Kevin's Minnesota Theatre Adventures- AX OF MURDER, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and ANASTASIA

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 9/7/22 at 6:59pm

I don't have the resources to travel to New York, but thankfully there's a strong theatre tradition in Minnesota, so I thought I might make a thread detailing the shows I'm seeing/plan to see this season - mostly focusing on the pro stuff I see when I visit the Twin Cities but what the hell I might talk about the community theatre shows I see or are involved with as well.


September 

• Chanhassan Dinner Theatre: Footloose

October

• Community theatre: The Crucible / Brighton Beach Memoirs / The Haunting of Hill House
• Park Square Theatre: Fire in the New World by R.A. Shiomi
• The Guthrie Theatre: Sally & Tom by Suzan-Lori Parks:
• The Ordway: Six (possibly)

December

• The Guthrie Theatre: A Christmas Carol (possibly)

February

• The Ordway: A Soldier's Play

March

April

• Community Theatre: Sweet Charity, Collected Stories
• The Guthrie Theatre: Hamlet

June

• Community Theatre: God of Carnage
• Chanhassen Dinner Theatre: Jersey Boys
• The Guthrie Theatre: Murder on the Orient Express
• The Guthrie Theatre: Into the Woods
• Broadway on Hennepin: Tootsie

July

• Community Theatre: The Music Man, Shrek: the Musical

August:

• Community Theatre: The Sound of Music

I'll update this thread as my schedule changes.

Updated On: 12/7/24 at 06:59 PM

[inception]

Posted: 9/7/22 at 10:31pm

I have watched through the complete Mary Tyler Moore Show multiple times, which is set in Minneapolis ( though of course actually filmed on a sound stage in Los Angeles) but I never knew until this moment where exactly Minneapolis is located.  I always imagined it was much closer to New York since Rhoda moved there from New York.  Now I understand even more why it was such a big deal when when her mother came to visit on the Greyhound.   It is literally is in the middle of butt f nowhere.

Google says it is about a 6.5 hour drive to Chicago.  I liked Chicago when I visited in 2019.   I hope you can at least afford to get there sometime this coming year. 

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 10/31/22 at 4:56pm

First update now that I've seen a few. A positive COVID test put the kibosh on my plans to see Footloose, but hopefully I can redeem my tickets for a later performance.

Community Theatre

This stuff can be hard to judge, as I can't pretend to be objective.  Community theatre is a small world and community theatre in rural Minnesota is even smaller, and I know some of the people involved in these shows.  The Haunting of Hill House was produced by my own community theatre, and I think the show turned out well.  Our group typically has good set design for our plays, and setting the show in a small performing space helped build intimacy and claustrophobia.  The cast was good - the actress playing Eleanor sometimes stumbled in the early scenes, but once the scares started to build and the house exerted its influence she brought some really effective creepy notes.  The actor playing Luke had never been on stage before, and made an excellent debut here, and the actress playing Dr. Montague's wife was full of energy and humor that the show needed precisely when her character arrived. Brighton Beach Memoirs was a very good show, with a rock-solid cast and a very well designed double-leveled set.  The inspired choice to cast an 18-year-old girl as Eugene was far from a gimmick - the hair, makeup, and costuming, along with her charismatic performance turned her into a wholly believable and funny 15-year-old boy. She also showed great sibling chemistry with the actor playing Eugene's brother. The whole cast was excellent, with nobody overshadowing anyone else. The Crucible was the show I had the least personal connections to among the people involved, so I can be a little more objective. This was my first time seeing it performed live, having previously read the play in high school and seen the Rebecca Miller movie.  One thing that struck me was how seeing it live allowed humor to come through - I didn't expect to be laughing to much at a production of The Crucible, but that didn't mean the drama didn't come through.  The set has scaffolds surrounding the actors at all times, giving a strong sense of foreboding.  Some of the actors in smaller roles seemed too contemporary, but the cast as a whole was very effective, with a strong John Proctor and show-stealing performances from the actors playing Reverend Hale & Abigail.

PROFESSIONAL THEATRE

SIX - seeing this live after listening to the cast recording many times was a total delight, with wonderful choreography, costumes, and lighting.  The music is undeniable at this point, with some lyrics that are so clever you wonder why they haven't been used before.  The closest thing to a complaint that I have is in the between number banter Anne always needing to get a word in edgewise bordered on too much.  It's in line with the character to be sure, but with a less likeable actress it could well end up being annoying.

SALLY & TOM - Suzan-Lori Parks' new play is a comedy-drama about a small theatre group known for putting on "loud, angry political plays nobody comes to" who attempt to do something a bit more mainstream in a play about the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and the enslaved Sally Hemmings. Luce (Kristen Ariza, excellent) is the playwright and is also playing Sally.  Mike (Luke Robertson, also very good) is the director and is playing Tom; he's also Luce's boyfriend.  Kwame (Amari Cheatom), Luce's ex and an actor who has gained a fanbase from his TV appearances, plays Sally's brother and spends several scenes in the play sparring with Luce about whether or not a speech he makes is too on-the-nose or unrealistic for the setting ("It's good, but does it fit?" is a recurring line of dialogue), with Sun Mee Chomet, Gillian Glasco, Kadeem Ali Harris, Kate Nowlin, and Daniel Petzold in supporting roles.  The show alternates between watching the group rehearse different scenes in the leadup to opening night and exploring the behind-the-scenes drama they get into.  This is stuff we've seen in other plays of this nature: money trouble, romantic foibles, artistic headbutting, etc. but the cast is so compelling and likeable that I was engaged all the way through.  One issue I have is we don't get a good sense of what the play-within-a-play is as a whole.  The scenes we see getting rehearsed show a dramatic throughline, but there are also things the actors talk about that aren't as apparent in them, such as the implication that Sally is using her relationship with Tom mostly to manipulate him.  Hearing the discussions about what does or does not work dramatically in a play of this nature really makes me rethink others that I have seen (such as Sidney Kingsley's The Patriots) and when it all comes together in the end in a monologue delivered by Luce as Sally, it's a very powerful moment.  Is this play Broadway-bound?  I'm 1000% not the person to ask.  There are elements that could use some fine-tuning (the repeated discussion about whether Kwame's monologue works makes some of the other extended speeches feel very long) but overall I can see this show making a splash in other cities, and if it does go to Broadway, I'd like to see as many of the actors in this original cast follow.

FIRE IN THE NEW WORLD - the third in R.A. Shiomi's trilogy of comic noir stories following Japanese-Canadian private eye Sam Shikaze (Gregory Yang) will be a good time for fans of the genre like myself.  Invoking classic noirs such as The Maltese Falcon as well as revisionist noirs like Chinatown, we get a mystery involving missing persons, arson, corruption, racism, all the hits.  The performances are deliberately mannered to fit the melodrama of the genre and that takes some getting used to, but once you get into it the comedy and drama are all delivered consistently.  Anna Hashizume, playing the woman who may or may not be a Femme Fatale, is a show-stealer, as are Brian Joyce as Sam's partner and Alice McGlave as the diner owner who knows Sam better than just about anybody else.  Joe Allen as a real estate developer trying to buy up Vancouver's Japantown plays it a little broad, as does Keivin Yang as a former associate of Sam's who joined the police force, and fans of the genre are probably going to be able to see where everything's leading before some of the characters do, but noirs are as much about mood and character as they are narrative, and this has mood and character in spades.  I have no hesitance in recommending it.

Updated On: 10/31/22 at 04:56 PM

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 2/6/23 at 11:07am

The Hennepin Theatre Trust is teasing their 2023-2024 Broadway on Hennepin season ahead of the reveal on Thursday. I'll be heading their way to see the tour of A Soldier's Play on Wednesday.

 

[Mike Barrett]

Posted: 2/6/23 at 2:58pm

I think the “Z” is the Wiz for sure. The arrows pointed at a target is Clue, and the tea is Mrs Doubtfire. The dough and fire confuse me though. 

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 2/6/23 at 3:30pm

Mike Barrett said: "I think the “Z” is the Wiz for sure. The arrows pointed at a target is Clue, and the tea is Mrs Doubtfire. The dough and fire confuse me though."

I'm pretty sure this is just the clue for one of the shows so

"miss" "Z"

"Dough" "T" "Fire"

[inception]

Posted: 2/9/23 at 6:48am

Saw this article posted on Reddit about a theatre group of seniors in St. Paul doing Rent.  Unfortunately it ends this weekend. 

https://m.startribune.com/older-actors-give-fresh-deeper-meaning-to-rent-in-st-paul-production/600249681/?clmob=y&c=n&clmob=y&c=n

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 2/9/23 at 8:22am

Please let us know what you think of A Soldier’s Play! I was hoping to make a quick trip home to see it (big Norm Lewis fan) but won’t make it in time. Minnesota arts and theater are the two things I miss the most. 

[steve.sometime]

Posted: 2/9/23 at 8:59am

Theatre Elision is doing Carmel Dean's Well-Behaved Women this month. I really enjoyed her last musical Renascence. If you're interested in up-and-coming musical composers, give this one a chance :)

Updated On: 2/9/23 at 08:59 AM

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 2/9/23 at 1:24pm

A Soldier's Play was a tightly constructed mystery with message about systemic hatred and racism that remains all too relevant even decades after the play was originally written.

Norm Lewis and Eugene Lee were terrific, and the younger actors playing the other soldiers were also great. There wasn't a weak link in the cast.

The talkback after the show with the incredible cast talking about their relationship to the material and why it remained powerful was almost as fascinating as the play itself.

 

In my own community theatre adventures, I just wrapped a production of 9 to 5 and went straight into rehearsals for Chicago ​​​​​. My theatre is also having a One Act Play contest on Saturday.

Unfortunately, due to my busy schedule (among other things) I'm not able to get to the Twin Cities to see shows more than once every month or so. I've seen stories about the senior-led production of Rent which sounds fascinating (though I am admittedly unfamiliar with the show beyond its reputation) and Well-Behaved Woman also sounds cool. There's also a production of Hello, Dolly! at Theatre Latté Da that's supposed to be pretty terrific, but I'm not sure if I'm able to see any of them at the moment.

On a final note, as I was typing this, the Hennepin Theatre Trust announced their 2023-2024 Broadway on Hennepin Season:

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 2/9/23 at 1:57pm

Terrific season for HTT, with Aladdin and Mamma Mia as add-ons.

I’ve heard the Hello Dolly! production is great, which isn’t surprising - Latte Da is such a solid company and Reed Sigmund is one of my favorite performers in the Twin Cities. 

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 3/8/23 at 7:05pm

Unfortunately, looks like my March is going to be a bit of a bust theatre-wise. I had to give away my ticket to My Fair Lady because it conflicts with my final rehearsals of the production of Chicago I'm involved in. Other work and rehearsal-related conflicts mean I haven't been able to get to the Twin Cities to see any of the other shows, either. I might be able to see a production of The Outgoing Tide by a local theatre group on Saturday.

OTOH the Guthrie Announced their 2023-2024 season today, and it looks pretty impressive. Definitely going to make time to see their Henriad next year.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 4/10/23 at 1:51pm

As I mentioned in my last update, my focus on my community theatre production of Chicago meant I didn't have any chance to see other theatre in March, although Chicago itself went very well. We found some great new talent for our cast who I hope will continue to be part of our shows in the years to come.

One unfortunate update is that due to lack of sales as well as lingering COVID-related reasons, the second half of the Park Square Theatre's 2022-2023 season was cancelled, so their productions of BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY, ANN, and HOLMES/POIROT won't be moving forward, which really sucks because Holmes/Poirot in particular was one I was really looking forward to.

In other news, the Broadway at the Ordway 2023-2024 Season was announced, and to be honest it looks a little underwhelming. Come From Away is definitely going to be one I try to see - I'll have to see if I can find time to see that and Girl From the North Country when both shows are in the Twin Cities this October.

This weekend I'll be seeing a local-ish community theatre production of Sweet Charity and then I'll drive down to Minneapolis to see Hamlet at the Guthrie, so I'll report back after that. I'm also thinking of finding other shows in the area to see during the weekend, if nothing else than to scout out potential material for my community theatre.  The last pre-cancellation Park Square show The Revolutionists has a performance the day after Hamlet, so I could see that. That same day a children's theatre has a production of Eric Coble's adaptation of The Giver ​​​​​, which is a show that's been on my radar as something to possibly direct. Unfortunately, the University of Northwestern-St Paul's production of The Hobbit is completely sold out, so I can't see that (it probably would have been my first choice had I had the option).

I don't have any shows of my own happening right now - after doing 9 to 5 and Chicago back-to-back I'm anticipating having a bit of a break - but there are going to be auditions for Kinky Boots next month, so maybe if I'm feeling bored or stir-crazy I'll audition for that.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 4/15/23 at 5:39pm

On Thursday I saw a production of Sweet Charity at a local community theatre. This was one I went into completely cold - I wasn't familiar with the show nor had I seen the Fellini movie that inspired it - and I had a good time. The cast had some of the expected opening night jitters and at times the choreography seemed to be lagging in energy a bit, but the actress playing Charity really carried the show. She previously played Roz in the production of 9 to 5 that I was part of, and it was fun to see her in a very different sort of role. The enthusiasm and vivaciousness in her performance reminded me a bit of Mary Tyler Moore. The actor playing Oscar was just as good, hilarious from the first time we see him, and the two of them had great chemistry. The set was also really interesting, with stylized boxes in greens and yellows. The stumbles I noticed in the first act weren't present in the second, and it was great to see the cast fall into a rhythm as the show progressed.

The new production of Hamlet at the Guthrie is rock-solid. Michael Braugher plays the titular role, and while during the soliloquies he sometimes seems to be emphasizing the important words too much, when he's sparring with the other actors his performance is brilliant. Ray Cooley as Polonius, through, just about steals the show from under him, getting huge laughs with almost every line (the audience in general was eating the show up, which was cool to see). John Catron plays Claudius as a consummate phony - an empty suit politician who gets respect because of his title but not much else. That doesn't give him as intimidating a presence as some of the other Claudii I've seen, but it's a fun choice. Anya Whelan-Smith as Ophelia makes the smart choice to underplay rather than overplay the character's madness, and director Joseph Haj adds a new element to her character that's not in the text but makes a big impact. Regina Marie Williams as Gertrude skillfully navigates the tricky task of finding both the sexual and pragmatic elements of her character's marriage to Claudius, but I fear she may have suffered a bit from the cuts made to bring the show to about 140 minutes (not counting intermission). Director Haj makes some very dramatic choices, from lighting and shadow effects that incorporate the whole of the thrust stage (the set design is excellent) as well as the use of stylized projections for the play-within-a-play. I also admire the chutzpah of making To Be or Not to Be the final scene before intermission, pretty much ensuring it's what people will be talking about, and Braugher nails it, making the speech feel like a true turning point for the character.

Also, I was able to see a screening of the documentary The Hamlet Syndrome ​​​​​​, which is currently playing as part of the Minneapolis Saint Paul International Film Festival. This movie follows a small group of Ukrainian actors who had fought in the 2014 war as they take part in a theatrical production where they try to use the character of Hamlet as a way of coping with their respective traumas. This movie was shot mere months before Russia invaded, and the ending title card says that three of the actors featured are currently fighting as active duty members of the Ukrainian military. This is powerful material about theatre as therapy, and while we don't learn a lot about the specifics of the production itself (most of what we see seems to consist of the sort of exercises you do during rehearsals or acting classes) seeing these men and women talk about the atrocities they witnessed is heartbreaking, especially since we know it never really ended and eventually got worse. There are also welcome moments of levity, although even some of them have a melancholy element to them. Well shot and smartly constructed, I'd definitely recommend you find a way to see this movie.

Updated On: 4/15/23 at 05:39 PM

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 6/8/23 at 3:08am

After a relatively sparse April and May in terms of theatre, I'm getting back into the swing of things during the Summer.

One additional show I saw in May was a community theatre production of Donald Margulies' Collected Stories, the sort of show that can only really work on stage.  Navigating the delicate tonal balances of comedy & drama and following the whole arcs of these two characters over years and years, with a conclusion that still feels "right" even though it's on some level unsatisfying... it's really what the medium was made for.  Between Margulies' script and the performances, these characters seem wholly constructed right from the beginning, and yet we still see additional layers as each scene progresses. The set was also very well done, with meticulous set decoration and subtle but necessary lighting effects.

Earlier today I saw a production of God of Carnage, the second time I've seen the show live (the other time being in college), and I had a blast.  It took me a bit to get into the rhythm of the performances, but once I was sucked in I found myself laughing constantly, even though I remembered a lot of the beats from before.  I knew several of the actors involved from previous productions (either as a castmate or audience member, or both) and it was fun to see them explore new dimensions of their talent (the actress playing Annette, who had previously been sugar-sweet as Doralee in 9 to 5, brought the house down here with her delivery of "I wipe my *** with your human rights!"

I'm currently rehearsing a production of Kinky Boots, and while at the moment we're focusing on the music more so than the blocking or dialogue, I'm still very excited for the show moving forward. Cyndi Lauper's songs are almost all bangers, and while the songs aren't quite as complex as, say, Dolly's from 9 to 5, they're still catchy, with a rock and roll drive that especially work with the characters.

There's a lot of theatre happening this summer, community or otherwise.  Other community theatres around the area are putting on shows like Shrek: the Musical, The Music Man, and The Sound of Music (I'm hoping to find time to see all three) and later in June I have tickets to see four different shows in the Twin Cities, Jersey Boys at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre, Tootsie when the tour comes through Minneapolis, and Murder on the Orient Express and Into the Woods, both at the Guthrie.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 11:59pm

Had a big theatre weekend.

Jersey Boys at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre was a really good show.  Although I had some familiarity with the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, my only previous exposure to this show was through the Clint Eastwood movie, which forced the story into a more conventional biopic structure.  As the story doesn't have a whole lot in terms of incident, your interest has to be carried by the characters and the music.  I enjoyed how some of the big hits were built up to and revealed almost as if they were plot twists, but there also moments when we just get song after song. to the point where I was almost wondering "okay, then what?" (obviously that's more an issue with the book).  Thankfully, the cast assembled is more than up to making you care about the characters.  Will Dusek as Valli doesn't play him as brimming with charisma from the start - when he says "I'm going to be as big as Sinatra!" it comes across less like self-confidence than as a nervous kid trying to prove something to himself - but Dusek allows the character to grow into a more confident and rounded character until his is controlling the stage with ease during his own section of the story - you truly feel like you've seen the whole arc of a man's life watching his performance here.  David Darrow as Tommy DeVito captures the highs and lows of his character with ease, while Sam Stoll was a true standout as Bob Gaudio, and Shad Hanley as Nick Massi perfectly captures the sort of guy who is always listening but never really heard.  The supporting cast were also excellent, especially a hilarious Tony Vierling as Joe Pesci, while the lighting and stage design dazzled.

Murder on the Orient Express - Whodunits are having a moment lately, and the Guthrie Theater is getting in on the action with their production of Ken Ludwig's recent stage adaptation of Agatha Christie's classic Hercule Poirot novel.  What strikes one about this adaptation was the amount of humor added to the story, although as Ludwig has written a number of comedic whodunits in the past that might have been expected.  It works, because Ludwig seems to understand the natural comedy that would come through a cast of colorful archetypical characters.  But more so than the script what strikes the audience about this show was the production itself.  Director Risa Brainin and scenic designer Rob Koharchik have created an astounding world for this story, with the luxury train represented through moving sets, projections, and skillfully blocked movements from the actors.  It truly has to be seen to be believed.  As Poirot, Andrew May captures the character's arrogance as well as intelligence, and gets some big laughs when he allows the frustration Poirot is feeling to burst through.  All of the cast members were excellent - there wasn't a weak link in the bunch.  Katie Bradley as the Countess was particularly impressive, Sally Wingert as Helen Hubbard was delightfully bitchy, and Peter Christian Hansen pulls off a double role of Ratchett and Arbuthnot so skillfully I honestly couldn't tell it was the same person before checking the cast list.  There was an understudy in the role of Princess Dragomiroff in the performance I saw, but she was more than up to the task and gave a performance as excellent as any of the main actors.  Story-wise, if you're familiar with the novel or previous adaptations there isn't much in the way of surprises here, if you're looking for an entertaining, funny, and satisfying whodunit with, as the people behind me put it, "just the right amount of cheese", I'd have no hesitation recommending this show.

Into the Woods - Now simply as a text this is one of the most perfect pieces of theatre ever written, so if you have even the barest amount of competence you're likely going to be putting on a good show.  The Guthrie Theatre, naturally, has much, much more than that in their talent pool so what we get here is a truly magical piece of musical theatre.  Director Sarna Lapine (niece of book writer James Lapine) uses the whole of the Thrust stage, allowing her cast to go in and out from various entrances and exits and filing the playing area with stage business - there are almost always multiple things happening at the same time, but never in a distracting way, which makes the more still moments stand out all the more.  As for the cast - perfection!  Robert Knight and Madeline Trumble have fantastic chemistry as the Baker and Baker's wife, Lisa Howard as the Witch makes you feel the character's rage as well as her sadness as well as anyone who has played the part, and Regina Marie Williams (who I had just seen a few months before on this very stage as Gertrude in Joseph Haj's Hamlet) bring much more personality to the Narrator than I expected, as well as doubling as The Mysterious Man quite effectively.  This also seems to be the season for show-stealing Milky Whites, with John Yi (who also doubles as Cinderella's Prince) giving a hilarious silent performance.  How Milky White moves is not something I want to spoil, but it's absolutely not what I expected.  Into the Woods is one of those shows that it's just about impossible to tire of, and this production brought me to tears on multiple occasions.

Tootsie - Honestly, this was the show I was least excited for.  I recalled hearing people talk about this show when it was on Broadway as if it were a showcase solely for the lead actor with little in the way of memorable songs or staging, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had watching the tour - I was laughing constantly throughout the show.  Of course, there's nothing Broadway folk like better than mocking themselves, so there's a lot of fun to be had in seeing the parodies of showbiz here. Drew Becker as Michael/Dorothy was good, but to me the show came to life through the supporting roles.  Jared David Michael Gran was absolutely hilarious as Jeff, as was Payton Reilly as Sandy.  They were so good that I began to miss them when the plot began to move to Broadway for an extended portion of the first act.  There's a lot of good stuff in the showbiz parody, don't get me wrong - Ashley Alexandra radiates sweetness as Julie, and Matthew Rella as Max is a spectacular idiot.  The audience was eating it up as well, especially in the second half when the comedy kicks into farcical high gear.  There were multiple scenes where the audience kept laughing and laughing simply at characters waiting for each other to react to what had just happened.  I will admit the score isn't as distinctive or memorable as something like The Band's Visit, but there are some really good songs, such as the repeated What's Gonna Happen, The Most Important Night Of My Life (sure to become a favorite of theatre groups in the future), and of course Jeff Sums it Up.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 8/27/23 at 11:22am

Westerns on stage are fairly uncommon - unless they're a comedic melodrama or a musical like Oklahoma! or Paint Your Wagon. Westerns aren't really my genre per se - like many of my generation my father often had Western movies or TV shows on in the background, but although I have a lot of respect for the classics of the genre I was never particularly passionate about it, and I never saw the original film adaptation of Shane until recently.  But a new, revisionist stage adaptation was of interest to me, and I'm happy to report that apart of a few quibbles in its execution, the Guthrie's production is a strong and thoughtful piece of entertainment that keeps the core of the story intact while expanding on its themes for a modern audience. The central plot of the script by Karen Zacarías (Native Gardens) is the same as the novel and film - a homesteader family, tormented by a powerful Rancher seeking to drive them off their land, takes in Shane, a mysterious drifter who is clearly trying to escape from a violent past. As he bonds with the family and especially their son, Shane eventually decides that he has to once again return to violence so they won't have to.  What Zacarías does to make the story new is very simple yet very effective - she uses it to interrogate the colonialist history of the Old West.

The Starrett family (Ricardo Chavira as Joe, Gabriela Fernandez-Coffey as Marian, and Juan Arturo as the son Bobby) are Mexican-Americans who sought out a homestead in Wyoming after the wife Marian lost her family's land in the Mexican-American war.  Shane (William DeMeritt, recently seen on Broadway in The Skin of Our Teeth)is Black - the son of a Confederate plantation owner and an enslaved Afro-Cuban woman - who escaped from enslavement to fight in the Union army during the Civil War.  This background is laid out in fairly blatant expositional conversations which drag a bit in a 90-minute show that runs without intermission, but it also enriches the world, making it clear these are real people with lives and purpose and not just cogs in a plot leading to an inevitable confusion.  A new character is also introduced to add a thematic wrinkle to the proceedings, Winona Stephens (Shayna Jackson), a representative of the nearby Lakota nation who is brought in by the villainous rancher Luke Fletcher (Bill McCallum) to try and convince the Starretts to give up their land.  Stephens makes it clear she doesn't particularly enjoy having to work with Fletcher, but she also has to make sure her people are looked after, and the cattle Fletcher plans to raise are one of the only ways to ensure they have the food they need.  And besides, before the US government took the land to give to the homesteaders, it was the Lakota who lived there.  The interplay between the Starretts, Shane, and Stephens are all fascinating and thought-provoking and go a long way towards making this feel like more than just another Western.

William DeMeritt is excellent as Shane, bringing charm and natural charisma while also making his interior pain very clear.  The rest of the cast (most of whom, Like DeMeritt, originated their roles at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, who are co-producing this show with the Guthrie) also give strong performances, while director Blake Robinson keeps things moving at a fast pace.  Sometimes the violence is kept off-stage, while at other times it is stylized - there's a bar brawl that is largely done in slow-motion pantomime in a way that is hard to describe, but weirdly effective. One element that does not work, and is unfortunately a constant within the show, is the character of Bobby.  Zacarías' script has the story being told as the memories of the character as an adult, with Juan Arturo playing the part both as a grown man talking to the audience and a nine-year-old boy in the moment, and he can't quite get the balance right.  If you found Brandon De Wilde's performance in the movie to be kind of annoying, imagine the same performance being given by a fully grown adult and you might understand what my issue is.  Overall though this is a very entertaining piece of theatre that I'm sure will continue to have life beyond its current production.

I also saw The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at the Gremlin Theatre, in a collaboration between Dark and Stormy Productions and The University of Minnesota. This classic story of a charismatic but amoral teacher and how the influence she has over her students leads to her rise and fall is catnip for actors, and the cast here digs into it with aplomb.  The production, directed by Allison Vincent, is staged in the Round in a minimalist way, with only the necessary bits of stage direction and any students outside of the core four being represented by off-stage voices (one of the few parts that doesn't quite work). Sara Marsh as Miss Brodie gives her lectures not just to her students but also  to the audience, allowing us to be drawn in to her strong personality.  Her sense of power carries not only over her students but also the men in her life - the married, but still womanizing art teacher Teddy Lloyd (Peter Christian Hansen) who despite his large frame and charismatic masculine presence is clearly under her thumb, and the music teacher Gordon Lowther (Alex Galick) a submissive little drip of a man who would do anything for her but still yearnings and weaknesses she might not appreciate.  Observing and included in all of this are her four favorite students, led by the smart and perceptive Sandy (an astoundingly good Shayla Courteau) whose personality is very similar to Brodie's in such a way that will inevitably lead them into a collision course.  Seeing these characters intertwine, turn on each other, and deal with the fallout like a twisted sort of chess match is a joy to watch, and this production (running until September 17) shows how even the simplest of stagings can be fully engrossing when you have the right people involved.

The local community theatre I saw over the summer was mostly musicals - I was part of a production of Kinky Boots that was truly one of the most fun and satisfying shows I've been a part of.  I saw one group put on Shrek: the Musical in a production that was carried mostly by the very strong performances of the actors playing Shrek, Fiona and Farquaad, while the fairly anonymous direction and imbalanced sound design left the rest of the cast hanging out to dry.  The Music Man and The Sound of Music were also produced by local groups this summer, and those are such rock-solid shows that it is nearly impossible to screw them up if you have the right team behind them.   TMM had a particularly good Marian, and I also liked how TSOM found ways to show the gradual influence of the Nazis over the community as well as making Rolfe a weakling from the start who is clearly out of his element when trying to impress Liesl, who is clearly the more strong personality.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 10/15/23 at 11:57pm

I've had quite the week+ of theatre.  On Sunday, I worked the ticket desk at my own community theatre's production of Steel Magnolias and was able to watch the show as well.  I can have a bit of objectivity because I was not directly involved in this production.  The show was well acted, with a nice set and the audience seemed to like it.  One thing that bothered me was the mics were not well calibrated - there seemed to be a hum of feedback for much of the show - weird, because we had just used these mics for our production of Chicago and to my knowledge there were no such sound issues. Something I should keep in mind for future shows, I guess.

On a personal level I was part of a staged reading for a new play adapted from the novel It's Murder Dontcha Know by Jeanne Cooney a Minnesota-flavored cozy mystery.  The script was written by the local playwright and theatre instructor Mary Aalgard. Several of my fellow cast members were people I had worked with on this summer's production of Kinky Boots, and we all had a good time finding our characters.  The script itself went through several revisions between the first read-through with the cast and the public reading, and while I think it could still use some tightening in places, I'm interested to see if/when this show becomes a full-fledged production.

On Wednesday I drove up to Duluth to see the University of Minnesota-Duluth's production of The Spitfire Grill , a musical that I discovered while browsing the Concord Theatricals archives and fell in love with while listening to the cast recording, but hadn't been able to see live until now.  I'm happy to say it lives up to what I enjoyed in the script and score.  Director and Choreographer Rebecca Katz Harwood keeps the show moving at a fast pace - a good decision for a script that is light until it is not.  It moves from song to song to dialogue scene with nary a pause, and the cast and live musicians were all able to keep up the pace perfectly.  Some of the cast members seemed more comfortable with the music and the lighter scenes in the first act than when the show takes a big shift into darkness and drama in the second act, but one who always knew exactly what was needed was Kaitlyn Callhan who plays the main character - she's on stage for most of the show and it able to play the right tone at all times.  I hadn't seen a UMD production before, but I'm definitely going to keep an eye on them in the future - especially this spring when they put on Great Comet.

On Thursday I saw a community theatre production of The Laramie Project. Obviously this is a show unlike any other and the cast and crew were all dedicated to making as respectful a production as possible as a commemoration of the 25th anniversary.  I say this in part because one of the cast members who was also part of It's Murder Dontcha Know had expressed some misgivings about the show due in part to having bad experiences with the show's Producer on the company's production of The Crucible. That said, I thought the show was very well executed.  Even 25 years later the show has some very sadly relevant things to say about what it's like to live in small towns and how communities see themselves vs how they actually are.  The ensemble was uneven in some of their abilities to capture the dozens of characters that they needed to play, but most of them played their parts well, with humanity and even humor.  I almost wish the show had run without an intermission, so the atmosphere of the community being built around you wouldn't have been interrupted.

Now this weekend I went to the Twin Cities and saw four shows - and curiously enough, three of them were set in Minnesota (there's nothing Minnesotans love more than talking about living in Minnesota, so this is definitely worth mentioning).  On Friday I saw the national tour of Girl From the North Country at the Orpheum.  This show is structured like a classical ensemble story - a big group of characters, all of whom have their own interests and storylines, and we see show they intersect and resolve as the show progressed, guided along the way by the music of Bob Dylan.  None of the stories end in anything lighter than a bittersweet note (and some don't really resolve at all), but that doesn't necessarily make the show a depressing slog.  All of the characters are allowed their humanity, and seeing them struggle and persevere in the face of unimaginable (and in some cases insurmountable) obstacles reminds us that the fight itself can be worth it. As I mentioned on the tour thread, the only time in the show where the audience applauded after a musical number was following Jennifer Blood's performance of "Like a Rolling Stone", which I attribute more due to the unconventional way in which the songs are presented than any lack of enthusiasm from the audience (they all seemed to be caught up in the mood of the show and spoke positively about it during intermission and after it was over).

Another musical I saw over the weekend was The Boy Wonder, produced by the History Theatre.  The History Theatre is known for producing original shows based on moments of Minnesota history, and this was a very ambitious example of that. The show a biography of Harold Stassen, who was famously elected Governor of Minnesota in 1938 at the age of 31, immediately becoming a national political celebrity for his youth and for achieving success within that the Republican party hadn't achieved in Minnesota in years up to that point. However, Stassen's willingness to buck the conventional wisdom of the Republican party also alienated him from the "old guard" (as the show puts it) at times.  Later, following Pearl Harbor, Stassen resigned his Governorship to join the Navy to fight in World War II, a move that many saw as compromising his political future, and indeed even though he did noteworthy work at the founding of the United Nations near the end of WWII and in the Eisenhower Administration, the once-hot Stassen would eventually become known as a perennial candidate for President who never achieved the political success he had seemed destined for earlier in his career.  This material might seem like it could be a slog (especially at a runtime of nearly three hours), but Keith Hovis, who wrote the book, music, & lyrics, and director Laura Leffler fill the show with energy and the cast with enthusiasm.  There's definitely a bit of Hamilton here, if not in musical style but in tone, with Stassen being portrayed as an almost unbearably ambitious man who just can't top reaching for more.  Evan Tyler Wilson (All is Calm) plays Stassen, and it's a remarkably good performance (just think about how good you have to be to get an audience filled with metropolitan Minnesotans to be on the side of a Republican), constantly having to find a balance between the character's dedication to principle, his youthful naivety, and his boundless enthusiasm while still reminding us of his very human flaws.  One part that I wish the show was able to explore more was Stassen's political process as Governor - near the end of the first act we get a song that shows how he was able to navigate the legislature that he was once alienated from in order pass labor reform, but aside from noting his high approval rating when he resigned that's about it in terms of political procedural elements.  Much more powerfully done is the opening of Act 2 when he chooses to confront Charles Lindbergh (a chilling Carl Swanson, who also plays several other roles) who has been using his platform as a prominent Minnesotan to spread vile racism and anti-semitism to try and deter American from intervening in World War II.  It was this confrontation, the show posits, that eventually drove Stassen to resign to join the Navy under the belief that he couldn't morally advocate for intervention in World War II if he was legally exempted from being drafted due to his political status.  The rest of Act 2 has some pacing issues, where Stassen is relegated mostly to the Bureaucracy of the Navy and later the UN.  It's tough to make gridlock dramatically interesting, and the show puts in a good effort, but at a certain point in feels like the show has either stopped dead in its tracks or is going in circles.  Much more welcome is the very warm love story between Harold Stassen and his wife Elsie (Jen Maren), which always brings life and humanity to the show in the midst of all the politicking.  I don't know if this show has any ambitions beyond the History Theatre, but I definitely would like to see it. This show is truly something special, and I hope many more people are able to see it before its run ends at the end of the month.

For the People is a new comedy written by Larissa FastHorse and Ty Defoe that follows April Dakota (Katie Anvil Rich), a young woman who tries to open up a wellness center for the indigenous people of the Minneapolis community of Franklin Avenue, but runs into obstacles from securing funding from the local Task Force because while she has all of the ambition and enthusiasm in the world, she lacks some common sense.  Like many young activists, April seems to be trying to be all things to all people, neither fully traditional or fully modernized, and winds up pleasing nobody.  Then, when she tries to find a way to secure resources elsewhere - notably her wealthy white friend Esme (Kendall Kent) - she unwittingly finds herself putting the entire neighborhood at risk and has to join forces with the task force to fight back.  This is a very funny farce about the similarities and differences in Native culture, and even how some people are similar in their differences.  I was laughing throughout, but even when going for big laughs the cast never seemed to be straining for a joke.  Most of the cast are making their Guthrie debuts, and they're all excellent.  Special notice goes to Kalani Queypo as April's father, a wealthy casino owner who sits on the Task Force and often finds himself struggling to reconcile or even distinguish what is best for his people and what is best for himself, and the great Wes Studi, who plays one of the Elders on the Task Force who has a habit of derailing conversations and is absolutely hilarious at it.  The show runs 90 minutes with no intermission, and the comedy is tightly constructed enough that you never feel it dragging, and the way it all comes together in the end is very satisfying.

The one non-Minnesota production I saw this weekend was Theatre Pro Rata's production of Bernhardt/Hamlet, where the intimate space at the Crane Theatre helps enrich the mood of the behind-the-scenes nature of the show.  The production is at its best when Sarah Bernhardt (Nicole Goeden) is working through the nuts and bolts of Hamlet, and while you can only say "that's too much dialogue, isn't it?" so many times before it gets repetitive, Goeden plays off of her costars very well, especially Sean Dillon as Coquelin. Em Rosenberg as Rostad at first seems to be lacking charisma, but as they become more conflicted and ambivalent about their relationship with Sarah not to mention her own efforts at Hamlet, it becomes much more exciting to watch.  How much you get out of a show like this largely depends on how interesting you find these discussions about Hamlet and the nature of acting, and although I would have liked the energy of the cast to pop a little more, overall I had a good time.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 11/16/23 at 11:58pm

There's been a bit of local theatre happening these last couple months.

The Woman In Black was a production by one of the semi-professional groups; one the actors involved had done before.  They're clearly at ease with the material and do a very good job of letting the meta nature of the storytelling draw the audience in, with the necessary spooky sound design and atmospheric use of sets.  I think perhaps it relied too much on the use of spotlights for jump scares and the climax went a little far with its use of flashing lights and other effects to highlight mental instability, but this will always be a reliable little chiller welcome on stage.

Silent Sky was a community theatre production, and a wonderful one.  I wasn't familiar with this play, and it seems like it was something made specifically for me.  As a theatre nerd who was raised by a science teacher, there's something just... nice about a show where everyone involved becomes excited by the prospect of learning.  The actress playing Henrietta gave an excellent performance, one that really shows her range as the last show I saw her in was Brighton Beach Memoirs where she played Neil Simon's stand-in.  The actresses playing Henrietta's two supervisors were a wonderful comic duo and the actor playing Peter was a deadpan delight.  I didn't expect this show to be as funny as it was, alongside some very sweet and bittersweet elements as well.  This may be one of the best shows I've seen that community theatre do.

Oliver! was a show I just saw tonight at a community theatre in the town where I live.  It was opening night and you could notice some of the opening night jitters (flubbed lines & choreography, mic issues, etc,) But you can't argue the cast wasn't game.  The young actor playing Oliver is very good at making sure he isn't swallowed up by the colorful supporting cast - in fact he's so good you start to wish the show gave him more to do.  The actor playing Fagin was also wonderful - he found just the right balance of camp, charisma, and intimidation - there's no doubt that he's the real villain of this piece.  Bill Sikes by contrast is played more as a blunt instrument - he's intimidating largely because everybody knows he's incapable of reacting with anything other than violence.  The actress playing Nancy was effective, too.  She was fully believable as the sort of person whose inherit loveliness hides a painful inner life.  Aside from the stumbles mentioned above, I think a lot of the other issues with the show have more to do with the pacing of the source material (does Act 2 really require three different solos that stop the show dead in its tracks?).  Another local group is also doing Oliver! in the spring, and I'll probably check that out too to see how it compares and contrasts.

There are also a couple different shows I missed - I really wanted to see Fiddler on the Roof but due to a busy work schedule and how far the drive would have been I wasn't able to.  Enchanted April was another one I didn't have time to see, and this week there's a production of Winter Wonderettes that I likely won't make it to.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 2/5/24 at 10:43pm

I'm a little disappointed in myself - work and life both got in the way of my being able to see a lot of the theatre I had wanted the last few months. The shows I was able to see were A Sherlock Carol, which was a very clever and affectionate pastiche and Don't Hug Me, which was a fun show as well as an admirable performance if nothing else due to the fact that the performance I attended was down two actors so we has a pair of performers who were script-in-hand but still delivered in the acting and singing departments.

Currently I'm in rehearsals for 12 Angry Jurors and intend to audition for a production of The Miracle Worker soon.

Now the Hennpin Theatre Trust is beginning to tease their next season:

 

Now, one show we know for sure they're going to have is Parade, but I don't think this is teasing that.

[theaterdrew]

Posted: 2/5/24 at 11:12pm

Having relocated to the Twin Cities area recently, I grabbed a ticket to 'ART' at the Guthrie last month.  I haven't seen any other productions to compare but it was fine.  I suspect I might have enjoyed it more with the West End cast, or at least some of the interactions might have been more compelling through that cultural lens.  The actor playing Yvan was distractingly similar in voice and affect to Sean Hayes.

[inception]

Posted: 2/6/24 at 12:46am

Replying to Kevin's clue, that makes me think of Kimberly Akimbo - but I don't know if that has announced a tour already?  It could be some kind of phonetic clue but I can't turn Rainbow Star Rollercoaster into anything.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 2/8/24 at 2:04pm

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 2/29/24 at 5:37pm

Kevin, have you or are you seeing Clue?

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 2/29/24 at 5:52pm

Wow, that is a great season, much better than many other cities I've seen announced. And you guys getting the world premiere of Purple Rain? What a wonderful tribute to Prince in the state he called home and loved so much. Enjoy.