INTERVIEW: Mike Birbiglia on The New One and Opting Out of Winter Arts Comedy by Basil Considine - October 15, 2019October 15, 2019 Comedian Mike Birbiglia, who performs at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul from Oct. 17-19. When reviewing comedian Mike Birbiglia's latest solo show The New One, the New York Times' Ben Brantley decided to wax poetic. "Mr. Birbiglia’s voice," he wrote, "becomes a low, wraparound, pleasure-drenched caress.
REVIEW: Pleasant, Low-Calorie Most Happy Fella (Skylark Opera Theatre) Arts Dance Music 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) Arts Music Opera Theatre 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 Arts Music Opera Theatre 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) Arts Dance Music Theatre Visual Arts 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) Arts Dance Music Theatre Visual Arts 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
REVIEW: Murmurs on Memory and The Glass Menagerie (Guthrie) Arts Theatre by Bev Wolfe - October 3, 2019October 28, 2019 Remy Auberjonois as Tom Wingfield in the Guthrie Theater’s production of The Glass Menagerieby Tennessee Williams. Photo by T Charles Erickson. Memories are a funny thing. The past is more dependent on the memory-teller’s viewpoint than it is on what actually occurred in the past. Tennessee William’s classic play The Glass
INTERVIEW: Ilana Ransom Topelitz on Sharpening Rocky Horror‘s Bite (Park Square Theatre) Arts Dance Music 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