Ordway Announces Sound of Music Casting Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - October 9, 2015October 12, 2015 One of the most-requested classic musicals every year at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is The Sound of Music. (Another is Frozen: The Musical, a show which doesn't technically exist, yet, but that's another story.) To the great delight of subscribers, last spring's 2015-2016 season announcement included the news that
REVIEW: Minnesota Opera’s Ariadne auf Naxos Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - September 27, 2015March 11, 2017 The 1912 world premiere of Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos had a built-in pacing problem: while the opera itself was only 90 minutes, it was performed second on the same bill as Le bourgeois gentillehomme – a lengthy play that by itself ran 4.5 hours. This, unsurprisingly, was not the best combination even before the advent
REVIEW: Park Square Kills It In Murder for Two Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - September 25, 2015December 19, 2015 Park Square Theatre's production of Murder for Two, which opened this evening, is a charming murder mystery musical comedy in the pantomime tradition. If you want more alliteration, it's a funny fancy farce of fickleness and fanciful fare. The set is minimal, but the variety of charaters played by Andrea
REVIEW: Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - September 25, 2015September 25, 2015 Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, now playing at Park Square Theatre, is the sort of stage work where knowing too much in advance is against the audience interest. This staging of an intergenerational tale of experiences in and around the U.S. military is moving and gripping. Some preliminary notes: It's best to eat
Chameleon Theatre Circle Opens 100th Production Arts Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - September 25, 2015September 27, 2015 As the Minneapolis Institute of Art's Julianne Amendola can tell you, it's not every year that your institution turns 100. In this respect, the MIA has a leg up on almost every arts organization in the area in terms of longevity and head starts – just ask the Children's Theatre Company. The
The Yellow Brick Road to the Box Office: Children’s Theatre Company Extends Wizard of Oz Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - September 24, 2015September 24, 2015 Opening night for the Children's Theatre Company's production of The Wizard of Oz is still five weeks away, but advance sales are already flashing like Judy Garland's ruby slippers. CTC announced today that it was extending the run of this classic musical by one week. The Wizard of Oz is set to
Bedlam Theatre Raises $47k Through Crowdfunding Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - September 16, 2015September 20, 2015 Bedlam Theatre took a big step forward in its $400,000 capital campaign this week when it racked up $47,318 in crowdfunding and matched donations. Bedlam, which opened a new space last year in St. Paul's Lowertown, raised the money through the crowdfunding service Indiegogo. Besides publicity and attracting interest, there are three
REVIEW: Twin Cities Fringe Opera’s Don Giovanni Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - September 12, 2015September 12, 2015 In the composer Hector Berlioz's memoirs, he recounts traveling through Germany in the mid-19th century. Away from the refinement of Paris, he saw countless performances where the orchestra was fortified by the local military band, or a traveling opera company joined by members of the local music society in the pit. While
The Ivey Awards: What’s Growing at the State Theatre Arts Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - September 10, 2015September 12, 2015 When the State Theatre opened on February 5, 1921, it was the largest theatre in Minneapolis – and, local journalists trumpeted, the most technologically advanced in the country. It featured a state-of-the-art air conditioning system (something the audience wouldn’t test out for several months, and were probably less excited after
10 Scene-Stealing Theatre Performances from 2014-2015 Arts Music Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - September 9, 2015September 12, 2015 We asked the Twin Cities Daily Planet's Resident Classical Music and Drama Critic Basil Considine for a retrospective top 10 list of favorite shows from the 2014-2015 theatre season in the Twin Cities. Basil refused to play favorites, but offered this list of 10 scene-stealing performances, loosely construed and in no