PREVIEW: The Rose Ensemble’s Winter Garden Arts Music by Twin Cities Arts Reader - November 30, 2016November 30, 2016 The Rose Ensemble. Photo by Michael Haug Photography. Winter weather may be here (hello, hail on Monday!), but the Rose Ensemble is still keeping things growing in these northern climates with a concert program entitled The Rose in Winter. This program, which will be presented December 15-18 in the Twin Cities and
REVIEW: Engrossing Curious Incident of the Dog (Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - November 30, 2016November 30, 2016 Christopher Boone (Adam Langdon) navigates an overstimulating world. Photo by Joan Marcus. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time opened Tuesday at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. It's a rare spoken play in a Broadway touring season that's normally entirely filled with musicals. It's also an amazing, engrossing rollercoaster
REVIEW: Backstabbing Galore in The Lion in Winter Arts Theatre by Bev Wolfe - November 28, 2016December 9, 2016 The cast of the Guthrie Theater's The Lion in Winter. Photo by Heidi Bohnenkamp. A dysfunctional and scheming family dynamic played out at a Christmas gathering is the premise of the latest Guthrie Show. This family is the royal family of England, however, and the Christmas occurs in the 12th Century.
REVIEW: Triple Espresso Still Has It (Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - November 27, 2016November 28, 2016 Photo by Anna Eveslage. It's been 20 years since Triple Espresso first opened at the Music Box Theatre, becoming a runaway hit that ran for 12 years. A few revivals and many satellite productions later, it's back for the holiday season at the New Century Theatre in Minneapolis. At this point, there's
PREVIEW: Returning The Crucible to its Origins (Theatre Coup d’Etat) Arts Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - November 24, 2016November 25, 2016 A 19th-century engraving depicting an episode in the Salem Witch Trials. The artist has moved the trial from its original church setting to a 19th-century courtroom. The basic narrative of Arthur Miller's 1953 play The Crucible is well-known: in colonial Massachusetts, a number of young women accuse other colonists of practicing witchcraft. Hundreds
REVIEW: Victorian Cinderella Revival (Children’s Theatre Company) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - November 24, 2016November 25, 2016 Cinderella (Traci Allen Shannon) flees the ball. Photo by Dan Norman. A Victorian Christmas, a vaudeville show, and a romance are all encompassed in the Children’s Theatre Company's latest production of the fairy tale Cinderella. It is a remount of the show that CTC performed during the in 2013-2014 season with many
REVIEW: Rockin’ Old-School Hip Hop Nutcracker (Ordway) Arts Dance by Basil Considine - November 23, 2016December 5, 2016 Photo by United Palace of Cultural Arts. At this point the official Hip Hop Nutcracker tour is rather like the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Mannheim Steamroller, or the Bolshoi Ballet Nutcracker – you know exactly what you're going to get each year, and that's not such a bad thing. If you're not familiar with Hip Hop
REVIEW: Pleasant, Familiar Sounds in Christmas Carol (Guthrie Theater) Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - November 22, 2016November 22, 2016 Ryan Colbert (Fred) and J.C. Cutler (Ebenezer Scrooge) at work. Photo by Dan Norman. The Guthrie's 2016 production of A Christmas Carol will not surprise you if you've seen it in recent years. J.C. Cutler is still excellent as Scrooge, Mathew LeFebvre's costumes are still pretty dandy, and the music is just
INTERVIEW: A Wink from PWC’s Jen Silverman Arts Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - November 21, 2016November 21, 2016 From December 5-6, the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis will present Jen Silverman's play Wink as part of its Ruth Easton New Play Series. Silverman, a Core Writer at the Playwrights' Center, spoke with the TCAR's Hanne Appelbaum and Basil Considine about her writing and the upcoming play. HA: I've found playwrights
REVIEW: Leaky Passage (7th House Theater/Guthrie) Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - November 20, 2016November 20, 2016 Mary Bair and Alejandro Vega in The Passage. Photo by Amy Anderson. The Passage or What Comes of Searching in the Dark has a lot of good things going for it. The visuals are engaging, the child actors are fantastic, and Grant Sorenson is a standout member of the ensemble. Musically, however, it is as eminently