Hippodrome

The Hippodrome 's 2012-2013 Broadway Series will have tried-and-true crowd pleasers such as "Wicked" and "Beauty and the Beast" alongside newer musicals "American Idiot" and "Billy Elliot. " "From a consumer perspective, this is a juggernaut season," said Jeff Daniel, president of the Hippodrome at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center. A show likely to generate particular buzz is "American Idiot. " Based on the 2004 concept album of that name by the punk-rock band Green Day, the musical looks at three male friends seeking something better than life in suburbia.

Andrew Zimmern's "Bizarre Foods" picked up a James Beard award for TV Show, On Location at Friday night's Book, Broadcast and Awards. Zimmern, the headliner for this Saturday's Foodie Experience event at the Hippodrome, won an individual James Beard award in 2010 for TV Food Personality . The award for TV Show, Fixed Location went to "Chopped," and its host, Ted Allen, won this year's award for Media Personality/Host....

By conservative estimate, the 1980s have been hanging around for 30 years, though it feels much, much longer. Sure, the World War II era was hot for a while. And more recently, a revival of fashion from the early 1960s caused a stir. But for reasons that remain mysterious to those who lived through that era, the Me Decade has stubbornly refused to go out of style. For evidence, skeptics need look no farther than the Baltimore Museum of Art 's current exhibit, " Andy Warhol: the Last Decade," which covers the years leading up to the artist's death in 1987.

David Bryan has a message for Baltimore theatergoers: You won't be able to tell the difference between "Memphis" at the Hippodrome and its Broadway counterpart. The casts and stage have changed, but the 50-year-old playwright and Bon Jovi keyboardist ensures the quality will remain the same. "You don't have to go to Broadway to see the real show," Bryan said. "This is the real show. " Bryan should know, since he is the show's "quality-control guy. " He says he and co-writer Joe DiPietro were in charge of all of the auditions for the Baltimore production.

Baltimore will get a welcome addition to this year's slate of holiday celebrations with the world premiere of a new Nutcracker at the Hippodrome. This Nutcracker, which will draw on American history, was choreographed by Septime Webre, artistic director of the Washington Ballet. It will be at the Hippodrome for seven performances Dec. 2-5. Webre's version will be set in a Washington mansion in 1882. In Clara's dream, the Nutcracker will resemble George Washington, and the Rat King may call to mind England's King George III. The great battle between the rats and the toys, of course, will feature Redcoats and the ragtag Continental Army.

From the opening electronic tickertape messages, relaying birthday greetings and instructions on audience behavior, to the deliriously multisensory finale, the Blue Man Group show at the Hippodrome Theatre packs a wallop. It's a big, loud, funny, silly, visually arresting production. There's no point in trying to classify what these performers, with their trademark blue faces and bald, earless heads, do onstage for the better part of 90 minutes. It's much easier to go with the flow — and duck down in your seat when those guys start roaming the aisles.

Folks impervious to the charms of vintage theater and film, immune to the allure of farce, or allergic to dry British wit and jolts of Monty Python-esque zaniness may find the fuss about "The 39 Steps" a puzzlement. Everyone else is apt to be swept along by the abundant humor and style of this ingenious show, which has settled into the Hippodrome for the last stop on a nearly year-long national tour. Taking as it starting point Alfred Hitchcock's clever 1935 film of the same name, "The 39 Steps," adapted by Patrick Barlow, adds up to more than homage.

With protesters from Wisconsin to Libya raising heated voices and issues, it seems like a particularly apt time for the hit musical "Les Miserables" to be back on the scene. The revolutionary fervor that sparks so much of the plot seems more powerful — and certainly louder — than ever in the new and handsome 25th-anniversary production of the show at the Hippodrome Theatre through Sunday. Based on the Victor Hugo novel, this ambitious pop opera by Claude-Michel Schoenberg and Alain Boublil has maintained a remarkable grip on the public.

Andrew Zimmern's "Bizarre Foods" picked up a James Beard award for TV Show, On Location at Friday night's Book, Broadcast and Awards. Zimmern, the headliner for this Saturday's Foodie Experience event at the Hippodrome, won an individual James Beard award in 2010 for TV Food Personality . The award for TV Show, Fixed Location went to "Chopped," and its host, Ted Allen, won this year's award for Media Personality/Host....

With the broad appeal of a fast-food chain — 54 million people served in 14 countries on five continents — "The Lion King" enjoys a mighty status on Broadway, where it's the seventh-longest-running musical and has packed them in since 1997. The show isn't likely to lose its appeal on tour any time soon, either. When it first played the Hippodrome in 2005, it was a 14-week smash, raking in $15 million. It's back at the theater for a monthlong engagement that is bound to be just as fruitful, nicely timed as it is for the holidays, when families with kids need diversions even more.

Norita Messick, a homemaker who attended Baltimore theaters for 80 years, died of dementia Sunday at the Arden Courts assisted-living facility. She was 99 and lived in Hamilton. Born Mary Norita Burke in Baltimore and raised on Preston Street, she was a 1931 Seton High School graduate. "She loved to say she studied three Shakespeare histories, three tragedies, three comedies and three romances for each of her years there," said her son, Roger Messick of Baltimore. She also played cello in the school orchestra.

Joan Rivers is having a manicure and a pedicure in her hotel room while juggling a phone. "I'm in Indianapolis," she says. "I just learned how to spell it, and now I'm leaving. What a waste. " This week, between gigs in Florida and Ohio, she'll stop by the Hippodrome to dispense her trademark observations on her own world and anyone, anything that catches her attention. "When I go onstage, I just talk about what's happening," Rivers says. "My life is an open book.

It has all the weight and nutritional value of cotton candy. But "The Addams Family," the Broadway musical that has taken up temporary residence at the Hippodrome Theatre, adds up to a mildly entertaining package of song and shtick. Revised since its New York premiere, which received a drubbing from the press, the show provides a workable vehicle for the characters first immortalized by the Charles Addams cartoons and memorably brought to life by the 1960s TV series. Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, who wrote the book, borrowed a well-used device to frame the musical — the comic collision of opposites.

After a hiatus of more than a year, Soulful Symphony re-emerged last month to perform for a packed house at the Hippodrome Theatre, inaugurating a concert series that continues there Friday night. Thanks to support from the recently launched Hippodrome Arts Fund, the ensemble of predominantly African-American and Latino musicians became the first resident ensemble at the Hippodrome , the flagship of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center. "It's a new chapter, a new home — but the same soul," said Darin Atwater, the composer, pianist and conductor who founded Soulful Symphony in 2000.

The Hippodrome 's 2012-2013 Broadway Series will have tried-and-true crowd pleasers such as "Wicked" and "Beauty and the Beast" alongside newer musicals "American Idiot" and "Billy Elliot. " "From a consumer perspective, this is a juggernaut season," said Jeff Daniel, president of the Hippodrome at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center. A show likely to generate particular buzz is "American Idiot. " Based on the 2004 concept album of that name by the punk-rock band Green Day, the musical looks at three male friends seeking something better than life in suburbia.

She survived drugs, booze, parental issues, complex relationships and a metal bikini, not to mention the electroconvulsive shock therapy that helps her cope with bipolar disorder. And Carrie Fisher has a lot to say about all of it. In 2006, the actress and writer who gained global fame as Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" saga poured her eventful life into an autobiographical show, "Wishful Drinking," which went on to play Broadway and was aired on HBO. On Tuesday, Fisher opens a two-week run of "Wishful Drinking" at the Hippodrome . "I've changed it a little bit," she said.

George Hamilton just wants a cup of coffee, that's all. But a small obstacle confounds the handsome, supernaturally tanned actor in his Tulsa, Okla., hotel room — the coffee maker. "This is a whole new experience for me," he says by phone. "I'm 72 years old. It's about time I learned how to do this. Hold on a minute. " Vague clanking sounds can be heard, for more than a minute. "It doesn't look like coffee," Hamilton says when he gets back on the line. "It's just sugar and milk and warm water.

Andrew Zimmern, host of the popular Travel Channel program "Bizarre Foods," will headline the Hippodrome 's third annual Foodie Experience, according to officials. Zimmern follows Anthony Bourdain, Eric Ripert and Alton Brown as main attractions at the food-centric event. A chef, food writer and teacher, Zimmern is best known for popular show that sends him traveling the globe, seeking out world class restaurants, street carts and jungle markets. In May 2010, Zimmern won the James Beard Award for Outstanding TV Food Personality.

"The Lion King" still roars. This 1997 Broadway musical is still running in New York. A touring version was a box office smash during a 14-week run at Baltimore's Hippodrome Theatre in 2005 and now the musical has returned for a month-long stay. Judging from all of the smiling children at a recent performance, this show is a wonderful family activity for the holiday season. The kids weren't the only ones smiling, laughing and pointing, because "The Lion King" knows how to please a crowd.