The classic holiday film gets a surprisingly great musical makeover Photo courtesy of the Ordway “My kid brother looked like a tick about to pop.” “He looks like a demented Easter bunny.” “My father worked in profanity the way other great artists worked in paints or clays.” Photo courtesy of

Fans of the classic 1954 film starring Bing Crosby will not be disappointed with this lively stage version. Photo Courtesy of Hennepin Theater Trust If you have’t figured it out yet, I’m a sucker for musicals. Especially those hailing from the golden era of Hollywood (say 1935-1960, in my book),

You’ll be moving your mambo from start to finish. Photo Courtesy of Hennepin Theater Trust We all need eye candy, right? For fans of sci-fi, there’s Star Trek; for those who prefer a side of violence with their story, it’s Spartacus or Game of Thrones; and for musical and arts

How far would you go to fulfill a dream? Photo Courtesy of Hennepin Theater Trust That’s the question Mary and Paul Bland are faced with in Eating Raoul, a musical that just debuted at New Century Theater. Faced with surmounting debt and depleting income, Mary and Paul are about to

The classic musical gets the royal treatment at Chanhassen Dinner Theater.  Photo Courtesy of Chanhassen Dinner Based on the play The Matchmaker by fellow Midwesterner Thornton Wilder, Hello Dolly describes an eccentric but loving widow who functions as New York City’s resident matchmaker at the turn of the century. After

The classic musical gets delightful treatment as the Guthrie’s 2014 musical production Sometimes there are shows that sell themselves.  With a story (and music) as delightful as that of My Fair Lady, it’s easy to sell seats – but it’s much harder to live up to that packed audience’s expectations. 

The endearing story of singing nuns rocks the house.  Photo courtesy of Hennepin Theater Trust What happens when two worlds collide? In the best case scenario, the result is something like Sister Act, a story of a witness protection program particiapent who revolutionizes the stuffy nunnery she’s brought to. Deloris

“You’ve got to love Dublin for dreamin’, ‘ey boys?” What would you do if you had only one chance for true love? Once tells the story of just that: a brief but inopportune moment when two people fall deeply into a love they cannot consummate. It’s the best-worst kind of

Summertime….when the living is easy….. But is the living easy? It’s unlikely that it was for Porgy and Bess in the musical of the same name, recently featured at the Ordway.  Porgy and Bess is West Side Story meets Oliver meets Ella Fitzgerald, and I’ve never seen anything like it.