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…
Peter and the Starcatcher is a silly, boisterous good time
Theater Latte Da has now certainly solidified itself as one of the best companies in the Twin Cities, especially for the production of musicals. It should come as no surprise then that their latest offering, Peter and the Starcatcher, is…
The Royal Family: fizzy, frothy — and long
When it was first produced, 90 long years ago, George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber‘s The Royal Family had a different sort of meaning than now. Audiences back then were knowledgeable about, and were devotees of, theatrical dynasties – the…
Black Light: Be A Witness. Shine A Light.
You could go to Jomama Jones‘s BLACK LIGHT, and just enjoy Jomama’s considerable talent as she presents herself in sparkling evening gowns, a foot long afro and four-inch spiked heels. You could listen to the songs, bask in the talent of…
Flower Drum Song is a timely, flawed immigrant tale
David Henry Hwang‘s rewrite of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s now thoroughly antiquated Flower Drum Song, being staged as a co-production of Park Square Theatre and Mu Performing Arts through February 19, explores the tension for immigrants to assimilate and simultaneously respect their…
Promise Land: a universal story of the search for home
Human migration is a timeless effort. People shift, sometimes in great numbers, sometimes as singles or pairs. Transatlantic Love Affair‘s Diogo Lopes decided to tell this story of geographic relocation beginning with the old fairy tale of the Hansel and…
Miranda: a portrait of a Middle Eastern hell-on-earth
Yemen. Good Lord, what a hornet’s nest. The Saudis vs the Iranians. The Houthi rebels vs the Yemeni government. The Americans (and their Saudi clients) vs the Iranians and Al Qaeda. The Sunnis vs the Shiites. Al Qaeda and ISIS…
Little Shop Of Horrors: Twisted Fun
Americans have an affinity for ghoulish comedies. Arsenic and Old Lace, recently revived by the Guthrie, has kept audiences laughing at two murderous old ladies for generations. Rocky Horror Picture Show is another more recent example of this peculiarly American…
Gremlin’s New Performing Space: Finally, Some Good Theater News
Been wondering about the Gremlin Theatre? Wonder no more. They’ve been busy, creating a much-needed new twin cities performance venue, in St. Paul’s Vandalia Tower. This spunky purveyor of edgy contemporary theater finally has a home of its own, after some years…
Liberty Falls 54321: a camp classic
What is theatrical camp? I pondered thith pithy question as I made my way down frozen Portland Avenue after the opening of The Moving Company‘s goofily effective Liberty Falls 54321 (a remount of a play originally done in 2015). I concluded:…
HWTS’s Top Shows Of 2016
With four theater reviewers, HowWasTheShow.com is covering more theater than ever. We herewith wrap up an excellent year with How Was the Show’s first ever annual favorites list. Some of the plays weren’t even reviewed! But when they were, helpful links…