MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL THEATER REVIEWS

On June 9th The Guthrie Theater premiered ROMAN HOLIDAY, a musical rendition of the classic Audrey Hepburn film. The plot features a frustrated and bored Princess Anne escaping her regimented advisors for some fun on the town during an international diplomatic tour. The princess meets a dashing silv...

Well known for its physical comedy and colorful music, Blue Man Group has been garnering good reviews since its inception in 1991. It's no surprise that the audience is cheering before the boys in blue even set foot on the stage. With a strong emphasis on audience participation, Blue Man Group has a...

From the moment Blanche Neige begins - a pregnant, dying queen dragging herself across the floor and giving life to another in her own final moments - you know what lies ahead will challenge your preconceptions about the way Snow White's tale should be told. Yet as Angelin Preljocaj's ballet advance...

There are not many plays that can claim to be intelligently written and smartly crafted so that they are constantly and consistently engaging and interesting without also being, at times, over the audience's heads. It's a difficult line to walk, and with August: Osage County, Tracy Letts manages bri...

We all have problems with our parents. Once Mom and Dad reach a certain age, the one thing everyone can agree on is that the parents drive us crazy. It's often been a topic in some of our most popular books, movies, and plays - some of them are great, some not-so-great. Others like Tina Howe's PAINT...

Rent, the rock musical about a group of artists in New York City who are dealing with questions of art, integrity, AIDS, and community, premiered on Broadway in 1996 and enjoyed a twelve-year run there, spurring multiple national tours. Now, for the first time, a local production of the show can be...

There's one thing Kneehigh Theatre wants you to know heading into BRIEF ENCOUNTER: this show is romantic. And it most certainly is - in the most British way imaginable. Director/writer Emma Rice's adaptation of the 1945 David Lean/Noel Coward film is a stunning mix of theatre, film and music that is...

Young Frankenstein, currently on tour and playing at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, is a Mel Brooks musical-and no amount of criticism, praise, or exhaustive explanation could sum it up better than that one statement. With book, lyrics, and music by Brooks, and based on his 1974 movie of the s...

Anyone walking into a production of Shakespeare's MACBETH should expect it to be a bloody affair. After all, it's one of his most gruesome plays - dark and weird and violent. Its newest incarnation at the Guthrie (the 50th Shakespeare production overall) doesn't falter on any of these; it's a taut a...

Director Penny Metropulos transports the play to turn-of-the-century Verona, where the warring houses of Capulet and Montague first attack each other with their canes - before they unleash the blades underneath. But amidst all this strife Romeo and Juliet still find each other - in a night illuminat...

In the show's titular song, the cast of Dreamgirls, currently on tour and playing at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis, promises to make you happy. And despite the faults of both this show and this particular production, that promise was upheld. More than anything, the characters' enthusiasm, esp...