Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Comes to Life at The Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis

Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas Photo by Kaitlin Randolph

The first of the Christmas shows is upon us and The Children’s Theatre Company’s (CTC) production of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is going to be a hard one to top when it comes to holiday shows for the entire family. This is the company’s 10th mounting of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! It was originally commissioned by CTC and they held the world premier in 1994, but somehow it was my first time seeing it. When a company remounts a particular show about every three years it’s a sure sign that they have something very special on their hands. That is certainly the case here. It manages that rare feat of taking a well known classic adapting for a new medium, retaining what makes it a classic without simply repeating every beat of the original source material. It manages to be its own thing, fresh and lively, but without losing the feel of what generations have come to know and love. If you want to dazzle the little ones with a little christmas magic, Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! at the CTC will be just the ticket. You will believe a dog can pull a sleigh.

With Book and Lyrics by Timothy Mason and music by Mel Marvin this is absolutely the story you know so well from the original storybook and the beloved 1966 cartoon special. But with the addition of a framing story featuring and old retired Max the dog recounting the year the Grinch stole christmas and a bunch of musical numbers. What’s delightful is that this adaptation retains the original books use of rhyme throughout. For the uninitiated who grew up without books or TV the plot is:

“A miserly and miserable, ever-so-cantankerous Grinch has observed the despicable Christmas joy of the Whos with disdain, from a distance, for decades. Enough! In this favorite holiday story, filled with music and Seussian rhymes, he conceives a dastardly plot to destroy the holiday they love. It’s the smallest of the Whos, tiny Cindy Lou, who extends a hand. Through the combination of kindness and community, we witness not only a change in the course of Who-History, but the size and capacity of the cantankerous Grinch’s heart.”
From the CTC Website

The cast is led by Reed Sigmund whose Grinch should immediately be cast as the Emcee in the next local production of Cabaret. Sigmund avoids the obvious and makes the role his own. He’s scary when he needs to be finding just the right level for a theatre full of children. He seems completely at home in the green fur and makeup and having seen his performance I can see why they’ve brought him back for what is his 5th run in the role, he completely owns it. Providing excellent support are Dean Holt and Audrey Mojica as the old and young Max’s. Mojica in particular, a 10th grader at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Arts, impresses with her ability to hold her own on stage with Sigmund, it’s not easy to make an impression when you are sharing the stage with such a wild character as the Grinch. Elsa Dungan-Hawks plays Cindy-Lou Who and really shines in the role, she gets a very sweet song to sing with the Grinch entitled Santa For a Day and she carries it off beautifully.

What really makes this productions capture the imaginations of its audience, young and old alike, are the creative folks behind the scenes who bring the world of the Grinch and Whoville to life. The set design by Tom Butsch captures the look and feel of the original along with the costumes by David Kay Mickelsen you feel like you are watching a storybook or cartoon come to life. The projection design by Craig Gottschalk is minimally used, but when it is, it’s very effective. The lighting design by by Nancy Schertler helps to sell several of the visual illusions, particularly they Grinch’s trip down the mountain on his sleigh being pulled by young Max. I loved the theatrical stage magic that director Peter C. Brosius brought together with his team to tell this story in a way that allowed us to completely suspend our disbelief and be carried away by the story. This is a beautifully realized production in every way imaginable and a wonderful adventure to start the holiday season with.

Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! runs through January 8th at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://childrenstheatre.org/whats-on/how-the-grinch-stole-22-23/

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The Pirates of Penzance at Howard Conn Fine Arts Center in Minneapolis

Poster design by Tom McGregor and Mary Olson

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company (GSVLOC) could be named the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Silly Opera Company (GSVSOC) as G&S Operas are awfully silly in the best possible way. Their latest production The Pirates of Penzance is no exception and as such is hugely enjoyable and entertaining. GSVLOC is an unusual company in that they only perform the works of Gilbert and Sullivan and has been doing so in rotation since 1979. Sometimes what you need to do is find out what you are good at, and do that. GSVLOC is very good at staging the works of G & S and I hope they continue to produce them for many years to come. Unlike what we usually think of when we say”Opera” for these productions there is no need for captions so that you can understand what everyone is singing, they are in english and it is not so stylized so as to be unintelligible. Easy to follow, well sung and with a wonderful sense of humor. What is so remarkable about these works is how modern the humor feels despite being, in the case of The Pirates of Penzance, over 140 years old. It’s the sort of Opera you can safely bring the whole family to as the humor is universal.

The plot centers around Frederic who was apprenticed to pirates as a young boy due to his nursemaid Ruth mishearing his father’s instructions. As the Opera opens Frederic has turned 21 and the Pirates are throwing a party for him as this marks the end of his endenturement. Frederic reveals to the Pirate King that he has stayed with them out of a sense of duty though he knew it was a mistake, but now as he is free he feels his duty is now to eradicate the pirates. Parting from the pirates Frederic comes across a party of young women, the daughters of Major-General Stanley, who is of course the very model of a modern Major-General. He falls in love with the one daughter who will have him despite his past association with pirates. Her name is Mabel. Just when all seems too good to be true, the pirates arrive and attempt to make off with the Major-General’s daughters. Luckily the Major-General knows of these tenderhearted pirates and their weakness for orphans. He lies to the Pirate King that he is an orphan and so the pirates leave empty handed. In Act II just before Frederic is about to lead a group of policemen against the pirates, the Pirate King and Ruth pay him a visit and point out a paradox that they thought he might find humorous. It seems Frederic was born on February 29th, leap year, so technically he is only a little over five years old. Thanks to his overdeveloped sense of duty, Frederic returns to the ranks of the pirates and plans to remain with them until 1940 when he will have had 21 birthdays. Mabel, as any young woman in love would, has agreed to wait for him. Silliness continues to ensue.

The Howard Conn Fine Arts Center is not a large Theater or stage, but somehow it manages to hold a cast of 30 performers. True about 20 are unnamed Pirates, Policemen, Daughters and their Governesses, but the sound they make together is impressive. Seth Tychon Steidl plays Frederic and Lara Trujillo plays Ruth and more than any other actors they seemed to fully embody their roles. Not only is everyone in the entire ensemble in great vocal form but all thirty of them uniformly understand the tone of the piece. Director Gary Briggle understands the humorous elements and finds the perfect way to stage each beat to maximize it’s comic potential. The production is under the musical direction of Randal A. Buikema who along with his orchestra bring one of Sir Arthur Sullivan’s best loved compositions to exquisite life. Wendy Waszut-Barret’s set design and scenic backdrop are perfectly complemented by Carl Schoenborn’s lighting design. This is particularly well exhibited during the Overture which plays as the lighting slowly changes and with them comes beautiful, subtle changes in the look of the main backdrop of a pirate ship sailing on the horizon. It’s an effective way to visually engage the audience and enables them to connect to the music on a level beyond aurelly.

GSVLOC’s production of The Pirates of Penzance or The Slave of Duty is a joyful production filled with witty lyrics and magically engaging music performed by a group of talented and comedically gifted actors and musicians. Don’t miss your chance to see one of Gilbert & Sullivan’s most well known and brilliant very light operas. The play runs through November 20th at the Howard Conn Fine Arts Center for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://gsvloc.org/on-stage/, you can also find a lot of very interesting information on their sites about G&S and the theatre company.

The Boys Room is Brutal But Also Bitingly Funny at the Gremlin Theatre in St. Paul

Linda Kelsey and Lucy Farrell Photo by Alyssa Kristine Photography

The Boys Room by Joel Drake Johnson which had its world premiere in Chicago in 2011, is making its area premiere this month at Gremlin theatre in St. Paul. Having seen the play I cannot imagine why it has taken eleven years for a local theater to produce this powerful, funny, dark, heartbreaking play. The play features four meaty roles that any actor would relish the opportunity to play. Perhaps we are fortunate that it didn’t play before now because it’s hard to imagine a production that could improve on this one. There isn’t anything that doesn’t work in this production, working from a brilliant script, every aspect from the lighting, set design, and performances is flawless. It’s wonderful to see something new that feels raw and real in such a visceral way, this is theater that will move you at times to laugh and at times, to cry.

Johnson’s play tells of two grown sons who come home to the house they grew up in to escape the adult world they can’t seem to face anymore. Tim has been living back with his Mom, Susan, for awhile having gotten divorced and lost his job, he is there because he has nowhere else to go. Ron has walked out on his wife, who was just diagnosed with breast cancer, and their daughter Roann, he’s there because he wants to be. Susan cares for her sons but isn’t overly affectionate towards them; however, she is warm and attentive to her granddaughter Roann. Ron and Tim, two grown brothers who don’t seem to like each other very much have a difficult time sharing their boyhood bedroom, easily falling back into old childish patterns. Much of the humor in the show comes from their adolescent behavior and bickering where much of the truth comes from the moments when they do connect as men. When Roann comes looking for her father to ask him questions, we see the depths and shallows of their characters. Roann also brings out the warmth and nurturing side in Susan. The Boys Room isn’t just about men who seem to have regressed back into children it’s about familial relationships. The dynamics between parents and children and grandparents and grandchildren and how they impact other relationships. It also explores our capacity for selfishness and who we are willing to be there for and who we aren’t.

Gremlin Theatre has rounded up three actors familiar to MN theatergoers who nail their parts but it’s newcomer Lucy Farrell who takes the stage as Roann about midway through the play announcing, there is a new rising star in the Twin Cities. To say Farrell blew me away would be an understatement, the first words on my lips as I left the play is who is this actress? Where did she come from? In her scenes with Linda Kelsey who plays her grandmother Susan, she has a playful rapport when they practice Susan’s Spanish together. But the two also have a very palpable tenderness that radiates from both of them. When she confronts her father and namesake Ron, played by Dan Hopman, she unleashes all of the anger and pain that we have seen glimpses of in the scenes leading up to it. She is adept at playing all these different aspects of the character, playful, confessional, worried, angry, sad, strong not in individual scenes, but you sense all of these multitudes within her the entire time. Gremlin Theatre Artistic Director Peter Christian Hansen plays Tim, the brother who is reading Jane Eyre for the second time so that he can try and connect with his own daughter. It may perhaps be unfair to devote so much time to Farrell’s performance when she is sharing the stage with three actors who give as memorable performances as her co-stars do. Hopman channels despondency perfectly, he somehow makes a character whose actions are pretty sickening somewhat sympathetic by the end. Hansen makes the frustration of Tim being intruded upon relatable through the tragic nature of his circumstance, showing us his pain and how much this room has become a refuge for him. Kelsey, plays Susan as a character who behaves differently depending on who she is with, but again, she makes it all feel authentic, we never don’t believe that the woman who is dismissive of Ron is the same woman who talks to her granddaughter with such love and warmth.

Brian Balcom directs the play, with perhaps the one small criticism I could make, there are a couple of fairly long stretches where a character sits with their back to the audience. But otherwise his staging works very well. I especially liked that characters in rooms other than where the action was taking place continued on with their lives, the lights would dim on them but they continued in conversation as if a mute button had been pressed. Carl Schoenborn as Technical Director and Scenic and Lighting Design created a space that clearly defines the two main areas of the house the boys bedroom and the kitchen using his lighting to direct our focus.

The Boys Room runs through November 27th for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://gremlintheatre.org/