On the Blog
Ten Thousand Things’ production of My Fair Lady (Ten Thousand Things, various venues, though note that the “public performances” are at the MN Opera Center, 620 N. 1st St., Minneapolis, May 7-30, tenthousandthings.org) owes more to George Bernard Shaw (creator of the source material) than to Lerner and Loewe. If you want to hear the...
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The Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) opened a strikingly handsome staging of the now classic Disney film, Mulan, to a full house of adoring fans – some even dressed as the title character. According to director, David Mann, the script sent from Disney was void of any stage directions, so the company that is renowned...
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In his lovely Two Old Black Guys Just Sitting Around Talking (Penumbra, 270 Kent St., St Paul, through May 23, penumbratheatre.org) playwright Gus Edwards presents us with two gentlemen of a grand experience of life, inhabiting the trash strewn corner of a New York City park, watching the world pass by – and insulting...
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When first produced in October 1962 (at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis), the boozy and vituperative Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf (at the Jungle, 2951 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis, through May 30, jungletheater.com) blew through staid and polite Broadway like a cleansing fire. It showed us how frightening – indeed how downright dangerous...
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HowWasTheShow is proud to present Jenn Barnett’s photos from Rock for Pussy at First Avenue. Slideshow set to David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.”
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The Guthrie opened David Henry Hwang’s most acclaimed play, M. Butterfly, to a packed house that gave every indication of having left their own worlds behind to contemplate this inscrutable and fantastic story. The story is launched from both a true incident involving a French diplomat and the opera, Madame Butterfly, but Puccini’s opera...
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From my brief but evocative conversation with the owner of the recently opened BlackBlue boutique on Selby and Dale in St. Paul, I quickly surmised two facts: Steve Kang knows menswear. Steve Kang knows music. The entrepreneur fashion auteur dutifully pleased his onlookers by adorning the openers Blue Sky Blackout with trim, tight and sharply constructed...
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Erik Hess was the HowWasTheShow designated photographer for Voltage 2010. Here we present links to his amazing photos of the event. Overarching “Voltage: Fashion Amplified 2010″ photoset: http://www.flickr.com/photos/560/sets/72157623939439762/ Blue Sky Blackout set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/560/sets/72157623814952963/ Red Pens set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/560/sets/72157623814964883/ Caroline Smith set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/560/sets/72157623939358570/ Mayda set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/560/sets/72157623814982699/ Ruby Isle set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/560/sets/72157623814993677/
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The bespectacled and shy Nona Marie Invie may seem like an unlikely bandleader, but in truth the lead singer of local six-piece Dark Dark Dark is a gifted and engaging performer. Thursday’s release party at the Cedar for the band’s excellent new EP, Bright Bright Bright, put on full display just how charming her...
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Even the name is perfect: Dreamland Arts, a small one story building nestled in a modest St Paul neighborhood (not far from Hamline University), containing an intimate (maybe 40 seats) theater. I adore spaces like this, where actors can play with a soft, exploratory subtlety, with none of the bombast needed in theaters like CTC...
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