Since moving out of the DC area last Fall, it’s been difficult staying connected. Theater is about the people, and learning about productions via email and Facebook doesn’t provide an adequate bond between us as editors and the theaters. As we learned with our efforts to start a ShowBizRadio site in other regions of the country, the editor needs to be involved in local theater activities.

The best thing about the experiences of the past nine years is the people we’ve met. At the very first show we attended (2nd Flight’s Jesus Christ Superstar in Manassas), sitting in the audience before the curtain, as we eavesdropped on the people around us and hearing them discuss the roles they were going to audition for, and the gossip about other actors, we never really thought we would become a part of that community. Everyone we’ve met over the past nine years has been incredibly friendly and supportive.

We’ve made a few mistakes over the years. Sometimes we revealed surprise plot points in a review. Once we gave a snap opinion to a director immediately after the show. We allowed people to post hurtful comments on a review. We occasionally allowed ourselves to be hurt by anonymous insults. We are very grateful to those of you out there who have accepted our apologies for our mistakes and have continued to support us.

One thing we have never apologized for is taking our role of reviewer (and later our role as editor) seriously. We strive to share with our readers both the successes and flaws of a production. We realize that art is very subjective, and it is likely that your reaction to a piece will be different than ours. And that’s ok, we never imagined that anyone would think that our reviews would be the final word. Despite the flaws inherent in the theater awards systems (notably WATCH and Helen Hayes) it was gratifying when those systems agreed with our reviews, either by recognizing an outstanding aspect of a show, or by not recognizing a portion.

What are we proud of?

We’ve always attempted to respect our readers. We include the entire cast and crew lists with each review so that the entire production team gets a bit of credit. We don’t allow pseudonyms on our writers and commenters, we believe that the strongest opinions are those that can be attributed to a specific person. Our web sites don’t do any annoying advertising, such as pop-ups, pop-unders, animated ads, and have limited the number of ads to two banners, despite occasional requests for more ads so the rates could be less expensive. We don’t break articles into multiple pages in order to inflate our page hit counts.

We broadcast the WATCH nominations live, using audio in 2011 and video in 2012 and 2013. We interviewed audience members before and after each broadcast, and broadcast video before the ceremony and during intermission at the 2012 and 2013 WATCH ceremonies. We also live tweeted and liveblogged the WATCH Awards and Helen Hayes Awards several times, starting in 2011.

We have been a supporter of the Cappies since 2007, publishing over 450 reviews. By supporting local high school theater, we’ve been a part of building the love of theater in the next generation of actors, designers and technicians. Many of the high school productions we’ve attended have been excellent, despite huge casts, inexperienced staff, tiny budgets and challenging technical aspects. Please continue to support high school theater by attending your local school’s productions.

We share the site’s revenues with our reviewers. Granted, it wasn’t a lot of money. But it helped offset their travel expenses.

According to our site’s traffic analysis, over 500,000 people have read the site, viewing over 2,000,000 pages.

We also screen people who express interest reviewing. About one in three people don’t continue writing for the site after the screening process. The process involved a phone interview, looking over their theatrical resume and a writing sample, and then reviewing a production attended with Mike and Laura. We then can offer guidance on the review, as well as make sure that whatever they state in the review is justifiable. We also require our reviewers to fully disclose any potential biases they have with a production. If they’ve worked at a theater in the past year, or have a family member or close friend in the show, they are generally unable to review that production.

Our index of theater companies and productions is an never-ending project. This index attempted to list every show produced in the area by every company. We have over 5,000 pages of information cross-referenced on our sites. This takes a huge amount of time to get up and running, but we received comments from artistic directors who used the listings to help plan their future seasons.

We tried to build out a network of sites under the ShowBizRadio brand. We did this in several ways as an experiment to see if our current workflow was scalable. And we learned that the way we were operating really wasn’t. We started three new sites in different regions of the United States. One site simply wasn’t large enough to get any economies of scale despite covering an entire state. One site didn’t get enough traction from the existing theater community to be successful, and the last attempt was a partnership with an existing theater site. That partnership failed, despite a lot of work we did, due to internal problems at that other site. At least we tried!

We joined the American Theatre Critics Association. Being a tiny part of the Tony Award process for recommending the Regional Theatre Award was exciting. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much else to our membership, as we weren’t able to afford to travel around the country to attend conferences, and ATCA doesn’t do much online.

What could we have done better?

We should have obtained more help in managing the deluge of information coming in to us. We receive nearly 50 email messages per day (30,504 messages since starting to count on September 1, 2012). We also get many Facebook messages and event invitations, most of which are hidden by Facebook’s horrible messaging system. In the past year we’ve begun receiving press releases from theaters around the country.

We could have used social media better. While we are active on sites like Facebook and Twitter, they are for the most part time sinks, and a money pit. So we made the decision to use them primarily to link to our own articles. We very briefly explored using YouTube and Pinterest, but again, we chose to not use those sites.

We should have varied our monetizing efforts. The only real success we had was selling advertising space on the site. Exploring different ways to generate income earlier in the site’s life would have been fruitful. Last year’s effort at the ShowBizRadio Club brought in some extra revenue, but not enough to help sustain the sites.

Thank You

The ShowBizRadio web site archives will not be going away. Due to existing scheduling, there will be a few reviews coming out over the next month or so, but we will not be making new press reservations. Our performance and audition calendars will rapidly become outdated, but the time commitment to make changes and corrections is too great to continue.

Thank you to the people who have contributed reviews and articles to the site over the years. Mark Lee Adams, Joe Adcock, Bob Ashby, Genie Baskir, Amy Berlin, Barbara Trainin Blank, Nick Dauley, Mari Davis, Betsy Marks Delaney, McCall Doyle, Courtney Ferguson, Jennifer Gusso, Roman Gusso, Michelle James, Eric Jones, Jacob Kresloff, Bruce Levy, Amanda Lipon, Sara McMullin, Lisa Kay Morton, Rachael Murray, Jose Pineda, Rodrigo Pool, Kari Kitts Rothstein, David Siegel, Daniel Sherrier, Adam Sylvain, Ty Unglebower, Xandra Weaver. ShowBizRadio was better with your efforts.

As always, feel free to send us an email.

Thank you for allowing us to be a small part of the big world of theater. – Mike & Laura

Opening

• Les Miserables, Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, Frederick, MD
• Jekyll and Hyde, Milburn Stone Theatre, North East, MD
• Jekyll & Hyde the Musical, Milburn Stone Theatre, North East, MD
• And Then There Were None, Jewish Theatre Workshop, Baltimore, MD

Continuing

• The Schemings of Scapin, Annapolis Shakespeare Company, Annapolis, MD
• Wild With Happy, CenterStage, Baltimore, MD
• The Apocalypse Comes at 6pm, Single Carrot Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Colonial Players, Annapolis, MD
• As You Like It, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Ellicot City, MD
• The Exonerated, Vagabond Players, Baltimore, MD
• Peter Pan, Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre, Baltimore, MD

Closing

• Tribes, Everyman Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• Shrek the Musical, Toby’s Dinner Theatre, Columbia, MD
• 42nd Street, Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, Annapolis, MD
• One Glitz Wish, Strand Theater, Baltimore, MD
• Edward II, Spotlighters Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play, Maryland Ensemble Theatre, Frederick, MD
• The Odd Couple, Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• Disney’s Peter Pan, Jr., Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, Frederick, MD
• The Star Stealer, Maryland Ensemble Theatre, Frederick, MD

Auditions

• Spamalot, Children’s Playhouse of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
  • Monday, Jun 16th@6:30PM
  • Wednesday, Jun 18th@6:30PM
• 2014/2015 Open Auditions, Maryland Ensemble Theatre, MD, 21
  • Monday, Jun 16th@7:30PM
  • Tuesday, Jun 17th@7:30PM

Opening

• The Apocalypse Comes at 6pm, Single Carrot Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Colonial Players, Annapolis, MD
• Peter Pan, Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• The Odd Couple, Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre, Baltimore, MD

Continuing

• Tribes, Everyman Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• The Schemings of Scapin, Annapolis Shakespeare Company, Annapolis, MD
• Wild With Happy, CenterStage, Baltimore, MD
• Shrek the Musical, Toby’s Dinner Theatre, Columbia, MD
• One Glitz Wish, Strand Theater, Baltimore, MD
• 42nd Street, Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, Annapolis, MD
• The Exonerated, Vagabond Players, Baltimore, MD
• Edward II, Spotlighters Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play, Maryland Ensemble Theatre, Frederick, MD
• The Star Stealer, Maryland Ensemble Theatre, Frederick, MD

Closing

• Sister Act, Touring Production, Baltimore, MD
• Bareback Ink, Iron Crow Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• The Spanish Tragedy, Mobtown Players, Baltimore, MD
• The Music Man, Phoenix Festival Theater, Bel Air, MD

Auditions

• The Wizard of Odd, Maryland Ensemble Theatre, MD, 21
  • Wednesday, Jun 11th@7:00PM

Opening & Closing

• Pinot and Augustine, Happenstance Theater, Baltimore, MD

Opening

• Wild With Happy, CenterStage, Baltimore, MD
• Sister Act, Touring Production, Baltimore, MD
• The Exonerated, Vagabond Players, Baltimore, MD
• The Music Man, Phoenix Festival Theater, Bel Air, MD
• The Star Stealer, Maryland Ensemble Theatre, Frederick, MD

Continuing

• Tribes, Everyman Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• The Schemings of Scapin, Annapolis Shakespeare Company, Annapolis, MD
• Shrek the Musical, Toby’s Dinner Theatre, Columbia, MD
• One Glitz Wish, Strand Theater, Baltimore, MD
• Edward II, Spotlighters Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• The Spanish Tragedy, Mobtown Players, Baltimore, MD
• Bareback Ink, Iron Crow Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• 42nd Street, Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, Annapolis, MD
• In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play, Maryland Ensemble Theatre, Frederick, MD

Opening

• Tribes, Everyman Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• Wild With Happy, (in Previews) CenterStage, Baltimore, MD
• One Glitz Wish, Strand Theater, Baltimore, MD
• Edward II, Spotlighters Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• The Spanish Tragedy, Mobtown Players, Baltimore, MD
• In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play, Maryland Ensemble Theatre, Frederick, MD

Continuing

• The Schemings of Scapin, Annapolis Shakespeare Company, Annapolis, MD
• Shrek the Musical, Toby’s Dinner Theatre, Columbia, MD
• 42nd Street, Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, Annapolis, MD
• Disney’s Peter Pan, Jr., Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, Frederick, MD

Closing

• Impossible! A Happenstance Circus, Happenstance Theater, Baltimore, MD
• These Shining Lives, Colonial Players, Annapolis, MD
• Singin’ in the Rain, Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, Frederick, MD
• Amadeus, Fells Point Corner Theatre, Baltimore, MD

Auditions

• An Ideal Husband, Jewish Theatre Workshop, Baltimore, MD
  • Tuesday, May 27th@7:00PM
  • Wednesday, May 28th@7:00PM
  • Sunday, Jun 1st@10:00AM

Opening

• 42nd Street, Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, Annapolis, MD
• Impossible! A Happenstance Circus, Happenstance Theater, Baltimore, MD

Continuing

• Shrek the Musical, Toby’s Dinner Theatre, Columbia, MD
• These Shining Lives, Colonial Players, Annapolis, MD
• Amadeus, Fells Point Corner Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• Singin’ in the Rain, Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, Frederick, MD

Closing

• Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, CenterStage, Baltimore, MD
• The Last Hurrah, Senior Star Showcase, Baltimore, MD
• Curtains, Silhouette Stages, Columbia, MD

Opening & Closing

• Pinocchio, Harford Community College, Bel Air, MD

Opening

• The Last Hurrah, Senior Star Showcase, Baltimore, MD
• Curtains, Silhouette Stages, Columbia, MD

Continuing

• Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, CenterStage, Baltimore, MD
• Shrek the Musical, Toby’s Dinner Theatre, Columbia, MD
• Disney’s Peter Pan, Jr., Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, Frederick, MD
• These Shining Lives, Colonial Players, Annapolis, MD
• Amadeus, Fells Point Corner Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• Singin’ in the Rain, Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, Frederick, MD

Closing

• Peter and the Starcatcher, Touring Production, Baltimore, MD
• The Fantasticks, Rep Stage, Bel Air, MD
• Ragtime the Musical, Howard Community College Student Arts Collective, Columbia , MD
• The 39 Steps, Dignity Players, Annapolis, MD
• 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Cumberland Theatre, Cumberland, MD
• Legally Blonde: The Musical, Charm City Players, Stevenson, MD
• The Foreigner, Vagabond Players, Baltimore, MD
• Incorruptible, Spotlighters Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• Spamalot, Tidewater Players, Havre de Grace, MD
• Peter Pan and Wendy, Pumpkin Theatre, Owings Mills, MD
• A Chorus Line, Children’s Playhouse of Maryland, Baltimore, MD

Auditions

• In a Yellow Wood, Baltimore Playwright’s Festival, Baltimore, MD
  • Monday, May 12th@7:00PM
  • Tuesday, May 13th@7:00PM

Opening & Closing

• Blithe Spirit, Sykesville Little Theatre, Sykesville, MD

Opening

• Peter and the Starcatcher, Touring Production, Baltimore, MD
• Ragtime the Musical, Howard Community College Student Arts Collective, Columbia , MD
• These Shining Lives, Colonial Players, Annapolis, MD
• Peter Pan and Wendy, Pumpkin Theatre, Owings Mills, MD

Continuing

• Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, CenterStage, Baltimore, MD
• Shrek the Musical, Toby’s Dinner Theatre, Columbia, MD
• The Fantasticks, Rep Stage, Bel Air, MD
• The 39 Steps, Dignity Players, Annapolis, MD
• 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Cumberland Theatre, Cumberland, MD
• The Foreigner, Vagabond Players, Baltimore, MD
• Singin’ in the Rain, Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, Frederick, MD
• Incorruptible, Spotlighters Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• Amadeus, Fells Point Corner Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• Spamalot, Tidewater Players, Havre de Grace, MD
• Disney’s Peter Pan, Jr., Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, Frederick, MD
• A Chorus Line, Children’s Playhouse of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
• Legally Blonde: The Musical, Charm City Players, Stevenson, MD

Closing

• By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Everyman Theatre, Baltimore, MD
• Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, StillPointe Theatre Initiative, Baltimore, MD
• La Cage Aux Folles, Dundalk Community Theatre, Baltimore, MD

Auditions

• 2014 One Act festival, Colonial Players, Annapolis, MD
  • Monday, May 5th@7:00PM
  • Tuesday, May 6th@7:00PM – Callbacks
• All Shook Up, Fredericktowne Players
  • Tuesday, May 6th@7:00PM
  • Saturday, May 10th@9:00AM
  • Saturday, May 10th@12:30PM – Callbacks

Things are certainly “looking up” at Toby’s. They are winning over audiences with a professional, high-energy production of the family friendly Shrek. With stunning costumes, creative use of the space, detailed lighting design, and a host of stellar performances, there are many good reasons to catch this exciting production before it is too late.

As Shrek, Russell Sunday is the true emotional glue that holds the production together. He sails through his vocal numbers with a rich, strong and perfectly pitched instrument. He brings Shrek to life with laughter and tears, creating a believable and loveable hero.

Calvin McCullough makes an interesting choice with Donkey. He does not often act or sing the role in the predictable homage to Eddie Murphy (film) and Daniel Breaker (Broadway). He creates his own donkey, landing some punch lines differently and creating new vocal intonations. It was a risky decision that paid off beautifully. McCullough’s Donkey is a fresh and stunning take on the character that makes every moment fresh.

Another performance that just nails it is Jeffrey Shankle as Lord Farquaad. Shankle’s comedic timing and expression are flawless. Every moment on stage is a delightful dance of tongue-in-cheek humor with the audience. He also moves incredibly gracefully on his knees for the entire production.

The only lead who misses the mark is Coby Kay Callahan as Fiona. Callahan tries too hard to nail an impression of Sutton Foster that she comes across clownish in her performance. Rather than showing a genuine side of Fiona or achieving comedy through character, she is stifled and too much all at the same time. Additionally, the vocals are just too big for her voice, and she ends up over-singing and almost screaming to try to achieve the necessary high belt. This is in direct contrast to the brief performance of Amanda Kaplan as Teen Fiona, who shows exactly how to create comedy without trying too hard and make a difficult song look simple by nailing it effortlessly. Luckily, there is so much wonderful about the performances of Sunday, McCullough, and Shankle, that the Callahan debacle can be forgotten and overlooked in the larger context.

The entire ensemble is strong in vocals, dance, and creating interesting bit characters. One truly notable standout is Ashley Johnson who kills with her insane vocals as the Voice of the Dragon. She has a truly remarkable voice and tells infinite stories with just her voice.

This is definitely a production to be sure to see. It is family friendly and fun, and you won’t be disappointed.

Cast

• Shrek: Russell Sunday
• Princess Fiona: Coby Kay Callahan
• Donkey: Calvin McCullough
• Lord Farquaad: Jeffrey Shankle
• Mama Bear/Voice of the Dragon/Voice of the Bird/Ensemble: Ashley Johnson
• Pinocchio/Ensemble: Shane McCauley
• Queen Lillian/Sugar Plum/Gingy/Blind Mouse/Ensemble: Heather Marie Beck
• Mama Ogre/Humpty Dumpty/Ensemble: Tierra Strickland
• Papa Ogre/Papa Bear/Bishop/Ensemble: Dean Davis
• King Harold/Big Bad Wolf/Pied Piper/Ensemble: David Jennings
• Fairy Godmother/Blind Mouse/Ensemble: Tina DeSimone
• Ugly Duckling/Blind Mouse/Ensemble: MaryKate Brouillet
• Pig #1/Ensemble: Antonio Beverly
• Pig #2/Ensemble: Nurney
• Pig #3/Thelonius/Ensemble: Matt Greenfield
• Peter Pan/Ensemble: AJ Whittenberger
• Elf/Teen Fiona/Ensemble: Amanda Kaplan
• Wicked Witch/Ensemble: Jamie Ogden
• Captain/Mad Hatter/Ensemble: Ariel Messeca
• White Rabbit/Duloc Announcer/Ensemble: Ellie Borzilleri
• Young Shrek/Dwarf: Anderson Franco or Gavin Willard
• Young Fiona/Baby Bear: Caroline Otchet or Samantha Yakaitis
• Dragon Puppeteers: Ellie Borzilleri, AJ Whittenberger, & Ariel Messeca

Orchestra

• Conductor/Keyboard 1: Douglas Lawler or Pamela Witt
• Keyboard 2: Ann Prizzi or Barry Hamilton
• Drums: Tom Harold or Jack Loercher
• Trumpet: Frank Gorecki or Tony Neenan
• Bass: Jason Wilson or Linda Cote
• Woodwinds: Steve Haaser or Charlene McDaniel

Production Staff

• Co-Directors: Kevin McAllister & Lawrence B. Munsey
• Co-Musical Directors: Douglas Lawler & Pamela Witt
• Choreographer: Shalyce Hemby
• Scenic Designer: David A. Hopkins
• Costume Designers: Lawrence B. Munsey & Janine Sunday
• Dragon Puppet: Penny Lemire
• Costume Assistants: Janine Sunday, Mary Quinn, Della Lotman, Penny Lemire
• Lighting Designer: Lynn Joslin
• Sound Designer: Drew Dedrick
• Production Manager: Vickie S. Johnson
• Production Stage Manager: Kate Wackerle
• Stage Managers: Drew Dedrick, Kate Wackerle
• Technical Director: Jimmy Engelkemier
• Master Carpenter: David A. Hopkins
• Set Construction: David A. Hopkins, Russell Sunday
• Properties & Set Dressing: Amy Kaplan
• Light Board Operators: Coleen M. Foley, Heather Williams
• Sound Board Operators: Drew Dedrick, Jimmy Engelkemier
• Stage Crew: Laura Blasi, Jason Britt, Erin MacDonald, Amber Masters

Disclaimer: Toby’s Dinner Theatre provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.