PREVIEW: Teen Idol Mania in The Bobby Vee Story (History Theatre) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - November 16, 2018November 16, 2018 Matthew Rubbelke (left) as Ward the Dance Instructor and Tyler Michaels (center) as Bobby Vee. Photo by Rick Spaulding. Each verse of Don McLean's famous song "American Pie" invokes "the day the music died". This day, February 3, 1959, has gone down in pop culture history as the tragic end of
PREVIEW: Hip-Hop Nutcracker Hurtles Towards St. Paul (Ordway) Arts Dance Music by Twin Cities Arts Reader - November 14, 2018November 14, 2018 There are certain juggernauts of the holiday performing arts world: the Mannheim Steamrollers, the Trans-Siberian Orchestras, the Very Die Hard Christmases, and the...Hip Hop Nutcrackers? Yes, sugarplum fairies and hip-hop have married and sired a long-running holiday extravanganza. The New York Times' A.C. Lee called the result "A generous dose of
REVIEW: Book of Mormon A Sparkling, Splendid Trip (Orpheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Amy Donahue - November 14, 2018November 14, 2018 Like most Americans, Elder Price (Kevin Clay, center) and Elder Cunningham (Conner Peirson, right) couldn't find Uganda (represented by Monica L. Patton, left) on a map in The Book of Mormon. Photo by Julieta Cervantes. As our performing arts editor likes to say, we don't do missionary work "that way" anymore. It
FEATURE: On the Launch of The Book of Mormon Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - November 13, 2018November 13, 2018 The cast of the National Tour of The Book of Mormon. Photo by Julieta Cervantes. In New York City, there is rarely a better theatre recommendation to be had than at the TKTS Booth. In a city of 8.6 million, hundreds of theatre organizations, and innumerable shows opening and closing all
PHOTOS: The Return of the Grinch at CTC Arts Dance Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - November 13, 2018 The cast of the 2018 Children's Theatre Company production of Dr. Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Photo by Dan Norman. Strangely enough – despite having his heart warmed and growing upteem times and sizes – Reed Sigmund's Grinch is still unrepentently and ever-so-cantankerously making off with all the Whos' Christmas stuff. The
REVIEW: Send in the Clowns for Noises Off (Guthrie Theater) Arts Theatre by Kit Bix - November 9, 2018November 9, 2018 The cast of the Guthrie Theater’s production of Michael Frayn's classic farce Noises Off. Photo by Dan Norman. New York Times theatre critic Frank Rich once called Noises Off “the funniest play written in [his] lifetime.” I am not sure if I would go that far, but, certainly, Michael Frayn’s 1982 farce about
PREVIEW: Hot Funky Butt Jazz at the Guthrie Arts Dance Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - October 25, 2018October 25, 2018 Zena Moses (as Marie Laveau), Messiah Moses Albert (as young Louis Armstrong), Jeremy Phipps (as Stringbean Russell), Michael Wolfe (as Professor James London), and Naa Mensah (as Essie) in the Center for the Visual and Performing Artists/Guthrie Theater co-presentation of Hot Funky Butt Jazz. There's a saying that if you think
REVIEW: A BeautifulTrip to Days of Songwriting Past (Orpheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Brian Bix - October 23, 2018October 26, 2018 The cast of the national touring company of Beautiful do the Locomotion. Photo by Joan Marcus. There was a time when singers just sang and performed, leaving the songwriting to others. Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, and Elvis Presley did not write most of their own songs. For them, and for generations
REVIEW: Peter Yarrow Still Rocking in Concert (Hopkins Center for the Arts) Arts Music by Bev Wolfe - October 21, 2018October 22, 2018 A photo of Peter Yarrow in concert. Peter Yarrow, formerly of Peter, Paul and Mary, told Saturday night’s audience at the Hopkins Center for the Arts that his performance would be part concert, part protest march, and part orgy. Although he never progressed to the orgy part, Yarrow demonstrated through song
REVIEW: Wild David Sanborn in Concert (Dakota Jazz Club) Arts Music by Brian Bix - October 20, 2018October 20, 2018 A publicity photo of alto saxophonist David Sanborn. Photo by Scott Chernis. Saxophonist David Sanborn is often associated with the sound or style know as "smooth jazz". He has, after all, been a featured artist a number of times on the annual Smooth Jazz Cruise. That cruise bills itself as The Greatest Party