Open Eye Figure Theatre’s new production Nothing is Something is a sweet and thought-provoking piece of art. From the creative team of Noah Sommers Haas and Liz Schachterle (both the sole performers as well) we take a journey of exploration into a strange world. We begin with an explorer and a ball, spend some time in…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Stephen Schwartz of Wicked and Godspell fame and Director Diane Paulus have created a wildly entertaining and exhilarating revival of Broadway’s original 1972 Bob Fosse iconic version of Pippin, now at the Orpheum Theatre through Sunday. With soaring vocals, jaw-dropping acrobatics, charming and relatable characters and a cute kid and a dog, Pippin offers…
By LIZ BYRON. Project Opera’s Music of Mozart is described as “a Mozart Dance Party – 1980s style”. Picture teens with crimped hair, Madonna-inspired fingerless gloves, and neon t-shirts. Now picture 18th century high-piled wigs, bustles, and velvet waistcoats. Now mix them together, and add some Magic Flute, and you’ve got it. Project Opera is the youth training…
By REBECCA HALAT and ADAM SCHENCK. Time: is it a theme or a medium? The phenomenon of people living to unforeseen old age hasn’t been seen since biblical times, and old age is definitely ripe for investigation through the theatrical arts. Anyone who has visited an elder family member in an “old folks’ home,” or…
by MICHAEL J. OPPERMAN Act I opens on a piazza floating in a bucolic Italian countryside. As idyllic as a scene from a Sophia Loren movie. Field workers and townspeople move around the square. We see our first glimpse of Nemorino (Leonardo Capalbo), the erstwhile hero of the story. Expressive and charismatic, Capalbo wanders the…
By LIZ BYRON. The Jungle Theater’s 25th season opened this weekend with Gertrude Stein and a Companion. Particularly notable is the fact that this is the 8th time this show has been played at the Jungle, and with the same two actors, no less. If a show warrants repeating 8 times, it seems safe to…
By ADAM M. SCHENCK A Bigger, Smaller America: Review of Loudmouth Collective’s Production of A Bright New Boise Perhaps no other culture outside the contemporary United States has had such a cleft between its belief in freedom while continually finding itself tied to the past. As Americans, we believe ourselves free to act unencumbered by…
By ERIKA YASMEEN SASSEVILLE, Guest Reviewer Lorna Landvik, nationally known author and locally known actor/playwright presents an annual solo improvisation show on the Bryant-Lake Bowl stage through the end of January. From the moment she steps on stage, Landvik creates interesting and energetic audience-suggested characters, complete with costumes and props. Wigs, facial hair and 70s rec…
By LIZ BYRON. I remember being wildly unimpressed the first time I read The Misanthrope. I was a college sophomore taking my first French literature class, and my impatient 19-year-old brain thought it was slow, wordy, and didn’t particularly seem to have a plot. A few years later, I re-read it for a graduate class…
BY TAMAR NEUMANN: The Whale is about a 600 pound man who lives alone in Idaho and the moments in his life that lead him to this particular period. Of course, it’s not just about him—it’s about questioning the role of religion in our lives (and I do mean religion and not faith) and about how…
Aisle Say - Twin Cities 