Theater District

If Cleveland can have a theater district, there's no reason Baltimore can't. Cleveland's Playhouse Square features an astonishing collection for a city of 478,000 - the restored Ohio, State, Allen, Palace and Hanna theaters, all clustered along Euclid Avenue. They were once movie houses or vaudeville stages or both; four of them went dark in the dismal days of urban decline. Now, through a lot of hard work by a lot of dedicated people, they've gone legit in a magnificent way, and the people of Northeast Ohio are the beneficiaries of it. This is why the news that the Everyman will be moving into the old Town Theatre on Fayette Street, just across Eutaw from the Hippodrome, is so welcome.

Forno, a great-looking new restaurant and wine bar located across the street from the Hippodrome Theatre , opened as quietly as it could in late February just as the blockbuster musical "The Book of Mormon" pulled into town. Emina Dukic, who co-owns Forno with her husband, Bryan Noto, has said she wants Forno to be not only an amenity for the theater crowd but for residents of an emerging west-side neighborhood in and around the sprawling campus of the University of Maryland.

NEW YORK -- Broadway has roared out of its slump.Last week, 27 productions attracted more than 222,000 theatergoers, more than in any single week since Christmas 1981.These figures closed out a month in which Broadway attracted more than 830,000 theatergoers and box-office receipts were the highest of any four-week period in New York theater history, according to figures from the League of American Theaters and Producers.The total four-week take -- which reflects today's higher ticket prices -- was $30,108,322, more than $3 million higher than the previous four-week record, set in December 1989.

If Cleveland can have a theater district, there's no reason Baltimore can't. Cleveland's Playhouse Square features an astonishing collection for a city of 478,000 - the restored Ohio, State, Allen, Palace and Hanna theaters, all clustered along Euclid Avenue. They were once movie houses or vaudeville stages or both; four of them went dark in the dismal days of urban decline. Now, through a lot of hard work by a lot of dedicated people, they've gone legit in a magnificent way, and the people of Northeast Ohio are the beneficiaries of it. This is why the news that the Everyman will be moving into the old Town Theatre on Fayette Street, just across Eutaw from the Hippodrome, is so welcome.

NEW YORK -- Something nice is happening on the radio. On this Memorial Day weekend, a disc jockey with the sentimental heart of a patriot is playing music from some other America.It's the America in which we all want to believe but sometimes don't. It's the America of bravery and romance, and of shining cities, and it's the America where everybody gets a fair shot.But it's the America we sometimes feel too cynical to imagine anymore. Here's the kicker: It's a foreign-language radio station, 105.9 on this city's FM dial.

I BOLTED out the front door one cold night this week to meet friends for a movie. I promised to meet them at 7 and figured I could cut my time fairly close -- distances in the city are short, and it's amazing how quickly you can get around Baltimore when you're not afraid of the geography. Still, I received a short and sweet lesson in urban misconceptions when I got to the door of the Charles Theatre. It being a chilly Wednesday night in what I assumed was an off-the-beaten-track place, I thought, the lobby would be empty.

Forno, a great-looking new restaurant and wine bar located across the street from the Hippodrome Theatre , opened as quietly as it could in late February just as the blockbuster musical "The Book of Mormon" pulled into town. Emina Dukic, who co-owns Forno with her husband, Bryan Noto, has said she wants Forno to be not only an amenity for the theater crowd but for residents of an emerging west-side neighborhood in and around the sprawling campus of the University of Maryland.

Shows such as "The Sound of Music," "Oklahoma!" and "The King and I" are musical theater classics, but there's more to the musical legacy of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II than just their greatest hits.This month, area theatergoers have a rare opportunity to experience some of the songwriters' lesser-known work, as well as music from those hit shows."Cinderella," the only musical Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote for television, is currently receiving its area stage premiere at Olney Theatre.

Name: : fabMAPS What they are: : Sturdy waterproof cloths with maps printed on them. How they work: : Aside from being used for guidance purposes as detailed maps, the microfiber cloths also can be used to clean a camera lens, eyeglasses or, in a pinch, a soiled lapel or a smudged chin. The good: : The maps contain significant detail, with hotels, museums, nightspots, restaurants, stores, theaters, hospitals, police stations, banks and more. They're available for a slew of tourist spots, including New York's theater district and New Orleans' French Quarter.

NEW YORK -- By 9:15 in the morning, there were 67 people in line outside the Royale Theater on West 45th Street, around the corner from Shubert Alley and in the heart of that part of midtown Manhattan known as the theater district or, more specifically, Broadway. When the doors opened a little after 10, there were more than 140, all there with one goal, one dream: to get a job in a Broadway show.But this was not just any Broadway show. The show was "Miss Saigon," the hit London musical that has been the subject of much racial controversy in the last two months, and the audition was specifically for ethnic minority actors -- Asian actors, black actors, Hispanic actors, American Indian actors.

I BOLTED out the front door one cold night this week to meet friends for a movie. I promised to meet them at 7 and figured I could cut my time fairly close -- distances in the city are short, and it's amazing how quickly you can get around Baltimore when you're not afraid of the geography. Still, I received a short and sweet lesson in urban misconceptions when I got to the door of the Charles Theatre. It being a chilly Wednesday night in what I assumed was an off-the-beaten-track place, I thought, the lobby would be empty.

NEW YORK -- Something nice is happening on the radio. On this Memorial Day weekend, a disc jockey with the sentimental heart of a patriot is playing music from some other America.It's the America in which we all want to believe but sometimes don't. It's the America of bravery and romance, and of shining cities, and it's the America where everybody gets a fair shot.But it's the America we sometimes feel too cynical to imagine anymore. Here's the kicker: It's a foreign-language radio station, 105.9 on this city's FM dial.

NEW YORK -- Broadway has roared out of its slump.Last week, 27 productions attracted more than 222,000 theatergoers, more than in any single week since Christmas 1981.These figures closed out a month in which Broadway attracted more than 830,000 theatergoers and box-office receipts were the highest of any four-week period in New York theater history, according to figures from the League of American Theaters and Producers.The total four-week take -- which reflects today's higher ticket prices -- was $30,108,322, more than $3 million higher than the previous four-week record, set in December 1989.

What sites do you recommend in and around Houston for a visit this summer? You have plenty of choices, starting with the Houston Museum District (houstonmuseumdistrict.org), just a short walk from downtown. You will find museums of fine arts, contemporary craft, natural science, photography, the Holocaust and others. Nearby is the Houston Zoo. Downtown's theater district has resident companies in ballet, opera, symphony and theater. The Alley Theatre (alleytheatre.org) performs through the summer.

LONDON -- Ian MacNeil is the designer who made his theatrical reputation by putting an Edwardian dollhouse on stilts and busting it apart.The quake comes near the end of J.B. Priestley's "An Inspector Calls," which opens at Baltimore's Mechanic Theatre on Tuesday. Before the house falls, Mr. MacNeil unleashes all the tricks of the set designer's trade, from pouring rain onto the stage to using more fog than a heavy metal rock video. He also creates a hellish landscape of 20th-century Britain, borrowing imagery from T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" and the motion pictures "The Exorcist" and "The Third Man."