Why I Envy Baltimore

Nevermore

Baltimore, MD is the world of John Waters, crab cakes, the late and lamented Fanex conventions and Edgar Allan Poe. It is also the location of Westminster Hall, the burial place of Poe and the site of the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum. On January 23 and 24 of this year, Mr. Jeffrey Combs will appear at Westminster Hall as Poe in Dennis Paoli's Nevermore: An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe. The one-man show is directed by Master of Horror Stuart Gordon and is produced for Westminster Hall by museum curator Jeff Jerome and Mark Redfield. Among his myriad credits, Redfield was also responsible for producing the Overdue Funeral of Poe that took place in October of 2009. The event gained worldwide attention and Poe fans from as far away as Vietnam attended.

Two shows only in Baltimore, this month only, as Combs tours the country with Nevermore; but this is the production to see. Where else but at Westminster Hall where the great writer's remains rest would one wish to view such a play? Nowhere, as far as I'm concerned. But here I sit in California! So I'll miss it, but you lot won't! Brave the snow and cold and go see this once in a lifetime performance and tell them all I wish I could be there as well.

Enjoy the interview below and join me in hoping the production will be recorded so those of us unable to attend can see it as it happened there in Baltimore.

—Jessie Lilley