In 1959, a young writer, Lorraine Hansberry, premiered, on Broadway, A Raisin In The Sun. The play tapped a vein of intense yearning and became an instant classic. It features one of the great American heroes: an old-fashioned yet powerful African-American woman, Mama Younger, who struggles to hold her family together in the face...
Read more »
Theater-goers, young and old! Go see Bradley Greenwald, currently holding forth in The 500 Hats Of Bartholomew Cubbins (Childrens Theatre Co., 2400 Third Ave., Minneapolis, through Oct 30, childrensheatre.org) before an evil Broadway producer swoops down and snatches him away from us. This guy is seriously good. His gorgeous singing voice is combined with...
Read more »
The incident detailed in Adrienne and Adam P. Kennedy‘s harrowing and autobiographical Sleep Deprivation Chamber (at Penumbra, 270 N. Kent St., St. Paul, penumbratheatre.org) is, unfortunately, as common as rain: a policeman commits a vicious assault and then concocts a lie in order to cover up his malfeasance. That an innocent man might go...
Read more »
I have seen more productions of The Glass Menagerie (at the Jungle, 2951 Lyndale Ave. S., through Oct 17, jungletheater.com), Tennessee Williams‘s oft-produced and touching portrait of life in Depression era St. Louis, than I care to contemplate. But I have never seen the Big Scene (between Laura and Jim the Gentleman Caller; it...
Read more »
The Wicked Express has arrived in Minneapolis for a 5 week stay (at the Orpheum, 910 Hennepin Ave., through Sept 19, hennepintheatretrust.org). Still going strong on Broadway (after 7 years), Wicked boasts two U.S. tours, strong runs in London, San Francisco, Osaka and Germany, upcoming productions in Australia and Finland. Plus, naturally, a film. ...
Read more »
It would be difficult to surpass the pure PPM (pleasure-per-moment) ratio of The Gospel At Colonus (at the Ordway, 345 Washington St., downtown St Paul, through Aug 11, ordway.org). Where else will you find gathered together the Steele Singers, the amazing Blind Boys Of Alabama (founded in 1939), The Legendary Soul Stirrers (1930s), and...
Read more »
Tennessee Williams‘s great A Streetcar Named Desire (at the Guthrie through August 29, guthrietheater.org) smolders with the heat of a sultry New Orleans summer. The heavy scent of flowers (“Flores para los muertos”) mixed with the smell of cooking meat, spicy Mexican street food, cheap beer, diesel fumes and, of course, the sweet funk...
Read more »
Mandacrest. Hampstead Heath. Home of the tweedily eccentric Lord Edgar – he of the Ronald Colman mustache and the crushing dark secret. Freshly married to Lady Enid – she of the heaving bosom, the swirling blonde hair, and the dark secret. Then there is Nicodemus Underwood, the caretaker with the impossibly thick Scottish accent...
Read more »
The newborn in Christopher Durang‘s nasty and funny Baby With The Bathwater (Prospero Theatre, at the Friends Meeting House, 1725 Grand Ave in St. Paul, through June 26, prosperotheatre.org) is relentless. It cries in the morning, it cries late at night, it wets, and poops, gets hungry and fusses, then cries some more, until...
Read more »
It doesn’t lack for exuberance, this latest in an ever-lengthening line of Sherlock Holmes adaptations. Katie Forgette‘s Sherlock Homes And The Case Of The Jersey Lily (at Park Square Theatre through July 3; 20 W. 7th Place; parksquaretheatre.org) begins, as always with these plays, with Holmes and Watson relaxing in their cluttered Baker Street...
Read more »
