by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Early in the play, I Love to Eat: A Love Story with Food, James Beard (Garry Geiken) declares to the audience, “Moderation. I’m against it!” This line captured to me the true essence of James Beard: America’s original foodie, TV’s first cooking show host, confidante of Julia Child and author of over 20 cookbooks. An award bearing…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities is a cunningly crafted family drama set in a plush Palm Springs living room. The play, directed by Peter Rothstein at the Guthrie Theater is superbly acted and written, with powerhouse female performances by Sally Wingert, as Polly, the Wyeth family matriarch, Michelle Barber, as her sister Silda,…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE For Jane Austen fans and readers of her romantic novel, Emma, the central challenge is to overcome your distaste for Emma’s patronizing, meddling matchmaking in order to understand the onerous class distinctions that characterized everyday interactions between neighbors, family members and friends in the early 1800s. For local playwrights, Savage Umbrella’s Laura Leffler-McCabe and…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE The Guthrie Theater and The Acting Company’s staging and interpretation of William Shakespeare’s whimsical romantic comedy, As You Like It, is wonderfully inventive, superbly acted and suprisingly accessible to modern audiences. Everything from the mystical set design, roaring twenties costume vibe, musical interludes and the modern cadence of the monologues cleverly evokes Shakespeare’s motifs…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE The Orpheum Theatre’s glitzy, new musical offering, Catch Me If You Can, tells the true-life con man “coming of age story” of Frank Abagnale, Jr., who posed as a doctor, lawyer and Pan Am pilot all before age 21. The Tony-nominated musical, set in the 1960s with a rat pack meets Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Russ King’s hilarious holiday drag satire pokes fun of Christmas, religion, sexual orientation, Mayan doomsday predictions and Minnetonkans. No group is safe from Miss Richfield 1981’s sharp-tongued, spike-heeled humor. King’s hysterically funny Miss Richfield 1981: We’ll All Be Dead By Christmas, back for its 13th and possibly final year, is a holiday tradition for many of the repeat audience…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Next to Normal, winner of three Tony Awards and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is a rousing rock musical that explores mental illness, bipolar disorder, teenage angst, grief and suburban family dysfunction. Set to powerful lyrics and music, the musical balances these difficult and often uncomfortable topics with humor, humanity and raw honesty. Standout vocals…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE and ERIKA YASMEEN SASSEVILLE The Guthrie Theater’s new musical production of Roman Holiday, based on the iconic 1953 movie and book by Paul Blake, has all the glamour, glitz and stylish corniness you would expect from a romantic comedy set to classic, toe-tapping Cole Porter tunes performed by a fabulous live pit orchestra (under…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner (directed by Penumbra Theater’s Lou Bellamy) tackles faith, poverty, racism and sexism in a superbly acted ensemble performance at the Guthrie Theater’s Wurtele Thrust Stage through June 17. The beautifully rendered 1950s Harlem neighborhood set comes alive immediately upon entering the theater, with assorted street characters wandering on and off stage…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Fairy tale adventures, good versus evil and self-empowerment are the allegorical threads woven into local playwright Kira Obolensky’s Vasa Lisa, a highly entertaining play presented by Ten Thousand Things Theater at the Open Book (8:00 p.m. every Fri., Sat. from May 4 until May 13). Just in time for Mother’s Day, the play ultimately celebrates…
Aisle Say - Twin Cities 