What a gutsy title: Colossal (Mixed Blood, through Nov 9). Think what it implies: size, power, endurance, maleness, calculated violence, theatricality. A heady celebration of the game of football – and it is; football is truly one of the greatest…
Author: John Olive
Seedfolks by the Children’s Theatre Company
In the affecting Seedfolks (Childrens Theatre Company, through Nov 16), the central metaphor is established early, and the play (adapted from a novel by Paul Fleischman; by whom the program provides no clue) never deviates from it: the garden. Planted…
Radio Man at Great American History Theatre
Are you a fan of A Prairie Home Companion? If so, you’ll adore Garrison Keillor‘s Radio Man (at the Great American History Theatre, through Oct 26). It’s all there: Guy Noir, The Lives of the Cowboys, The Hopeful Gospel Quartet,…
Busytown, The Musical at the Children’s Theatre Company
You will be no doubt unsurprised to learn that Busytown, The Musical (Childrens Theatre Co., through Oct 26) is busy. Based on the popular series of books by Richard Scarry, and niftily adapted by Kevin Kling, Busytown takes place in…
Marcus; Or The Secret Of Sweet by Pillsbury House Theatre and the Mount Curve Company, performing in the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio
Marcus dreams. He prowls the streets of San Pere, Louisiana where his dreams and his passions – for family, sexuality (which Marcus feels with striking intensity), for his father, for blood, the moon, rain – galvanize everyone. They don’t fully…
The White Snake at the Guthrie Theater
The most remarkable, imo, aspect of Mary Zimmerman‘s lush and lavish The White Snake (at the Guthrie, through October 19): its restraint. I doubt you’ll see a more design-y play this season. Every moment of this piece is lovingly crafted…
Middle Brother by Mu Performing Arts, performing at the Southern Theater
Mu Performing Arts continues its ongoing exploration of adoption (and specifically Korean adoption) with an production of Eric Sharp‘s entertaining Middle Brother (at the Southern, through September 28). The play is witty, creative and incisively intelligent, all at the…
Minnesota Fringe 2014
It’s that magic time of year again, when local theater folk drain their cowboy coffees and step forward (and when national artists working the extensive Fringe circuit bring themselves and their talent to our fair city) and, green-lighting themselves, throw…
A Little Night Music by Mu Performing Arts, performing at Park Square Theatre
In Stephen Sondheim‘s marvelous A Little Night Music (Mu Performing Arts performing at Park Square Theatre, through Aug 10) little surprise or tension lies in the playing-out of the characters’ predictable arcs. Frederik is married, sexlessly, to Anne. Famous matinee…
The Heiress at the Jungle Theater
Money. It corrupts, perverts and, ultimately, kills. Can love survive money? The Heiress (at the Jungle Theater, through August 10) rather disturbingly concludes that it cannot. Thank God I don’t have any. But The Heiress (written 1947 by Ruth and…