REVIEW: Snagged by a Ballad of the Pale Fisherman‘s Line (Transatlantic Love Affair) Arts Dance Theatre by Bev Wolfe - June 7, 2016June 7, 2016 Transalantic Love Affair (“TLA”) staged a revival this past weekend of its famed Ballad of the Pale Fisherman as part of the Southern Theatre’s Artshare program for 2016. Director Isabel Nelson conceived the play based upon a Celtic legend about seals called Selkies who transform into women by removing their
REVIEW: Falling in Love with Rigoletto (Capri Theater/Really Spicy Opera) Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Lydia Lunning - June 6, 2016June 7, 2016 Small-scale opera productions, when well executed, are some of the underrated joys for audiences lucky enough to catch them—while their appeal of lavish design and big-budget spectacle seem synonymous with the art form, opera in a pared-down, more intimate setting is a great way to foreground fresh talent and focus
REVIEW: Fascinating, Striking Rigoletto (Capri Theater/Really Spicy Opera) Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Hanne Appelbaum - June 4, 2016June 4, 2016 Making fun of period operas in modern settings is like shooting fish in a barrel. There are so many clunkers out there that it's tempting to dismiss the proposition entirely and say, "That's a thing" – but sometimes a staging comes along where the new setting truly enhances the material. Really Spicy Opera's new production
REVIEW: Scapegoat (Pillsbury House Theatre) Arts Theatre by Bev Wolfe - June 4, 2016June 4, 2016 The cast of Scapegoat (left-to-right): Dan Hopman, Regina Marie Williams, James A. Williams, Jennifer Blagen. Photo by Bruce Silcox. The world premiere of Scapegoat, a new play by Christina M. Ham, opened this past weekend at Pillsbury House Theatre. The play is based upon the 1919 massacre of a group of black
PREVIEW: Rigoletto at the Capri Theater Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Hanne Appelbaum - June 3, 2016June 4, 2016 Rigoletto (Jeehoon Kim), Gilda (Jennifer Zabelsky), Maddalena (Megan O'Leary), and the Duke (Joshua Diaz) in Really Spicy Opera's production of Rigoletto. Tonight, Really Spicy Opera opens Rigoletto at the Capri Theater in North Minneapolis. It's been twelve years since Minnesota Opera staged this tale of love, lust, and revenge gone awry; before that, the last
REVIEW: Trouble in Mind (Guthrie Theater) Arts Theatre by Bev Wolfe - May 17, 2016May 17, 2016 Photo by Keri Pickett. Trouble in Mind, which opened this past weekend at the Guthrie Theater, is a humorous and gripping play that is not often produced. The author, Alice Childress, was an African-American actress whose notoriety as a “left-wing” playwright merited her own FBI investigative file in the 1950s. The
REVIEW: The Book of Mormon‘s Newer Testament (Orpheum Theatre) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Lydia Lunning - May 12, 2016May 13, 2016 Photo by Joan Marcus. Before Hamilton shot onto the scene early last year, The Book of Mormon was the hottest ticket on Broadway. This smash musical hit won a hefty nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical...but does it live up to it's hype? Yes, yes it does. And you might actually have a decent chance
INTERVIEW: Kelly Kaduce of The Shining Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - May 12, 2016March 11, 2017 Wendy (Kelly Kaduce) and Danny (Alejandro Vega) Torrance meditate on the strange turns that their life has taken in The Shining. Photo by Ken Howard. Soprano Kelly Kaduce is Minnesota-born and raised, but since graduating from St. Olaf's she has traveled and sung all across the United States. The month of May finds
The Look of The Shining Arts Music Opera Theatre Visual Arts by Twin Cities Arts Reader - May 11, 2016May 11, 2016 Minnesota Opera's The Shining returns on Thursday to the stage of the Music Theater at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. Here's a detailed look at the opera's visual spark. What goes into this? Some of the key players in crafting the opera's look were stage director Eric Simonson, choreographer Heidi
REVIEW: The Shining = Brilliant Psychodrama (Minnesota Opera) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - May 10, 2016March 11, 2017 A disturbed Jack Torrance (Brian Mulligan) menaces his wife Wendy (Kelly Kaduce) and son Danny (Alejandro Vega) in The Shining. Photo by Ken Howard. Minnesota Opera's 2015-2016 season comes to a crashing bang with The Shining, an adaptation of the bestselling horror novel by Stephen King. The main thing wrong with this production appears