Dan Norman News

Heather Raffo's NOURA, a variation on themes from Ibsen's A DOLL'S HOUSE set within an immigrant Iraqi family, serves as the mainstage anchor for an ambitious, multi-month series of four shows plus a distinguished panel talk at the Guthrie Theater. Collectively, these comprise the theater's Celebration of Arab Artistry. It's been a vital, eye-opening, boundary-crossing initiative. Artistic Director Joseph Haj says, a?oeExpanding the idea of what the classical canon is and should look like is very much in the Guthrie's charge.a??

This musical adaptation of Lorca's all-female play is visually arresting, aurally reminiscent of flamenco, and provides a grim dissection of misogynistic oppression within one female-headed household.

The Guthrie Theater presents the regional premiere of Noura (January 11 February 16, 2020) by Heather Raffo. A story of identity and belonging, Noura had its world premiere at Shakespeare Theatre Company in February 2018 and subsequently played at Playwrights Horizons.

The Guthrie Theater presents the perennial holiday favorite A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens, adapted by Crispin Whittell and directed by Lauren Keating. A Twin Cities holiday tradition for many, this season marks the Guthrie's 45th production, making it the longest run of A Christmas Carol in regional theater history. 

Perhaps as composer Gioachino Rossini believed, at certain times, life might resemble a comic opera. For opera aficionados in the Twin Cities area, MN Opera at the Ordway Center presents a beloved classic by Rossini--The Barber of Seville. In this story about a rapscallion, yet well to do  barber named Figaro created by the 18th century playwright known as Beaumarchais, Rossini added a compelling score to Beaumarchais' play to complement Cesare Sterbini's libretto that brings Figaro to operatic life. The fun loving, well loved barber in Seville features into several popular operas to become some of Rossini's favorites  MN Opera transforms the already comic opera into a tour de force production by combining extraordinary singing with a sublime cartoon framework in the tradition of the commedia dell'arte, where masks used by the actors often underscore the action.

The Guthrie presents Steel Magnolias October 26 - December 15, 2019.

Theater Latté Da announces today a two-week performance extension for the company's re-imagined production of CHICAGO.

Latte Da's CHICAGO spotlights two leading ladies battling for the ultimate in fame, so what's more appropriate than giving a double-dose of 6 Questions & a Plug? Buckle up and follow along as these two actors share the spotlight.

Theater Latte Da is justly famous locally for high quality intimate takes on the American musical. This time, they've done their best to erase all division between audience and actor, creating the feel of a 1920s speakeasy in their 240 seat proscenium space. Full disclosure: I don't much like CHICAGO as a show (largely because it strikes me as so deeply cynical, plus I'm not a big Fosse/Verdon fan) but I can't fault this production in the slightest. If this is your thing, you'll love it. With its inherent critique of egregious lying in order to stay in the media spotlight so as to avoid justice, it's topical, too, I'd say.

Theater Latté Da presents CHICAGO, Broadway's longest-running American musical. Winner of 7 Tony awards including Best Musical Revival, CHICAGO features a book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander, and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The musical, based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins, is directed by Theater Latté Da Artistic Director Peter Rothstein with Music Direction by Denise Prosek and choreography by Kelli Foster Warder.

I'm all for efforts to create new ensemble musicals in tune with our times. RIDE THE CYCLONE was composed in 2008 by Canadian artists Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond, played at the Toronto Fringe Festival, and has bumped across Canada and the US (including New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Seattle) since then, collecting a fan club as it goes. Funny and tuneful, it has a dark but intriguing premise, a theatrically spooky setting, and some strong musical moments. I just wish it traded less on tired stereotypes. Warning: spoilers ahead.

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts opens its season with the Ordway Original Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Leiber and Stoller, which begins performances on Sept. 10 and runs through Sept. 22.

The immersive show at Walking Shadow combines both a typical theatre experience with puzzle room motifs and magic

NYU Skirball will present the New York premiere of award-winning director JoAnne Akalaitis's BAD NEWS! i was therea??, a site-specific theatrical event, running for five performances, Friday, September 6 a?" September 8, 2019 at NYU Skirball.

To Let Go and Fall is a breathtakingly beautiful, moving play that gives its subject matter its dues. 

Might children appear to be called maggots or miracles? What type of question could that possibly be? The famous British young adult author, Roald Dahl, fills his pages with chill and thrill inducing scenes that empower children to take themselves seriously and asks that very question of his readers. On the first May weekend, Minneapolis' Children's Theatre Company (CTC) opened a production that began in London and then travelled to Broadway in their opening of Matilda the Musical, an adaptation of Roald Dahl's famous 1988 young adult novel.

Opening on the past Saturday night at the Ordway Center, MN Opera staged a magnificent production of Giuseppe Verdi's 1853 Opera La Traviata. Verdi's breathtaking love and death opera accompanied by Francesco Maria Piave's libretto was adapted after Alexander Dumas' 'Lady of the Camellias' or 'La Dame aux Camelias. In Verdi's reimagining of the Dumas novel, his music showcases the prodigious talents and voice of the protagonist, Violetta. For the company's opening night, Nicole Cabel masterfully sang the challenging operatic role.

I walk into the Guthrie Theater and I immediately see a pool of water built on the Wurtele Thrust Stage...and I immediately know I'm in for a theatrical treat. Metamorphoses, written and directed by the incomparable Mary Zimmerman, has taken Minneapolis by storm after its run in California (it's a co-production with Berkeley Rep). Our very own BWW Reviewer Karen Bovard called it '...a visual feast,'. As a captivated audience member and a performer, I was so hungry to know some of the thoughts of the show's ten ensemble members. Luckily, I was able to do so a few days later over a delightful phone call.

Children's Theatre Company presents Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical, running April 28 through June 23, 2019, written by Dennis Kelly, music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, and directed by Peter C. Brosius.

'Bodies' is the first word spoken in Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of Ovid's METAMORPHOSES, and it's the physicality of the story telling that makes this show such a theatrical pleasure. First developed with students at Northwestern, the production went pro and opened on Broadway in 2002 at Circle in the Square. There it created quite a splash, literally: the first two rows of audience were supplied with disposable raincoats. Yes, that's right: METAMORPHOSES is staged in and around a pool.