REVIEW: Timely The Fix (MN Opera) Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - March 17, 2019March 17, 2019 The ensemble of Minnesota Opera's world premiere production of The Fix, which opened Saturday at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota. Photo by Cory Weaver. It's rather poetic that Minnesota Opera's The Fix premiered just days after breaking news of a major college admissions fraud and bribery
INTERVIEW: Tyler Michaels on Becoming Hedwig and Trademarking Theater Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - March 15, 2019March 15, 2019 Tyler Michaels rehearsing for Theater Latté Da's upcoming production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Photo by Emilee Elofson. 21 years ago, on Valentine's Day, an unlikely success called Hedwig and the Angry Inch opened Off Broadway. An in-your face, mostly solo punk rock musical, Hedwig dives straight into the physical
REVIEW: The Joys of Mamma Mia (Chanhassen Dinner Theatres) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - March 12, 2019March 15, 2019 Michelle Barber, Kersten Rodau, and Therese Walth as galpals in Chanhassen Dinner Theatres' new production of Mamma Mia! If you'd asked me 20 years ago about the commercial future of Mamma Mia!, a then-new musical set to open in London's West End, I would have said "Don't invest in it." You
REVIEW: Unexpectedly Deep Tenderly (Old Log Theatre) Arts Dance Music Theatre Visual Arts by Basil Considine - March 8, 2019March 8, 2019 Gracie Anderson and C. Ryan Shipley star in Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical at the Old Log Theatre in Excelsior, MN. Photo courtesy of the Old Log Theatre. There are jukebox musicals that pass like a piece of cotton candy dissolving on the tongue, and there are jukebox musicals that surprise
REVIEW: Holy Caramels in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Orpheum/HTT) Arts Dance Music Theatre Visual Arts by Basil Considine - March 6, 2019March 7, 2019 Noah Weisberg as Willy Wonka with the cast of the national touring company of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Photo by Joan Marcus. It's a little ironic that a musical about candy opened in Minneapolis on Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting in many Christian traditions. By all rights,
INTERVIEW: Rick Shiomi on Updating The Mikado, Combatting Yellowface, and Post-Mu Life Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - March 5, 2019March 5, 2019 Director Rick Shiomi and Music Director Randy Buikema look at an updated score for Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado. On March 15, the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company opens a very different look at The Mikado. The updated version of this classic light opera, which plays at
NEWS: Ordway Announces 2019-2020 Season Arts Dance Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - February 26, 2019February 27, 2019 A groundhog, an animal whose mid-winter emergence is immortalized in the 1993 film Groundhog Day – one of several famous films whose musical versions will be appearing at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul in 2019-2020. Photo by Linnaea Mallette. The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts
REVIEW: Thrilling A Bronx Tale Opens (Orpheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - February 20, 2019February 20, 2019 The cast of the national touring company of A Bronx Tale, which opened at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, MN on Tuesday. Photo by Joan Marcus. The real crime in A Bronx Tale is that child actor Frankie Leoni isn't featured after the first several scenes. Sure, there's violence, gambling, and outright murder
REVIEW: Tongue-in-Cheek Rock of Ages Opens Loud (Orpheum/HTT) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - February 9, 2019February 9, 2019 Sam Harvey (center) and the cast of the Rock of Ages National Tour. Photo by Jeremy Daniel. It's been ten years since Rock of Ages opened on Broadway for what became a 2,328-performance run. This jukebox musical, now playing at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, features numerous rock hits from the 1980s, a
REVIEW: Older Humor in The Italian Straw Hat (Minnesota Opera) Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Amy Donahue - January 31, 2019January 31, 2019 Wedding planning runs into some snags in Minnesota Opera's production of The Italian Straw Hat. Photo by Cory Weaver. Alignment is key. Whether it's about car wheels, shakras, or humor, it's essential that elements designed to work together be arranged so that they complement and build upon individual virtues and needs, rather