Vagabond Players

By now, 60 long years after Agatha Christie's “The Mousetrap” opened in London, the whodunit is more of a fixture than a stage show. It apparently cannot ever be stopped on that side of The Pond, where it has surpassed the 25,000th performance mark and still holds firmly onto the record as the world's longest-running play. On our shores, the work never became such an institution, but it still continues to attract attention now and then, particularly from community theater groups.

According to an old song, there's a broken heart for every light on Broadway. There's also a lot of humor to be mined from all that disappointment, all those shattered dreams littering the theater industry, where producers scramble for backers, playwrights dream way too big, and aspiring actors will leap at any opportunity. Whether “Room Service,” the 1937 farce by John Murray and Allen Boretz, is the best comedy to be inspired by this volatile milieu can be debated. The work, which has been given a welcome, if spotty, revival by Vagabond Players, certainly creaks in places.

Vagabond Players may save money on its utility bill this month, because much of "Wait Until Dark" actually takes place in the dark. Although Frederick Knott's 1966 Broadway thriller tends to be slow and creaky, it's still capable of making you nervous. The Vagabond production likewise knows how to make you feel uneasy. Knott's play is best-remembered for its 1967 movie version starring Audrey Hepburn. It would be unreasonable to expect any actor to match up to Hepburn's delicately beautiful aura, but April Rejman is persuasive as a blind woman, Susy Hendrix, who is terrorized by thugs in a Greenwich Village apartment.

Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" opened in London in 1952 and continues to run there. The world's longest running play also remains popular with community theaters around the globe. As the Vagabond Players production demonstrates, this murder mystery remains entertaining. Considered from a sternly logical standpoint, Christie's play suffers from stereotypical characters, a formulaic story and preposterous plot twists. Sternly logical people should avoid this play and the rest of us should avoid them by going to see it. Christie's simple formula involves placing a group of quirky guests in an isolated country inn, stranding them there when heavy snow closes local roads, making them nervous upon learning about a recent unsolved murder, bringing in a policeman to investigate, and consequently having the guests and the audience alike realize that everybody at the inn seems mighty suspicious.

Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" opened in London in 1952 and continues to run there. The world's longest running play also remains popular with community theaters around the globe. As the Vagabond Players production demonstrates, this murder mystery remains entertaining. Considered from a sternly logical standpoint, Christie's play suffers from stereotypical characters, a formulaic story and preposterous plot twists. Sternly logical people should avoid this play and the rest of us should avoid them by going to see it. Christie's simple formula involves placing a group of quirky guests in an isolated country inn, stranding them there when heavy snow closes local roads, making them nervous upon learning about a recent unsolved murder, bringing in a policeman to investigate, and consequently having the guests and the audience alike realize that everybody at the inn seems mighty suspicious.

According to an old song, there's a broken heart for every light on Broadway. There's also a lot of humor to be mined from all that disappointment, all those shattered dreams littering the theater industry, where producers scramble for backers, playwrights dream way too big, and aspiring actors will leap at any opportunity. Whether “Room Service,” the 1937 farce by John Murray and Allen Boretz, is the best comedy to be inspired by this volatile milieu can be debated. The work, which has been given a welcome, if spotty, revival by Vagabond Players, certainly creaks in places.

By now, 60 long years after Agatha Christie's “The Mousetrap” opened in London, the whodunit is more of a fixture than a stage show. It apparently cannot ever be stopped on that side of The Pond, where it has surpassed the 25,000th performance mark and still holds firmly onto the record as the world's longest-running play. On our shores, the work never became such an institution, but it still continues to attract attention now and then, particularly from community theater groups.

Jean Anouilh's historical drama "Becket" opens tomorrow at the Vagabond Players.Barry Feinstein directs this study of political vs. religious allegiance. Tom Nolte plays the title role opposite Mark Williams as Henry II.Show times at the Vagabond Players, 806 S. Broadway, are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays, through March 17. Tickets are $9 and $10. Call (410) 563-9135.

By now, there have been more versions of "Rashomon" than there are folds in a piece of origami.The account of a rape and murder retold four different ways by four different sources, it originated as Japanese stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. These were adapted into an Academy Award-winning movie by Akira Kurosawa in 1951. Eight years later "Rashomon" showed up on Broadway, scripted by Fay and Michael Kanin. And, hoping to cash in on a good thing, MGM remade it as a Western -- retitled "The Outrage" -- in 1964.

"Nine" was far from a standard musical when it opened on Broadway in 1982, and it is far from a standard selection for the Vagabond Players.Not only is this Maury Yeston-Arthur Kopit musical based on the seemingly unlikely source of Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical, impressionistic film, "8 1/2 ," but the original production featured a cast of 21 women and one man (and several children), most of whom spent most of the show moving around a set that represented a Venetian spa.At the Vagabonds, director Todd Pearthree has trimmed the cast down to 13 women, one man and one child, and the fluid way he choreographs their movements on the constricted set is a mini-marvel.

By now, 60 long years after Agatha Christie's “The Mousetrap” opened in London, the whodunit is more of a fixture than a stage show. It apparently cannot ever be stopped on that side of The Pond, where it has surpassed the 25,000th performance mark and still holds firmly onto the record as the world's longest-running play. On our shores, the work never became such an institution, but it still continues to attract attention now and then, particularly from community theater groups.

By now, 60 long years after Agatha Christie's “The Mousetrap” opened in London, the whodunit is more of a fixture than a stage show. It apparently cannot ever be stopped on that side of The Pond, where it has surpassed the 25,000th performance mark and still holds firmly onto the record as the world's longest-running play. On our shores, the work never became such an institution, but it still continues to attract attention now and then, particularly from community theater groups.

Sixty years ago, an extraordinary reign began in England, one that would provide the nation with a comforting measure of stability and continuity during some of the most tumultuous decades of the 20th century and right on into the far-from-placid 21st. The Diamond Jubilee attracted notice all around the globe, especially since it was a milestone few would have predicted back in 1952, when the curtain first rose on Agatha Christie's theatrical murder mystery "The Mousetrap" in London's West End. Even Christie figured the play would last no more than eight months.

Prepare ye the way of another revival of "Godspell," whose hippie-era aura makes it a cultural relic from early 1970s pop culture. It would not be reasonable to expect this perky musical to seem as fresh now as it did way back when, but the production at Vagabond Players serves as a lively reminder that this show still knows how to lift the spirits. Baby-boomers who first saw this musical at a tender age probably have had its score stored away in their subconscious ever since then.

Vagabond Players may save money on its utility bill this month, because much of "Wait Until Dark" actually takes place in the dark. Although Frederick Knott's 1966 Broadway thriller tends to be slow and creaky, it's still capable of making you nervous. The Vagabond production likewise knows how to make you feel uneasy. Knott's play is best-remembered for its 1967 movie version starring Audrey Hepburn. It would be unreasonable to expect any actor to match up to Hepburn's delicately beautiful aura, but April Rejman is persuasive as a blind woman, Susy Hendrix, who is terrorized by thugs in a Greenwich Village apartment.

The young theater ensembles around town haven't cornered the market on the edgy or the avant-garde. The Vagabond Players , more readily associated with mainstream (or at least near-mainstream) repertoire, is closing its 95th season with a decidedly offbeat item, "Abducting Diana," by Italian playwright Dario Fo, the 1997 Nobel Prize laureate for literature. It's a gutsy choice for the company, but the play, a combination of satire, farce and a dash of commedia dell'arte, seems to suffer in the translation.

Playwright Arthur Miller likes to build furniture in his spare time. It's a fitting hobby; his appreciation of solid craftsmanship is reflected in the structure of his plays. And, in the case of "The Price," solidly built furniture is the subject of the most memorable speech.Banging his hand on a heavy wood table, Gregory Solomon, an 89-year-old Russian-Jewish furniture dealer, exclaims, ". . .this table. . . Listen! You can't move it. A man sits down to such a table, he knows not only he's married, he's got to stay married -- there is no more possibilities."

Albert S. Strappelli, a prominent figure in local amateur theater circles for nearly five decades, died Saturday of heart failure at his Ocean City home. He was 84. A colorful and rambunctious character actor who played a wide variety of roles during his career, Mr. Strappelli joined the Vagabond Players in 1936 and performed in scores of the company's productions. From 1958 until 1978, he performed the starring role of the villain in the classic melodrama "The Drunkard" at the old Four Corners Tavern in Jacksonville, Baltimore County.

Serious clowning has been the means through which Italian playwright Dario Fo makes political comments about contemporary society. Proof that Fo's goofy plays are themselves taken seriously came when he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997. You can laugh yourself to the same conclusion by watching "Abducting Diana" at Vagabond Players. This near-surreal comedy is characteristic of Fo's work in a less fortunate way as well, because the playwright often ventures from silly into just plain stupid.

Tomorrow night after the kiddies trot home with their bulging candy bags, it's playtime for us adults. Not only is it Halloween - it's Friday night. That means double the tricks and treats for the taking - from Halloween-themed concerts to costume contests with cash prizes. You just have to know where to look. Here are some of the best options for Halloween revelry in and around the city. 1 How could Halloween night in Fells Point not be No. 1 on our list?