Hippodrome

In the second and best installment of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,” the follow-up to “I Love Lucy,” the guest star is Tallulah Bankhead, playing herself as a new neighbor of the Ricardos and Mertzes. During a clash of temperaments, Lucy mockingly imitates Tallulah's famed basso voice and “dahling”-peppered phrases, leading to this exchange: Tallulah: “You do a revolting impression of me.” Lucy: “So do you.” There was a lot of truth in that funny scene, and it finds a telling echo in Matthew Lombardo's entertaining play about Bankhead, “Looped,” currently onstage at the Hippodrome starring a persuasive Stefanie Powers.

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.

When Joe Jonas, Nelly, Gloria Estefan and John Rich took the stage at the Hippodrome last night, the audience burst into screams and applause. Most of the excitement was for Jonas and Nelly -- girls proposed and sang the musician's songs to get their attention. The four celebrities were in town to shoot an episode of "The Next: Fame is at Your Doorstep," the CW's new summer singing competition. The show features four unsigned artists who have a following in their hometown. Each of the contestants is matched up with one of a celebrity mentors, and they have 72 hours to prepare for the big performance.

The Broadway phenomenon known as “The Book of Mormon,” a musical from the creators of “South Park” that became a runaway hit two years ago and shows no signs of flagging, will reach Baltimore next season as part of the Hippodrome's 10th anniversary. Joining “Mormon,” which took the Tony Award for best musical in 2011, will be the Tony winner for best play that year, “War Horse,” a show celebrated for its inventive use of life-sized puppetry. One of last year's big Tony accumulators, “Peter and the Starcatcher,” a play with music based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, is also on the Hippodrome lineup.

NAMING IS power. Don't primitive peoples resist revealing their names to strangers? Wasn't Adam's naming of the animals a sign of his dominion over them? Places used to be named after the people living there. Think of the states, rivers, mountains named for Native American tribes. Consider how, without William Pitt, Pittsburgh might be ... well, West Philadelphia. In Baltimore, we like naming streets for statesmen -- from founding fathers such as Charles and Calvert to contemporary heroes such as John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. But when it comes to structures, we lack imagination.

When William A. Martin arrived at the Peabody Institute to work on a master's degree in 2001, he was of two minds, thinking about a performance career and a teaching one. You could say he was also of two voices. "He was a 'bari-tenor' when he started out," said Stanley Cornett, Martin's teacher at Peabody. "He had a beautiful, rich voice with a deep resonance to it. " Once Martin moved firmly from baritone to tenor, he faced another dichotomy - whether to focus on opera or music theater.

"The Phantom of the Opera" returned to the Hippodrome Theatre Friday night with its famed chandelier looming impressively over the audience, and its boogie-man, descending-scale tune for the title character booming ominously into the house. For the uninitiated, this tour — said to be the final one for the original production — should provide all the sensory appeal that helped turn this Andrew Lloyd Webber show into the ultimate musical cash cow (more than $5 billion grossed worldwide, over 80 million people served since 1986 )

THE UNIVERSITY of Maryland, Baltimore, has occupied the same site since 1807 as the founding campus of the University of Maryland.With new buildings and programs, the university has played a pivotal role in the rebirth of the west side of downtown. But problems crying out for urban renewal lie between the eastern borders of our campus and downtown.Our neighborhood's complete rebirth is not possible without more redevelopment. And that will only occur with investment in projects that serve as catalysts, such as the Hippodrome Theater.

The time is right for someone to step up and save downtown Baltimore's magnificent but decaying Hippodrome Theatre.The theater that presented vaudeville stage shows and motion pictures opened 78 years ago.It now sits closed and friendless in the first block of N. Eutaw St., just below Lexington Market and four blocks north of Oriole Park at Camden Yards.From time to time, there are murmurings that someone wants to restore this masonry and plaster palace.It was here that generations of Baltimoreans saw such acts as the Boswell Sisters and the Three Stooges live on the legendary Hipp stage.

The Ford Center, one of the renovated theaters on New York's 42nd Street, had an informal opening back in November. After I inspected its lobby, walked up a fancy staircase, admired a new floor mosaic, and gazed at that grand proscenium arch, I thought: "Why can't Baltimore have this too?"The Greater Baltimore Committee and the Downtown Partnership feel the same way, as do thousands of nameless Baltimoreans who grow pleased and proud when one of their landmarks of civic patrimony is saved, restored and appreciated.