Becca Hart and Reed Sigmund in the Children's Theatre Company's new adaptation of The Hobbit. Photo by Dan Norman. There's a freewheeling musical adaptation of The Hobbit playing at the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis. This new take on J.R.R. Tolkien's classic children's novel is very loosely based on the source
Author: Amy Donahue
Amy Donahue is a staff reviewer at the Twin Cities Arts Reader. She interned with the magazine during the summer of 2017, served as a guest contributor while studying abroad in Europe that fall, and has moved up to regular old reviewing. She admits to being at least 50% terrified of contemporary German opera.
REVIEW: Powerful Iphigenia and Other Daughters (Theatre Unbound)
Iphigenia and Other Daughters, currently being presented by Theatre Unbound at Gremlin Theatre in Saint Paul, MN. Photo by Theresa Burgess. It says something that, 25 years after its premiere in Los Angeles, Ellen McLaughlin's play Iphigenia and Other Daughters still has something powerful to say. It also says something that
REVIEW: Evocative, Lush My Àntonia Returns (Illusion Theater)
The cast of the Illusion Theater's 2019 remount of My Àntonia, now playing in Minneapolis. Photo courtesy of the Illusion Theater. My grandparents' bookshelf had some novels whose titles caught my eye, long ago: Willa Cather's O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark. Peek into senior centers and community libraries
REVIEW: The Wolves Comes Howling Back (Jungle Theater)
REVIEW: Older Humor in The Italian Straw Hat (Minnesota Opera)
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
REVIEW: The Post-Nuclear Not-Quite-Apocalypse of The Children (Jungle Theater)
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
REVIEW: Baked Holidays at Angels We Have Heard Are High (Brave New Workshop)
A promotional photo for Brave New Workshop's holiday production, Angels We Have Heard Are High. Photo by Dani Werner. Holidays bring snacks, stress, and (often) self-medication. Brave New Workshop's current holiday show throws these together as Angels We Have Heard Are High (O Holy Crap!). As the title suggests, the "baked" part
NEWS: A Very Die Hard Christmas Sells Out Entire Run Before Opening
Josh Carson plays the foul-mouthed cop-in-a-tight-spot John McClane in the parody A Very Die Hard Christmas. On December 7, 2012, a show called A Very Die Hard Christmas opened at Bryant-Lake Bowl's theater space. The event page touted "a new holiday treat with all the trimmings: singing, dancing, and bloodshed. Don't
REVIEW: Book of Mormon A Sparkling, Splendid Trip (Orpheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust)
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
REVIEW: A Sometimes There’s Wine Appetizer (Park Square)
Shanan Custer and Carolyn Pool created and star in Sometimes There's Wine, now playing at Park Square Theatre in Saint Paul. Photo by Flordelino Lagundino. There's a lot of Fringe going on at Park Square Theatre this season. The company's 2018-2019 features not just the demented musical Jefferson Township Sparkling Junior Talent