On a dark set, only minimally embellished with Art Deco flair, men in tuxes and tails, and women in slinky gowns with trains sip from martini glasses while a jolly entertainer croons a jazz standard. So begins our experience as…
Category: Reviews
Embers at the Guthrie Theater’s Dowling Studio
The Guthrie Theater has opened the third in its series of plays by Christopher Hampton: the American premier of Embers, based on the novel by Sándor Márai as translated by Carol Brown Janeway and directed by Joe Dowling. Beautiful, sad…
Billy Elliot The Musical at the Ordway
Billy Elliot The Musical (at the Ordway through Oct 14) is an example of how plays, like photographs, can lose clarity and intensity the farther from the original they stray. This Billy is a remount of a remount of a…
Next To Normal at Mixed Blood Theatre
Music theater purists may not find Next To Normal (Mixed Blood Theatre, through Nov 11) to their liking. Production values are not high, the clunky bass drum stage at MBT does not lend itself to musicals and the sound system…
Appomattox at the Guthrie Theater
The Civil War. A crucible struggle. An informed citizen must study the war and understand that it wasn’t the Good Guys vs. the Bad Guys, a war fought simply to end the vicious institution of slavery. The questions raised –…
“Measure for Measure” by Ten Thousand Things Theater Company at Open Book
Ten Thousand Things Theater Company (TTT) has just opened a wonderfully tantalizing offering that is likely to invite discussion—once again—about Shakespeare’s “problem play,†his dark comedy, Measure for Measure. The plot turns on sinister questions. After learning that he jilted…
The Cat In The Hat at the Children’s Theatre Company
The Cat In The Hat (on the Children’s Theatre Co.‘s Cargill Stage, through December 2) is a remount, helmed by the estimable Jason Ballweber, of a production that originated in the U.K., at the National Theatre. CTC utilizes the National’s…
The 2012 Ivey Awards
The 2012 Ivey Awards celebration did it up right again last night with sparkly gowns, tearful winners and lively entertainment. This year the Iveys chose to feature the work of theater sound and lighting professionals, and any self-respecting theater…
Tales from Hollywood at the Guthrie Theater
The Guthrie Theater’s 50th season begins with “A Celebration of Christopher Hampton†and Hampton’s play, Tales from Hollywood, a canny “what if†that follows the fortunes of  writers forced out of Europe prior to WW II by the Nazi’s mounting violence and…
Red at Park Square Theatre
John Logan‘s Red (at Park Square Theatre, through Oct 7) suffers from a problem often afflicting two character plays: sameness. Indeed, in Red, the same basic scene gets played and replayed. Mark Rothko paces his NYC atelier, contemplating the large…