Mormonism offers a broad-side-of-the-barn target for satirists. Just a few historical details (I can’t help myself): in the 1830s Joseph Smith dug up (on a hill in upstate NY) a set of golden plates etched with writing (“reformed Egyptian”). Using…
Category: Reviews
Reefer Madness produced by Minneapolis Musical Theatre
Hennepin Theatre Trust and Minneapolis Musical Theatre (MMT) have teamed up to present a new musical inspired by the 1936 film, Reefer Madness, which dramatizes (like the movie)  the downward spiral of clean-cut kids lured into using the “evil weed, 
Circle Mirror Transformation at Yellow Tree Theatre
Fiction writers (and playwrights) are taught to construct a story that has a protagonist who wants something, is dissuaded by forces around her and ultimately either succeeds at getting what she wants or does not. In this case, the “want 
Venus In Fur at the Jungle Theater
It’s a dark and stormy night. Working in a rented and calculatedly funky New York City rehearsal studio, director slash playwright slash occasional actor Thomas is ending a long day of auditions for his adaptation of the obscure German novel…
The Tiger Among Us by Mu Performing Arts at Mixed Blood Theatre
Lauren Yee‘s The Tiger Among Us (Mu Performing Arts performing at Mixed Blood Theatre, through Feb 10) sprawls. Literally: director Ellen Fenster utilizes Mixed Blood’s widest configuration and in her firm hands the play ranges from Dad’s extreme stage right…
Long Day’s Journey Into Night at the Guthrie Theater
It’s January. Your impulse is to curl up under a throw blanket on the couch and disappear into a good book, right? Or a fine, classic movie? The Guthrie Theater’s new production of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night 
Pinocchio by the Children’s Theatre Company
Good Lord, what are they going to do on two show days? Pinocchio (at the Childrens Theatre Company, through Feb 24) is the clutch-poppingest, lustiest, take-it-to-10-and-let-her-rippest, most insanely creative show to come down ye olde pike in a long long…
As You Like It, by The Acting Company performing in the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio
Do we count William Shakespeare‘s pastoral romance As You Like It (the Acting Company, performing in the Guthrie‘s Dowling Studio, through Feb 3) among the bard’s weaker efforts? A mere pot-boiler, a crowd-pleaser? Lovers and court sophisticates retreating to the…
Aida by Theater Latté Da, performing at the Pantages Theatre
First the good: Aida (Theater Latté Da performing at the marvelous Pantages, through Jan 27) is a rippingly good show. If you like full-bore, rock-’em-sock-’em musicals, Latté Da delivers the goods. Anchored by a stirring Elton John/Tim Rice score (those…
La Natividad, a co-production of In The Heart Of The Beast Puppet And Mask Theatre and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
If you want to glean a sense of the transformative power of masks watch as Maria dons the Virgin Mary mask in La Natividad (a co-production of In The Heart Of The Beast Puppet And Mask Theatre and St. Paul’s…