Last month the Florida Grand Opera’s (FGO) production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” blew me away. FGO turned one of Mozart’s most popular and beloved operas into a spectacular living performance that was pure fun to hear and see. It was energetic, modern and
Pearl Cleage’s play, “Flyin’ West,” which is being performed at Weathervane Playhouse, a Knight Arts grantee, tells the story about something most of us don’t know – what happened to many southern slaves when they were emancipated by Abraham Lincoln in the Confederate States and freed everywhere else later by the 13th Amendment (which abolished [...]
Miami Light Project’s Here & Now festival offered Miami theatergoers a glimpse into the creative minds of Miami-based performing artists Liony Garcia, Matthew Evan Taylor, Ivonne Batanero and Shira Abergel. The artists created works, commissioned by the Miami Light Project
Last week, the website for Northern Spark, the Twin Cities’ annual, nocturnal arts festival, was updated to read: June 8, 8:58 p.m., Lowertown, St. Paul. And that quiet change caught my eye, because it made official the hummuna I’ve been hearing for a couple of months among arts folks that, for its third iteration, Northern [...]
Word has it that famous playwright Eugene O’Neill had a great first year when he got to Broadway in 1920 with his plays. One of the reasons was his second Broadway production – “The Emperor Jones.” The play tells the tale of Brutus Jones, an African American who kills a man and is imprisoned but then [...]
Agatha Christie’s “Black Coffee” must be decaf, cause it lacks the jolt and jitters that most audience members and enthusiasts would like. While Coach House Theatre’s production of it cannot compensate for the thinness of the plot materials, it brings robustness through other production values – acting, directing, costumes and set. The narrative dances gingerly [...]
The mood at Friday night’s opening for Mu Performing Arts’ world premiere of “The Tiger Among Us” was triumphant, if a little bittersweet. Two years in the making, this show will be the last newly commissioned work to come to fruition under the sharp eye and guidance of company founder and artistic director Rick Shiomi. He [...]
If you like “talky” dramas, go see “Fiction” that is being put on by Actors’ Summit, a Knight Arts grantee. Unfortunately I don’t, and that’s too bad because the playwright, Steven Dietz, is a gifted scriptwriter. The language, the references and allusions to literary works and philosophical ideas – these are captivating and can keep [...]
I’ve missed out on the Ordway’s well-received “Broadway Songbook” shows until now, and so I am delighted the center has expanded the series into this year. In September, the Ordway (a Knight Arts grantee) offered an homage to the musical theater legacy of Rodgers and Hammerstein and Hart. This week, the center’s back with a [...]
Shades of James Agee’s “A Death in the Family.” The storyline of Geoffrey Nauffts’ “Next Fall” revolves around a family reeling from the loss of a loved one in a traffic accident. Some subplots line up too — two central characters to whom religion is the big elephant in their relationship, and alcohol and drug [...]
