What a lovely performance theatre, with such a lovely and helpful staff. I got the chance to see…read moreSanta Claus is Comin to town in January 2026. My first play of the year and my first time visiting Baltimore Center Stage. It certainly won't be my last. I'm not sure if there's a parking lot of this space, but plenty of street parking with no issues on a Saturday afternoon. clean bathrooms, nice mocktails and coffee at the concession stand. We were in a somewhat small theater, which worked out because every seat was a good one. I'll gladly return!

This was my first time at Center Stage, and it was a great experience from start to finish. I…read morebought my tickets online but was called a few days before the show by the box office about an upgrade to my seat. Customer service was wonderful from the box office, to the concessions, to the ushers. I was also easily able to find parking on the street a short walk away. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for other shows at this theater.

Simply perfect. Show was about two hours of fun and…read moreinteractive magic/illusions w a stellar magician. Lots of guest interaction on every trick in a very cozy theater space. Drinks were really great and two were included w the ticket price. If u take someone Under 21, they can use the tickets to buy things from the magic store in the theater or drink fantastic mocktails. I can't say enough for the level of entertainment and value for the money. They could charge 100 dollars a ticket and it would still be a deal. I hope to go back again sometime!

Great show and cocktails! Can't wait to return. The service from arriving to leaving was wonderful!…read moreLoved how intimate it was.

Nestled right in the station north area, this is an awesome nonprofit theatre that is such a…read morewelcoming and supportive community! Recently finished Mike Harris' Intro to Improv 101 course (7 week course)- it was a blast. Had fun and learned a lot. As a student you get to go to all BIG's shows for free which is nice, good learning opportunity. They have various types of improv shows every Thurs-Sat nights, been to several and enjoyed them. Highly recommend taking a course or seeing a show. Am now in Michael Furr's standup comedy class which has been amazing so far. Aesthetics wise, it's no luxury theatre (they rely on donations and grants to stay operating, so this is understandable!) but it gets the job done and is homey. Convenient location near a few local bars. Parking Tip: If attending an evening show, get there early if you want to find easy street parking right out front (cheap, pay via kiosk or Parkmobile app). There's a parking garage across the street that's $5 if you tell them you're there for the theatre.

I recently took a class with Carlton and it was great! I'm thinking about signing up for a 101…read moreclass if I can find one that fits with my schedule. Carlton was a great instructor! He was super attentive to his students, encouraged everyone to set their own boundaries and promoted open communication through games and improv. I'm an introvert and this was my first time ever doing something like this. I'm happy I didn't back out at the last minute (like I normally would).

My 400th review was reserved for a very special business. I'm thrilled to showcase Everyman…read moreTheatre! After Sunday brunch, my partner took me to see Queens Girl: Black in the Green Mountains. This 1 (wo)man play was highly entertaining and inspiring. It's a story of self-discovery at a time when racial tension & ignorance were at an all time high. We sat front and center but there is no bad seat in the house. Everyman Theatre has been delivering high quality performances over 30 seasons. They have a professional cadre of actors who perform on a regular basis throughout the season. Additionally, community access & engagement are also cornerstones of this theatre. Each play has "pay what you choose" tickets available so finances won't be a problem. Sad, I'm really late to the party. However, Go! Check out a play, take a class, become a sponsor, and donate!!! You will thank me later.

We had a really fun experience here last night! The 4 person cast of the play Primal Trust was…read morephenomenal. The facility is very nice and the rest rooms were clean. There is a box office for will call and small bar. The theater is smallish of course but intimate. We sat in the front and realized that it is "tight" up there with little leg room and you are looking right u at the actors on the stage. it was still nice, but for those looking for more room or space from the stage, make a note. We plan to return for the next play!

We've been to several shows recently at The Hippodrome. In April (2026), we saw Kimberly Akimbo, a…read moremultiple-Tony-award-winning 2.5-hour musical. It's about teenage angst, and about aging, too, "akimbo" referring somewhat to an awkward posture. It's not easy to explain the story without giving a lot away. It's funny and also personal. This performance was quite good, by a national troupe on a nation-wide tour. The staging is casual-looking, the acting perfectly real, the dance and singing quite good. We came in large part for the wonderful music: a variety of jazz, folk, and rock, plus more, in a cabaret style. The Hippodrome was easy to drive to on a weekday evening, coming as we did a few blocks east of MLK on Baltimore Ave, or you could drive west from Light Street on Fayette. We love the classic vertical sign and broadway-like marquee, especially when it's glowing at night! The attached garage was super convenient, with elevators direct to the theater lobby, but note: cash isn't accepted for parking. The inside 1914 theater-space is gorgeous! Ornate walls and ceiling, and plush seats. Our seats were pretty comfortable with enough legroom. The Hippodrome presents broadway shows performed by national companies, right here in a lovely theater. In fact, we've seen three so far this year! Who needs New York :-)

I was back to see another production for Wicked. The show was overall well done and entertaining…read more I arrived without issue, got in quickly and was seated. I contemplated snacks, but decided against in when the line was too long during intermission. I had to choose between snacks and bathroom. GLOWS: The bathroom line is extremely long during intermission. I do feel like it was attempted to solve with making the restrooms unisex, but most ladies still gathered to use the bathroom labeled "women."

Easily the best independent theater in Baltimore from my experience. We've been lucky enough to…read morecatch two plays, The Starlight Barking and The Flower Queen both of which were excellent! We've also been able to attend their David Lynch celebration Wonderful and Strange: A David Lynch Appreciation Festival which was one of the most interesting and lovingly crafted events related to Lynch or any director that I have ever experienced. Bottle Episodes was another great monthly event they ran which featured their awesome group of performers acting out television shows, I only hope one day they'll return as seeing shows like Unsolved Mysteries and GI Joe get acted out this way was extremely fun. The theater isn't huge but does have a clean bathroom and excellent setup for visual effects via projection. There is a lot of passion that goes into the playwriting, acting and musical performances at the Mercury Theater and it's a venue that helps define art in Baltimore.

Not a big theater, but I still enjoyed! I went for a Baltimore Improv show and had a blast! The…read moreshow was very entertaining, and by it being a smaller theater the actors was able to interact with the crowd! If I'm ever in Baltimore on the weekend again, I'll check them out! And you can't beat the price!

The venue is excellent, acoustically amazing. I'm elated to have experienced it for the first time…read morein the world class euphony of the Aspen String Trio. It was a singularly ideal experience!

Wonderful playhouse!…read more Plenty of inexpensive street parking and garages nearby. Super easy to locate, beautiful ceilings, Intimate production area, every seat is amazing, elevated! There's no bad view in there. We went to see Fences. Great production, actors/ actresses, and costumes. I love the convenient concession, and lavatory inside of the venue. This way, you don't have to step out of the production room. I look forward to attending many more productions here at this location in the near future.

I went to my first play at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company last weekend. A friend and I visited…read morethe theater for a performance of Jane Austen's Persuasion. The theater is beautiful - very comfortable and intimate - not a bad seat in the house. They have a couple of bars and some seating areas, which made for an enjoyable intermission. My only (very small) complaint about the theater is that it was hard to find the bathrooms, and we waited a while, because the one women's room we found was a single stall bathroom. I think there was a larger women's room somewhere, but we didn't find it! The play was interesting - I'd never seen a theater adaptation of a Jane Austen novel, and the adaptation was interesting and some of the actors were really great. We had a great time. I was surprised to see and learn that not all of the Company's performances are of Shakespeare - later this season, they have August Wilson's Fences (part of the Baltimore August Wilson Celebration), Shakespeare's The Tempest, A Christmas Carol, and Shakespeare's The Tale of Cymbeline (performed outdoors in Ellicott City). I'll happily return for another performance!

This is Everyman Theatre's mini me. Many, many pros and a con or two, Spotlighters Theatre is…read morecharming, homey, small and intimate. The seating is 4-5 rows in a circular setting. With this close-in seating you can see EVERYTHING. The acting explodes in your face, basically. My friend and I saw "The Hairy Ape," and, as a Eugene O'Neill fanatic I was set to love it, and was not disappointed. The acting was superb. The production was excellent, particularly because there is so little space and time to change/adjust the stage without being disruptive. The lead of the play was really spectacular and wish I could remember his name. (I looked it up -- Michael Leicht.) During the intermission attendees can mingle in the lobby or outside under the lights (and stars). It's really quite magical. As much as I love Everyman's Theatre, and there should be no comparison - they are very different, I find Spotlighters the ONE place I would most recommend.

I recently made my way out to the Spotlighters to see a production of The Game's Afoot - a sherlock…read moreinspired play. The play was both fun and funny, and I truly had a blast there. The theater itself is small and set up in the "round theater" tradition: Seats circle the entire stage. This means, you are no more than 3 seats back from the action, making for a very intimate theater experience. For some this may be intense, but I found myself really engrossed in the play, and feeling more a part of it than an audience member (don't worry, you don't actually participate). This is a community theater, so I had set my expectations really low. However, the energy and thought that went into this production was anything but amateur. I left really wanting to seek out more of these types of places - and I'm in luck, Baltimore appears to be filled with them. File this place under "something different to do on a Saturday night, that'll make you feel good about living in Baltimore"

This is a painful review for me to write because I am a Cirque du Soleil fanatic. I have seen 13…read moredifferent shows, some of them multiple times. I normally can't get enough of them but we were all disappointed with this show. With the exception of Ka, all of the shows I've seen have a general theme but don't have a rigid story they are following. It's just one amazing act after another. Before the show started they were playing audio that constantly encouraged you to download the smartphone app so that you could interact with the show. As I write this it currently has 46 reviews with an average rating of 1.5 stars on iTunes. I think 1.5 stars might be a little generous. It's such a cool idea but the execution is terrible. Supposedly I could interact with the fireflies that were buzzing around the stage before the show, but I didn't notice any difference when I did it on my phone. Even worse, the app makes your phone notify you during the show to use it. How completely distracting. I hated the app. This is usually what my thought process is during a Cirque du Soleil show: "That was incredible!" "How are they doing that???" "WHAT!" This was my thought process during Toruk: "I can't understand what the storyteller is saying." "That was nice I guess. I wonder when they're going to do some acrobatics?" "The lights on that tree look pretty." I think that my biggest frustration was that I kept waiting for the Cirque du Soleil acrobatics that always blow my mind and they never showed up. Because the show had to follow a set storyline there wasn't really a way to incorporate them apparently. During one part of the show a giant net got raised towards the ceiling and I got excited thinking it was finally time for some high-flying. Unfortunately the net was just part of the storyline. It took the place of a mountain that the characters were climbing. Sigh. Another part of the show had multiple people swinging kites in circles from the end of long poles that went on for far too long. I'm not paying this much money for tickets to see something I can do myself! I'm giving the show three stars because there were some interesting set pieces that looked good. They had giant cloth flowers that would "grow" out of ground and some water effects simulating a river that looked impressive. I also enjoyed the tree of fife and the giant flying puppet. Did I enjoy them enough to justify spending this much on tickets? Hell no.

One of the worst Cirque du Soleil shows I've been to. And I've been to about ten…read more This one wasn't that much of a cirque show. It was so disappointing! It was more of a theater show where they told a story. (Not a very good story). So, unfortunately there weren't that many acrobatic performances, The only thing Toruk had going for it was the cool light show. Even the music for this performance was not that good. There were a few people in my section who just walked out during the second act. I would not recommend this show. There was none of that Cirque du Soleil magic in this. I would not recommend this show.