by Gina Hamilton
The Oratorio Chorale, now in its 45th season, began with music from more than 400 years ago – Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and includes the Song of Mary, also known as the Magnificat. The work was performed at Woodford’s ...
Posted Monday, November 12, 2018
by Gina Hamilton
Maine State Music Theatre closed with "Singing in the Rain", one of the best movie musicals of all time.
It is nominally about the transition from silent film to talking pictures, and how some actors and actresses were unable to make the change. But for the most ...
Posted Thursday, August 9, 2018
By Gina Hamilton
On December 4, 1956, a rather extraordinary meeting took place at Sun Recording Studio, a jam session whose significance in the rock and roll world reached almost mythical status -- Carl Perkins (James Barry), Johnny Cash (Scott Moreau), Jerry Lee Lewis (Brandyn Day) and Elvis Presley (Ari McKay ...
Posted Thursday, June 7, 2018
by Gina Hamilton
MacBeth, tyrannical power-mad being or victim of his own fatal character flaw? Among Shakespeare’s tragedies, MacBeth presents a clear object lesson.
How does a man overcome his own basest instincts? And if he is able to, can he withstand those of his wife, who is even ...
Posted Monday, June 4, 2018
by Gina Hamilton
The Oratorio Chorale, under the baton of Emily Isaacson, brought a new Christmas gift to the Midcoast with “Sing We Noel,” performed on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 15 and 16, at St. Paul’s in Brunswick.
In addition to sing-along holiday favorites, the Chorale presented selections from ...
Posted Tuesday, December 19, 2017
by Gina Hamilton
It’s that time of year again, and that perennial favorite, Handel’s “Messiah”, or pieces of it, are part of everyone’s holiday schedule.
Until this year, however, it hasn’t been part of the Oratorio Chorale’s. “I have a deep, dark secret,” confessed Emily ...
Posted Saturday, November 11, 2017
by Gina Hamilton
This season has been great, generally speaking, for lovers of musical theater, such as this reviewer, who loves, loves, loves dance, and especially athletic male ensemble dancing.
Guys and Dolls and Grease were great. But Newsies was the piece de resistance for this form of dance.
For ...
Posted Thursday, August 10, 2017
by Gina Hamilton
"Grease", now showing at Maine State Music Theatre at the Bowdoin campus in Brunswick, was an unexpected delight.
This reviewer had seen the film, but never the stage version of the production, and is pleased to report that the in-person show is a lot more fun and ...
Posted Friday, July 21, 2017
Maine State Music Theatre reprised "Always ... Patsy Cline" as its opening musical for the 2017 season. This year, Christine Mild sang the title role, and her voice was so perfect, one might think one had jumped back in time 55 years and attended a Patsy Cline concert.
In what is ...
Posted Thursday, June 8, 2017
Guys and Dolls. The Almost Perfect musical comedy. It's playing right now at Maine State Music Theatre, and you have got to go.
Everything about this production was fabulous -- from the three tinhorns who could not only enter their fugue state in the opening number, but tap dance and ...
Posted Tuesday, May 23, 2017
by Gina Hamilton
Miss disco days? If you like the music of ABBA, the Swedish pop band, you will automatically love MSMT's new offering, 'Mamma Mia', which is currently being produced at the Pickard Theater on Bowdoin College's campus. Mamma Mia will run until August 27.
The story ...
Posted Friday, August 12, 2016
by Gina Hamilton
"You were supposed to have been immortal," Che Guevara, played flawlessly by Matt Farcher, laments to the dead Eva Peron as the show opens. "That's all they wanted ... not much to ask for." Andrew Lloyd Webber, however, actually pulls it off in Evita, a classic musical ...
Posted Monday, June 27, 2016
by Gina Hamilton
"Ghost", the musical, is based on the film of the same name from 1990. The MSMT production, which runs from June 8 through June 25, stars Gregg Goodbrod as Sam Wheat, Liz Shivener as Molly Jensen, Mike Backes as Carl Bruner, and E. Fay Butler as psychic ...
Posted Thursday, June 9, 2016
by Christopher Hyde
It is an article of faith among feminists that the reason there have been no women composers among the ranks of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, is because they were so severely limited by the mores of their times, some even having to resort to male pseudonyms to ...
Posted Monday, April 4, 2016
by Gina Hamilton
Get set for a campy ride through Transylvania with "Young Frankenstein", drawn from the Mel Brooks' movie of the same name.
In "Young Frankenstein", the grandson of village terror Victor Frankenstein (Paul Aguirre), Frederick (who pronounces his name Franken-steen, played by Jerimiah James), learns of his grandfather ...
Posted Sunday, August 9, 2015
by Gina Hamilton
The Maine State Music Theatre held its third opening night, this time featuring "The Music Man", on July 16 at the Pickard Theater on the Bowdoin campus in Brunswick.
The Music Man is justifiably the standard for American musical theater; it has everything -- delightful songs with just ...
Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2015
by Gina Hamilton
"Sister Act" opened at the Maine State Music Theatre at the Pickard Theatre on Thursday, bringing the crowd to its feet. And occasionally to its knees.
In "Sister Act", self-absorbed and self-described diva Deloris Van Cartier (Trista Dollison) witnesses her adulterous boyfriend Curtis Jackson (Kingsley Leggs) murder ...
Posted Friday, June 26, 2015
by Gina Hamilton
"The Full Monty", which opened Thursday at the Maine State Music Theatre on the Bowdoin campus in Brunswick, was adapted from a 1997 British film set in Sheffield, England. The musical version was neatly transposed to Buffalo, New York, and both featured a gang of out-of-work and ...
Posted Friday, June 5, 2015
by Gina Hamilton
BRUNSWICK -- Johann Sebastian Bach's birthday is in late March, and it's not unusual to see a nod to his greatness on musical programs at this time of year, just as one might see a Mozart program in January.
The problem everyone who chooses to do ...
Posted Friday, March 6, 2015
by Gina Hamilton
BRUNSWICK -- Maine State Music Theatre began its final run of the year with “Footloose”, a coming of age story set against the backdrop of eighties angst. It was a tough time to be a young person – in the real world, the universal war of independence in which ...
Posted Friday, August 8, 2014
