Second Act

It's almost too obvious and (alas) it may be pure wishful thinking, but say these words out loud: "Baltimore Orioles general manager Cal Ripken Jr. " Rolls easily off the tongue, doesn't it? Joe Pachino, Baltimore

The Sweetlife Food and Music Festival's second stage, a.k.a. The Treehouse, will feature Delta Spirit, Twin Shadow, Zola Jesus, the Knocks, RAC, U.S. Royalty, Yuna, Haim, LP, Cut Copy's Ben Browning and Bluebrain, it was announced Wednesday afternoon. This is the first year the Sweetlife Festival - which takes place April 28 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia - has expanded its acts to two stages. The artists for the Treehouse were chosen as "emerging acts, many coming off the SxSW buzz," according to a press release.

BOSTON -- Did you notice an echo in the admiration? How many people described the 2002 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize as a better ex-president than president? How many praised Jimmy Carter as a man who grew not in office, but out of it? One commentator noted wryly that the White House was just his launching pad to greatness. A historian said that Jimmy Carter had finally lost the tag of presidential "loser" by becoming a Nobel "winner." It was as if succeeding in peace was only a consolation for failing at politics.

Morris Chestnut made a name for himself as Ricky, a college-bound football star whose life was cut short, in the heart-wrenching 1991 film "Boyz n the Hood. " Since then, Chestnut has tackled a variety of roles. He's been a groom-to-be dealing with his fiancee's infidelity in "The Best Man"; an alien with a soft spot for humans on ABC's "V"; and Vivica A. Fox's love match in "Two Can Play That Game. " This weekend, Chestnut will be on stage at the Lyric for five performances of "What My Husband Doesn't Know," a "Fatal Attraction"-esque drama, written, directed and produced by Morgan State University alumnus David E. Talbert.

It was the first modern American musical - the first to fully interweave plot and music, and the first to deal with serious subject matter and themes. "Show Boat" is also, quite simply, a great work - great in terms of its epic story (adapted by Oscar Hammerstein II from Edna Ferber's novel), its magnificent score (by Jerome Kern and Hammerstein), and its physical size. The touring production at the Lyric Opera House reflects some, but hardly all, of that greatness. Directed by Clayton Phillips, a protege of Harold Prince, this version owes a degree of allegiance to Prince's 1995 Tony Award-winning revival.

THERE IS NO better way of saying it. You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy ''Those Were The Days.'' You don't have to speak Yiddish, either. Some of the revue is done in Yiddish, but if you know a little German, it is easy enough to grab, and for those who don't know any German, there are translations, here and there.''Those Were the Days,'' which opened last evening at Center Stage, is a delight, beginning to end. A collection of Yiddish-Jewish songs, dances and jokes that are part of the Jewish heritage, it is almost irresistible.

The trials and tribulations of petty thieves are the basis of David Mamet's black comedy-drama, "American Buffalo," currently playing at the Towsontowne Arena Theatre through May 27.Strong language and violence characterize Mamet's piece. The play won the 1977 New York Drama Critics Best Play award and earned the author a prestigious place on the list of contemporary American playwrights.Performed on the stage of the Towsontowne Dinner Theater Mondays through Wednesdays ("Can Can" is playing Thursdays through Sundays)

The Moscow Ballet opened its six-day run of "The Nutcracker" Tuesday evening at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre to an audience primed to see a truly Russian performance. While the audience was not disappointed with the flourish of talent (both Russian and local), the production values were less than glorious and at several points were almost ludicrous.Although newly choreographed by one-time Bolshoi star Stanislav Vlasov, this production felt well-worn. Mr. Vlasov's inspiration was the 1934 Kirov's "Nutcracker," and the costumes and wigs looked as if they had been left in a closet since that production.

BOSTON -- Until now, I believed that the smallest unit of time was between the moment the traffic light turned green and the car behind you honked. I was wrong. The shortest unit is actually between the moment you win the Nobel Peace Prize and someone asks if you're running for president. This is the story of Al Gore. It's wrapped succinctly in the Time magazine headline: "Gore Wins the Nobel. But Will He Run?" The best answer came from Rep. Rahm Emanuel: "Why would he run for president when he can be a demigod?"

Early in the second act of Little Women, the heroine gets bad news. The audience begins to weep helplessly and doesn't stop for a solid half-hour. The Hippodrome Theatre begins to fill with sea-water. After 10 minutes, you could pilot a small boat down the aisles. After 20, you could drop a fishing line into the waves and catch a late dinner. Heck, even the fish are crying. Little Women 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays; 1 p.m., 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Through April 23. Hippodrome Theatre, 12 N. Eutaw St. $26-$71.

It's almost too obvious and (alas) it may be pure wishful thinking, but say these words out loud: "Baltimore Orioles general manager Cal Ripken Jr. " Rolls easily off the tongue, doesn't it? Joe Pachino, Baltimore

There was plenty of chatter at Loyola's Reitz Arena last Thursday before a Baltimore Summer League game. Players tied their shoes, scarfed down pre-game snacks and talked about NBA free agency before games began on the third night of play in the NCAA-sanctioned basketball league for local college players. The distractions, however, did not bother Towson forward Braxton Dupree, who shot jumpers by himself away from the off-court diversions. The Calvert Hall graduate made a habit of showing up about a half hour before each of his summer league contests.

The pictures come clearly into the mind of Bob Sabelhaus Sr., as he is driving to New York for Thanksgiving and talking on his cell phone about his son Bobby, who in 1995 was the nation's top-rated quarterback prospect during his senior year at McDonogh. The pictures are like flashcards: Bobby, The Sun's Offensive Player of the Year at McDonogh ... His son struggling in Florida coach Steve Spurrier's sink-or-swim system, so unlike McDonogh, where coaches were nurturing ... The diagnosis that his son had bipolar II disorder, clinical depression ... and, finally, the phone call from San Jose State, where Bobby had been trying to re-establish his football career.

As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, issues that had long been unspoken, long kept under wraps, began to surface. One, in particular, jumped out to startle people right out of their puritanical/Victorian comfort zones - sex. The eagerness to talk openly about sex seems to have been particularly pronounced in Germany, where the 1890s saw one of the world's first gay-rights organizations and where a play by Frank Wedekind called Spring Awakening explicitly...

Mark Twain's sadness and worries about money are all right there - hidden under the cross-dressing plot that puts a cigar-chomping gent in hoop skirts and hair bows, beneath the satirical swipes at the French, the art world and Limburger cheese. Is He Dead?, a recently discovered 1898 comedy by the great humorist and adapted by David Ives, has all the sparkle and brilliance of a shooting star. But it leaves behind a trail of dust, stones and space debris. In the farce, currently receiving a solid production at Olney Theatre Center, Twain cheekily placed a beloved, recent painter, Jean Francois Millet, in stage center.

BOSTON -- Until now, I believed that the smallest unit of time was between the moment the traffic light turned green and the car behind you honked. I was wrong. The shortest unit is actually between the moment you win the Nobel Peace Prize and someone asks if you're running for president. This is the story of Al Gore. It's wrapped succinctly in the Time magazine headline: "Gore Wins the Nobel. But Will He Run?" The best answer came from Rep. Rahm Emanuel: "Why would he run for president when he can be a demigod?"

The masterpieces of early opera are essentially sung plays that must be brought to life by words and the accouterments of staging rather than by beautiful singing.Saturday's cast for Francesco Cavalli's "Ormindo" (1644) at the Peabody Conservatory of Music was not generally outstanding in vocal terms but the performance was an unqualified success.In less than discerning hands, this opera -- which recounts the adventures of Ormindo, the Prince of Tunis, who loves Erisbe, the wife of the elderly Ariadeno, King of Fez -- can seem pretty light stuff.

You don't want to judge ''The Petition'' by its first act. All sorts of questions arise during the opening act, questions that need to be answered.The questions, it turns out, are answered during the second act, to the relative satisfaction of the viewer, and by the time the play is ended, we are pleased to have been in the company of an interesting couple.Of course, the couple in "The Petition" are a little exasperating, but then they are British aristocracy, and these people have always marched to their own classical music, if the plays and movies that have been written about them are in any way accurate.

Documentarian returns in a 'reality'-wary age Once again, Terry Wrong has spent three months living, breathing and chronicling the inner life of Johns Hopkins Hospital for an ABC broadcast documentary. If there is one thing he wants viewers to get from his film, it's "a shock of recognition that this is real, this is true, this is life and death." Facing a viewership jaded by so-called "reality TV," the award-winning broadcast journalist says, "People aren't being paid to come on and die before the cameras in this production -- these are not wannabe actors.