126 stories by "Ben Demers"
When was the last time you saw a musical about regular working stiffs? In Keegan Theatre’s breezy new production of Working, an assortment of blue and white-collar Americans offer a ti…
“Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam…” so sang the gallant Knights of the Round Table, once upon a time. This little slice of historical lunacy is par for the course in Monty Pyth…
"I consumed massive amounts of opiates religiously." "Having waited my entire life to get an award for something … anything … I now get awards all the time for being mentally ill…
Faith can bind people together under the banner of common belief, or it can create deep rifts, irreconcilable by way of reason or shared history. In Theater J's lovingly crafted production o…
In a season of well-worn holiday traditions, nothing brings a more welcome blast of fresh good will than the image of Baby Jesus being lovingly serenaded by powerful gospel music and surroun…
If anyone can find the dark side of the happiest time of the year, it’s David Sedaris. The master of sardonic storytelling has found a talented vessel in Joe Brack, who has concocted a…
At its core, romance is the same at any age: an exciting, gut-wrenching roller coaster of blessed highs and crushing lows. The only thing that changes as the years go by is the volume of emo…
The earlier and earlier onset of the holiday season, marked by 24-7 Christmas radio and Santa greeting you at CVS in early November, is enough to drive a sane person underground until Decemb…
It started with just a simple toothache…and then everything went wrong. Studio Theatre’s tense, darkly comic production of Roland Schimmelpfennig’s The Golden Dragon …
A web of betrayal, scandal, and murder is brewing deep in the heart of Columbia, MD. In their crowd-pleasing production of Chicago, Toby's Dinner Theatre puts their own stamp on the sordid s…
In Eugene O’Neill’s classic drama A Moon for the Misbegotten,  two lost souls reach out to each other across a blighted stretch of earth, riding waves of hope and heartbrea…
It’s a bold move for a new theater company to tackle a well known Shakespearean work in their first outing; it’s another thing entirely to take on a show that is the very definit…
If aliens came to visit Earth, would we be proud of our world? James Levy's joyful sci-fi rock opera puts humanity under the microscope as we observe first contact between a fading rock star…
With a devilish smile and nose for storytelling, Kevin J. Thornton could be the life of any party. In his one man show, I Love You, (We’re F*cked), he brings the audience on an uproari…
Faced with the sad decline of the American soap opera, where can a hungry populace turn for their daily fix of melodrama and overblown romance? It's Opera Alterna to the rescue, offering up …
Ken Johnson wants to teach you the secrets to his success.  Unfortunately, he just isn't that successful. This is the premise of Laura Zam's play An Hour With Ken Johnson, which, ju…
So an Orioles fan, a fireworks salesman, a theater critic, and a "Polar Bear" walk into a theater. Those trying to decipher this curious lineup won't find a punch line, but rather an absorbi…
In a post-apocalyptic America, two men compete over the last woman and that last bag of barbecue Fritos. Zero Hour Theatre’s amusing Apocalypse Story explores the tension that boils ov…
Summertime is a perennial black hole for mainstream sports in the United States, with only baseball, golf, tennis, and the occasional Olympics or World Cup to distract from the doldrums of d…
The United States is at a crossroads. Terrorists lurk around every corner, a shadow government pulls the country’s strings in secret, and the Church has been invaded by sleazy smut ped…
Family reunions and vacations often provide rich material for stage and screen. In Theater J’s world premiere of The Moscows of Nantucket, simmering tensions, clashing personalities, a…
Replete with heroes, villains, swords, and magic, the tale of Irish hero Finn Mac Cool possesses more than enough action and excitement to stand on its own. Not content to simply transplant …
Can two people overcome racial barriers through simple love and acceptance, or are they insane for even attempting to ignore this most fundamental of societal divisions? Such is the central …
With Under the Shadow of Wings, Ambassador Theater has staged a double bill of dramatic visions so vivid and absorbing they feel almost like lucid dreams. Springing from the minds of two Nob…
Be it the idea of wishes coming true or the hope of finding one’s charming prince or beautiful princess, fairytales possess lasting and almost universal appeal – perhaps none mor…
