INTERVIEW: Bob Neu on Skylark Opera Theatre’s Immersive Donny G. Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - June 12, 2017June 12, 2017 Photo by Vera Mariner. This week, Skylark Opera Theatre opens a site-specific production of Don Giovanni at the Women's Club in Minneapolis. This performance, which will snake through different rooms in the venue, is the company's second outing since its financial and artistic reorganization last year. The Arts Reader's Basil Considine
NEWS: The 2017 Tony Award Winners Arts Dance Music Theatre Visual Arts by Twin Cities Arts Reader - June 11, 2017June 12, 2017 The cast of Come From Away performing “Welcome to the Rock” at the 2017 Tony Awards. Here are the 2017 Tony Award Winners. In a surprise upset, Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 received only two wins in design categories (best sound and best lighting design). Best Play: Oslo (Book: J.T. Rogers) Best Musical: Dear Evan
PREVIEW: Celtic Woman – Voices of Angels Tour Arts Music by Bev Wolfe - June 11, 2017June 11, 2017 Tara McNeill, Susan McFadden, Mairéad Carlin, and Éabha McMahon of Celtic Woman. Photo by Naomi Gaffey. This week the Orpheum Theatre presents Celtic Woman, the musical phenomenon that has created 11 albums and more than 10 million records sold over the past 12 years. Conceived by David Downes (a former musical
REVIEW: RENT Keeps on Rocking Hard (Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - June 7, 2017June 7, 2017 The company for the RENT 20th Anniversary Tour. Photo by Carol Rosegg. As the last notes of RENT sounded, the audience burst from their seats en masse in a standing ovation. After that response, much of the writing of this review seems superfluous. For a show on its 20th anniversary tour, RENT has weathered the years very well. Jonathan
REVIEW: Diana Krall Goes Retro Again (State Theatre/HTT) Arts Music by Twin Cities Arts Reader - June 4, 2017June 4, 2017 Photo by Mary McCartney. Diana Krall's Turn Up the World tour kicked off in Minneapolis on Friday with a concert at the State Theatre. The concert featured Krall's trademark husky alto vocals in standards drawn from the jazz repertoire and the Great American Songbook. The tour shares a name with Krall's just-released album, which
DC REVIEW: Delectable Appetizers in Les Indes Galantes (Opera Lafayette) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - June 2, 2017July 5, 2017 The Opera Lafayette Orchestra. Ryan Brown leads with his violin (standing, center). Sketch by Basil Considine. The Twin Cities opera scene is blessed with several opera companies whose specialties range from the popular canon to new repertoire to site-specific and unusual spectacle. If your tastes run to Baroque operas, however, your odds of
REVIEW: David Gray & J.S. Ondara in Concert (Pantages Theatre) Arts Music by Bev Wolfe - June 1, 2017June 1, 2017 David Gray headlined at the Pantages. The Twin Cities received a double treat of solo/acoustic performers in May at the Pantages Theatre. The headliner was David Gray, a British singer-songwriter who first burst onto the international scene with a series of powerful hits in 2000 that continues today. His opening act
REVIEW: Dislocation and Danger in Refugia (The Moving Company/Guthrie Theater) Arts Theatre by Dan Reiva - May 30, 2017June 1, 2017 Steven Epp and Jamal Abdunnasir in The Moving Company's production of Refugia. Photo by Dan Norman. Hang around the Twin Cities theatre scene long enough and the name Theatre de la Jeune Lune is sure to come up. Since that ensemble dissolved in 2008, its performing space became Aria at the Jeune
REVIEW: Arguing Aesthetics in Amy’s View (Park Square Theatre) Arts Theatre by Bev Wolfe - May 26, 2017May 27, 2017 Photo by Petronella J. Ytsma. Yes, we speak of things that matter With words that must be said: “Can analysis be worthwhile?” “Is the theater really dead?” These words from Paul Simon’s song “The Dangling Conversation” kept running through my mind as I attended Amy’s View at Park Square Theatre. Yes, the play is talky.
INTERVIEW: Theatre Pro Rata on Up: The Man in the Air Arts Theatre by Kit Bix - May 26, 2017May 27, 2017 John Middleton, Shanan Custer, Carin Bratlie Wethern, and Mark Benzel at Park Square Theatre. Photo by Kit Bix. Theatre Pro-Rata’s latest offering, Up: The Man in the Air, opens Friday, May 26 at Park Square Theatre's Andy Boss Thrust Stage. This "fantastical biography" was inspired by the true story of Larry Walters, an amateur inventor