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
Author: Basil Considine
Basil Considine is the Editor of the Twin Cities Arts Reader. He served as Performing Arts Editor and Senior Classical Music and Drama Critic for the Arts Reader's first five years before succeeding Hanne Appelbaum. He was previously the Resident Classical Music and Drama Critic at the Twin Cities Daily Planet and remains an occasional contributing writer for The Boston Musical Intelligencer and The Chattanoogan. He holds a PhD in Music and Drama from Boston University, an MTS in Sacred Music from the BU School of Theology, and a BA in Music and Theatre from the University of San Diego.
Basil was named one of Musical America's 30 Professionals of the Year in 2017. He was previously the Regional Governor for the National Opera Association's North Central Region.
REVIEW: Phantom of the Opera Returns for Final Rollercoaster Ride (Orpheum Theatre)
INTERVIEW: Derrick Davis on Becoming the Phantom of the Opera
REVIEW: Brilliant, Hilarious Homicide in Gentleman’s Guide (Old Log Theatre)
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)
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)
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)
INTERVIEW: Mike Birbiglia on The New One and Opting Out of Winter
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)
REVIEW: Powerful, Bloody Elektra (Minnesota Opera)
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?