by SOPHIE KERMAN In the new production of Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida, the Hennepin Theatre Trust and Theater Latté Da present us with an excellent performance of a deeply problematic musical. The show opens a new collaborative series between the HTT and Latté Da called Broadway Re-Imagined, which casts local Minnesota talent in high-profile Broadway shows under…
by SOPHIE KERMAN It is too bad that God Rest Ye Scary Gentlemen is such a good idea, because that makes its execution all the more disappointing. The mission of the Hardcover Theater is to adapt texts for the stage, and for their latest production, they have chosen to spook up the holidays with three 19th-century ghost…
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 MICHAEL J. OPPERMAN This play is a holiday favorite, particularly for many who don’t much like the holidays. Based on David Sedaris‘ cynical & searing true chronicles of working as an elf at Macy’s during the holidays, the Santaland Diaries were first read on National Public Radio 20 years ago. In the Frank Theatre…
by SOPHIE KERMAN When a play’s design can elicit gasps within the first five minutes, and when it can keep an audience of seasoned theater-goers laughing for over two hours, it puts the reviewer in a truly difficult position. Despite wanting to steer clear of cliche, there is no way around it: how else to describe…
by MICHAEL J. OPPERMAN Peter Nichols’ A Day in the Death of Joe Egg is a provocative play, disturbingly frank in its portrayal of a couple’s experience raising a daughter with cerebral palsy. Nichols is unflinching in his depiction of Bri (Randy Schmeling) and Sheila (Mary Fox) and the emotional strain of parenting a child…
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 SOPHIE KERMAN and EMILY MEISLER, guest reviewer Who hasn’t watched “Waiting for Guffman”, the mockumentary about a small town that puts on a community theater production, and felt a twinge of envy for the fictitious audience of “Red, White, and Blaine”? How much fun would it be to see that play, a production so ridiculous…
by SOPHIE KERMAN I look for two things in a children’s show: first, that the kids like it, and second, that it’s got something to entertain adults, too. The Children’s Theatre Company leaves no doubt about either in its revival of the holiday favorite, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It’s a book most Americans have…
by MICHAEL J. OPPERMAN Keri Alkema as Anna Bolena in the Minnesota Opera production of “Anna Bolena” Anyone with a glancing knowledge of British history knows all does not end well for Anne Boleyn. Anne was Henry VIII’s second wife (“divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived”), and, after specious charges of adultery and treason, spent…
Aisle Say - Twin Cities 