REVIEW: Hanggai for More (Ordway) Arts Music by Lydia Lunning - April 8, 2016April 8, 2016 Photo by Yang Feng. You say you need more traditional Mongolian punk rock cowboy music in your life? I may have some excellent news for you… well, more excellent if you hadn’t missed the performance, but you can still buy their music! The latest entry in the Ordway’s World Music and Dance series
PREVIEW: Taiko Drumming Hits the Twin Cities Arts Dance Music by Twin Cities Arts Reader - April 7, 2016April 8, 2016 One Voice performing with Mu Daiko last week as part of their annual school tour OUT in Our Schools. Photo by Brian Geving. April is Taiko Month in the Twin Cities. In the aftermath of World War 2, U.S. servicemen stationed in Japan encountered kumi-daiko, a modern performance art using traditional
INTERVIEW: Composer Richard Einhorn Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - April 7, 2016April 9, 2016 Composer Richard Einhorn at the piano. There are many stereotypes about classical music after World War 2. Beautiful is usually not one of them: in the postwar era, many Western art music composers decided to explore other aesthetic directions, to which audiences often responded with words like grating, difficult to listen to, cerebral, and
REVIEW: Joseph an Entertaining and Fast Two Hours (Orpheum Theatre) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - March 31, 2016March 31, 2016 J.C. McCann as Joseph and the tour cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in “Joseph’s Coat”. Photo by Daniel A. Swalec. Before the fame of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, lyricist Tim Rice and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber collaborated on the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which was made into a concept
REVIEW: Explosive Janis Joplin at the Ordway Arts Music Theatre by Lydia Lunning - March 30, 2016March 30, 2016 Hair, music, and lights in A Night with Janis Joplin, original Broadway cast. Photo by Joan Marcus. If you notice more construction near the Ordway in St Paul in the coming week, it may be because Mary Bridget Davies and the cast of A Night with Janis Joplin: A New Musical
So Who’s In the Minnesota Fringe Festival (So Far)? Arts Dance Music Theatre by Hanne Appelbaum - March 27, 2016July 5, 2016 The Minnesota Fringe Festival is the largest unjuried theatre festival in the United States. What makes it onstage runs a wide range – you can see producers trying out works before backing auditions in New York City, a bunch of friends getting together to mess around, and everything in-between. Last year
REVIEW: Riverdance: The 20th Anniversary World Tour (State Theatre) Arts Dance Music by Bev Wolfe - March 26, 2016April 8, 2016 The cast of Riverdance, led by Anna Livia. Photo by Rob McDogall. Tall and straight my mother taught me, This is how we dance. Tall and straight my father taught me, This is how we dance. These words by Irish poet Theo Dorgan are used in Riverdance: The 20th Anniversary World Tour and sum
PREVIEW: A Night with Janis Joplin (Ordway) Arts Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - March 24, 2016March 25, 2016 The original Broadway Cast of A Night with Janis Joplin performing at the Lyceum Theater in New York. Photo by Joan Marcus. Next week, the Ordway Center presents A Night with Janis Joplin, a biographical musical show on the eponymous singer. Janis Joplin, a self-described social misfit from Texas, became a rock blues
INTERVIEW: Composer Aaron David Miller Arts Music by Basil Considine - March 19, 2016March 19, 2016 Minnesota is famous for its rich choral music scene; the Twin Cities in particular are home to numerous nationally prominent church choirs. Now, as the Lenten season comes to an end with Holy Week, many of these choirs are preparing elaborate musical presentations to match one of the holiest times
WEEKEND PICKS: Vampires, Beasts, and Hounds Arts Dance Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - March 18, 2016March 18, 2016 The cast of the Guthrie's The Real Inspector Hound, part of a double-bill with The Critic. Photo by Scott Suchman. Looking for something to do out of the house now that the weather's chilled back up again? Try one of these shows: The Critic / The Real Inspector Hound (Guthrie Theater) These two plays are staples