The first time I heard Lauren Yee’s The Great Leap at a reading, I was close to crying most of the time. Not because the play is sad—it’s very funny—but because the play made me the most homesick I’d ever…
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Review | Les Misérables: breathtaking
Hennepin Theatre Trust, performing at the Orpheum, through Dec 30After a hugely successful two- and half-year Broadway run, Les Misérables returns to the Orpheum for a new take on the musical like you’ve never seen before. The lush score conducted by Brian Eads and innovative new set designs showcasing…
Review | The Wickhams: a holiday treat
The Jungle Theater, through December 30If you’re looking for the perfect gift for the Jane Austen fan in your life – and there are many – a night at the theater to see The Jungle Theater‘s production of The Wickhams is just the ticket. The Wickhams…
Review | The Book Of Mormon: singin’ and dancin’ racism
The Orpheum, through Nov 18The Book Of Mormon is an energy packed and very funny show now playing at the downtown Orpheum Theatre until November 18th. Its pacing is tireless, starting at the opening song “Hello” when we meet Elder Price, (Kevin Clay) a…
Review | The Clean House: clean, but not clean-cut
Theatre Unbound, performing at the Gremlin, thru Nov 18Theatre Unbound’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House (Theatre Unbound,performing at the Gremlin Theater until November 18) is only one of at least ten productions of this play in the country over the next four months. Some reasons why…
Review | The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later
When 21-year-old Mathew Shepard was brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming, the victim of an unspeakable hate crime, it shocked the nation and left Laramie unraveled in the midst of a media maelstrom. Forced to both pick up the pieces of…
Review | I Come From Arizona: beautifully bilingual
Childrens Theatre Company, through November 25What does “Global Perspectives” mean, anyway? Carlos Murillo’s I Come from Arizona (CTC) offers a few suggestions. In this bilingual play, 14-year old Mexican-American Gabi Castillo (Ayssette Muñoz), who, living on the South Side of Chicago, moves to the elite…
The Great Society: a fascinating look at LBJ
History Theatre, through Oct 28Pearce Bunting plays Lyndon Baines Johnson in Robert Schenkkan‘s theatrical (and loud) The Great Society (History Theatre) with none of the crude charm, the country-boy excess, the rude physical bullying that I’ve come to associate with our former president. Bunting’s LBJ…
West Of Central: extraordi-noir
Pillsbury House Theater, through Oct 14Austene Van makes one heck of a good private dick and Christina Ham’s new play at the Pillsbury House Theatre makes the most of it. Ham’s noir-ish West of Central has a complex plot that involves Van and real estate…
Review | Dial M For Murder: Dial M For Misogyny, Masculinity and Morals (or lack thereof)
At St. Paul’s Gremlin, though Sept 30You probably know Dial M for Murder better as a film by Alfred Hitchcock. Gremlin Theatre’s season opener reminds us it came first as a stage play (of the same title). And on Gremlin’s new thrust stage in the buzzing…