Peggy Sue Dunigan - Page 4

The incomparable 'Mary Poppins' returns to Bloomington's The Artistry Theater on the winds of her iconic character's umbrella. Penned as a collection of eight stories beginning in the 1934, Walt Disney wrangled the rights from author PL Travers for their 1964 film. One of the studios crowning glories in its film history, the movie garnered eight academy awards. The Broadway adaptation, on view at Artistry, differs from the film featuring music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman from a play created by Julian Fellows. Director Joel Sass and Music Director Anita Ruth along with Choreographer Joe Chavala produced a Broadway worthy musical at the Bloomington Arts Center, which the lyrics will aptly: 'Stretch your mind into the fantastic, dreams are made of strong elastic.' 

Dancing and energizing music imbue life with joy in the Midwest premiere of Children's Theater Company's Last Stop on Market Street this September. Produced as a co-commission with Chicago Children's Theatre and based on the Newbery Award Winning book written by Matt de la Peña, Last Stop on Market Street charms and delights audiences. Directed by Henry Godinez, this exuberant production recreates the adventures a seven year old boy encounters when he visits his Nana for the weekend. Nana lives in a neighborhood teeming with a wide variety of personalities and new experiences CJ is unfamiliar with and often wary of--Including the reggae music and 'laying some sugar on his Nana,'which Nana then explains means to kiss her. 

To open their 2018-2019 season, Theater Latte Da presents the multi Tony Award winning musical ONCE at the Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis.  Adapted by Edna Walsh with worlds and lyrics written or composed by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, ONCE recalls the story of a guy and girl who meet through fate for six days in Dublin, Ireland. The Girl, a Czech immigrant ready to begin a new life, intersects at a train station with an Irishmen who repairs Hoovers while pondering on abandoning his musical career. Together, in an old Dublin shop where pianos are sold, Girl plays her accompaniment to Guy's lyrics. The two indeed "make beautiful music together," while Latte Da's production keeps the musical drama and their audiencenes, as a song from the musical quotes, "walking on moonbeams." 

On September 7, Anoka's Lyric Arts opened a Drama League Award Winning musical 'If/Then.' In this edgy, provocatives production, Tom Kitt's music complimented with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey creates a musical force as they did in their Pulitzer Prize winning 'Next to Normal.' Their 2014 'IF/THEN' production opened at New York's Richard Rodgers Theater and details the life of 38 year old Elizabeth. Throughout the play of her parallel lives, she ruminates about day to day choices she makes: the what if to where a person deciders to be, including what cities to live in, which career opportunities to pursue, and which people to hold in her heart, at any given moment that creates a memorable journey for audiences. The entertaining and intriguing musical poses some philosophical questions for Elizabeth, who earns her living as a PhD in Urban Planning, and hence, the audience, too. As this musical sings, 'the next turn at the corner may change your life forever.

Summertime leads into September and the upcoming Minneapolis Children's Theatre Company's (CTC) fall 2018-2019 season. The company's first world premiere, which played this July and August, titled 'The Best Summer Ever' featured nationally renowned playwright and storyteller Kevin Kling. In this first CTC World Premiere production, Kling remembers life changing moments from his boyhood in Minnesota, which he narrates, and completely charms the audience.

Woods comma Elle descended upon the cultural scene wrapped up as Reese Witherspoon in the 2001 film "Legally Blonde." "Legally Blonde 2" followed shortly after. Bloomington's Artistry  Theater at the Bloomington Center for the Arts opened the Broadway version of the film based on the musical's New York 2007 debut, after which the musical was christened with a Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical. The music and lyrics by composed by Neil Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe, Heather Hach delivered a clever book for the production. In the film and the musical, Elle Woods wins the audiences' hearts with her unabashed love of anything pink and plucky confidence that overflows throughout the story.

Guys and Dolls, a charming musical opening a half century ago on Broadway in 1951, reminisces New York's hidden society-gamblers, exotic dancers and 'sinners'-along with the missionaries who tried to redeem them. A story based on a series of short stories by Damon Runyon, Jo Sweeney and Abe Burrows created the book together with Frank Loesser's mesmerizing melodies and lyrics that brings the tale of two determined young women, Adelaide and Sarah, to life. The musical was eventually denied a Pulitzer Prize because one of the producers was blacklisted, and this retells another fascinating story in itself. 

On stage the past weekend, Minneapolis's Guthrie Theater opened a production of of the iconic musical West Side Story in the Wurtlele Thrust Stage. The following Tuesday, June 26, the United States Supreme Court upheld the country's travel ban for seven countries, mainly located in the Middle East, on strict rules governing their admittance to the U.S. On Thursday, another shooting happened near Annapolis, Maryland, killing five people when a gunman opened fire through a glass door at a small newspaper office. In a powerful scene during this opening of West Side Story, the character of Doc addresses one of the two rival gangs named the Jets when they host a war council in his drug store: “Why do you live like there's a war on? Why do you kill?'

Housed on Main Street in Hopkins, Minnesota, Stages Theatre Company (STC) persevered for almost 35 years by producing exceptional, professional theater for young audiences. Believing in the enchantment, images and power of theater, especially for youth, the company produces world premiere productions commissioned especially for their home stage.

Spring's rebirth in March invites magical thoughts of budding romance. A beloved multi-award winning musical rom-com, She Loves Me, sings in the sunny emotions and weather at Anoka's Lyric Arts. The playful musical first ran on Broadway in 1963, and was translated from Miklos Laszlo's 1937 play "Parfumerie." Joe Masteroff's book partnered with music composed by Jerry Bock together with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, capture the perfect notes to a tangled romance between two store clerks, Amalia and Georg, in 1934 Budapest. The two clash on the small boutique's floor while unknowingly sending each other letters to 'Dear Friend (Yes, they used real snail mail).

Once again, Anoka's Lyric Arts presents an area premiere for their audiences. This winter, Superior Donuts, a 2008 play written by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Tracy Letts, arrived for opening weekend. Letts, an ensemble actor at Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theatre, has recently been in the news for his role in Greta Gertwig's film, 'Lady Bird,' with another Steppenwolf actor, Laurie Metcalf, and newcomer Saoirse Ronan. To learn a bit about Letts, his sense of humor, and his award winning theatrical career, viewing his comedy Superior Donuts provides one perfect place to begin.

For the 2017 season, enjoy the sights and sounds to Have a yule that's cool at Anoka's Lyric Arts. The retro greeting tag line recreates the theater's holiday show titled Forever Plaid: Plaid Tidings. Stuart Ross wrote the clever, lighthearted book to this festive musical in 1989, along with numerous composers creating the music and lyrics. The seasonal show delights audiences this December under Director Sean W. Byrd through a kitschy ambiance. Musical Director Bradley Beahen together with Choreographer Lauri Kraft give this all male quartet excellent stage presence for two acts. The four 'lads' who call themselves Forever Plaid deliver the holiday goods while Beahen accompanies on the ivories with Shannon Van der Reck plucking strings on bass,

On stage at Anoka's Lyric Arts, A Coney Island Christmas presents a child's heartfelt dreams to its audiences for the holiday season. One of two theatrical presentations alternating at the venue in December, this play features a flashback to 1930's New York, in the midst of the Great Depression, where Jewish Hanukah meets the Christian Christmas in warm nostalgia.

Anoka's Lyric Arts Main Street Stage returns this summer with the comedic and uplifting Cole Porter, Guy Bolton, PG Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse musical Anything Goes. First produced in 1934, in the beginning of the Great Depression, Porter's memorable musical questions the country's status quo and then, the course of true love. Eighty two years later, the musical resonates with Porter's evocative lyrics from the title song: Good authors, too/Who once knew better words/ writing prose/ now use four letter words/ Anything goes/ truding in nude parties studios / Anything goes/ Why nobody will oppose/ Anything goes.

Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street arrived at the Skylight Music Theatre last weekend to dazzle audiences with the American songwriter's brilliant, exquisite lyrics and melodies complimented by Hugh Wheeler's book.  A story resurrected from an old three penny publication titled 'String of Pearls' adapted from a 1976 Christopher Bond play retells dark, almost demonic yet ultimately redemptive tale revealing the horrors of revenge and the power of love through this award winning musical with songs such as "Johanna," "Pretty Women," and "By the Sea." 

Similar to an actual carved and decorated carousel, In Tandem's musical Carnival circles audiences with the sentiment 'Love Makes the World Go Round.' The familiar song from the 1960's production written by Bob Merrill and Michael Stewart in their book, lyrics and music adapted from a 1950's novel titled 'Lilli' happens outside Paris, circa 1920. Carnivals and circuses played to packed audiences before World War ! and the depression, and in their enchanting story a young orphan named Lilli travels from hr past home when her father dies to search for her future, 'where everyone knows her name,' and of course, true love.

The legendary story of Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte in 1847, arrives as artful, contemporary adaption by Polly Teale in Milwaukee Repertory Theater's season ending production at the Quadracci Powerhouse. Director KJ Sanchez follows Teale's lead and delves deeper into the psychology between Jane and Mr. Rochester's uninhibited, possible mad wife Bertha. The two characters, through actors, Margaret Ivey (Jane) and Rin Allen (Bertha) shadow each other throughout the production. In this adaptation, Bertha appears to mirror Jane's repressed Victorian feelings that literally ignite their lives and  English homestead, Thornfield. 

In the seventh presentation of the popular Rep Lab, the short-play festival features the company's Emerging Professional Residents (EPR) in acting, directing and technical theater to showcase their talent. This year, nine one act play along with a devised play written by the Emerging Professionals appeared in the Stiemke Studio for an intriguing evening of theater. Eight actors, seven directors, and four designers comprise the EPR team. In an interesting mix of plays, many examine the angst in relationships: communal, personal and professional within a wide time frame that also embodies considerable emotional range

Violet--The color and time of day named in T.S. Eliot's 1922 epic poem The Waste Land. This color permeates Renaissance Theaterworks (RTW) season ending production figuratively and literally in the Studio Theatre titled The Violet Hour. Directed by Artistic Director Suzan Fete, the comedy infused with a surrealist happening sets a scene in 1919, a few years after World War I and before the Great Depression. The story tantalizes audiences with the question that is prophecy, knowing the future, a gift or a curse? Richard Greenberg's 2003 Broadway play explores this dilemma and models the period's hope and optimism after "a war to end all wars," on characters referencing Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald and chanteuse Josephine Baker. All celebrities who reached a zenith in their careers, and then ended their lives in some despair. When the audience sits in the theater watching from the 2017 perspective, what do they make of these questions, lives and future?

In an impassioned, almost poetic adaptation of Charles Dickens' masterpiece Great Expectations, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (MCT) opened Gale Childs Daly's evocative interpretation in the Cabot Theatre last weekend. Composer Andrew Crowe, premier violinist, added an original score to haunt and mesmerize audiences sitting in the theatre as he waltzed through every scene. Daly's adaptation literally leaps off the pages of the 1861 novel, and the cast under Director Molly Rhode incorporates actual books as props for meat pies or rhythm instruments to miraculous effect each step of the way through the main character Pip's coming of age and maturation.