INTERVIEW: Derrick Davis on Becoming the Phantom of the Opera

by Basil Considine - November 21, 2019November 22, 2019

Derrick Davis (right) returns to the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis as The Phantom in the national tour of The Phantom of the Opera. Photo by Matthew Murphy. Playing the Phantom of the Opera is a famously demanding role, and playing the Phantom amidst the rigors and winter winds of a national tour

REVIEW: Brilliant, Hilarious Homicide in Gentleman’s Guide (Old Log Theatre)

by Basil Considine - October 31, 2019October 31, 2019

Monty Navarro (Max Wojtanowicz, right) drops in on his paramour Sibella (Emily Scinto) in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, now playing at the Old Log Theatre. Photo courtesy of the Old Log Theatre. It's a good thing that entertainment consumption and morals are only thinly linked. If the association

REVIEW: Pleasant, Low-Calorie Most Happy Fella (Skylark Opera Theatre)

by Basil Considine - October 14, 2019October 15, 2019

Bill Marshall and Sarah Lawrence in the Skylark Opera Theatre production of The Most Happy Fella, now playing at the Mounds Theatre in St. Paul, MN. Photo courtesy of Skylark Opera Theatre. What would you get if Frank Loesser of Guys and Dolls fame decided to write an opera? You'd get

REVIEW: Powerful, Bloody Elektra (Minnesota Opera)

by Basil Considine - October 8, 2019October 16, 2019

A scene from Minnesota Opera's new production of Elektra, which opened Saturday in St. Paul, MN. Photo by Cory Weaver. Before there was Kill Bill, there was Elektra: a drama from Classical Greece whose culmination is a well-telegraphed murder. Did your father kill your sister and your mother kill your father?

REVIEW: Aaron Neville Duo at the Dakota: The Last of the Great New Orleans Voices

Arts
Music

by Brian Bix - October 7, 2019October 7, 2019

Musician Aaron Neville returns to the Dakota Jazz Club this evening. Photo by Sarah A. Friedman. We lost Allen Toussaint in 2015, Fats Domino in 2017, Charles Neville in 2018, Dr. John this past June, and Art Neville in July. Aaron Neville may be that last great New Orleans voice of

PHOTOS: Minnesota Opera’s Elektra

by Twin Cities Arts Reader - October 5, 2019October 14, 2019

A scene from Minnesota Opera's new production of Elektra, which opens tonight in St. Paul, MN. Photo by Cory Weaver. Minnesota Opera's production of Elektra opens tonight at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, MN. This production of an opera by Richard Strauss treats Greek myth with

PHOTOS: The Rocky Horror Show (Park Square Theatre)

by Twin Cities Arts Reader - October 4, 2019October 3, 2019

Randy Schmeling as Riff Raff in Park Square Theatre's production of The Rocky Horror Show. Photo by Dan Norman. Park Square Theatre's new production of The Rocky Horror Show opens this evening in St. Paul, MN. Here's a look at the show: -- The Rocky Horror Show opens tonight at Park Square

REVIEW: Ephemeral Mean Girls Just Gotta Have Fun (Orpheum Theatre)

by Basil Considine - October 3, 2019October 3, 2019

A scene from the touring production of Mean Girls, now playing at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. Pictured: Danielle Wade, Megan Masako Haley, Mariah Rose Faith, and Jonalyn Saxer. Photo by Joan Marcus. If stage and film were taken as the measure of U.S. society, one thing's for sure: our high

INTERVIEW: Ilana Ransom Topelitz on Sharpening Rocky Horror‘s Bite (Park Square Theatre)

by Basil Considine - October 2, 2019October 2, 2019

Director-choreographer Ilana Ransom Topelitz on the set of Park Square Theatre's upcoming production of The Rocky Horror Show. Photo by Rachel Wandrei. Of all the people that you might expect to love The Rocky Horror Show, Princess Diana of Wales was probably not at the top of the list. But it

REVIEW: Saxophone Meets Pipe Organ: Branford Marsalis & Jean-Willy Kunz (Northrop)

Arts
Music

by Brian Bix - October 2, 2019October 3, 2019

Left: Jean-Willy Kunz standing amongst organ pipes (photo by Koralie Woodward); Branford Marsalis (photo by Palma Kolansky); and Jean-Willy Kunz at an organ console (photo by Antoine Saito). If politics has its First Families, so does music. Branford Marsalis is a well-known member of the "First Family of Jazz", a group