CTC’s The Wizard Of Oz (Childrens Theatre Company, through Jan. 8, 2012) imitates the 1939 MGM classic beat-by-beat: the structure is identical, the character conceits, the exquisite Arlen/Harburg songs. Much of the play’s dialogue comes directly from the movie. …
Category: Reviews
Center of the Margins Festival at Mixed Blood Theatre
GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES Mixed Blood Theatre has opened an ambitious three-play series they call Center of the Margins with the goal of “exploring the complex world of disability,†the publicity explains. The first play, Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries has…
“Danger! Will/Robinson” by The Recovery Party and Table Salt Productions
The Recovery Party and Table Salt Productions just closed an impressive run of “Danger! Will/Robinson,†an evening of sketch comedy and improv created by the local comedy team of Joshua Will and Jim Robinson. Supported by fellow Brave New Workshop…
Ajax In Iraq at Frank Theatre
Would, I wondered, Ellen McLaughlin‘s effective Ajax In Iraq (Frank Theatre, performing at the Playwrights Center, through Nov 27) work in 2011? The U.S. involvement in that country is winding down, measured now in days. For Iraqis, of course, the…
“Il Campiello” by Ten Thousand Things Theater at Open Book
Ten Thousand Things Theater continues its practice of bringing theater to people who may otherwise never see it with a new adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s Il Campiello. Steven Epp’s adaptation is commedia-inspired fun—a little Laurel & Hardy, a little light…
The Edge Of Our Bodies at the Guthrie
As the audience enters the theater for the performance of Adam Rapp‘s taut The Edge Of Our Bodies (in the Guthrie‘s Dowling Studio, through Nov 20), actor Ali Rose Dachis sits, prim and unmoving, on the edge of a chair. …
“Oliver Twist” at Park Square Theatre
St. Paul’s Park Square Theatre has included a Victorian era piece in recent seasons and continues this season with an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist by Neil Barlett. Joel Sass, the Jungle Theater’s associate artistic director was coaxed across…
“La Cage Aux Folles” at the State Theatre
The Hennepin Theatre Trust has opened it’s 2011-12 season with a guaranteed winner. Forget what you know about La Cage aux Folles and start over. Yes, the daffy premise and the flamboyant drag queens are there, but this production has…
Four Destinies by Mu Performing Arts at Mixed Blood
Playwright Katie Hae Leo presents us with a pleasantly breezy and vivacious narrator in her lovely Four Destinies (Mu Performing Arts at Mixed Blood Theatre, through Oct 30). The narrator is named Katie Leo. This Katie is a playwright and…
Come Fly Away at the Ordway
Perhaps I’m beginning my review on an unacceptably mercantile note, but I believe that the under-sung heroes of the thrilling Come Fly Away (at the Ordway, through Oct 16) are the producers, and their agents and attorneys, who worked the…