Opening night for the Children's Theatre Company's production of The Wizard of Oz is still five weeks away, but advance sales are already flashing like Judy Garland's ruby slippers. CTC announced today that it was extending the run of this classic musical by one week. The Wizard of Oz is set to
Month: September 2015
Bedlam Theatre Raises $47k Through Crowdfunding
Bedlam Theatre took a big step forward in its $400,000 capital campaign this week when it racked up $47,318 in crowdfunding and matched donations. Bedlam, which opened a new space last year in St. Paul's Lowertown, raised the money through the crowdfunding service Indiegogo. Besides publicity and attracting interest, there are three
Minnesota Opera’s Popup Plan
CANTUS Brews, Sings New Music Loves
When The Manchurian Candidate premiered at Minnesota Opera last winters, reviewers sang the praises of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts' score. Across town, however, Minneapolis-based ensemble CANTUS is singing a different Pulitzer Prize-related tune in rehearsal. The all-male vocal ensemble's latest concert offering, The Four Loves, features four new song commissions: “Manifesto,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning
CD ANNOUNCEMENT: VocalEssence’s Nordic Christmas
Minneapolis-based choir VocalEssence has a new CD coming out on October 11. The disc, entitled Nordic Nativity, features traditional holiday music from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. This live album includes the trademark voices and Nordic fiddling by Sara Pajunen of Aallotar. (Pajunen studied violin in Minneapolis and Helsinki.) The 18 tracks on Nordic Nativity include
REVIEW: Twin Cities Fringe Opera’s Don Giovanni
In the composer Hector Berlioz's memoirs, he recounts traveling through Germany in the mid-19th century. Away from the refinement of Paris, he saw countless performances where the orchestra was fortified by the local military band, or a traveling opera company joined by members of the local music society in the pit. While
The Ivey Awards: What’s Growing at the State Theatre
When the State Theatre opened on February 5, 1921, it was the largest theatre in Minneapolis – and, local journalists trumpeted, the most technologically advanced in the country. It featured a state-of-the-art air conditioning system (something the audience wouldn’t test out for several months, and were probably less excited after
10 Scene-Stealing Theatre Performances from 2014-2015
We asked the Twin Cities Daily Planet's Resident Classical Music and Drama Critic Basil Considine for a retrospective top 10 list of favorite shows from the 2014-2015 theatre season in the Twin Cities. Basil refused to play favorites, but offered this list of 10 scene-stealing performances, loosely construed and in no
