Annapolis Summer Garden

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre opened its 37th season last weekend with a rollicking outdoor rock 'n' roll festival near City Dock. Rock Around the Dock is a unique tribute to a genuine American art form, performed at an outdoor setting that seemed perfect for a rock show. Which raised the question: Why did it take 36 years for this great idea to germinate? The production, conceived and directed by Jeff Hitaffer and Kevin Wheatley, features a cast of eight dancers and nine singers who join a five-piece band on stage.

Setting a new high with Cole Porter's "Anything Goes," director Jerry Vess marks his seventh Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre directorial assignment by adding sparkle to the opening of the outdoor theater's 47th season under the stars. Not only has Vess gathered a stellar cast to lend extra zest to Porter's timeless classic, but as set designer he has also created a fabulous tri-level cruise ship SS America complete with realistic smokestacks and portholes. A construction crew of four along with several artist-painters helped Vess.

The Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre opens its 34th season under the stars Saturday, bringing Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" to the theater's historic location on Compromise Street across from City Dock.The show will be presented Thursdays through Sundays until June 26. The 1957 retelling of "Romeo and Juliet" remains a masterpiece, thanks in large part to Bernstein's incomparable score. Classic songs from the show include "Maria," "Tonight," "America," "I Feel Pretty" and "Somewhere."

Annapolis Summer Garden caps a strong season with "Hairspray," John Waters' nostalgic tribute to 1960s Baltimore that is a perfect fit for outdoor August evenings at City Dock. Based on Waters' 1988 film, the musical has won eight Tony awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. At a 2003 Broadway visit to a session of the American Theatre Critics Association mini-conference, Waters stressed the importance of the authenticity of every aspect of the Baltimore rowhouse set seen in the Broadway production.

Godspell is an inspired opener for Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre's season. It is the most joyously energetic and reverent production of this show I've yet seen. Since it first appeared in 1971, John-Michael Tebelak's show with music by Stephen Schwartz has offered freedom and flexibility of interpretation for directors and actors. ASGT Director/choreographer Doug Kotula sets the action in a contemporary New York City subway car adorned with graffiti proclaiming Jesus as Savior. "It made sense that Jesus could appear in such a familiar subway setting among stereotypical New Yorkers," said Kotula, a former New York University student.

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre's Gypsy is a strong season opener. Based on the early life of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and her formidable stage mother, Mama Rose, Gypsy is set in the final days of vaudeville. Debuting in 1957, the only collaboration between Stephen Sondheim and Jule Styne boasts a great score filled with songs such as "Small World," "Let Me Entertain You," "All I Need Is the Girl" and "Everything's Coming up Roses." Making his Annapolis Summer Garden Theater directing debut, veteran actor, director and playwright Alan Kootsher moves the action along swiftly through a variety of scene changes.

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre has extended its season through Sunday, ending the way it began in May, by rocking the dock with high-voltage talent. "Rock Around the Dock - Take II" is a bolder, brassier show with a dazzling set constructed of yards-high wedges of vibrant color that makes a great backdrop for a dynamic ensemble of singers and dancers. Directors Jeff Hitaffer and Kevin Wheatley, who conceived the idea of opening the company's current season with a rock show, are back directing this latest incarnation.

I saw Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" last Thursday night and, true to the theme of Shakespeare's comedy of mortals and fairies, I came away enchanted.Not only was the production well-done (more on that in a moment), but the theater was packed, the audience had a marvelous time, and among those laughing loudest were many youngsters getting perhaps their first whiff of the Bard in all his glory.The play itself is the thing, of course, so how doth it fare? In most respects, forsooth, it's terrific.

After learning of the inexperience of the director and cast, I wasn't optimistic about Sunday's performance of "West Side Story" at the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre.How could "West Side Story," the masterpiece born of the collaborative efforts of three theater geniuses -- composer Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Stephen Sondheim and choreographer Jerome Robbins -- be turned over to novices?"West Side Story" looms large, with its brilliant Bernstein score, perfectly wedded lyrics penned by a 27-year-old Sondheim, and the exuberance expressed by pre-eminent choreographer Robbins.

Rain may benefit ordinary gardens, but not the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, where rainy weekends continue to dampen a stellar season. The final production in this summer's trio -- the Mary Rodgers-Marshall Barer musical comedy "Once Upon a Mattress" -- had only one performance last weekend, with no full on-set rehearsal. Luckily, I was among Saturday's capacity audience for the uproarious show -- one so good that its cast and crew should join in an incantation for no more rain upon their mattress.

Annapolis Summer Garden's season opener, "Chicago," gets just about everything so right that it would please the ghost of choreographer Bob Fosse, to whose memory debuting director and choreographer Taavon Gamble dedicates this production. The production's success is largely attributable to Gamble's smart sense of style, evident in the stark black background set and simple black costumes that enhance his dynamic choreography. Also evident in every scene is the meticulous care Gamble gives all aspects of this Kander and Ebb musical that reveals the corruption of 1920s Chicago's criminal justice system through its heroines, who are based on actual women reported on in Chicago newspapers.

A vibrant, rocking Buddy Holly returns to the stage in Annapolis Summer Garden's season-closing performance of "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. " Alan Janes' and Rob Bettinson's "Buddy" tells the story of a young Texan who changed popular music forever. Buddy Holly's mix of 1950s country, rockabilly and rhythm & blues has influenced such pop legends as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. One of the first to write, produce and perform his own songs, Holly established his influence during a brief year career that ended at age 22 in a plane crash, a tragedy commemorated in Don McLean's "American Pie" anthem.

Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, which is playing at the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, is a cut above the usual outdoor seasonal fare. Sondheim's musical tale of the 19th-century Demon Barber of Fleet Street, who returns to London for revenge after being unjustly exiled to an Australian prison by a villainous judge, mixes suspenseful drama with dark wit in a near-operatic score. In his program notes, ASGT director Ron Giddings explains that he is trying to return to the show's roots: Sondheim envisioned a small chamber piece before it became a big Broadway production.

Godspell is an inspired opener for Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre's season. It is the most joyously energetic and reverent production of this show I've yet seen. Since it first appeared in 1971, John-Michael Tebelak's show with music by Stephen Schwartz has offered freedom and flexibility of interpretation for directors and actors. ASGT Director/choreographer Doug Kotula sets the action in a contemporary New York City subway car adorned with graffiti proclaiming Jesus as Savior. "It made sense that Jesus could appear in such a familiar subway setting among stereotypical New Yorkers," said Kotula, a former New York University student.

Cabaret opened on Broadway the same year that Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre was founded - 1966. Now the indestructible musical comes to life in the city troupe's third production of the season. Kander and Ebb's score has survived numerous revivals and interpretations, starting with its three-year inaugural run featuring Jill Haworth, Joel Grey, Jack Gilford and Lotte Lenye. It became a 1972 award-winning movie starring Liza Minelli as Sally Bowles and Grey, who again starred as the Emcee in a 1987 revival.

The county of Maryland's capital boasts a performing arts array that might be the envy of areas twice its size, thriving culturally despite its proximity to Washington and Baltimore, where several first-rate theaters, world-class symphony orchestras and major opera companies compete. Theater Anne Arundel County's cultural hub is Annapolis, where three major theater companies are located: Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre. celebrating its 40th season; Colonial Players Inc., completing its 56th year; and relative newcomer Bay Theatre Company, ending its fourth season.

If summer in Annapolis began Friday with the Naval Academy's commencement, tomorrow evening it will be in full swing when the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre opens its 37th season with Rock Around the Dock, an original music and dance revue, playing Thursdays through Sundays until June 28. Later in the summer, the outdoor stage is set for classic Shakespeare and Broadway offerings, including Twelfth Night on July weekends and the Neil Simon-Burt Bacharach...

One surely cannot get through spring -- with a weekly column -- without commenting on the garden and its lessons.This year's learning involves mustard greens.A seed packet that would do for a 50-foot row went into a 5-foot space, and we have dense mustard, enthusiastic mustard, HOT mustard.I loved the little leaves in salads and in rice, but the big guys are being passed on to the third friend, who suggested we plant them in the first place. He apparently does wonderful things with a marinade for chicken, and we're happy to indulge him.Next year, the same space goes to more of the makings for Herbs de Provence.