REVIEW: Dire Laughs and Send-Up in Two Mile Hollow (Mu Performing Arts/Mixed Blood) Arts Theatre by Amy Donahue - February 25, 2018February 25, 2018 A case of deadly ennui strikes a wealthy family in Two Mile Hollow. Pictured: Sun Mee Chomet, Eric Sharp, and Kathryn Fumie. Photo by Rich Ryan. One of Karl Marx's most famous soundbytes states that history repeats itself twice: first as tragedy, then as farce. Marx wrote this turn of phrase
REVIEW: Steve Winwood – Back in the High Life Again (State Theatre/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Music by Brian Bix - February 24, 2018February 25, 2018 Steve Winwood at the piano. Fifty-five years ago, Steve Winwood joined Spencer Davis and Steve’s brother Muff to form the Spencer Davis Group. Word soon spread, and established musicians from London like Eric Clapton traveled up to see this Birmingham teenager who had a voice like Ray Charles. The Spencer Davis group
NEWS: Silent Nights Return in Minnesota Opera’s 2018-2019 Season Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - February 20, 2018February 26, 2018 A scene from Minnesota Opera's 2011 production of Silent Night. Photo by Michal Daniel. Minnesota Opera announced its 2018-2019 season last night. The company, one of the ten largest opera companies in the United States, will produce five mainstage operas at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, MN:
REVIEW: Jordan Rocks: Stanley Jordan at the Dakota Jazz Club Arts Music by Brian Bix - February 20, 2018February 20, 2018 A photo collage of jazz musician Stanley Jordan and his recent album covers. No one sounds like Stanley Jordan. He famously plays with both hands on the guitar fretboard, as though he were playing piano keys. As he explains it, this “touch tapping” or “touch technique” allows him to bring the
NEWS: Theatre Unbound Drops Wives’ Tale for Bard’s Tale Arts Theatre by Amy Donahue - February 18, 2018February 21, 2018 Illustration by Amy Donahue. Theatre Unbound's premiere of Christina Ham's A Wives' Tale is going to have to wait. With opening night just five weeks away, the script wasn't finished – and so Theatre Unbound announced today that A Wives' Tale will be replaced by a predominantly female production of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. This
REVIEW: Terrifying Assassins (Theater Latté Da) Arts Theatre by Bev Wolfe - February 18, 2018February 18, 2018 Dieter Bierbrauer as John Wilkes Booth in Theater Latté Da's production of the Sondheim musical Assassins. Photo by Dan Norman. “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.” Oscar Wilde's words haunted me as I was finishing this review and learned the horrific news of the shooting in Broward County,
REVIEW: Moving Humanity in the Downtrod of The Humans (Orpheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Theatre by Kit Bix - February 17, 2018February 17, 2018 The cast of the national tour of The Humans: Richard Thomas, Pamela Reed, Daisy Eagan, Luis Vega, and Therese Plaehn. Photo by Julieta Cervantes. To paraphrase Tolstoy, all dysfunctional families are not alike. This is a good thing, because there are an awful lot of American dramas that seem to revolve
PREVIEW: Allen Ruppersberg Retrospective: 50 Years of Visual Art (Walker Art Museum) Arts Visual Arts by Twin Cities Arts Reader - February 17, 2018 Allen Ruppersberg's The Singing Posters: Allen Ginsberg's Howl by Allen Ruppersberg (Part 1 & 2) (2003). Photo courtesy of the artist and Greene Naftali. Posters? Check. Comic? Check. Book covers? Check! Record covers? Check-check! This is just a small sample of Allen Ruppersberg's broad body of work, which will be
REVIEW: Will They or Won’t They Slay in The Ravagers? (Savage Umbrella) Arts Theatre by Amy Donahue - February 15, 2018February 17, 2018 A promotional photo for Savage Umbrella's 2018 production of The Ravagers. Photo by Anna Schultz. It's been a long time since Savage Umbrella first presented its drama The Ravagers. If you look back at reviews of the premiere, you get insight into a different landscape of theatrical coverage - Ed Huyck
NEWS: The Hennepin Theatre Trust’s 2018-2019 Season Arts by Twin Cities Arts Reader - February 12, 2018February 12, 2018 Phillipa Soo, Renee Elise Goldsberry, and Jasmine Cephas Jones in the original Broadway cast of Hamilton – one of 12 shows coming in the Hennepin Theatre Trust's next season. The Hennepin Theatre Trust announced today its 2018-2019 Bank of America Broadway season. The new season will feature a mix of 12 new and