REVIEW: Liberty Falls, 54321 (The Moving Company) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - December 19, 2015December 20, 2015 Back in the days of Theatre de la Jeune Lune, reviewers trying to describe the company's shows often used the term mise-en-scène. A literal translation of this term is deceptively simple: "placing on stage." In practice, the term refers to the importance of how everything fits together as a whole –
REVIEW: Blue Man Group (Orpheum Theatre) Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - December 19, 2015December 19, 2015 Blue Man Group bills itself as the "enemy of monotony, remedy for boredom, promoter of overjoy and elation." While these sound hyperbolic, they are also quite true. The show, which touched down at the Orpheum Theatre on Friday night, is a refreshing piece of alternative theatre that blends wordless situational
REVIEW: Hills of St. Paul = Alive with Music. Huzzah! Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - December 18, 2015December 20, 2015 The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is not what it once was – and that's a good thing. Since 1980, when Sally Ordway Irvine donated the seed money for a new concert hall, the building and host organization have grown by leaps and bounds. Tours and headliner performers still
WEEKEND PICKS: Sound of Music, Blue Man Group, Snow Queen Arts Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - December 18, 2015December 20, 2015 Pictured: Blue Man Group. November-December are some of the busiest months in the Twin Cities theatre season, with umpteen holiday shows and more Christmas Carol and Nutcracker variations than you can shake a stick at. Here's a non-holiday sampler of shows to take the kids to this weekend: Blue Man Group. This hard-to-describe
INTERVIEW: Blue Man Group’s Steven Wendt Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - December 18, 2015December 18, 2015 Steven Wendt (Blue Man) hails from Kansas City, MO. A graduate of the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, MA, and from CalArts in Valencia, CA, he arrived in town this week to perform in the Blue Man Group tour at the Orpheum Theatre. His past performance credits include Blue Man Group–Orlando, Ground
INTERVIEW: The Ordway’s Maria von Trapp: A Conversation with Billie Wildrick Arts Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - December 17, 2015December 18, 2015 Last year, actress Billie Wildrick delighted audiences as Mother in the Ordway's production of A Christmas Story. When the snows vanished, however, Wildrick was off to Seattle, where musicals about escaping from factory work, drinking, and more drinking awaited. Now, with snow returning, Wildrick herself has returned to play the role of
REVIEW: Miss Richfield 1981 Presents ‘Christmas Cone Of Silence’ (Illusion Theater) Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - December 11, 2015December 12, 2015 One of Miss Richfield 1981's jokes in her current show is that there's a new title and a new set, but all the jokes remain the same. There's a kernel of truth there, but the drag comedian's holiday show is still funny, fresh, and out of this world hilarious. This may be the 16th installment
INTERVIEW: Eagan Actress Moves to Wicked New York, Turned Off by Cold, Returns to Warm Minnesota Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - December 11, 2015December 11, 2015 Photo by Heidi Bohnenkamp. This is Part 2 of the Twin Cities Arts Reader's interview with Caroline Innerbichler. Read Part 1 here. Looking back, how do you see your time in New York? I feel that with so much of everything I jumped into everything a little too quickly, may because of what people
PREVIEW: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Arts Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - December 11, 2015 Monty Navarro (Kevin Massey, center) finds himself trapped between his affections for Sibella Hallward (Kristen Beth Williams) and Phoebe D'Ysquith (Adrienne Eller). It takes a long time to plan a Tony award-winning murder comedy and get away with it. Robert Freedman and Steven Lutback, the writers of A Gentleman's Guide to Love
INTERVIEW: After the Mermaid – A Conversation with Caroline Innerbichler Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - December 10, 2015December 11, 2015 Caroline Innerbichler (Ariel) examines Tyler Michaels (Prince Eric) in Chanhassen Dinner Theatres' 2014 production of Disney's The Little Mermaid. Photo by Heidi Bohnenkamp. The Ordway's self-produced production of the classic musical The Sound of Music opens on Saturday. One of the leads in this production is Caroline Innerbichler, a dazzling local actress who