Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins us each week with her review of one of the region's many theatrical productions. Today, she spotlights Judy and the General, the new musical comedy on stage at Spotlighters Theatre in Baltimore.
Judy and the General is playwright Rosemary Frisino Toohey's funny, feminist take on the biblical character Judith, and her 1st-century confrontation with the powerful Assyrian general, Holofernes.
The play (whose book, music and lyrics are all by Ms. Toohey) draws from The Book of Judith, a so-called deuterocanonical book that's included in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian versions of the Old Testament Bible, but excluded from Jewish texts and assigned by Protestants to the Apocrypha.
Museums and churches all over the world are replete with images of Judith, as many famed artists through the centuries have depicted the young woman in the act of beheading a bearded general.
Among the tiny roster of strong female characters portrayed in the Bible, Judith is a heroic standout. Intelligent, devout and determined, she uses her feminine wiles to outwit and defeat Holofernes. And in a classic clash of the forces of good and evil, she saves her people from destruction.
For Spotlighters production of Judy and the General, the stage and musical director is Michael W. Tan, who leads a cast that includes Kellie Podsednik, Kay-Megan Washington, Richard Greenslit, Wayne Ivusich and Rob Wall.
Judy and the General continues at Spotlighters through Sunday, July 29th.
