Frozen at Park Square Theatre on 3/14/08

By: Janet Preus
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Frozen - publicity photo by Petronella J. Ytsma, Frozen by Bryony Lavery  Directed by James Cada Park Square Theatre in downtown St. Paul bills itself as the place for “entertainment that matters”, and delivers on that statement with the Tony-nominated play, “Frozen”, which opened Friday. Don’t stay away from this show because of the subject matter – ...

Summer of '42, a Minneapolis Musical Theatre Production at The Hennepin Stages on 3/7/08

By: David de Young
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A Minneapolis Musical Theatre Production at Hennepin Stages Directed by Kevin Hanson   Summer of ‘42 is a 2001 musical based on the 1971 film of the same name with a screenplay by Herman Raucher. The stage adaptation was written by Hunter Foster with music and lyrics by David Kirshenbaum. The area debut, with direction and musical direction by Minneapol...

You're My Favorite Kind of Pretty at Southern Theater on 3/2/08

By: Carl Atiya Swanson
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You're My Favorite Kind of Pretty The trouble with trafficking in archetype is that it can quickly fall into convention. Jon Ferguson’s You’re My Favorite Kind of Pretty, now playing at the Southern Theatre, has the promise of an absurdist skewering of the boy-meets-girl story, but winds up playing out that conventional tale with some absurd trappings. In this tale, director and company lead Ferguson...

Orson's Shadow, a Gremlin Theatre Production at The Loading Dock Theater on 2/22/08

By: David de Young
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  Written by Austin Pendleton Directed by Matt Sciple   Run time: approximately 140 minutes with a 15 minute intermission   -- Orson Welles speaking about Ken Tynan in Orson’s Shadow: “He likes to spank beautiful women. That is why he became a critic.”   When Gremlin Theater announced their production of Austin Pendleton’s Orson’s Shadow, a play that inclu...

Cloud 9, presented by Shakespeare on the Cape at The Bottling House Theatre on 2/18/08

By: Carl Atiya Swanson
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Shakespeare on the Cape They say the sun never sets on the British Empire. Just as long lasting are the effects of its Victorian sexual mores, and this can pose quite a problem. These oppositions and difficulties are the crux of Shakespeare on the Cape’s production of Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill, playing now at The Bottling House Theater.   The play is split temporally ...

Minnehaha Comedy Club presents Michael Orensteen, Joe Tanner, Scott Brady & Chris Shaw at Steak & Ale Bloomington on 2/16/08

By: Janet Preus
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Joe Tanner, "The Lowry Mailman" -  Photo from Minnehaha Comedy Club website After appearing (and disappearing) from various venues around the Twin Cities metro, MinneHaHa Comedy Club is still standing up, and might have finally landed a home base. Bloomington’s Steak & Ale may not seem like an “a-ha” move for the two-year-old funny business, but club honcho (and himself a com...

Warm Beer Cold Women at Guthrie Theater on 2/3/08

By: Jon Behm
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It’s the end of the football season again which can only mean one thing: what to do while everyone else is watching the Superbowl? This past Sunday, I chose to divert myself with Warm Beer and Cold Women at the Guthrie Lab, a musical production entirely composed of songs by Tom Waits. Waits’ songs are all performed by a revolving cast of local singers, backed up by some talented session musicians.   While each of the songs were very darkly Waitsian in their own ...

ExerciseEXORCISE at The Bottling House Theatre on 2/1/08

By: Andrea Myers
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Director Jeremy Catterton with Vampire Hands - Photo by Stacy Schwartz Up-and-coming theater director Jeremy Catterton has a knack for creating accessible, genre-bending live performances. As a person who doesn't attend very many plays and has never been to a live dance show, Catterton's most recent project ExerciseEXORCISE eased me into the world of interpretive dance, performance art and experime...

Catch (28) at Bryant Lake Bowl on 1/27/08

By: Jon Behm
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I initially had reservations about seeing Catch 28 at the Bryant Lake Bowl. The performance art series originated in Bushwick, NY, which is dangerously close to the hipper-than-thou Williamsburg art scene. Luckily though, Sunday’s showing was more edgy than it was pretentious.  Though the pieces featured were most definitely avant garde, the seriousness of the affair was kept in check by the evening’s hosts and Catch founders, Jeff Larson and Andrew Dinwiddie. The grinning pair ...

God Save Gertrude, A Workhaus Playwright's Collective Production at The Playwright's Center on 1/26/08

By: David de Young
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Annie Enneking as Gertrude - Photo by Richard Fleischman Punk rock fans and theater lovers unite! The weekend of January 25th, The Workhaus Playwrights’ Collective’s production of the world premiere of Deborah Stein’s God Save Gertrude opened at the Playwrights’ Center. Billed as “a rock concert with characters” and alternatively “a punk ...