All stories by Robert Michael Oliver on BroadwayStars

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Theatre Review: ‘The Lady in the Van’ by Unexpected Stage Company at the Randolph Road Theatre by Robert Michael Oliver

Alan Bennett’s 1999 comedy The Lady in the Van, now playing at the Randolph Road Theatre (produced by the Unexpected Stage Company), has a lot going for it.  Bennett’s writing is livel…

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 01:00PM
Thursday, August 1, 2013

Theatre Review: ‘P.O. Box Unabomber’ at Single Carrot Theatre by Robert Michael Oliver

Make no mistake about it, Baltimore’s Single Carrot Theatre has the edge.  If you are looking for an intellectually challenging, experimental theatrical production, then P.O Box Unabombe…

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 09:00AM
Monday, July 29, 2013

Theatre Review: ‘The Birds’ by Quotidian Theatre by Robert Michael Oliver

Writing about the end of the world is hard.  Creating theatre about the end of the world is even harder.  What must it be like facing that horrible, final stop in time? Quotidian Theatre�…

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 05:36PM
Thursday, July 25, 2013

Fringe Review: ‘An Evening with General Ulysses S. Grant’ at Caos of F by Robert Michael Oliver

An Evening with General Ulysses S. Grant, written and performed by Storyteller “Country Joe” Rosier, has a disarming casualness about it.  When Grant enters the small conference space a…

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 07:00AM
Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Fringe Review: ‘They Call Me Q’ at the Gearbox by Robert Michael Oliver

One-person shows are hard, for the performer and for the audience.  For the performer, its difficulties are obvious: you are flying solo without a net or a parachute.  For the audience, w…

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 03:53PM
Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Theatre Review: ‘Heartless’ at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia by Robert Michael Oliver

Sam Shepard’s Heartless is perhaps his best–and definitely his most mature–play, which is not to say it is his most accessible.  For it is not.  In fact, though the charac…

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 03:41PM

Fringe Review: ‘A Day in the Life of Miss Hiccup’ at the Bedroom by Robert Michael Oliver

Very rarely does one get the opportunity to witness a completely meaningless piece of theatrics, and enjoy it.  Usually, even the supposed meaningless has, unbeknownst to the producing arti…

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 07:00AM
Monday, July 22, 2013

Theatre Review: ‘Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah’ at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia by Robert Michael Oliver

Mark St. Germain’s world premiere of Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah is an emotionally taut, funny drama about two of America’s most famous, and important, literary figures, F. Sc…

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 01:13PM

Fringe Review: ‘McPherson Madness’ at Studio by Robert Michael Oliver

The 2011 Occupy Movement profoundly affected the American social landscape, forcing all but the most psychologically reactionary to acknowledge the impact of class on people’s understandin…

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 10:00AM
Sunday, July 21, 2013

Theatre Review: ‘A Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World’ at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia by Robert Michael Oliver

Liz Duffy Adams’s A Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World begins with a promising premise.  Abigail Williams, the young girl whose visions of demons and witches initiated the …

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 12:00PM
Friday, July 19, 2013

Theatre Review: ‘H2O’ at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia by Robert Michael Oliver

“Money money money Water water water” The great American poet Theodore Roethke penned those lines in his famous poem, The Lost Son.  I couldn’t help but remember the phrasing after ex…

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 10:18AM

Theatre Review: ‘Modern Terrorism: or they who want to kill us and how we learn to love them’ at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in She by Robert Michael Oliver

We have now lived with the ubiquitousness of terrorism for more than a dozen years.  During that time we have learned to hate the “terrorist” quite well.  We have also learned to kill …

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 08:00AM
Thursday, July 18, 2013

Through Lines: ‘They Call Me Q’ – Standing Apart, Standing Together by Robert Michael Oliver

Of the 125 productions at this year’s Capital Fringe Festival, 33 are solo performances. There are solo shows about dementia, about Robert F. Kennedy, about what happens when you just say …

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 12:55PM
Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Fringe Review: ‘The Deadly Seven’ at the Warehouse by Robert Michael Oliver

If one ventures into Ten14’s production of The Deadly Seven at the Warehouse, be forewarned.  One will not so much be attending a theatre event in the strictest sense of the word, but r…

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 08:00AM
Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Through Lines: So You Thought the Fringe Festival Was Only for the Zanies? by Robert Michael Oliver

To be sure, with a festival that has “Fringe” in the title, and with shows called Crime Buster Blast-Off 3000 and Disco Jesus and the Apostles of Funk and Ok Stupid’s Secret Math Lab, …

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 07:00AM
Monday, July 8, 2013

Through Lines: Is the Capital Fringe Festive Really So ‘Fringe’ After All? by Robert Michael Oliver

In Webster “Fringe” means “a : something that is marginal, additional, or secondary to some activity, process, or subject <a fringe sport> b : a group with marginal or …

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 10:00AM
Monday, July 1, 2013

Theatre Review: ‘Baby Universe’ by Wakka Wakka and Nordland Visual Theatre at Studio Theatre by Robert Michael Oliver

The end of the universe has never been so much fun.  Isn’t that, after all, what art is all about: turning even the most tragic of ends into a celebration of the human spirit?  Wakka …

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 11:00AM
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Theatre Review: ‘Twentieth Century’ at the Little Theatre of Alexandria by Robert Michael Oliver

The Little Theatre of Alexandria produced its first play in 1935, only three years after Twentieth Century opened on Broadway, and a year after the hit show made it to Hollywood.  Even th…

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 07:30AM
Friday, May 31, 2013

Theatre Review: ‘The Guardsman’ at the Kennedy Center by Robert Michael Oliver

Spring must most definitely be in the air.  For love is in the theatres.  For jealousy and torment are in the theatres.  For The Guardsman is in the Kennedy Center, and it is most defin…

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 02:30PM
Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Theatre Review: ‘Clementine in the Lower 9′ by Forum Theatre at Round House Silver Spring by Robert Michael Oliver

To be sure, the fury that hurricane Katrina dumped on New Orleans in 2005 is worthy of a Greek moment—some have even suggested the storm was more: an epic expression of God’s disdain.  …

SOURCE: Maryland Theatre Guide at 08:00AM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 15, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
TBA: Titanic