BREAKING NEWS: Patrick’s Cabaret to Close Permanently Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - January 30, 2018January 30, 2018 A scene from the 2014 Culture Wars Cabaret hosted by Patrick's Cabaret. Photo by Ryan Stopera. Patrick's Cabaret announced today that it will close permanently this summer. The surprise announcement stunned many in the Twin Cities; the organization has been a fixture in the Twin Cities performing arts scene for 31
REVIEW: Stunning Sights and Dancing in The Wiz (Children’s Theatre Company) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - January 30, 2018January 30, 2018 Aimee Bryant as Addaperle in the Children's Theatre Company production of The Wiz. Photo by Dan Norman The Children’s Theatre Company and Penumbra Theatre co-production of The Wiz is an engaging endeavor that makes you wish these two theatre companies had teamed up earlier. Director Lou Bellamy and choreographer Patdro Harris have created
REVIEW: Ishmael Chases a White Whale (Jungle Theater) Arts Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - January 26, 2018January 26, 2018 A promotional image for the Jungle Theater's Ishmael. The Jungle Theater's new season – its last before it moves to a traditional fall-summer format – casts off with a hunt for a great white whale. Ishmael, now playing at the Jungle, is an adaptation of the classic Herman Melville novel Moby Dick. Director-playwright Leo
INTERVIEW: Kimbra on Her Primal Heart and the Cedar Cultural Center Concert Arts Music by Basil Considine - January 22, 2018January 24, 2018 A promotional photo for Kimbra's third studio album, Primal Heart, which drops April 20. Photo by Micaiah Carter. New Zealand singer-songwriter Kimbra first burst onto American airwaves in 2012, when her duet "Somebody I Used to Know" with Australian recording artist Gotye rocketed to the top of the Billboard 100. This was
INTERVIEW: Incoming Producing Artistic Director Rod Kaats and Ordway President/CEO Jamie Grant on the Future of the Ordway Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - January 22, 2018January 22, 2018 Rod Kaats, the incoming producing artistic director at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. There were big tap shoes to fill at the Ordway when James Rocco announced last year that he would step down as Vice President of Programming and Producing Artistic Director. On Thursday, the Ordway Center for
PREVIEW: Australian Dinosaurs Invade Ordway 2/13 Arts Theatre Visual Arts by Twin Cities Arts Reader - January 19, 2018January 19, 2018 Aimee Louisanne and a friend (aka, "lunch") get rather close to a T-Rex from Dinosaur Zoo Live. Photo by C. Waits. Dinosaurs from Australia are invading the United States via Canada. Yes, you read that right. The Land Down Under has sent its toothiest specimens to delight America's children, just as
REVIEW: Art/Disempowerment/Juxtaposition: The Inequality Dance in Rap on Race (Ordway) Arts Dance by Dan Reiva - January 18, 2018January 18, 2018 A promotional image for Spectrum Dance Theater's A Rap on Race. Seattle's Spectrum Dance Theater dropped on St. Paul's Ordway Music Theater on Saturday. In its best moments, the event was a notable experiment that illustrates how art can further discussions of racial inequality in America. Some moments were marvelously expressive and expressionist.
PREVIEW: Twin Cities Jewish Humor Festival Arts Movies Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - January 17, 2018January 17, 2018 A sampling of acts at the Twin Cities Jewish Humor Festival. If the weather has you down, you can escape for a week by diving into the Twin Cities Jewish Humor Festival. The festival's 2018 incarnation features stand-up comedians, a film delving the darkest sources of humor, a hit show about
TOP 10: Basil Considine’s Favorite Twin Cities Stage Performances of 2017 Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - January 12, 2018January 12, 2018 Brittany Bellizeare as Pecola (foreground) in the Guthrie Theater's production of The Bluest Eye. Photo by Dan Norman. During the 2017 calendar year, I saw more than 150 theatre performances. That tally excludes shows that I directed and dance-only performances, but includes spoken theatre, musicals, opera, improv, and pretty much anything
PREVIEW: The Humans Captures a Vanishing Middle Class (Orpheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - January 10, 2018January 10, 2018 Sarah Steele and Cassie Beck in the Broadway tour of The Humans by Stephen Karam. Photo by Brigitte Lacombe. In the last several years, I have read and heard a growing chorus of calls for the American theatre to reflect and represent more of the turmoil roiling American society. As U.S. society