In Flesh And The Desert (Workhaus Collective performing at the Playwrights Center, through Jan 28), playwright Carson Kreitzer doesn’t concern herself with the air-conditioned glitter of contemporary Las Vegas – the Bellagio, the Venetian, pot-bellied cowboys meandering through the neo-fascist…
Author: John Olive
Julius Caesar, a co-production between the Guthrie and the Acting Company
Julius Caesar, asserts the officious and buttoned down Brutus in his oration at Caesar’s funeral, “was ambitious, [and so] I slew him.” But isn’t ambition the assassins’ over-riding motivation? They pay poor lip service to serving “great Rome,” but “lean…
The Lion King at the Orpheum Theatre
“I don’t do children’s theater,” director Julie Taymor informed the powers-that-be at the vaunted Disney Corporation “and I don’t do cute.” To their immense credit, they hired her anyway. The inventive Ms. Taymor then proceeded to transform the animated Disney…
Charley’s Aunt at the Guthrie Theater
First the good news: the design of Charley’s Aunt (at the Guthrie through Jan 15) is exquisite. The Guthrie’s tech department, the best in the country, really outdid themselves (between this play and the richly produced A Christmas Carol they…
The Santaland Diaries at Frank Theatre
Go to the Ordway and experience the “timeless enchantment” of Cinderella ($113 per ticket). Or try the Guthrie’s A Christmas Carol, after 35 years still “as powerful and uplifting as it ever was” ($73). Or maybe CTC’s “beloved” The Wizard…
A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theater
“A turkey?!” sputters the Cranky Critic, sufferer from permanent indigestion and squinty short-sightedness. “There were no turkeys in 1840 England. Ha. This is nothing more than an excuse for the Guthrie prop department to manufacture an oversized bird, stick it…
The Wizard Of Oz at the Childrens Theatre Company
CTC’s The Wizard Of Oz (Childrens Theatre Company, through Jan. 8, 2012) imitates the 1939 MGM classic beat-by-beat: the structure is identical, the character conceits, the exquisite Arlen/Harburg songs. Much of the play’s dialogue comes directly from the movie. …
Ajax In Iraq at Frank Theatre
Would, I wondered, Ellen McLaughlin‘s effective Ajax In Iraq (Frank Theatre, performing at the Playwrights Center, through Nov 27) work in 2011? The U.S. involvement in that country is winding down, measured now in days. For Iraqis, of course, the…
The Edge Of Our Bodies at the Guthrie
As the audience enters the theater for the performance of Adam Rapp‘s taut The Edge Of Our Bodies (in the Guthrie‘s Dowling Studio, through Nov 20), actor Ali Rose Dachis sits, prim and unmoving, on the edge of a chair. …
Four Destinies by Mu Performing Arts at Mixed Blood
Playwright Katie Hae Leo presents us with a pleasantly breezy and vivacious narrator in her lovely Four Destinies (Mu Performing Arts at Mixed Blood Theatre, through Oct 30). The narrator is named Katie Leo. This Katie is a playwright and…