All stories by John Harding on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Review: ‘Jersey Boys’ at The Hippodrome Theatre by John Harding

In the bright and tuneful world of jukebox musicals there are your basic pizza joints that sell by the slice and the hot-diggity neighborhood kitchens that dish up the whole pie. Jersey Boys…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:02PM
Saturday, September 17, 2016

Review: ‘Sister Act’ at Toby’s The Dinner Theatre of Columbia by John Harding

Nuns are more fun in the round. That’s a catechism we learned at Toby’s Dinner Theatre via Nunsense and other shows so many times it became an article of faith. Now Toby’s is up to its…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:17PM
Saturday, September 10, 2016

Review: ‘The Other Place’ at Rep Stage by John Harding

Today’s playgoers are used to solving puzzles in the theater. So perhaps Playwright Sharr White spends a bit longer than necessary to get us to The Other Place promised by the title of his…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 05:01PM
Friday, August 19, 2016

Film Review: ‘Ben-Hur’ by John Harding

If ever our world needed a story of uplift, peace and redemption as told by a repentant old war general, it’s now. But this time around at the movies, sorry to say, General Lew Wallace’s…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:48AM
Saturday, August 6, 2016

Review: ‘Heathers’ at Red Branch Theatre Company by John Harding

High school can be rough on anyone, but in Heathers it’s murder. The well-mounted area premiere at Red Branch Theatre Company shows that the 1989 movie, which poked fun at making the grade…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:37AM
Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Review: ‘Love Letters’ at Hippodrome Theatre at The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center by John Harding

Talk about age-appropriate casting: Love Letters, a play about the 50-year relationship between a man and a woman, is now at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore starring a man and a woman a…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:00AM
Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal bring ‘Love Letters’ to Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre by John Harding

Love is breaking out in Baltimore. Or should we say the “second time around”? Nearly 50 years after starring together in Love Story, Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal have brought A.R. G…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:36PM
Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre by John Harding

You might never guess that the Beauty and the Beast company now at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre has been on the road for well over a year. It is a musical of enchanted transformations, a…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:31PM
Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Review: ‘Cabaret’ at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre by John Harding

Randy Harrison is raising a bit of hell as the Emcee for Cabaret in midtown Baltimore. I mean, just take a look at that demented, Chucky doll leer. He knows the Devil has his back, and befor…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:32PM
Friday, April 15, 2016

Review: ‘Peter Pan’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre by John Harding

Toby’s Dinner Theatre has every right to crow about its new staging of Peter Pan. The classic Broadway musical based on James M. Barrie’s 1904 evergreen is deceptively simple — aft…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:49PM
Sunday, April 10, 2016

Review: ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ at Red Branch Theatre Company by John Harding

Red Branch Theatre Company has dubbed its new season “Paint It Red” with an eye toward the blood and mayhem in its selected slate of musicals. Up and running now is Sweeney Todd: The Dem…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:40PM
Saturday, April 9, 2016

Review: ‘Hunting and Gathering’ at Rep Stage by John Harding

Nostalgia for the rigors of big-city apartment hopping is the last thing one expects to find out in the suburbs of Howard County. But Rep Stage offers up that and more with its D.C.-area pre…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:50PM
Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Review: ‘The Illusionists’ at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre by John Harding

Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre has reassurance for anyone out there asking where the magic went. Its “direct from Broadway” engagement of The Illusionists is packed full of caped conju…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:56PM
Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Review: ‘Motown: The Musical’ at Hippodrome Theatre at The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center by John Harding

The music of Motown is a gift that keeps on giving. In 2013, Motown: The Musical wrapped up big chunks of that songbook and armfuls of personal charisma in rainbows of light tied with wide s…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:54PM
Saturday, February 20, 2016

Review: ‘Antigone Project at Rep Stage: A Play in 5 Parts’ by John Harding

The fabulously theatrical set for Rep Stage’s Antigone Project: A Play in 5 Parts is so overwhelming you might not realize for a time that the play itself belongs to a more recent traditio…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 08:44PM
Saturday, January 30, 2016

Review: ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ at Hippodrome Theatre at The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center by John Harding

The Phantom of the Opera is an entertainment phenomenon. Can we all just agree about that and move on? It’s still going strong after 30 years in London and 27 years on Broadway. As a remin…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:51PM
Friday, January 29, 2016

Review: ‘South Pacific’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre by John Harding

The South Pacific of your dreams was just sighted at Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia. Never mind the current debate over “New York values” versus “Iowa values” — here you w…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:16PM
Saturday, December 12, 2015

‘Peter Rabbit’ at Red Branch Theatre Company by John Harding

The world premiere of the new musical Peter Rabbit at Red Branch Theatre Company in Columbia finally puts to rest one of life’s great riddles: Why are bunny tails so short? Answer: To…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:14PM
Wednesday, December 9, 2015

‘The Sound of Music’ at The Hippodrome Theatre at The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center by John Harding

The Sound of Music strikes a slightly different tone but its hills are still full of life in the new national touring show at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre. Season ticket-holders should b…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:04PM
Thursday, November 5, 2015

‘The Book of Mormon’ at Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center by John Harding

The Book of Mormon is like a short, bracing vacation from political correctness. Between now and November 15th, taking a seat in Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre signals your willingness to …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:03PM
Saturday, October 24, 2015

‘Technicolor Life’ at Rep Stage by John Harding

Three generations of women in one contemporary American family prove “ready for their close-up” in Technicolor Life, a world premiere at Rep Stage in Howard County. Don’t make a mistak…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:10PM
Wednesday, September 30, 2015

‘Kinky Boots’ at The Hippodrome Theatre by John Harding

Kinky Boots is getting Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre year off on the, er, right foot. Here’s a show so full of energy and charm that it doesn’t care a fig whether you think of it as c…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:13PM
Saturday, September 26, 2015

‘Dogfight’ at Red Branch Theatre Company by John Harding

Dogfight is a drama that deals almost entirely with surfaces — surface beauty, surface values, surface concerns and surface victories. Taken on that level, the fine new mounting of the mus…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:29PM
Sunday, September 20, 2015

‘Ragtime: The Musical’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre by John Harding

The emotionally stirring historical patchwork known as Ragtime: The Musical is back at Toby’s Dinner Theatre in a wonderful new professional mounting. It was twelve years ago that Toby Ore…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:54PM
Saturday, August 29, 2015

‘The Baltimore Waltz’ at Rep Stage by John Harding

Something is undeniably right about a play that keeps you chuckling all evening then sends you off with a lump in your throat. That, in a nutshell, is Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz, no…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:27PM
Sunday, August 2, 2015

‘Avenue Q’ at Red Branch Theatre Company by John Harding

Good news, theatergoers. Your favorite sassy surrogate love puppets are back at Red Branch Theatre Company performing at Columbia’s Drama Learning Center. Now through August 8th the neighb…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:48PM
Saturday, July 18, 2015

‘Into the Woods’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre by John Harding

Are you ready to veer from the path and take another tumultuous journey Into the Woods? Go ahead, throw caution to the wind. You’ll find yourself in amusing company at Toby’s—The Dinne…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:20PM
Wednesday, June 24, 2015

‘Pippin’ at Hippodrome Theatre at The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center by John Harding

Pippin is one glorious flashback to a time when musicals were happenings, Broadway casts called themselves “tribes,” and playwrights broke through the fourth wall to make profound statem…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 05:58PM
Sunday, June 14, 2015

‘Bring It On’ at Drama Learning Center by John Harding

The wonderful young talents at the Drama Learning Center in Columbia are pushing youth theater ahead by leaps and bounds — literally. There are so many back flips required by their newest …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:46PM
Wednesday, May 13, 2015

‘Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage’ at The Hippodrome Theatre at The France-Merrick Performing Arts Center by John Harding

If you absolutely adored the movie Dirty Dancing and wouldn’t change a thing about it, Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre has just the show for you. Dirty Dancing — The Classic Story on S…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:12PM
Sunday, May 3, 2015

‘1776: The Musical’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre by John Harding

If you’ve ever wanted to applaud Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and the other founding fathers of the Land of Liberty, here’s an opportunity. All of them come out for well-de…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:30PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards