REVIEW: Older Humor in The Italian Straw Hat (Minnesota Opera) Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Amy Donahue - January 31, 2019January 31, 2019 Wedding planning runs into some snags in Minnesota Opera's production of The Italian Straw Hat. Photo by Cory Weaver. Alignment is key. Whether it's about car wheels, shakras, or humor, it's essential that elements designed to work together be arranged so that they complement and build upon individual virtues and needs, rather
INTERVIEW: Visualizing Unexploded Ordnances (UXO) and Nuclear War: A Chat with Claire Nolan (Guthrie Theater) Arts Theatre Visual Arts by Basil Considine - January 31, 2019July 10, 2019 Peggy Shaw in the Split Britches production of Unexploded Ordnances (UXO), now playing at the Guthrie Theater. Photo by Matt Delbridge. When Joseph Haj started at the Guthrie Theater, he announced plans to reach and move audiences through the ambitious Level Nine Initiative. Three seasons later, the initiative has manifested in
PREVIEW: Potted Potter – The Unauthorized Harry Experience (Pantages/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - January 30, 2019January 30, 2019 A promotional photo for Potted Potter. Photo by Dahlia Katz. Twelve and a half years ago, a little parody show called Potted Potter premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. There must have been something substantial in that pot, because this one-time Fringe show moved up sold-out runs in London's West End
REVIEW: Joy and Tuxes in Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Pins and Needles/Children’s Theatre Company) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - January 24, 2019January 24, 2019 Susanna Jennings, Monica Nash, Richard Holt and Christopher Finn in the Pins and Needles-Children's Theatre Company co-production of Mr. Popper’s Penguins. Photo by Dan Norman. A sweet and sentimental tale of realizing one’s dreams as well as the joy of raising penguins is currently gracing the stage at Children’s Theatre. Mr. Popper's
REVIEW: The Post-Nuclear Not-Quite-Apocalypse of The Children (Jungle Theater) Arts Theatre by Amy Donahue - January 15, 2019January 15, 2019 Stephen Yoakam, Linda Kelsey, and Laila Robins in The Children. Photo by Dan Norman. A nuclear catastrophe. It happened. At the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis. Strangely enough, this did not actually break out on-stage per se, at least not in its main elements. But Lucy Kirkwood's play The Children nevertheless unfolds under the shadow
INTERVIEW: David Cote and Adapting a Children’s Classic The Scarlet Ibis Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - January 14, 2019January 16, 2019 A page from the libretto of David Cote and Stefan Weisman's opera The Scarlet Ibis, which opens Thursday in Cambridge, MA in a production by Boston Opera Collaborative. January may be a frigid stormy time in much of the United States, but it's a florid time for new opera in the
REVIEW: Dementia’s Taunts in The Father (Gremlin Theatre) Arts Theatre by Dan Reiva - January 14, 2019January 14, 2019 The calm before the storm: Craig Johnson (center), Miriam Schwartz (rear-left), and Peter Christian Hansen (background-right) in Gremlin Theatre's production of The Father. Photo by Alyssa Kristine. The Father, now playing at Gremlin Theatre, is an engrossing play about a man in his sixties suffering from dementia and his daughter's efforts
INTERVIEW: Singer-Songwriter-Actor Emily Dussault – Gone Missing, Champagne Drops, and Songwriting Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - January 12, 2019August 13, 2019 The cast of Theatre Elision's production of Gone Missing in rehearsal. On Thursday, 1/17, Theatre Elision opens its production of the musical Gone Missing. This is the Minnesota premiere of a 2003 musical by the late composer Michael Friedman (The Abominables, Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson) and book writer Steve Cosson. An
REVIEW: Whence Cometh These Sweet Sounds? Marie and Rosetta (Park Square Theatre) Arts Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - January 9, 2019January 15, 2019 Rajané Katurah Brown (as Marie) and Jamecia Bennett (as Rosetta) in Park Square Theatre's production of Marie and Rosetta. Photo by Petronella J. Ytsma. Rosetta Tharpe was a swinging gospel music star who also played rocking secular music. A well-known name during World War II, she was a major influence on a variety
REVIEW: Classic Farce in Lend Me A Tenor (Old Log Theatre) Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - January 4, 2019January 12, 2019 Opera Guild Chairwoman Julia (Melanie Wehrmacher) meets with Tito Merelli (Luke Davidson), the famous opera star – or is he? – in the Old Log Theatre's production of Lend Me a Tenor. Photo courtesy of the Old Log Theatre. Ken Ludwig's Lend Me a Tenor owes a lot to P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie