by EMILY MEISLER, guest reviewer After exiting the Saturday night production of Red Resurrected, I turned to my friend who accompanied me to the production and asked, “So, what did you think?” She paused. “It was good.” She smiled politely. “It was well done….but I’m not a theater person.” There are some beautiful moments in Red…
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 Every weekend in the fall, there seems to be an endless stream of shows opening around the Twin Cities, and despite the best efforts our tireless band of volunteer reviewers, we can never manage to see everything. October feels like a record high for opening weekends this year: although Anna Rosensweig and…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Despite its being a world premiere, the Illusion Theater’s latest production is strangely undersold. On its website and in press materials, What’s the Word For is presented as the story of inter-generational support between a middle-aged man and an older woman who somehow bond over crossword puzzles. This doesn’t necessarily come across as a play…
by STEPHANIE KWONG Let me start off by stating that last night was my first time at the Illusion Theater. The Illusion Theater is quite nice and is a great place to see a show. Located in the Hennepin Center for the Arts, adjacent to the new Cowles Center, the building is historic and grand on…
by SOPHIE KERMAN After wowing Minnesota Fringe Festival audiences for the past two years running, Isabel Nelson has brought 2010 Fringe Festival Favorite Ballad of the Pale Fisherman to the Illusion Theater mainstage. After being blown away by Red Resurrected at the 2011 Fringe, I was excited to see the expansion of Pale Fisherman, the show that…
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 Anna Rosensweig Halloween is a tricky holiday because it’s a hard one to halfheartedly celebrate. Sure you can show up at a costume party dressed in your usual clothes and some random hat. But it’s guaranteed you won’t have as much fun as your friends who go as Xena the Warrior Princess, a Keebler…
by SOPHIE KERMAN “I got one! I got one!” For all of the many reasons we might say we go to the theater, at the heart of it, we all just want a good story. At least that is the argument behind The K of D, a play which takes us back to our very earliest…
