Pippin

  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…

Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World

BY TAMAR NEUMANN: “I like Colgate [the toothpaste]” may not be the most romantic line you’ve ever heard, but it sums up the quirky type of romance typical in Mixed Blood Theatre’s Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World.  This play is the first of four plays in the 55454 Series put on by Mixed Blood…

Young Frankenstein: The Musical

By LIZ BYRON. I was sitting in a German class a couple of years ago when my teacher, demonstrating a new grammar concept, used the example character “Frau Blücher”. Without thinking, I neighed like a horse, much to the alarm of my classmates — most of whom were a good ten years younger than me…

Seedfolks

 BY TAMAR NEUMANN: The Children’s Theatre Company is known for commissioning new works for younger audiences. They have commissioned over 200 plays in their long history and they continue to add to that number every season. This season they have chosen to adapt Paul Fleishman’s book Seedfolks into a short (a little over an hour) one-woman…

My Fair Lady

By CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE My Fair Lady at the Guthrie Theater is a lavish musical theater spectacle that stays true to the Lerner/Loewe, Moss Hart Broadway original while adding its own unique touches. The 1956 production set the record for the longest run of any major musical theater show at the time and has been called “the…

Peter and the Starcatcher

by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Peter and the Starcatcher at the Orpheum Theatre, through this weekend only, is a high-octane and hilarious voyage to Neverland, with wildly innovative staging and scene-chewing acting that will have you laughing out loud and marveling at the inventiveness of it all. The five-time Tony Award winning adaptation by Rick Elice is based…

A Taste of Argentina: An Evening of Tango and Culture

By MIRA REINBERG In a most propitious timing, Open Window Theatre hosted Argentinean tango singer Claudia Pannone for a two-night performance at their venue in the Metropolitan Minneapolis Building.  Claudia Pannone brought alive the sensuous and melancholy music of lyric tango with her deep, expressive voice and infused the January evening with the warmth and…