by SOPHIE KERMAN As a critic, it’s a rare opportunity to review a show in 2012 that I also saw on Broadway when I was twelve or thirteen. In its fifteen-year run, The Lion King has become such a Broadway staple that it’s hard to remember how revolutionary it was when it opened. Viewers marveled…
by SOPHIE KERMAN As the lights dim for Lorna Landvik‘s grand entrance at the Bryant Lake Bowl, it is clear that the woman has created a following. Whether through her eight novels or the four previous sold-out iterations of her one-woman improv show Party in the Rec Room, Lorna’s audience knows what to expect. For a comedy show, it’s…
by SOPHIE KERMAN In Cantus/Theater Latté Da/Hennepin Theatre Trust‘s meditative and moving production of All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, more is happening beneath the surface than initially meets the eye. Centered around the events of Christmas 1914, in which British, German and French troops famously declared a temporary truce, All is Calm tells…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Did you know how turtles make it through the winter? Ever wonder whether they dream? With the help of their signature giant puppets, In the Heart of the Beast Theatre (HOBT) uses real wintry adaptations as a jumping-off point to imagine what animals think about during the cold winter months. But if…
by ANNA ROSENSWEIG Some shows sneak up on you and win you over, complicating your initial impressions. Charley’s Aunt is one such show, which provided a rather enjoyable evening at the theater, despite a slow start and uneven pacing throughout. Much of what makes the Guthrie Theater’s production of Brandon Thomas’ wildly popular 1892 farce…
by SOPHIE KERMAN You’ve got to wonder what happened at the birthday party when Russ King first took on the persona of Miss Richfield 1981, a beauty queen from the town “where butter is a spice and gravy is a beverage.” Like those shamelessly gravy-drinking suburbanites, Miss Richfield doesn’t hold back and has some serious…
by REBECCA HALAT, Guest Reviewer Reader beware! I have stepped in to help out your usual Aisle Say TC reviewers, and my take on this piece must be read with the knowledge that I am both a theater novice and Christmas lover. From what I understand, A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theater is a…
by ANNA ROSENSWEIG The Penumbra Theatre is currently reprising its I Wish You Love, an exploration of Nat King Cole’s life, music, and times, after a highly successful world premiere in St. Paul last spring (2011) and a subsequent engagement at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Set at the NBC studios, which somewhat ambivalently…
by SOPHIE KERMAN When going to see a play about a group of teenagers out to expose a sex scandal involving a teacher, what do you expect to see? A heartwarming tale about finding social acceptance in surprising places? Or a sad story about the fallout of a traumatic and coercive relationship? No matter what your…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Over the past few days, Anna and I have explored the three very different plays on offer at the Mixed Blood Theatre‘s Center of the Margins festival, which celebrates the often-neglected perspectives of individuals with disabilities. We have to commend the Mixed Blood for undertaking such a project to begin with: there…
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