Category: Reviews

Review | Dear Evan Hansen: a musical for today

“Dear Evan Hansen” has arrived in Minneapolis and it’s a hot ticket; the Orpheum Theatre was packed for opening night. Winner of multiple 2017 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score, the show astonishing technical flash with a moving…

Review | Blood Knot: apartheid redux

What a difference a production can make. I saw Blood Knot by Athol Fugard some time ago at an out of state venue and was not impressed. The play seemed to have little depth past the rather obvious conceit of…

Review | Small Mouth Sounds: meditative comedy

Six characters in search of an authorial presence. Bess Wohl‘s amusing Small Mouth Sounds (at the Jungle, through June 16) suffers from this. The primary problem with the play – essentially a portrait of six people at a wilderness (apparently;…

Review | The Brothers Paranormal: possessed by dispossession

Billed as a ghost story The Brothers Paranormal begins lightly, with humor and a comic set-up. But scene by scene the play becomes more serious as playwright Prince Golmolvilas draws parallel worlds of reality. Max, a Thai-American, and his brother own…

Review | Marjorie Prime: evocative and poignant

What does it meant to be human? Is it the small changes in our DNA that separate us from our close animal kingdom relatives? Or is it the experiences, memories and moments we accumulate day by day, everything from the…

Review | Cyrano de Bergerac: swashbuckling romance

The Guthrie‘s program for Edmond Rostand‘s ageless Cyrano de Bergerac lists, in a first for this reviewer, a credit for “Intimacy Consultant” (Lauren Keating). Oh boy, says I to myself. Intimacy. Tantalizing, erotic, pervading the play. Giving the play a…

Review | Roe: wows in all the right ways

  Mixed Blood Theatre‘s production of Roe could not come at a timelier moment in our country’s history as the landmark Supreme Court ruling continues to face fierce opposition today. However, Roe, written by Lisa Loomer, doesn’t spend too much…