REVIEW: A Rocking Mamma Mia! Party (Ordway) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - August 3, 2018August 7, 2018 Caroline Innerbichler stars as Sophie in Mamma Mia! at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. Photo by Rich Ryan. In Mamma Mia! the Ordway Center again treats its audiences to a highly polished local production of a popular Broadway musical. Catherine Johnson wrote the show’s book, with lyrics and musical compositions
REVIEW: Unease and Ideation (Gremlin Theatre) Arts Theatre by Bev Wolfe - July 31, 2018July 31, 2018 Katherine Kupiecki and Peter Christian Hansen are part of a corporate team with an ominous task in Gremlin Theatre's production of Ideation. Photo by Alyssa Kristine. Director Brian Balcon provides a crisp, fast-paced, and often humorous production of Aaron Loeb’s play Ideation at the Gremlin Theatre. Despite the show’s many attributes,
REVIEW: Drag’s the Thing in Over-the-Top The Legend of Georgia McBride (Guthrie Theater) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - July 26, 2018July 26, 2018 Jayson Speters (Casey) and Cameron Folmar (Tracy) in the Guthrie Theater’s production of The Legend of Georgia McBride. Photo by Dan Norman. When playwright Matthew Lopez was a teenager, drag queens in a gay bar in the Florida Panhandle helped him come out about his sexuality. His play The Legend of
REVIEW: Beehive‘s Memory Lane (Old Log Theatre) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - July 12, 2018July 12, 2018 Grace Chermak, Emilee Hassanzadeh, Kiko Laureano, Leslie Vincent, and Erin Nicole Farsté in Beehive: The 60s Musical. Photo courtesy of the Old Log Theatre. The Sixties is a very special time for me. I was 3 when the decade began and became a teenager just as the Sixties ended. Groups like
REVIEW: The Hunt A-Foot in Underneath the Lintel (Theater Latte Da) Arts Theatre by Bev Wolfe - July 4, 2018July 5, 2018 Sally Wingert in Theater Latté Da's production of Underneath the Lintel by Glen Berger. Photo by Dan Norman. This retrospective review revisits Theater Latté Da's recent production of Underneath the Lintel, which closed Sunday. When staging the solo play Underneath the Lintel with Theater Latté Da, Director Peter Rothstein sought a different take on
REVIEW: Thomasina Petrus Shines in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Jungle Theater) Arts Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - June 29, 2018June 29, 2018 Many jazz greats passed away long before I could see them. Billie Holiday, also known as Lady Day, was among the greatest of the jazz greats. I never had an opportunity to see Billie Holiday sing live, but I suspect that Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill is the
REVIEW: Cell Block Tangos Still Kicking in Chicago (Orpheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - June 10, 2018June 11, 2018 The cast of the Broadway tour of Chicago. Photo by Catherine Ashmore. Having worked as an attorney in the criminal justice system for fifteen years, I am always eager to see shows with a legal theme. Chicago is a fast-moving, lively legal-themed musical that gives a satiric portrayal of a decadent
REVIEW: Mixed Midtown Men (Ordway) Arts Music by Bev Wolfe - May 24, 2018May 24, 2018 This retrospective review looks back on the Midtown Men (above)'s performance last month at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. I attended The Midtown Men at the Ordway Concert Hall the same week I saw Jersey Boys for the first time. When I arrived at the concert it, seemed to
REVIEW: Thought-Provoking Taking Shakespeare (Gremlin Theatre) Arts Theatre by Bev Wolfe - May 22, 2018May 22, 2018 John A.W. Stephens in Gremlin Theatre's production of Taking Shakespeare. Photo by Alyssa Kristine Photography. John Murrell’s play Taking Shakespeare is a story about a burnt-out professor and a young man at a transformative time in his life. Gremlin Theatre’s Artistic Director Peter Christian Hansen directs this show with a small but
REVIEW: Rapid Laughs in Lord Gordon Gordon (History Theatre) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - May 21, 2018May 21, 2018 The cast of the History Theatre's Lord Gordon Gordon. Photo by Scott Pakudaitis. A fast moving evening of comedy and song awaits all who attend Lord Gordon Gordon (the name repetition is not a typo) at the History Theatre. It is the third collaboration between Jeffrey Hatcher (who wrote the book)