Since taking the helm, Guthrie artistic director Joseph Haj has pushed the venerable theater into greater diversity, both in tone and in representation. With The Legend of Georgia McBride, the theater ventures into new territory on both fronts with a…
Review | Legally Blonde: zippy and zesty, if a touch contrived
Snappy. Snazzy. Fizzy and frothy. Abrim with pizzazz and pure musical intensity. Real good. All these adjectives (and then some) apply to Artistry Theater‘s amazing production of Legally Blonde (in Artistry’s comfortable Schneiderman Theatre, through August 19). The plot of…
Review | Hand To God: brilliant puppetry
By far the most interesting character in Robert Askins‘s hootful Hand To God (the Jungle Theater, though Aug 19) is a puppet, Tyrone. Seriously. Tyrone goes from a meek rendition of “Jesus Loves Me” to laugh-out-loud potty-mouth, to owning a…
Review | Carmen : steamy summer entertainment
The summer opera staged each year in the Mill City Museum courtyard by Mill City Summer Opera company has become one of the premier outdoor events in the Twin Cities often playing to sold out audiences. On preview night, the…
Review | West Side Story: a lovely production of a true American classic
West Side Story (at the Guthrie, through Aug 26) was first produced on Broadway in 1957 and since then it has emphatically entered the international canon, averaging 5,000 productions per year. No other play has this kind of presence. Shakespeare?…
Interview With Janet Preus: author of Welcome To Hell
Editor’s Note: Janet Preus’s wonderful Welcome To Hell recently closed at Open Eye Figure Theater. Because it had a very short run (a single weekend) and because Preus is a longtime reviewer at www.HowWasTheShow.com, we chose not to fully review…
Review | Equivocation: Jacobean swells having fun
Since 2004, Walking Shadow Theatre Company has been the area’s premier provider of historical drama: Hatchet Lady, Carrie Nation, Angel Of Destruction (19th century U.S.); Marie Antoinette (18th century France); Gross Indecency, The Three Trials Of Oscar Wilde (19th century…
Review | Underneath The Lintel: a hoot
Underneath The Lintel (Theater Latte Da, at the Ritz Theatre) is, to say the least, an unexciting title, but Glen Berger‘s rollicking and rip-roaring play is the bomb. In it, a “librarian” (she has no other name) finds a book returned…
Review | dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/The Show: promising
Editor’s Note: due to an injury to a cast member, Pillsbury House Theater decided to mount a “reader’s theater” version of the play. I.e., script-in-hand. This is the version being reviewed by Mari Wittenbreer, below. HWTS will use its best…
Review | Lady Day At The Emerson Bar And Grill: gritty and translucent
Lady Day at the Emerson Bar and Grill is a day-in-the-life story of singer Billie Holiday, a.k.a. Lady Day. It is more accurate to say the play is a night-in-the-life story of this popular and singularly talented, jazz singer as…
Review | Taking Shakespeare: an overly slight take on the Bard
For those with mentors willing to invest in them, it can prove invaluable and leave a lifelong impact. In the best of these relationships, inevitably both mentor and mentee are left as stronger, better people. John Murrell‘s Taking Shakespeare, at…
Review | An Enemy of the People: a searing, must-see political thriller
Copper pipes, venture capital, scientific ethics. Who knew combining these elements could make for stimulating, prescient drama? Brad Birch’s new adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen classic, An Enemy of the People, running through June 3 at the Guthrie, uses these…