Sept. 13, 2015. Friday night, Sept. 11 there is a post-show discussion and there is a pre-show lecture prior to the Saturday evening performance on September 12. For tickets, call 443-518-1500.

Next up is TECHNICOLOR LIFE by Jami Brandli, a world premiere, running October 21 to November 8, 2015, and directed by Joseph W. Ritsch.

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