All stories by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok on BroadwayStars

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Theatre Review: 'Midsummer 90' streams from Blackfriars Playhouse by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

"The show must go on!" So runs an old dictum in the theatre world, but how do theatre companies survive and thrive in the era in which we find ourselves? Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, V…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 08:35PM[SHARE]
Saturday, March 7, 2020

Opera Review: 'Briscula the Magician' at Bel Cantanti Opera by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

Bel Cantanti's world premiere production of "Briscula the Magician" is magical indeed; it combines modernistic, often atonal, operatic music with political observations about the past which …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:51PM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 5, 2020

Theatre Review: 'Beauty and the Beast' at The Puppet Co. by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

The Puppet Co.'s current  production of "Beauty and the Beast" is not a recreation of the 1991 Disney animated version, and there are no enchanted teapots and candlesticks to make childre…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 12:52AM[SHARE]
Saturday, February 15, 2020

Concert Review: 'A Poet's Love: It's Complicated' by New Orchestra of Washington at Live! at 10th and G by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

During the Romantic Age, composers in the German-speaking world set to music many of the era's greatest poems in the German language.  An outstanding example is "Dichterliebe," or "A Poet…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:43AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Theatre Review: 'The Producers' at The Little Theatre of Alexandria by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

In the Mel Brooks' film "The Producers" and the Broadway musical which it inspired,  Max Bialystock, an erstwhile top Broadway producer, and Leo Bloom, a tax accountant living the kind of…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 04:58PM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 23, 2019

Theatre Review: 'Mary Stuart' at Olney Theatre Center by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

"Mary Stuart" " or more properly, "Maria Stuart" " is one of the key works of Friedrich Schiller and the German theatre, and audiences have a rare opportunity to experience this great drama …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 06:24PM[SHARE]
Saturday, March 30, 2019

Theatre Review: 'My Fair Lady' at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

The ancient Roman poet Ovid tells the tale of the sculptor Pygmalion who creates his ideal of a woman in the medium of a statue. In George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" and the Lerner and Loewe…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:28PM[SHARE]
Friday, February 8, 2019

Theatre Review: 'The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940' at Rockville Little Theatre by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

Rockville Little Theatre is a company with a varied repertoire. Their newest show is author John Bishop’s “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940," a production that i…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 02:05PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Opera Review: 'My Beautiful Galatea' by Bel Cantanti at Randolph Road Theater by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

The tale of Pygmalion, the master sculptor who creates a statue of his idolized woman Galatea and has Venus bring it to life, was told by the Roman poet Ovid in his work the "Metamorphoses."…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 08:49PM[SHARE]
Thursday, December 20, 2018

Theatre Review: 'Charley's Aunt' at Fells Point Corner Theatre by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

"Charley's Aunt" was a popular feature in the mid-twentieth century. It was a vehicle for comedy legend Jack Benny in a movie version, and it subsequently became a Broadway musical, "Where's…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 01:57PM[SHARE]

Theatre Review: 'Miss Saigon' at The Kennedy Center by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

"Miss Saigon" is deployed in its current tour of duty at the Kennedy Center, and it is nothing short of a magnificent victory — unlike the situation of the last days of the ill-fated c…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 02:40AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Theatre Review: Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' at The Little Theatre of Alexandria by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

This Christmas season, as in all others since its 1843 publication, Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is in vogue. What makes this season perhaps a little different is that many versions …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 07:14PM[SHARE]
Friday, November 9, 2018

Opera Review: Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville' by Annapolis Opera at MD Hall for the Creative Arts by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

And so Bugs Bunny, "The Rabbit of Seville" posing as a barber on the operatic stage, rubs the hair tonic "Figaro Fertilizer" on Elmer Fudd's baldpate, and the latter reacts in comic fury whe…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 01:47PM[SHARE]
Monday, November 5, 2018

Theatre Review: 'The Crucible' at Silver Spring Stage by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

It is colonial Salem, Massachusetts, in the year 1692, at the height of the witchcraft hysteria.  "If you refuse to answer this court, then by the Statute you will be condemned to have yo…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 09:05PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Theatre Review: 'The Time Machine' at Twin Beach Players by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

The Twin Beach Players have had a world premiere on their hands over the past few weeks " "The Time Machine" by Mark Scharf, based on the science-fiction novel by H.G. Wells.  Wells was a…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 08:02PM[SHARE]
Saturday, October 27, 2018

Theatre Review: Barnum by Heritage Players at Thomas Rice Auditorium by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

The past few years have not been kind to circuses.  The Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus " the self-styled "Greatest Show on Earth" —  closed recently after 146 years i…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:24AM[SHARE]
Friday, October 26, 2018

Theatre Review: 'Blithe Spirit' at Other Voices Theatre by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

Are you ready for the ghosts of Halloween?  Audiences generally think of ghosts today as ghoulish staples in terrifying stories and frightening films.  Yet there was a time when ghosts…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 07:00PM[SHARE]
Saturday, October 6, 2018

Theatre Review: 'The Count of Monte Cristo' at Aldersgate Church Community Theater by Dr. Mark Dreisonstok

“On February 28, 1815, the three-masted Pharaon arrived at Marseilles from Smyrna, commanded by the first mate, young Edmond Dantès, the captain having died on the voyage. He had left…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 01:40PM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off