Troupers

To paraphrase Meredith Willson, "We've Got Magic Right Here in River City" (the Severn, that is) with the Moonlight Troupers' "The Music Man."This show is a visual delight with sets that are true to Willson's story -- based on reminiscences of his boyhood in 1912 Iowa. His first show was eight years in the making with more than 30 drafts and 40 songs written before it reached rehearsals in 1957.From set design to cast and orchestra, the Troupers have crafted a star-spangled production.From the sound of the first whistle, the 24-piece orchestra under the direction of Raymond A. Ascione is a joy. The score is one of irresistible charm, its simplicity evoking a bygone time.

One garden that never welcomes rain is Annapolis Summer Garden - the outdoor theater across from City Dock where a downpour postponed last Friday's seating. Overhead lights had to be repaired "big-top" fashion by a technician working from a catwalk 20 feet above the audience. And about a half-hour into Smokey Joe's Cafe, a 15-minute timeout was called until the rain subsided and audience members could return to their seats. Theatergoing optimists who ignored the rain forecast and endured storm delays were amply rewarded by a cast of troupers who gave 100 percent despite a less-than-ideal performance environment.

Anne Arundel Community College's Moonlight Troupers brought to life the musical drama Ragtime, which adds a syncopated score to E.L. Doctorow's 1975 novel chronicling the impact people of color and immigrants had on the upper-middle class in early 20th-century America. This sweeping historical drama looks back to 1906 and can be a challenging show to produce. But it proved within the grasp of Moonlight Troupers director Barbara Marder. Describing the show as involving "more notes than we have tackled before, the plot more stories and many characters," Marder focused on the strengths of her 44-member cast of students and seasoned actors.

Damon Runyon's colorful characters brought to musical life by composer Frank Loesser's 1950 hit Guys and Dolls remains high on most lists of great Broadway musicals. It seemed a safe bet that this timeless show about gamblers done by a lively young cast would provide an entertaining evening and continue Anne Arundel Community College's proud performing arts tradition at Pascal Center. The bet proved risky on opening night last Friday, when Moonlight Troupers' Guys and Dolls fell far short of expectations, based on nearly every Troupers show I'd seen over the last dozen years - including a terrific Guys and Dolls done 10 years ago by a talented cast against a great Manhattan backdrop.

IF, IN THE ELECTION next week, you were asked to choose the most beautiful season in Central County, you'd be hard pressed to decide.Who doesn't love crowds of tulips and daffodils blossoming beneath trellised branches of celadon lace?Or do you prefer when dogwood leaves chill to crimson and the sun comes to live in the sugar maples?Right now, fall gets my vote.Weekend showThe fall production of the Moonlight Troupers of Anne Arundel Community College is "Peter Pan."Performances of the musical based on the play by James M. Barrie are Nov. 8-10, 15-17 and 22-24.

Anne Arundel Community College's Moonlight Troupers have embarked on their final week of rehearsal in preparation for next weekend's opening of Ken Ludwig's Lend Me a Tenor at the Pascal Center for Performing Arts. Ludwig's farce, filled with mistaken identities and assorted tenor groupies, opened on Broadway in March 1989. It ran there for more than a year, winning many awards including two Tonys, then ran in London, where it was nominated for the Olivier Award as comedy of the year. The show has been seen in 200-plus productions in more than 25 countries.

A review of the Anne Arundel Community College Moonlight '' Troupers' production of "Cabaret" that ran in last Friday's editions of The Sun for Anne Arundel identified the pit orchestra conductor incorrectly. The conductor was Steve Gilmer.The Sun regrets the errors.The Anne Arundel Community College Moonlight Troupers' production of "Cabaret" is one of the more professionally mounted area musicals of recent memory, despite a few flaws.The production looks tremendous. The sets are prodigious, especially the infamous Kit Kat Club, that sleazy nightspot that symbolizes the moral collapse of Germany on the eve of the Nazi takeover.

The gentle whimsy of Aurand Harris' 45-year-old play, Androcles and the Lion, enchanted young audiences and those young at heart for the past two weekends at Anne Arundel Community College with its message of kindness toward fellow human beings. The timeless play is based on one of Aesop's fables, a familiar story of a young slave who removes a thorn from a lion's paw and becomes his friend. Harris employed elements of Commedia del'Arte style of Italian theater, where troupes of energetic actors wearing elaborate costumes and masks entertain audiences with uplifting stories that laugh at human frailties.

A hit since it opened on Broadway in 1989, Ken Ludwig's Lend Me A Tenor continues to entertain in Anne Arundel Community College's Moonlight Troupers' production that opened last weekend at the school's Pascal Center for Performing Arts. Tenor tells the story of a world-famous Italian singer, Tito Merelli, who is engaged by Cleveland Opera to open its season with a performance of Verdi's Otello. Unconcerned about keeping 1,000 opera fans waiting, Tito decides to rest after his angry wife, Maria, threatens to leave him over his womanizing.

Anne Arundel Community College's Moonlight Troupers present their spring production - Tom Stoppard's adult farce "On the Razzle" - in a two-weekend run beginning tomorrow at Pascal Center for the Performing Arts. Set in 19th-century Vienna, the comedy centers on men looking for adventure and women seeking romance. Based on Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy's 19th-century farce "Einen Jux will er sich machen" - the source of Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker," which later became "Hello, Dolly!"

This season, Anne Arundel Community College will continue its tradition of offering performing arts events that range from Broadway musical favorites to dramas to operas sung in English, from orchestral and jazz concerts to classical, jazz and tap dance. The shows should give students a chance to hone their skills before an audience, while offering a variety of entertainment options at affordable prices at the AACC Pascal Center for the Performing Arts. , in addition to works by Massenet and Brazilian composer Cesar Carnargo Mariano.

The gentle whimsy of Aurand Harris' 45-year-old play, Androcles and the Lion, enchanted young audiences and those young at heart for the past two weekends at Anne Arundel Community College with its message of kindness toward fellow human beings. The timeless play is based on one of Aesop's fables, a familiar story of a young slave who removes a thorn from a lion's paw and becomes his friend. Harris employed elements of Commedia del'Arte style of Italian theater, where troupes of energetic actors wearing elaborate costumes and masks entertain audiences with uplifting stories that laugh at human frailties.

Anne Arundel Community College's Moonlight Troupers brought to life the musical drama Ragtime, which adds a syncopated score to E.L. Doctorow's 1975 novel chronicling the impact people of color and immigrants had on the upper-middle class in early 20th-century America. This sweeping historical drama looks back to 1906 and can be a challenging show to produce. But it proved within the grasp of Moonlight Troupers director Barbara Marder. Describing the show as involving "more notes than we have tackled before, the plot more stories and many characters," Marder focused on the strengths of her 44-member cast of students and seasoned actors.

Musical -- Anne Arundel Community College's Moonlight Troupers drama club will present Ragtime at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 18 in the Pascal Center for Performing Arts, 101 College Parkway, Arnold. The cost is $15 for adults and $12 for seniors, AACC employees and non-AACC students; and $8 for AACC students. 410-777-2457 or www.aacc.edu/performingarts.

During her more than 25-year association with Anne Arundel Community College's Moonlight Troupers, performing arts department Chairwoman Barbara Marder has not witnessed a single Shakespeare production at the college, recalling that A Midsummer Night's Dream was offered about 30 years ago. From what I observed at last Thursday's rehearsal of Twelfth Night, it is about time the Bard got on the boards. The play looks to receive fine treatment from the drama club cast when it opens April 13 for a brief run at the Pascal Center for Performing Arts.

The Moonlight Troupers present nonstop, fast-paced entertainment by a rainbow of energetic actors in their new production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The first collaboration of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, the 1968 musical based on the biblical tale retains its freshness. At Anne Arundel Community College's Pascal Center for the Performing Arts, Rob Berry has created a fascinating urban playground set that fully uses the height and width of the stage while providing space for continuous action.

During her more than 25-year association with Anne Arundel Community College's Moonlight Troupers, performing arts department Chairwoman Barbara Marder has not witnessed a single Shakespeare production at the college, recalling that A Midsummer Night's Dream was offered about 30 years ago. From what I observed at last Thursday's rehearsal of Twelfth Night, it is about time the Bard got on the boards. The play looks to receive fine treatment from the drama club cast when it opens April 13 for a brief run at the Pascal Center for Performing Arts.

Moonlight Troupers' "Guys and Dolls," which opened last weekend at Anne Arundel Community College, is closer to a Broadway show than a community college production in terms of the talented cast, skilled directing, great staging and lively orchestra in the pit.Robert F. Kauffman, director and head of the AACC drama department, has assembled an excellent cast and crew to bring to life the colorful gamblers, gangsters, missionaries and showgirls from Damon...

"Life is random and unfair," the cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee sings in a number called "Pandemonium." Live theater also proved pretty random Wednesday at the Hippodrome Theatre, where Spelling Bee launched the subscription season as well as the show's national tour. But this musical - which began as an improvised sketch and includes audience interaction - is better equipped to handle pandemonium than most. The first glitch came when the production's sound board crashed at the start of the performance.

A fairy tale about palace schemers who say whatever their leader wants to hear in hopes of acquiring - or staying in - power remains as relevant today as when Hans Christian Andersen wrote it in 1837. But that's only part of what makes the Moonlight Troupers' production of the musical comedy The Emperor's New Clothes so entertaining. The show by the Anne Arundel Community College theater group opened Friday and continues this weekend, with the actors happily presenting their one-dimensional stock characters.