Among the pleasures – there are many – of Skylark Opera‘s lovely Berlin To Broadway With Kurt Weill (at Concordia’s E.M. Pearson Theatre through June 21) is the nifty comparison it provides between Weill’s gritty and soaring European music with…
Author: John Olive
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson by Minneapolis Musical Theatre, performing at the New Century Theatre
Andrew Jackson, our seventh President, was a nasty piece of work. A westerner (from the frontier state of Tennessee), Jackson owned slaves, gleefully massacred native Americans, slew men in duels, bigamously married his wife, battled his way to the Presidency,…
Rocket To The Moon by the Gremlin Theatre, performing at the New Century Theatre
Once a much bally-hoo’d darling of the New York theater – the Group Theatre made its reputation (or at least its money) producing his work in the 1930s – playwright Clifford Odets‘s work seldom finds its way onto contemporary stages.…
The Three Musketeers by Walking Shadow Theatre Co., performing in the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio
Want to enjoy Walking Shadow Theatre Co.‘s giddy, swashbuckling, sword-happy The Three Musketeers (at the Guthrie‘s Dowling Studio, through May 25)? Here’s my firm advice: go with the sprawl. Lay aside whatever need you might have for coherent narrative, for…
Passing Strange at Mixed Blood Theatre
Passing Strange (at Mixed Blood Theatre, through May 11) is an example of that ancient, hoary, and utterly old-fashioned theatrical entity: the rock musical. Everyone is in the band. The cast plays various instruments – not brilliantly, but you can’t…
Shrek, The Musical at Children’s Theatre Company
Unless you’ve spent the last dozen years sequestered in a Kazukistan monastery, you know the story of Shrek, The Musical (at Children’s Theatre Company, through June 15): Shrek, an ogre, rescues Princess Fiona from the nasty dragon, falls for her,…
Three Penny Opera by Frank Theatre, performing at the Southern
Three Penny Opera (Frank Theatre, performing at the Southern, through May 4) was written in 1928 by playwright Bertolt Brecht with music by composer Kurt Weill. I point this out because the program for the Frank production makes no mention…
Once by Hennepin Theatre Trust, at the Orpheum Theatre
Compare the focused intimacy of Once (at the Orpheum, through April 6) with the over-the-top, big-bang-for-your-buck musicals recently produced in the same venue. Phantom Of The Opera, Evita, The Book Of Mormon, et al. Once contains no gee-whiz, that-musta-costa-fortune scenic…
The Mountaintop by Penumbra Theatre performing at the Guthrie
We see it when we walk into the McGuire: the Lorraine Motel sign, visible through the window of Room 306, stark against the black Memphis sky, crashes of lightning bringing it into high relief. The Lorraine. Where Martin Luther King…
The Odyssey by Walking Shadow Theatre Company, performing at Open Eye Figure Theatre
The rosy red fingers of dawn steal over the wine dark Aegean Sea. The rising (and eternal) Grecian sun shines down on wandering Odysseus, as he leads his battered fleet home from Troy. Odysseus! He of the unflagging spirit, unending…