Fringe File 2017, #1: The Basics Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - February 2, 2017July 19, 2017 Our popular Fringe File series on the Minnesota Fringe Festival returns for its first 2017 installment. Pictured: Grant Sorenson in New Epic Theater's Now or Later, an Ivey Award-winning production at the 2016 MN Fringe. Are you a dancer? Comedian? Actor? Writer? A one-woman band with a crazy magic show and a bunch of talking puppets?
PREVIEW: Nina Simone: Four Women Returns to Park Square Arts Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - February 2, 2017February 11, 2017 Photo by Petronella J. Ytsma. Nina Simone: Four Women, which made more than one critic's Top 10 list for 2016, is returning for a limited engagement at Park Square Theater from February 7 through February 26. Christina Ham’s play "transcends a simple biopic setup into a well-crafted dialogue between women of the Civil
REVIEW: Patti LaBelle Still Has It (State Theatre) Arts Music by Bev Wolfe - January 29, 2017January 29, 2017 When Patti LaBelle burst onto the stage singing “New Attitude” at her recent concert at the State Theatre, it was evident that this 72-year-old rhythm and blues singer was not relying on her legendary past to carry her through the concert. Instead, she used energy, warmth and some great moves,
REVIEW: Lush Diana’s Garden (Minnesota Opera) Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Lydia Lunning - January 24, 2017March 11, 2017 After a season with the opulence and drama of Romeo and Juliet and the epic scale of Das Rheingold, Minnesota Opera rang in 2017 with more delicate garden fare. L'arbore di Diana, or Diana’s Garden as it is billed in English, is a late 18th century comedic opera with music by Vicente Martín y
REVIEW: Reproduction Little Shop of Horrors (Artistry) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Lydia Lunning - January 24, 2017January 24, 2017 Ty Hudson (left) in Artistry's production of Little Shop of Horrors, with the Greek chorus of Alicia Britton, Falicia Cunningham, and Jill Iverson to the right and Audrey II in the center. Based on the 1960 comedy horror movie of the same name, Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s musical Little Shop of Horrors
REVIEW: The Bodyguard Wins Hearts (Broadway Tour/HTT) Arts Music Theatre by Lydia Lunning - January 23, 2017January 24, 2017 Deborah Cox as Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard. Photo by Joan Marcus. The U.S. national tour of The Bodyguard, a musical by Alexander Dinelaris based on the 1992 film and featuring the music of Whitney Houston, kicked off last Tuesday at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. This tour stars the dazzling Deborah Cox,
REVIEW: Garfunkel, Sans Oates, Sans Simon (Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Music by Dan Reiva - January 16, 2017January 16, 2017 Last Thursday night, while waiting in line to be swiped by the metal detector, I met a slightly older woman who must have predated me as a Simon and Garfunkel fan by twenty years. She had heard them live in the Sixties. On a below zero night she had made
PREVIEW: Patti LaBelle and SaBeautiful, SaBountiful Voice (Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Music by Bev Wolfe - January 12, 2017January 12, 2017 Following an absolutely smashing concert at the Minnesota State Fair in 2015, Patti LaBelle returns to Minnesota for a one-night only concert at the Minneapolis State Theatre at 8 pm this Saturday, January 14, 2017. She has been performing for over fifty years and is a versatile performer known for
REVIEW: Melissa Etheridge – Take 2 (Ordway) Arts Music by Ali O'Reilly - January 8, 2017January 9, 2017 It was -2 degrees in St. Paul on Thursday, but the lot of us still went out to watch Melissa Etheridge perform her tribute album, MEmphis Rock and Soul [sic]. We were kept warm by the artist's timely reworking of iconic R&B-rock hybrids off the Memphis-based label, Stax Records. Covering gems from
REVIEW: Melissa Etheridge – Take 1 (Ordway) Arts Music by Bev Wolfe - January 8, 2017January 9, 2017 On Thursday night, the temperature plunged to -2 degrees; not to be deterred, Melissa Etheridge’s loyal fans trudged out to the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul to see her. They were rewarded by a performance with Etheridge's trademark raspy voice in top form as she belted out her