INTERVIEW: The Ladies of PRIME Productions on Little Wars and More Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - April 8, 2017April 9, 2017 Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas in their apartment in the early 1920s; the pair hosted many dinner parties with literary luminaries. Photo by Man Ray. It's relatively uncommon for a new company operating under an Actor's Equity Association contract to suddenly appear in town, so when PRIME Productions announced its launch in March, the announcement
REVIEW: Youthful West Side Story Runs Scared (Ordway) Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - April 6, 2017April 7, 2017 Desiree Davar as Anita (center) with the Shark Girls in the Ordway Center for the performing Arts production of West Side Story. Photo by Rich Ryan. Where should one begin with an iconic musical like West Side Story? Composer Leonard Bernstein began by saying, "I'd always thought of West Side Story in terms of teenagers." This focus is
NEWS: Walker Art Center Transforms into Giant Robot, Stops Monster Menace (April Fools) Arts Dance Dining Lifestyle Movies Music Opera Theatre Visual Arts by Basil Considine - April 1, 2017April 1, 2017 The W.A.L.K.E.R. giant robot prepares to deal a finishing blow to the monster that menaced Minneapolis this morning. The Minneapolis Monster Menace has come to an end. In a stunning development, the Walker Art Center transformed into a giant robot and defeated the monster menacing Uptown in a climactic battle on
FEATURE: The Ordway’s White Christmas and Vocal Teeth (April Fools) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - April 1, 2017April 1, 2017 Ann Michaels in a discarded promotional photo for the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts/5th Avenue Theatre coproduction of White Christmas. Photo by Rich Ryan. Last November, while Minnesota was still flirting with fall and winter weather, the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts was going full-speed ahead with plans for an
INTERVIEW: Another Chat with The Realish Housewives of Edina Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - March 30, 2017March 31, 2017 The 50th & France shopping district name-dropped in The Realish Housewives of Edina, Season 2. Part 2 of Basil Considine's interview with The Realish Housewives of Edina, Season 2's writers Kate James and Tim Sniffen and actresses Katherine Kupiecki and Karissa Lade. Read Part 1 Reality TV is often a love-it-or-hate-it thing. Where do you stand
INTERVIEW: Three Questions with the Writers Behind The Realish Housewives of Edina Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - March 29, 2017March 30, 2017 The Realish Housewives of Edina, Season 2 is currently playing at the New Century Theatre in Minneapolis. The show, the sequel to last year's hit Season 1, spawned a national tour of localized productions skewering affluent suburbs around the country. The show was penned by Kate James and Tim Sniffen, a Chicago-based team
REVIEW: Good Cider from Twisted Apples (Nautilus Music Theater) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - March 29, 2017March 29, 2017 Minnie Pearson (Norah Long), Ray Perason (Gary Briggle), and Hal Winters (Eric Morris) in Twisted Apples. If your life is missing opera and you can't wait until La Bohème arrives in May, see Twisted Apples. For that matter, if you like opera, period – or stories told with interesting, beautiful, and emotional turns of
INTERVIEW: Tyler Michaels on West Side Story and His New Theatre Company Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - March 24, 2017March 24, 2017 Caroline Innerbichler (Ariel) examines Tyler Michaels (Prince Eric) in Chanhassen Dinner Theatres' 2014 production of Disney's The Little Mermaid. Somali gangs in Minneapolis might get all the press, but the City of St. Paul is about to get its very own gang problem. Well, kind of – the Jets and Sharks of West
REVIEW: The Flash‘s “Duet” Best Musical Episode of Season Arts Music TV by Basil Considine - March 21, 2017March 22, 2017 "My mother used to say that musicals had the power to make everything better." In this evening's musical episode of The Flash, we learn that The Flash and Supergirl grew up watching movie musicals. It's the sort of previously undisclosed detail that seems entirely plausible – both because of how classic
FEATURE: Trump’s Proposed NEA Cuts and the Legacy of Piss Christ Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre Visual Arts by Basil Considine - March 19, 2017July 11, 2017 Nikolay Petrovich Lomtev's Girolamo Savonarola preaching in Florence. Father Savonarola's incendiary critique of luxury led to the infamous Bonfires of the Vanities, the largest of which on Feb. 7, 1492 including the burning of several paintings by Renaissance masters. Among other achievements, Savonarola successfully advocated for laws banning sodomy and declared that