Byron Griffith

Pillsbury House Theatre is hosting New York based theater artist Nilaja Sun's acclaimed one-woman show PIKE ST. for three weeks, and my Minnesota theater friends - this is an opportunity you don't want to miss. A native of the Lower East Side, Nilaja brings all the beauty, diversity, community, and difficulties of her neighborhood to life in a show so all-engrossing, it's a shock to the system to be returned to reality after 90 minutes. She tells one specific story of a family in a hurricane, playing all of the different characters, but it's so much more than one family's story. It's about returning war vets, the joys and frustrations of living in a close community, the joys and frustrations of caring for a child with special needs, family, love, loyalty, and New York City - 'the greatest city in the world.' PIKE ST., which Nilaja also wrote, is a remarkable piece, and hers is a remarkable performance.

Medea. Even if, like me, you've never seen or read the play, we all know the story of the mother who kills her children. Worst mother ever, right? But maybe, as they say on CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND, the situation is a bit more nuanced than that. Maybe there's more to the story, maybe other people in the story see it differently. Playwright Michael Elyanow (see also the beautiful play with music LULLABY) wanted to explore the story from the children's viewpoint. He writes in the playbill, 'I started writing THE CHILDREN as a response play where somebody does take action to defend those kids. In the writing, the piece revealed itself to be a fever dream, a time-traveling mystery, a fish-out-of-water comedy, a theatrical event with a perception shift in every scene until we get at what the play is ultimately, singularly about: trauma survival.' That's about as good of a description as I could imagine. THE CHILDREN is not an easy play to categorize, but it is a wonderful one to experience for 80 minutes. It'll challenge your perception of Medea, as well as your perception of time and space.

Imagine being so wealthy and successful that you need to build a mall in your basement just to hold all of your excess stuff. Such is the situation that living legend of stage and screen Barbra Streisand has found herself in, as described in her 2010 book MY PASSION FOR DESIGN. Playwright Jonathan Tolins has taken his fascination with this idea, and Barbra herself, and turned it into a successful Off-Broadway play BUYER AND CELLAR. Hennepin Theatre Trust has brought this delightfully amusing one-man show to Minneapolis, starring the uber-talented local theater artist Sasha Andreev and directed by acclaimed director Wendy Knox of Frank Theatre. The one-person cast and many-person creative team have come together to create a wonderfully entertaining evening of theater that is funny, fantastical, chock full of pop culture references, and surprisingly touching. Playing through April 24, you would be wise to pencil this one into your theater schedule.

Crazy as it sounds, there's a mall in Barbra Streisand's basement. And Sasha Andreev plays the one man who knows what's in there in BUYER & CELLAR, playing now at Hennepin Theatre Trust's New Century Theatre in Minneapolis through April 24, 2016.

2016 is the fourth year of Broadway Reimagined, the partnership that combines the resources of Hennepin Theatre Trust with the innovation of Theater Latte Da to create a new interpretation of a familiar Broadway musical. This year's selection is a beloved classic of the American musical theater canon, the 1959 Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim/Arthur Laurents creation GYPSY, based on the memoir of burlesque entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee. Theater Latte Da did this musical almost ten years ago in their old home The Loring Playhouse. Even though two actors reprise their roles, as do the director, music director, and choreographer, this is a different show in a bigger venue. And I'm convinced there is no better venue for this show in the Twin Cities than the beautifully restored Vaudeville theater that is the Pantages, where the historical characters in the play very likely performed nearly 100 years ago. There's a sense of history in this show which, along with Theater Latte Da's usual attention to detail in every aspect of the production, creates a beautiful, realistic, moving look into the world of show business and the quintessential stage mother/daughter relationship. As the song says, let Theater Latte Da entertain you, you will have a real good time, yes sir!

Peter Rothstein is the super successful director of Theatre Latte Da and their collaborations with Hennepin Theatre Trust. Get to know a little about his vision and process as they open GYPSY at the historic Pantages Theatre.

2015 was my 5th full year as a Twin Cities Theater Blogger, and I saw a record high 200+ shows. When I look at those numbers, or at my busy schedule, I sometimes think, why do I do this? Why do I devote all of my free time to this part-time job for which I don't get paid? And then I see a show that reminds me why I do this. That reminds me why I started going to theater, why I started writing about theater, why I think theater (and specifically music-theater) is the most beautiful and powerful art form we have. LULLABY is one such show. This new original play-with-music is everything I want music-theater to be: funny, smart, relevant, relatable, moving, poignant, with awesome songs and a brilliant cast and creative team pouring their heart and souls into the work. This is the first of 20 new works of 'theater musically' that Theater Latte Da has committed to developing by 2020 in a project they're calling 'Next 20/20.*' It's an exciting thing to create the future of music-theater, and LULLABY has set the bar high for this project.

?This is my fourth time seeing and writing about Theater Latte Da's annual holiday show ALL IS CALM, presented with Hennepin Theatre Trust at the Pantages Theatre. This true story about peace in the midst of war is so beautifully told by creator/director Peter Rothstein, using period music and authentic writing from the time, that I could easily see it every year. It is the 11th holiday show I've seen this year and my favorite because it best represents the true spirit of the season - connection, community, forgiveness, peace. This is a piece of music-theater that's just about as perfect as one could be - a story told simply, effectively, and beautifully in a way that perhaps comes close to the beauty of the real experience of the Christmas Truce of 1914.

Mark Benninghofen is known to many from years of performances at the Guthrie, on screen and in the ad world but not so much in musicals. Learn more about the man and this musical and get to Latte Da to see it pronto.

Friends, Theater Latte Da has done it again. They've created a music-theater production that is so stirring and chilling, it's nothing short of brilliant. After the delightfully innovative and stripped-down INTO THE WOODS this spring, they return to Sondheim with a similarly innovative and stripped-down SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET. But where INTO THE WOODS was a fun and slightly sinister mish-mash of classic fairy tales, SWEENEY is all darkness and death, albeit with a bit of dark humor. Director Peter Rothstein again cast just ten actors in the show, many playing multiple roles and all perfect for the parts, and Denise Prosek leads a pared down orchestra of just four, that still somehow sounds musically full on this gorgeous and disturbing score. With a couple of actors not known for their singing leading this talented cast, and a cohesive look to the set, costumes, and theater space that is well used, this SWEENEYis completely engaging and all-consuming, and brilliantly shows what Latte Da can do with not musical theater, but theater musically.

Theater Latte Da announced today casting for the area premiere of Beautiful Thing by Jonathan Harvey, which it will present at the The Lab Theater February 24 - March 18, 2012.