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
REVIEW: Evocative, Lush My Àntonia Returns (Illusion Theater) Arts Music Theatre by Amy Donahue - March 3, 2019March 3, 2019 The cast of the Illusion Theater's 2019 remount of My Àntonia, now playing in Minneapolis. Photo courtesy of the Illusion Theater. My grandparents' bookshelf had some novels whose titles caught my eye, long ago: Willa Cather's O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark. Peek into senior centers and community libraries
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: Buddy Guy & Mavis Staples: Two Icons, Still Going Strong (Mystic Lake) Arts Music by Brian Bix - February 25, 2019February 25, 2019 Songstress legend Mavis Staples in concert. Last night at Mystic Lake, the audience was privileged to see two icons of American popular music, Mavis Staples and Buddy Guy. Staples may be best known as the lead singer for the family group the Staples Singers, whom she started singing with them at
REVIEW: Captain Fantastic’s Last Trip – Elton John (Target Center) Arts Music by Brian Bix - February 22, 2019February 23, 2019 Elton John performing at Target Center on Thursday night. Photo courtesy of Elton John. Elton John is saying good-bye to concerts, but not before he has one last, multiple-year, trans-world “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour. Last night the tour stopped in the Target Center, and he will be there for
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
NEWS: The Grammy Award Winners and Nominees (Complete List) Arts Music by Twin Cities Arts Reader - February 11, 2019February 12, 2019 The 61st Annual Grammy Awards celebration took place last night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Hosted by Alicia Keys, the music industry awards featured a massive performing lineup, and winners ranging from Jimmy Carter (!) to Lady Gaga and Childish Gambino. Here is the complete list of nominees
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
REVIEW: Joy and Tuxes in Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Pins and Needles/Children’s Theatre Company) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - January 24, 2019January 24, 2019 Susanna Jennings, Monica Nash, Richard Holt and Christopher Finn in the Pins and Needles-Children's Theatre Company co-production of Mr. Popper’s Penguins. Photo by Dan Norman. A sweet and sentimental tale of realizing one’s dreams as well as the joy of raising penguins is currently gracing the stage at Children’s Theatre. Mr. Popper's