REVIEW: TU Dance – TU Be…or Not (Ordway) Arts Dance by Dan Reiva - May 7, 2017May 7, 2017 Saturday night’s performance by TU Dance at the Ordway in St. Paul showcased the company’s classical styling mixed with an edgy modern urban aesthetic. One goal of TU’s choreographers and dancers is to create original dance works that raise audience awareness of significant cultural issues and take on important social
NEWS: Chameleon Theatre Circle Creeps Towards Twin Cities Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - May 5, 2017July 11, 2017 Julia Ennen as Daisy and Anna Larranaga as Violet in The Chameleon Theatre Circle's 2017 production of Side Show, which opened to packed houses at the Ames Center for the Performing Arts shortly after a future booking controversy became public. Photo by Daniel K. McDermott for Sinséar Video + Photography. The Chameleon Theatre Circle
REVIEW: No Warts on Frog and Toad‘s Return (Children’s Theatre Company) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - May 2, 2017May 2, 2017 Autumn Ness, Matthew Rubbelke, Traci Allen Shannon, Reed Sigmund, and Bradley Greenwald try their hands at flying kites in A Year with Frog and Toad. Photo by Dan Norman. A most splendid year with Mr. Frog and Toad is offered to all who attend A Year with Frog and Toad at Children’s Theatre
INTERVIEW: American Prize Winner Geneviève Leclair on Conducting Arts Dance Music by Basil Considine - April 30, 2017May 1, 2017 Conductor Geneviève Leclair at the podium. Photo by Rosalie O’Connor, with permission from Boston Ballet. On Friday, Hat City Music Theater announced the 2016-17 American Prize winners in orchestral conducting. This national award series recognizes distinguished performances by conductors working across the United States. Geneviève Leclair, a professor at Berklee College
REVIEW: Timely Wicked-ness (Oprheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Ali O'Reilly - April 17, 2017April 17, 2017 Jessica Vosk as Elphaba in the touring production of Wicked. Photo by Joan Marcus. The first (and only other) time I saw Wicked was in 2008, from the nosebleeds of Chicago’s Oriental Theatre, where it would play to 3.2 million audience members in a period of 3.5 years. The cast then featured
REVIEW: Fun Crisis in Women on the Verge (NHCCT) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - April 10, 2017April 10, 2017 The cast of North Hennepin Community College Theatre's production of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Photo by Mike Ricci. Pedro Almodovar wrote and directed the Spanish Film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (WVNB) in 1988. The film received critical acclaim, won the New York Film Critics
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
REVIEW: Dark Fun in Matilda: The Musical (Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - April 1, 2017April 1, 2017 Jaime MacLean as Matilda in Matilda: The Musical. Photo by Cybil von Tiedemann. Child abuse runs rampant in the Orpheum Theatre’s presentation of the Broadway touring musical Matilda. The musical is based upon Roald Dahl’s children's novel Matilda. Dahl is famous for such books as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. For
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