E. L. Doctorow was the author of two respected but not widely read novels when in 1975 he thundered onto the literary scene with Ragtime. Set 1902-17, the novel blends history and fantasy, private characters with oversized historical figures (J.P. Morgan, Booker T. Washington, Henry Ford, et al), all rendered in sharp but refined...
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In Harold And The Purple Crayon (at Children’s Theatre Co, through Feb 26) a company of first rate artists and performers collaborate on a deceptively simple, sweetly accessible and yet highly sophisticated… Well, what would you call Harold? A play? I suppose, but it’s really more a celebration of elegant design, tuneful music, astute...
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Tennessee Williams play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, may be finally showing its age, but it is still timeless enough to pack a wallop. The Guthrie’s production, directed by Lisa Peterson, has placed this piece among tall, peacock blue louvered doors and a matching carpet of swirls that seem to heighten the swirl...
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Produced by the History Theatre at the Minnesota History Center, in tandem with the exhibit that opened last fall, 1968 is also a collaborative project with the Playwrights Center. Seven scenes written by PWC members tell personal stories that are representative of significant events during that year. The scenes were ingeniously connected by a...
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In Flesh And The Desert (Workhaus Collective performing at the Playwrights Center, through Jan 28), playwright Carson Kreitzer doesn’t concern herself with the air-conditioned glitter of contemporary Las Vegas – the Bellagio, the Venetian, pot-bellied cowboys meandering through the neo-fascist splendor of Caesar’s Palace. None of this. Rather, Kreitzer wants to examine the Vegas...
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Julius Caesar, asserts the officious and buttoned down Brutus in his oration at Caesar’s funeral, “was ambitious, I slew him.” But isn’t ambition the assassins’ over-riding motivation? They pay poor lip service to serving “great Rome,” but “lean and hungry” Cassius and his furtive cohorts react mostly to the man’s raw power. ...
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“I don’t do children’s theater,” director Julie Taymor informed the powers-that-be at the vaunted Disney Corporation “and I don’t do cute.” To their immense credit, they hired her anyway. The inventive Ms. Taymor then proceeded to transform the animated Disney film, with its simple story of a young lion, Simba, coming into his own...
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