PROFILE: James A. Rocco, Arts Leader and So Much More Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - September 8, 2023September 8, 2023 Arts leader (and more) James A. Rocco. If you want a story of doing it all in the performing arts, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better example than James A. Rocco. Over the decades, the St. Paul-based artist has been a Broadway actor, director, choreographer, writer, and producer – to
INTERVIEW: Leslie Vincent on Psychedelic Songs and About Last Night Arts Music by Basil Considine - July 8, 2023July 7, 2023 Leslie Vincent (right) with her band between takes at Future Condo Studio in Minneapolis, MN. Photo by Laura Buhman. Your new album About Last Night drops on July 22. How long has this album been in the works? I’ve been dreaming about the album since the summer of 2021 when we started
REVIEW: Into the Woods and Over the Rainbow (Guthrie Theater) Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - July 4, 2023July 7, 2023 Cinderella (Emily Tyra) is haunted by the memory and voice of her dead mother (Anna Hashizume) in the Guthrie Theater's new production of Into the Woods. Photo by Dan Norman. Do you like Sondheim, tongue-in-cheek plays on the old and familiar, or stellar music? Do you like wonderfully engaging acting, and
REVIEW: Moving Jersey Boys Opens (Chanhassen Dinner Theatres) Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - July 1, 2023July 3, 2023 The cast of Chanhassen Dinner Theatres' new production of Jersey Boys, now playing in Chanhassen, MN. Photo by Dan Norman. There is not a lot new to pen about Jersey Boys, the jukebox musical telling the story of The Four Seasons, a rock and roll and doo-wop band that rolled out of New
REVIEW: Fantastic, Moving Next to Normal (Latté Da) Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - June 18, 2023June 22, 2023 Kyle Weiler (Gabe), Audrey Mojica (Natalie) and Sayer Keeley (Henry) in Theater Latté Da's production of Next to Normal, now playing at the Ritz Theater in NE Minneapolis. There is a moment, most of the way through Act I of Next to Normal, when the music slows down and the auditorium
INTERVIEW: Elena Glass, Emily Dussault, and Leslie Vincent on Redefining Harmonies Arts Music by Basil Considine - June 12, 2023June 13, 2023 Musicians Emily Dussault, Leslie Vincent, and Elena Stabile will perform as a trio at MetroNOME Brewery in St. Paul on June 17, 2023. Follow the Twin Cities theatre/music scene for a spell, and you'll soon start developing your favorites. Ask others about who they never miss, no matter what they're doing,
REVIEW: Thrilling Million Dollar Quartet Jukebox Ride (Old Log Theater) Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - June 9, 2023June 11, 2023 L-R: David Beukema, Armando Ronconi, Eric Sargent, Kyle Baker, Myia Ann Butler, Elijah Leer, Mitchell Dallman in the Old Log Theater's new production of Million Dollar Quartet. Photo courtesy of the Old Log Theater. You should eat a full dinner and tend to your personal business before seeing Million Dollar Quartet
REVIEW: Inconsistent Norseplay (Maximum Verbosity/Phoenix Theater) Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - June 3, 2023June 4, 2023 Rob Ward (left) and Mickaylee Shaugnessy (center) play the titular Thor and Loki, respectively, in Norseplay: The Musical Adventures of Loki and Thor, now playing at the Phoenix Theater in Minneapolis. Norseplay: The Musical Adventures of Loki and Thor opened at the Phoenix Theater last evening. The occasion? The 20th anniversary
REVIEW: The 2023 AOI Operas at the Kennedy Center (Washington National Opera) Arts Music Opera by Basil Considine - January 23, 2023January 24, 2023 The gods of Oshun: Olodumare (Christian Simmons, left), Shango (Daniel Smith, upstage center), Oshun (Katerina Burton, downstage center), and Esu (Athony P. Ballard), which premiered on Saturday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Photo by Scott Suchman. On Saturday, a trio of new operas premiered at the Kennedy Center in
PREVIEW: Well-Behaved Women Coming To… (Theatre Elision) Arts Music by Basil Considine - January 10, 2023January 16, 2023 A poster riffing on Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's infamous quotation, showing "transgressive" women from different periods. In 1976, the historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich wrote in an article, "Well-behaved women seldom make history." Ulrich's commentary was double: on the one hand, the women condemned by the early Puritans of New England were excoriated in