Pity the poor critic at the Jungle‘s zippy production of Fly By Night. Look at him, bent dyspeptically over his stained notebook, scrawling Scrooge-isms like, “convoluted,” “clichèd,” “cutesy.” Ish. I don’t wanna continue in this vein and you don’t want…
Rent: a super-appealing show about AIDS, addiction and underemployment. Go!
There’s a love fest happening this week in downtown Minneapolis where the Tony and Pulitzer prize winning musical, Rent, is playing. Most of the people in the Orpheum theatre on opening night knew all the words to the songs, and…
365 Days/365 Plays: a breezy and enjoyable collection of skits
Full Circle Theater Company, presenter of Suzan-Lori Parks‘s refreshingly unpretentious 365 Days/365 Plays, lists, in the program, “Co-Artistic Directors” – Rick Shiomi and Martha B. Johnson. As well as a “Core Artistic Group” – James A. Williams, Stephanie Lein Walseth…
Pike St.: Nilaja Sun delivers an exquisite performance
Pike St. (Pillsbury House Theatre) is a one woman show, written and performed by über-talented New Yorker Nilaja Sun. Pike St. evinces many of the problems inherent in one person performances. It lacks muscle (true drama requires, imho, the interaction of two…
Refugia: Serrand & Co. do gorgeous work
Lately there’s been a multitude of shows in Twin Cities theatres about refugees and immigrants. They’ve run the course from last year’s pandering production of Flower Drum Song at Park Square to the spare but beautiful production of Promise Land…
Charles Francis Chan Jr.’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery: garbled fun
Eric Sharp totally carries Lloyd Suh‘s gloriously messy Charles Francis Chan Jr.’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery (whew). His stern comic timing is balanced by passion and perfect anger/love (see the play; you’ll understand what I mean). Sharp’s sharp energy makes…
Intimate Apparel: a revealing, deeply rewarding experience
For a show that ruminates on the complexities of loneliness, Ten Thousand Things Theater’s Intimate Apparel (running at various locations throughout the metro through June 4th) brims with warmth. It celebrates humanity through honest, sometimes ugly insights rather than simplistic or…
Red Velvet: rich and passionate
In the first scene of Red Velvet (Walking Shadow Theatre Co., performing at the Southern Theatre, through May 28), actor JuCoby Johnson as Ira Aldridge says there is “Something about velvet – a deep promise of what’s to come, the sweat…
Wit: a compelling exploration of the mystery of death
Professor Vivian Bearing has Stage Four – “There’s no Stage Five” – ovarian cancer. A tumor “the size of a grapefruit” has spread to her pelvic bones, to the surrounding organs and the pain, and the pressure of it, combined…
The Bluest Eye: dense and difficult, ultimately rewarding
Are you a conservative theater-goer? Do you insist that your plays entertain, contain coherent plots and characters with whom you can readily identify? If this is you, then the beautifully substantive The Bluest Eye (at the Guthrie through May 21),…
GIRL Shakes Loose: tight show, loose story
There are so many things right with the musical GIRL Shakes Loose at Penumbra Theatre. First off the show is nearly flawlessly performed. The depth of talent in our cities never ceases to amaze, as the cast of this show…
Snapshot And Blank: Comic Book Theater. Kapow!
Maggie’s Farm Theater, a cozy little space tucked into the Lennox Community Center in St. Louis Park, was just about the perfect space for the action-packed “Snapshot & Blank†by Todd Richardson, an homage to the playwright’s love of –…