How I Learned to Drive, a Theatre Unbound production at The Neighborhood House on 11/17/08

By: David de Young
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How I Learned to Drive publicity photo, courtesy of Theatre Unbound Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive premiered Off-Broadway in 1997 and went on to win the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1998. One could easily list several more awards the play received, but let’s suffice it to say it’s a very good script. Theatre Unbound’s Twin Cities production of ...

Shadowlands at The Guthrie Theater on 11/9/08

By: David de Young
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Simon Jones as Lewis and James A. Stephens as Warnie in Shadowlands - Photo by Michal Daniel “The pain now, is part of the happiness, then.  That’s the deal.”  - C.S. Lewis in Shadowlands   William Nicholson’s Shadowlands is the mostly true story of Oxford professor and author C.S. Lewis’s life in the 1950s during the early success of his...

Death and the Maiden at Minneapolis Theater Garage on 11/8/08

By: David de Young
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Delta Rae Giordano and Gabriele Angieri Jr. in Death and the Maiden - Publicity photo by Jon Behm Nimbus Theatre’s production of Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden opened Friday at the Minneapolis Theatre garage.    The play, taking its name from a Schubert quartet, was written in 1991 and had its American premier that same year. Nimbus co-artistic director Liz Neerland...

Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park, by Starting Gate Productions at Mounds Theatre on 11/7/08

By: Janet Preus
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  Starting Gate Productions kicked off their Season of Laughs this weekend with a classic Neil Simon comedy, Barefoot in the Park. If there is anybody reading this who has never read or seen a Neil Simon play, you owe it to yourself to include this niche of popular American culture, dominated by Simon for decades. Thankfully, directing veteran Richard Jackson understands what’s funny about Simon&rsquo...

The Horse, The Bird, The Monkey & The Dancer at Red Eye Theater on 11/7/08

By: David de Young
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Publicity photo In classical music, a fantasia is a composition that springs from improvisation and frees the composer from the constraints of strict musical forms like the symphony, suite, or concerto.  Sandbox Theatre’s The Horse, The Bird, The Monkey & The Dancer is an unfettered piece of that sort; it defies classification, taking you on a journey from point A to point B, but how it gets you the...

Forgetting, a Workhaus Collective production at The Playwrights' Center on 11/1/08

By: David de Young
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Annie Enneking as Ash and Julie Kurtz (seated) as Bone in Trista Baldwin's Forgetting - Publicity photo by Kevin McLaughlin Forgetting, which opened Saturday at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, is about anything but. The Workhaus Collective production of the new play by Trista Baldwin and directed by New York director Daniella Topol is the story of three women in New York City, each of whom has lost...

The Five Fingers of Funk, A Childrens Theatre Company Production at The Children's Theatre Company on 10/25/08

By: Janet Preus
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  Band leader Poppo (Jahi Kearse, pictured at center) has big plans for his newly formed band, The Five Fingers of Funk, in Will Power's major new musical, FIVE FINGERS OF FUNK, playing October 24-November 16 at The Children's Theatre Company. Photo by Rob Levine. Pictured l-r: DP (Namir Smallwood), Falcon (Matt Rein), Poppo (Jahi Kearse), Big Ced (Keith A. Hale), Ruby (Traci M. Allen) Directed by Der...

Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at The Guthrie Theater on 10/15/08

By: David de Young
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Stephen Epp as Davies - Photo by Michal Daniel The Caretaker by Harold Pinter opened Wednesday in the Dowling Studio at the Guthrie in a production directed by Benjamin McGovern. Pinter’s first commercial and critical success, The Caretaker debuted in London in 1960. His previous work The Birthday Party, just two years before, had been famously panned by Kenneth Tynan as “frivolous” and had not...

Bright Lights, Big City, A Minneapolis Musical Theatre Production at Illusion Theater on 10/12/08

By: Nicholas Leeman
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Patrick Morgan as Jamie - Photo by Roy Blakey The latest offering from Steven Meerdink and Minneapolis Musical Theatre, Bright Lights, Big City, is taken from a nearly-autobiographical novel of the same name by Jay McInerney, which was turned into a 1988 film starring Michael J. Fox in the lead role. MMT's production doesn't lift the story out of the decade it was written in, though it ...

Killer Joe, a Theatre Pro Rata production at Gremlin Theatre on 10/10/08

By: David de Young
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Pictured: Katie Willer and Zach Curtis. Photo: Charlie Gorrill Killer Joe is a 1991 “in your face” play by Steppenwolf Theatre Company playwright and actor Tracy Letts that had its initial debut in Chicago in 1993. Theatre Pro Rata’s production opened October 4 at the Gremlin Theater in Minneapolis.    As much a punch in the gut as a drama, I only find myself wishing I had seen ...