When Ten Thousand Things applies their patented Poor Theater style to a musical warhorse – as they did with last year’s My Fair Lady and now do again with Man Of La Mancha (various venues; the public performances are at the Opera Center and at Open Book, see the theater website for details) –...
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The amazing Stomp (at the Ordway, through April 3) has rolled into St. Paul for a breathless one week run. Created way back in 1991, the show has enjoyed lengthy runs in London, New York, Sydney, Rio, San Francisco, Athens, Tokyo, etc. There have been HBO specials, Sesame Street specials, Inauguration (Clinton) performances, IMAX...
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In the 1990s during the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, over 100,000 people were killed and more than 2 million people displaced in one of the most horrific set of human-inflicted tragedies since WWII. Heaven, a new work by Flying Foot Forum, directed by Joe Chvala with music by Chan Poling (The Suburbs, The...
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In Arms And The Man (on the Guthrie‘s McGuire Stage, through May 8 ) George Bernard Shaw hides deep cynicism in plain sight, behind a veneer of flashy dialogue, sweet romance, giddy farce, lovable preening upperclass characters. We laugh, get pulled in by high energy antics, we have a wonderful time. But Shaw, the...
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Spring! Ah. The snowbanks are melting, temps are soaring (sort of), the sun has a delicious new bite. There will be no more snow. In honor of the new season, CTC is producing Annie, Penumbra is exploring the music of Nat King Cole and the Guthrie is doing…Shaw. Well, not everyone can get in...
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Broke-ology (Pillsbury House Theatre, through April 10) breaks no new ground. Playwright Nathan Louis Jackson‘s writing is lovely, but it’s straight forward realism, a father-son drama played in a modest and tidy living room/kitchen. The designers, led by the estimable Joseph Stanley, have done first rate work but, really, any number of plays would...
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The Kennedy Center has brought its national tour of Barrio Grrrl! to the Minneapolis Children’s Theatre, offering a view of summer in the barrio through the eyes of 9-year-old Ana (Desireé Rodriguez). To alleviate the boredom of being left home alone while her grandpa (“Abuelo,” played by Diego Prieto) goes to work in a...
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Frank Theatre has opened its 22nd season with a gutsy and – well, frank interpretation of the now classic Broadway musical, Cabaret. Stripped down to its both smarmy and beautiful story, and set in a near-perfect environment at the Centennial Showboat on Harriet Island, this production immerses you in the tawdry world of Berlin’s...
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I was an earnest schoolboy in a small southern Minnesota town when Hair (at the Orpheum, through March 6, produced by the Hennepin Theater Trust) first came out. It blew me away. I never saw the actual show, of course; I only had the cast album. Still, lyrics like “this is the dawning of...
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