REVIEW: The Memorable Return of Les Miserables (Orpheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Dance Music Theatre Visual Arts by Brian Bix - December 19, 2018December 19, 2018 The cast of the national touring company of Les Miserables takes to the barricades. Photo by Matthew Murphy. In 1832 in Paris, at a time of growing inequality, the funeral procession for a popular public figure led to an eruption of violence. Hundreds died fighting at makeshift barricades with stolen weapons.
INTERVIEW: Catherine Dalton and Rough Cuts at Nautilus Music-Theater Arts Dance Music by Basil Considine - December 14, 2018December 14, 2018 A blue background. Today, the term "rough cut" generally refers to an early draft of an edit for audio or video recordings. The term, however, comes to us from sewing and cooking, which used the term freely in the 19th century before A/V recording was even a glimmer in an inventor's
PREVIEW: Les Misérables Prepares to Throw Up Its Barricade on Hennepin (HTT) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - December 9, 2018December 9, 2018 The cast of the national tour of Les Misérables marches towards revolution in "One Day More". Photo by Matthew Murphy. "If anyone doubts that the contemporary musical theater can flex its atrophied muscles and yank an audience right out of its seats, he need look no further than the Act I
REVIEW: The Grinch Still Rules the Roost (Children’s Theatre Company) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - December 8, 2018December 8, 2018 The Grinch (Reed Sigmund) sets off to commit dastardly deeds of humbug in the Children's Theatre Company production of Dr. Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Photo by Dan Norman. The Grinch is back and he is a green, mean, anti-holiday machine. It has been a long time since I have seen
PREVIEW: Teen Idol Mania in The Bobby Vee Story (History Theatre) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - November 16, 2018November 16, 2018 Matthew Rubbelke (left) as Ward the Dance Instructor and Tyler Michaels (center) as Bobby Vee. Photo by Rick Spaulding. Each verse of Don McLean's famous song "American Pie" invokes "the day the music died". This day, February 3, 1959, has gone down in pop culture history as the tragic end of
PREVIEW: Hip-Hop Nutcracker Hurtles Towards St. Paul (Ordway) Arts Dance Music by Twin Cities Arts Reader - November 14, 2018November 14, 2018 There are certain juggernauts of the holiday performing arts world: the Mannheim Steamrollers, the Trans-Siberian Orchestras, the Very Die Hard Christmases, and the...Hip Hop Nutcrackers? Yes, sugarplum fairies and hip-hop have married and sired a long-running holiday extravanganza. The New York Times' A.C. Lee called the result "A generous dose of
REVIEW: Book of Mormon A Sparkling, Splendid Trip (Orpheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Amy Donahue - November 14, 2018November 14, 2018 Like most Americans, Elder Price (Kevin Clay, center) and Elder Cunningham (Conner Peirson, right) couldn't find Uganda (represented by Monica L. Patton, left) on a map in The Book of Mormon. Photo by Julieta Cervantes. As our performing arts editor likes to say, we don't do missionary work "that way" anymore. It
FEATURE: On the Launch of The Book of Mormon Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - November 13, 2018November 13, 2018 The cast of the National Tour of The Book of Mormon. Photo by Julieta Cervantes. In New York City, there is rarely a better theatre recommendation to be had than at the TKTS Booth. In a city of 8.6 million, hundreds of theatre organizations, and innumerable shows opening and closing all
PHOTOS: The Return of the Grinch at CTC Arts Dance Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - November 13, 2018 The cast of the 2018 Children's Theatre Company production of Dr. Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Photo by Dan Norman. Strangely enough – despite having his heart warmed and growing upteem times and sizes – Reed Sigmund's Grinch is still unrepentently and ever-so-cantankerously making off with all the Whos' Christmas stuff. The
PREVIEW: Hot Funky Butt Jazz at the Guthrie Arts Dance Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - October 25, 2018October 25, 2018 Zena Moses (as Marie Laveau), Messiah Moses Albert (as young Louis Armstrong), Jeremy Phipps (as Stringbean Russell), Michael Wolfe (as Professor James London), and Naa Mensah (as Essie) in the Center for the Visual and Performing Artists/Guthrie Theater co-presentation of Hot Funky Butt Jazz. There's a saying that if you think