Jane Froiland is in The Realistic Joneses (Park Square Theatre, through October 16). As always, she delights. She projects catchy breeziness, with a goofy smile and an energetic friendliness. All underlaid with real pain, loneliness and a shaky bitterness which…
Category: Theater
Barbecue at Mixed Blood Theatre
Robert O’Hara‘s clutch-popping Barbecue (Mixed Blood Theater, through October 16) is gimmicky. Nothing in the play is what it seems to be, character motivations change with breathtaking quickness, abrupt discoveries are made about characters really are and it would be…
The Last Firefly at the Children’s Theatre Co.
To be present at the opening night performance of a play’s world premiere on a major Twin Cities stage is like experiencing the world through the eyes of a child, everything is new. So it was for a nearly sold…
Ragtime by Theater Latté Da
David: It is easy to see why Theater Latté Da chose this moment to mount their own production of Ragtime (running through October 23rd at their newly acquired Ritz Theater home). In times of civil unrest and political uncertainty, its themes…
The 2016 Ivey Awards
This year, I told my significant other and regular theater companion (Tim) to write up what he wanted to say about the Iveys. He loves going to the Twin Cities theater community’s big event, and as a performer, has a…
Sense And Sensibility at the Guthrie Theater
Jane Austen’s first novel Sense and Sensibility is, by any standard, a literary triumph. It launched her career and established her as a strong storyteller and social satirist in a male-dominated sphere. To this day, this work resonates with widespread…
Home Sweet Home at the Guthrie Theater
Why do some plays falter by being too preachy and earnest while others with similar loads of heartfelt information and a clear agenda take flight? Home Street Home, currently in a short run at in the Guthrie Theatre complex, is…
Elephant & Piggie’s We Are In A Play! at the Children’s Theatre Co.
Elephant & Piggie’s We Are In A Play! (at Childrens Theatre Co., though October 23) is for the youngest children. Keep this is mind when you confront the relentless shallowness, the repetition, the wimpy characterizations, the pointless energy, the predictability,…
The Liar at Park Square Theatre
Productions of classic comedies can many times feel outmoded. Characters have romantic and societal motivations foreign to modern times and, well, people also tend to talk oddly, especially when dialogue is delivered in verse. None of this is overlooked by…
The Children at Pillsbury House Theater
Michael Elaynow’s The Children at Pillsbury House Theatre (through Oct 16), a retelling of Euripides’ Medea, is set in modern times with time travel elements enabling ancient Corinthians and Americans to inhabit the stage together. If you go, be sure to arrive…