CLOUD 9
Saturday, March 12th, 2016Nearly four decades have passed since Cloud 9 made its West End debut, but Caryl Churchill’s comedic examination of gender and sexuality remains every bit as entertaining, as contemporary, and as downright mind-blowing in 2016 as it was in 1979, particularly as given vibrant new life by The Antaeus Company in a “partner-cast” staging that would give any Broadway revival a run for its money, albeit on a far more intimate (and infinitely more affordable) scale.
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THE MONGOOSE
Monday, March 7th, 2016NOT RECOMMENDED
Acting, direction, and design are all Grade A in The Mongoose, but what on earth prompted The Road Theatre Company to give Will Arbery’s head-scratcher of a script the go-ahead?
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VIEUX CARRÉ
Friday, March 4th, 2016Memories light the corners of Tennessee Williams’ mind in Vieux Carré, the Great American Playwright’s reminiscences of time spent in New Orleans’ French Quarter, revived to vibrant, excitingly theatrical life by Coeurage Theatre Company under Jeremy Lelliott’s inspired direction.
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ONLY THE MOON HOWLS
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2016Star-crossed love gets a fresh new highly theatrical spin as Theatre Unleashed gives Dean Farell Bruggeman’s 50-minute Hollywood Fringe Festival gem, Only The Moon Howls, a thoroughly engaging first full staging.
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BROKEN FENCES
Saturday, February 27th, 2016The effects of urban gentrification on two Chicago couples, one upwardly mobile and white, the other financially challenged and black, are examined in Broken Fences, a Road Theatre Company World Premiere whose star performances and impressive production design largely overcome the tonal inconsistencies and missed opportunities of Steven Simoncic’s thought-provoking, often quite powerful script.
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TIMESHARE
Monday, January 11th, 2016RECOMMENDED
A ragtag sales staff’s attempts to convince would-be buyers to take a chance on the proverbial “deal of a lifetime” add up to a series of wild-and-wacky Act One vignettes till a pre-intermission plot twist sends Steve B. Green’s World Premiere comedy Timeshare into darker, somewhat less successful territory.
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ANOTHER ANTIGONE
Monday, January 4th, 2016RECOMMENDED
A.R. Gurney’s smartly comic look at university life (and the Greek classics) circa the late 1980s gets a welcome if imperfect revival at The Group Rep, one that could benefit from a more assured directorial vision and a more credible female lead performance.
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THAT LOVIN’ FEELIN’
Sunday, December 27th, 20151960s blue-eyed soul lives again in That Lovin’ Feelin’, a Twin Cities dinner theater hit now being given a West Coast Premiere that transcends James A. Zimmerman’s rather by-the-number script thanks largely to the thrilling musical performances of Morgan Lauff as Bill Medley and Brenden MacDonald as Bobby Hatfield, aka The Righteous Brothers.
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