In The Children’s Theatre Company‘s world premiere production of J.R.R Tolkien‘s famous The Hobbit has many things going for it. Adapted for stage and directed by Greg Banks, with music by Thomas Johnson, the show has an inexhaustible cast of only…
Review | She Persists: challenging
She Persists (at Pillsbury House Theatre, through March 24) is a collection of 5 very short playlets which posits an America rent by a “great divide” – political, cultural, religious, racial. And maybe it is. Maybe those of us who…
Review | Into The Woods: ethereal and powerful
You might could call Stephen Sondheim‘s exquisite and delicate Into The Woods a “problem play.” Like Shakespeare’s problem plays (one thinks of A Winter’s Tale) to call Into The Woods problematic is in no way to criticize. Rather, it’s to…
Review | As You Like It: true love in exile
In the Twin Cites we take good theatre almost for granted. Even so, this has been an exceptionally fine winter season. From provocative new plays like The Children and The Father at the Jungle and Gremlin Theatres to A Little…
Review | benevolence: scary-powerful
Difficult. Difficult, and presented with unrelieved intensity. This is an apt description of benevolence (playing at Penumbra Theatre Company through March 10). If you’re looking for feel-good entertainment, a sweet and undemanding play to watch while you digest a rich…
Review | The Skin Of Our Teeth: a multifaceted gem
There are plays that are so good that audiences enjoy them even if the production isn’t first class—Midsummer Night’s Dream for example. Then there are plays that are unwieldly gems, difficult to take in unless the production is of first-class…
A Brand New Day Cabaret launched at the Ordway
The Ordway has just launched a new Cabaret series, “A Brand New Day.†Based on its inaugural show, “Breaking Barriers: Love on the Broadway Stage from Hair to Hamilton,†which I attended January 31, this is an appropriate title. It’s…
Review | She Loves Me: sweet and tuneful
Whenever I attend the Artistry Theater, I’m struck by what a play-going bargain it is. The commodious parking lot is filled with free parking; the lobby is huge; there’s a wonderful and large room filled with pretty-good art. (The rest…
Review | A Little Night Music: the perfect show for a frigid winter night
Only the great Stephen Sondheim can do this: hunched over a (grand, naturally) piano, he plunks out a simple melody. One five-five-five. “Isn’t it rich? / Don’t you approve?” And suddenly – hey, presto! – Sondheim has created “Send In…
Review | The Great Leap: a leap across time and culture
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…
Review | Les Misérables: breathtaking
After 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 | Blackbird: powerful, creepy
The past, as the swamis never tire of telling us, is a meaningless abstraction. Ditto the future. There is only the ineffable Now, the shining wellspring of happiness and contentment. But what do you do when the past is the…