Mixed Blood Theatre, in its PR material, calls Qui Nguyen‘s breathless Vietgone (running at MB thru April 30) a “mash-up,” and that it most certainly is, a delirious (if mash-ups are your cup of tea) and graceless (if not) combo…
Lone Star Spirits: a heartfelt, hilarious ode to the everyman
In today’s fractured world, so much of what we experience, artistically and otherwise, carries political and emotional baggage. With Josh Tobiessen’s play Lone Star Spirits, a small, hysterical comedy with an earnest heart that explores what divides us and brings…
West Side Story: thrilling and inspiring
2007 was the fiftieth anniversary of West Side Story. The NPR report I listened to at the time indicated that there had been – ten years ago – 50,000 productions of the show. What this means is that, as you…
To Begin With: Full Throttle Bombast
Every ten years or so someone decides to put some part of the bible on stage. The latest attempt is To Begin With by local playwright Jeffrey Hatcher (Hennepin Theatre Trust, performing in the old Wesley Church). Hatcher has taken…
Macbeth is The Bard, efficiently abridged
In Shakespeare’s tragedies, politics and fealty are thread with dark warnings of power’s corruptive force and the destructiveness of human hubris. This is never more true than in Macbeth, a story of greed, secret plotting, and murder at the highest…
Six Degrees Of Separation: highly recommended
First things first: Six Degrees Of Separation (Theater Latté Da performing at the newly purchased Ritz, through April 9) looks terrific. Yeoperson work has been by the crackerjack design team – Kate Sutton-Johnson (sets); Alice Frederickson (costumes); Barry Browning (lights).…
Grease: slick and entertaining
The Chanhassen Dinner Theatre‘s production of Grease is a funny, tightly performed show. Set in 1959, (book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey) Grease pairs a group of high school girls, more interested in boys and parties…
The Red Shoes mind-bends a classic
Open Eye Figure Theatre and Oddfellows Collective, a new theater entity formed of well-known local artists, most notably the play’s writer/director/designer Joel Sass and writer/performer Kimberly Richardson, have opened “The Red Shoes.†Although inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen…
King Lear: a grandly produced disappointment
Shakespeare’s King Lear is a dense tapestry of a play. Themes of loyalty, insanity, blindness, compassion and even base nature are all explored. Every director must choose what to emphasize and what to allow to pass without development. Guthrie artistic…
Fiddler On The Roof: another barebones masterwork from TTT
When Ten Thousand Things, decides to mount Fiddler on the Roof, one of Broadway’s longest running and best loved musicals, one can’t help but wonder just how they will handle it. The answer is a singular, energetic experience. The itinerant…
Anna In The Tropics: a missed opportunity
The Jungle Theater has opened its 2017 season with a play by Nilo Cruz, “Anna in the Tropics,†a Pulitzer Price winner for the playwright in 2003. The piece starts with the jewel most writers treasure: a little known slice-of-life,…
Marie Antoinette: featuring the sparkly Jane Froiland
Marie Antoinette never said, “They don’t have enough bread? Then let them eat cake.” This libel was perpetrated by the people of France who despised MA for her youth, her penchant for expensive jewelry, for dressing up as a shepherdess…