Skylark Opera’s fifth annual Summer Festival opens with Wonderful Town, a frothy delight set in 1930s New York City. With little point but to be entertained, we are free to skip from one clever song to the next, taking in…
Category: Reviews
Noises Off at the Jungle Theater
Are you ready for a mop-your-eyes-and-try-to-catch-your-breath laugh? The Jungle Theater plans a summer run of Noises Off by Michael Frayn, which is easily the funniest farce I’ve ever seen. I first knew about the play when I read it on…
Laughter On The 23rd Floor at Park Square Theatre
Neil Simon is often – unjustly, I believe – accused of being a mere jokester, a creator of le gag juste, the ka-ching king. Okay, yes, it must be admitted, Simon’s plays do brim with jokes. But the reason they…
The Origin(s) Project by Dreamland Arts
When we are born, we are, in the words of the famous University of Minnesota geneticist David Lykken, “exposed negatives.” Environment – our rearing – controls how well that negative is developed. But most of what we possess comes directly…
Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays. A co-production of Frank Theatre and the Hennepin Theatre Trust
Last night your intrepid HWTS theater reviewers, Janet Preus and John Olive, betook themselves to the spiffily spartan New Century Theatre to see Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays (a co-production between Frank Theatre and the Hennepin Theatre Trust,…
The Amen Corner by Penumbra Theatre Co., performing at the Guthrie
Luke staggers into his ex-wife Margaret’s Harlem flat – it’s the closest thing he has to “home” – carrying one thing: his shiny, lovingly maintained trumpet. Margaret, popular pastor of a fundamentalist church, is appalled to see him. He represents…
The Addams Family at the Ordway
The Addams Family has settled into the friendly confines of the Ordway for a solid two week run (through May 20). Your intrepid HowWasTheShow.com reviewers, Janet Preus and John Olive, attended opening night, then repaired to the Amsterdam Bar for…
Steampunk Delusions at Open Eye Figure Theatre, produced by Hardcover Theater and English Scrimshaw Theatrical Novelties
Steampunk Delusions features two plays, one produced by Hardcover Theater and the other by English Scrimshaw Theatrical Novelties. Hardcover Theater fills a curious niche in the Twin Cities, bringing to life somewhat obscure books and stories in sparsely but cleverly…
Are You Now or Have You Ever Been … at the Guthrie Theater produced by Carlyle Brown & Company
In the 1950s, there was a contingent in American politics with an intense fear of the rise of communism, fueled by the belief that communist infiltrators were everywhere, trying to bring down the American way of life. Headed up by…
Pippi Longstocking at Children’s Theatre Company
Katie Adducci delivers a sweet and winning performance as the young rebel in CTC’s charming Pippi Longstocking (Children’s Theatre Company, through June 10). Whipping Pippi’s famous red braids perilously close to the other characters, leaping and prancing, cackling with laughter,…