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
Magic Flute Revamp Rules Box Office Arts Music Opera Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - December 9, 2015 The Queen of the Night may not have succeeded in Mozart's The Magic Flute, but Minnesota Opera certainly did. The company's recent revival of its 2014 staging of the opera completely sold out, with 9,808 tickets purchased for the six public performances. Throw in about 150 people for the first dress rehearsal and 1,600 eager high
The Real Captain Von Trapp Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - December 5, 2015December 6, 2015 Captain Georg Johannes, Ritter von Trapp on the conning tower of the Austrian submarine U-5. Today, the Twin Cities Arts Reader looks at the story behind The Sound of Music, which opens at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts one week from today. This dramatization of the real-life von Trapp family's adventures and
The Dean of American Musical Theatre Arts Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - November 25, 2015 When Aaron Copland died in 1990, a flood of obituaries hailed the composer as the "Dean of American Music." In the 25 years since his passing, no composer has picked up the reins; no successor has arisen whose music for the concert hall is popular, universally respected, and profoundly influential