PREVIEW: Waitress at the Ordway Arts Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - March 8, 2022March 8, 2022 Gabriella Marzetta as Dawn and Brian Lundy as Ogie in the national tour of Waitress: The Musical, which opens tonight in St. Paul, MN. Photo by Jeremy Daniel. The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is ending its Broadway show season with a bake-off. Pie baking, to be precise – a
REVIEW: “She Rescues Him Back” – But What More? Pretty Woman: The Musical (Orpheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - March 1, 2022March 10, 2022 Kyle Taylor Parker starred in Pretty Woman: The Musical, which played at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis in February. Photo by Matthew Murphy/MurphyMade. Pretty Woman: The Musical follows what has become a steady diet of revamping successful movies into Broadway musicals. The 1990 movie was a big box office success, catapulting
REVIEW: The All-Too Brief Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (Ordway) Arts Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - December 31, 2021January 2, 2022 The cast of the national touring company of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. Originally scheduled to run through January 2, the show's remaining performances at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in Saint Paul, MN have been cancelled due to COVID-19. With many touring shows, you can blink and miss
REVIEW: New Rhythms in A Christmas Carol (Guthrie Theater) Arts Theatre by Bev Wolfe - November 30, 2021November 30, 2021 The cast of the Guthrie Theater's 2021 holiday production of A Christmas Carol, now playing in Minneapolis. Photo by Jenny Graham. Prologue Re-opening operations during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a work in progress, with many adjustments and surprises. One such surprise came with the opening of the Guthrie Theater's new production
REVIEW: Oklahoma! Retrospective: Reworking and Reviving a Classic Through Tone (Orpheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - November 18, 2021November 20, 2021 The national touring company of Oklahoma! played the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota from November 9-14, 2021. Photo by Matt Murphy. The national tour of Oklahoma! did not linger in town for too long. The Minnesota engagement was the formal launch of this tour, which sprouted from a famous (and Tony
REVIEW: My Fair Lady Tour Still Delights (HTT/Orpheum) Arts Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - March 8, 2020March 8, 2020 Shavey Brown, Mark Aldrich, Shereen Ahmed (center), William Michals, and Colin Anderson in the national tour of My Fair Lady. Photo by Joan Marcus. A perfectly “lovely” experience awaits all who attend My Fair Lady at the Orpheum Theatre. Alan Jay Lerner wrote the book and lyrics and Frederick Loewe composed the
REVIEW: Delightful Children’s Hour in Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds (Children’s Theatre Company) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - February 29, 2020March 4, 2020 Lynnea Doublette, Ellis M. Dossavi Alipoeh, and Kory LaQuess Pullam in the Children's Theatre Company production of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds. Photo by Glen Stubbe Photography. A bit of Jamaica is available at Children’s Theatre with its production of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds. The play is based on a
REVIEW: Intriguing A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Jungle) Arts Theatre by Bev Wolfe - February 17, 2020February 18, 2020 Steven Epp (as Torvald) and Christina Baldwin (as Nora) in the Jungle Theater production of A Doll's House, Part 2, now playing in Minneapolis, MN. Photo by Lauren B. Photography. What happens to Nora? This question has lingered with theatregoers ever since Nora first walked out on her family at the
REVIEW: The Collapse of the Blue Collar Dream in Skeleton Crew (Yellow Tree Theatre) Arts Theatre by Bev Wolfe - February 10, 2020February 10, 2020 Darius Dotch, Jamecia Bennett, and Mikell Sapp in Yellow Tree Theatre's production of Skeleton Crew, now playing in Osseo, MN. Photo by Justin Cox. Feelings of hopelessness and perseverance pervade in Dominque Morisseau’s play Skeleton Crew, the last in Morisseau’s trilogy on life in her hometown of Detroit, Michigan. This third
REVIEW: Striking, Grim Bernarda Alba (Theater Latté Da) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - February 4, 2020February 4, 2020 Stephanie Bertuman and the cast of Theater Latté Da's Bernarda Alba, now playing at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis, MN. Photo by Dan Norman. For decades, the Spanish playwright Federico García Lorca's last play, The House of Bernarda Alba (1936), has been a staple of regional, community, and educational theatres across