REVIEW: The Many Returns of Jane Austen in Christmas at Pemberley (Jungle Theater) Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - November 26, 2019November 26, 2019 Fitzwilliam Darcy (James Rodríguez, left) and Charles Bingley (Jesse Lavercome, right) advise the inexperienced Arthur de Bourgh (Reese Britts, center) on how to write letters to women in the Jungle Theater production of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. Photo by Dan Norman. The Jungle Theater's 2017 holiday hit Miss Bennet: Christmas
REVIEW: Phantom of the Opera Returns for Final Rollercoaster Ride (Orpheum Theatre) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - November 25, 2019November 26, 2019 The famous Masquerade in The Phantom of the Opera, now playing at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, MN. Photo by Alastair Muir. This is your last chance to catch The Phantom of the Opera. Wait, that's not quite right. This is your last chance to catch the magnificent 25th Anniversary Tour
INTERVIEW: Derrick Davis on Becoming the Phantom of the Opera Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - November 21, 2019November 22, 2019 Derrick Davis (right) returns to the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis as The Phantom in the national tour of The Phantom of the Opera. Photo by Matthew Murphy. Playing the Phantom of the Opera is a famously demanding role, and playing the Phantom amidst the rigors and winter winds of a national tour
REVIEW: Brilliant, Hilarious Homicide in Gentleman’s Guide (Old Log Theatre) Arts Dance Music Theatre Visual Arts by Basil Considine - October 31, 2019October 31, 2019 Monty Navarro (Max Wojtanowicz, right) drops in on his paramour Sibella (Emily Scinto) in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, now playing at the Old Log Theatre. Photo courtesy of the Old Log Theatre. It's a good thing that entertainment consumption and morals are only thinly linked. If the association
INTERVIEW: Colin Mochrie on HYPROV: Improv Under Hypnosis (Ordway) Arts Comedy by Basil Considine - October 22, 2019October 23, 2019 Comedian Colin Mochrie, of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame, performs with hypnotist Asad Mecci at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday in Saint Paul, MN. Canada's Comedy Person of the Year. The Second City. The Vancouver TheatreSports League. Whose Line Is It Anyway? What do these have in common? Comedian and
REVIEW: Falstaff’s World in Rogue Prince (Theatre Coup d’Etat) Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - October 20, 2019October 20, 2019 Gary Briggle, James Napoleon Stone, and Bruce Bohne in Theatre Coup d'Etat's production of Rogue Prince. Theatre Coup d'Etat's current show, Rogue Prince, takes a different approach to Shakespeare. Where the Bard's history plays normally unfold in sprawling detail, adapter Gary Briggle has spun elements of two plays to form a
REVIEW: Mike Birbiglia’s The New One Hit (Ordway) Arts Comedy by Basil Considine - October 18, 2019October 18, 2019 Comedian Mike Birbiglia. A clean comic can be hard to find these days. Not in terms of personal hygiene – that's something we wouldn't presume or want to have to judge – but in terms of content. Shock-value, fame, and R-rated comics seem to go hand-in-hand, which does tend to segment
INTERVIEW: Mike Birbiglia on The New One and Opting Out of Winter Arts Comedy by Basil Considine - October 15, 2019October 15, 2019 Comedian Mike Birbiglia, who performs at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul from Oct. 17-19. When reviewing comedian Mike Birbiglia's latest solo show The New One, the New York Times' Ben Brantley decided to wax poetic. "Mr. Birbiglia’s voice," he wrote, "becomes a low, wraparound, pleasure-drenched caress.
REVIEW: Pleasant, Low-Calorie Most Happy Fella (Skylark Opera Theatre) Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - October 14, 2019October 15, 2019 Bill Marshall and Sarah Lawrence in the Skylark Opera Theatre production of The Most Happy Fella, now playing at the Mounds Theatre in St. Paul, MN. Photo courtesy of Skylark Opera Theatre. What would you get if Frank Loesser of Guys and Dolls fame decided to write an opera? You'd get
REVIEW: Powerful, Bloody Elektra (Minnesota Opera) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - October 8, 2019October 16, 2019 A scene from Minnesota Opera's new production of Elektra, which opened Saturday in St. Paul, MN. Photo by Cory Weaver. Before there was Kill Bill, there was Elektra: a drama from Classical Greece whose culmination is a well-telegraphed murder. Did your father kill your sister and your mother kill your father?