The Band’s Visit, with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and book by Itamar Moses, breaks so many rules for writing musicals—not by being outrageous, but by being not outrageous. It is a musical built on subtleties, just bits and…
Tag: Orpheum Theatre
Review | Dear Evan Hansen: a musical for today
“Dear Evan Hansen†has arrived in Minneapolis and it’s a hot ticket; the Orpheum Theatre was packed for opening night. Winner of multiple 2017 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score, the show astonishing technical flash with a moving…
Review | The Book Of Mormon: singin’ and dancin’ racism
The 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 | Something Rotten!: Yes, it’s that funny!
What if two brothers got together and decided to write a musical about two brothers writing a musical? (A few adult beverages, perhaps, and …) The brothers come up with a wacky idea about how musicals were born in Shakespeare’s…
FUN HOME is fun, tragic, intelligent, witty
A few years ago Lisa Kron wrote the book and lyrics for a musical based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. With the aid of composer Jeanine Tesori the result was the 2015 Tony Award winning,…
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, at the Orpheum
One of the great strengths of Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is that is does not compromise its perspective, detailing the world through the eyes of a young autistic boy and demanding that…
Cabaret by Hennepin Theatre Trust, performing at the Orpheum Theatre
They’re all there, the famous and iconic Cabaret songs: “Willkommen,” “Don’t Tell Mama,” the anthemic “Cabaret.” John Kander (still with us) and Fred Ebb (who died in 2004) are/were masters of American musical theater. Kiss Of The Spider Woman, Chicago…
Cinderella at the Orpheum
For many of us, raised on its various television renditions, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Hennepin Theatre Trust, performing at the Orpheum Theatre, through Sept 13) is the Cinderella. Those who grew up with this music find it impossible to hear…
Kinky Boots at the Orpheum
Va-Va-Voom! Kinky Boots (at the Orpheum only through Aug 2; see it while it’s still here) comes alive when sexy Lola – she of the svelte bod, the muscular thighs, the sly come-hither smile, the wigs – sashays and struts…
Jersey Boys at the Orpheum Theatre
As contemporaries of The Beatles in an era when that foursome was bending pop genre and Bob Dylan when he was openly protesting corruption, The Four Seasons made music for the everyman; the underemployed of America and our boys serving…