This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing, This Blogger Beamed With Joy at Ten Thousand Things Theater Latest Triumph

Joy Dolo, Maggie Chestovich, and Katie Bradley Photo by Tom Wallace

“… and tell a world’s worth of stories”

This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing by Finegan Kruckemeyer

Tonight Ten Thousand Things Theater (TTT) proved once again that you don’t need a large budget, huge sets, or elaborate costumes to make great theater. Armed with a few simple props and costumes, performed with all the lights up and in the round This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing is as entertaining and creative as anything else you’ll see on any stage. In a world that wants to whitewash our Theaters, TTT offers up a diverse cast telling a story that encompasses the entire planet with a message about self love, helping others, and family. The play is a modern day variation on a fairytale about three sisters, triplets who suffer a loss and then are taken into the woods to be lost. Though triplets, they are very different from each other. Albienne was the oldest and enjoyed cake, Beatrix was next and she was a child of the sun, Carmen was the youngest and carried the world upon her shoulders. When they are left in the woods they each decide what the best course of action will be for themselves and at age 12. They separate, Albienne goes forward out into the world, Carmen stays in the forest, and Beatrix goes back in search of their Father. The play follows each girls story until they are in their thirties and find their way back to each other. Along the way they will first serve others, and then learn to serve themselves.

The five person cast all play multiple roles and every member of this ensemble contributes equally, making it a very special production. Joy Dolo plays Albienne, I have a soft spot in my heart for Dolo. The first time I saw her perform was a show called Every Brilliant Thing. It’s a show where the audience have slips of paper and when she says the number on the slip of paper you have to say or do what is on it. I got the slip that said I was her Father, and I had to make a toast at her wedding. Since that night, she has held a special place in my heart, not just because I played her Father for a minute or two, but because of the connection she made to the entire audience. A connection I have experienced again and again in her performances including this one. Dolo has a way of interacting with the audience that makes them feel welcome and included rather than on the spot. Katie Bradley plays Carmen who just about had us falling out of our seats with laughter as she goes on a feeding frenzy of woodland animals. Maggie Chestovich plays Beatrix, and her character has a manic energy and feistiness, not afraid to go full on wild and crazy when she tries to cheer up a city full of depressed people. The cast is rounded out by Tyson Forbes who plays among many other roles, their Father and Marisa B. Tejeda who among others plays their Mother.

The five together along with the Director Markell Kiefer are masterful storytellers. They convey everything from the changing of the seasons to battles with Vikings with simple movements, small props, and hats that represent the sun and the moon. They use so little, yet use every tool available to them to convey so much. The play is performed to live musical accompaniment by Composer and Music Director Julie Johnson, which is so light and sweet that it floats around the audience lifting us up on it gentle melodic waves. The set and props are designed by Joel Sass, one of the most creative theater designers in the Twin Cities. Equally capable of wowing us with detailed and fabulous designs at Open Eye Theatre or stunning us with the simplistic creativity of a TTT production. The lovely and multifaceted costumes are by Sarah Bahr. The Choreography is by a master of movement, Jim Lichtscheidl, whose ability to complement and enhance the story physically adds immeasurably to the charm of the show.

This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing is filled with humor and creativity, it is exactly the kind of show we need right now. A show that embraces the art of storytelling in a way that inspires us to hope and love and engage. As with all TTT shows this one travels around the area, to find out where they are performing, on what dates, and to grab your tickets go to https://tenthousandthings.org/

Now more than ever in the wake of the most recent election and the hailstorm of stupidity and hate it has unleashed, Theater companies need you and we need them. Buy tickets to shows go out and support work that reflects diversity and inclusiveness. Donate to your favorite theater companies, don’t wait until they are on the brink of shutting down. We all need to stand up and fight for our Theaters whose funding is under attack for promoting inclusion, equality and diversity.

Tired of missing reviews from The Stages of MN? Do you find yourself left out when all your friends are talking about that great new play that you didn’t even know about? Never fear, that need never happen again. Now you too can subscribe and have every post from The Stages of MN sent directly to your email box. No more hoping the algorithm works in your favor and you actually see a post on facebook or Instagram. No relying on so-called friends to tip you to the best shows in town. To subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn.

But that’s not all! You can also read some of my reviews syndicated on the MN Playlist website https://minnesotaplaylist.com/ from time to time. Think I may have steered you wrong on a show? Well, I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by m’colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers.

The Fight Has Begun. Support Yellow Tree Theatre

“But when you act, you take us away from the squalor of the real world” – From Evita Lyric by Tim Rice

Last Night I did something I rarely get to do, I went to a show for the second time, just to experience and share the joy of it. That show was A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Guthrie Theater, but it could as easily have been a show at Yellow Tree or any of the dozens of actively producing theatre companies in the Twin Cities area. On the ride home after we had dropped off my son and his fiancée and had finished discussing the play, my wife and I got talking about current events. The thought kept coming into my head, this is why we go to the theater, to raise our spirits and take us away from real world for just a few hours. That is one of the many reasons that the theater is so important. Not only does it help us escape, but it has the advantage over streaming at home in that it gets us out of our houses, out into the community, sharing an experience with more than just those on the couch next to us. We are so fortunate here in the Twin Cities to have such a vast and diverse theater community, but it is under attack. If we want to protect that community we have to step up now.

This morning I received an email from Yellow Tree Theatre in Osseo, who has produced some wonderful theater out in the suburbs. Below are some quotes from the email:

Yellow Tree Theatre relies heavily on national and statewide grants to support our mission. Recently, we have been informed that statewide and federal arts funding have dramatically decreased or have been canceled making grant funding even more competitive and affecting our immediate cash flow. This is a drastic decrease like we have never experienced before. 

These challenges threaten not only our ability to keep our doors open but also our ongoing core mission:

Providing access to the arts for everyone, including underserved communities in North Minneapolis and the surrounding suburbs.

Championing diverse voices—stories by and for artists of color, women, LGBTQ+ communities, and others historically marginalized in theater.

We believe that theater should reflect the richness of the world around us. That’s why we remain committed to producing bold and inclusive work.

But We Can’t Do It Without You.

If you believe in the power to build bridges, spark conversations, and create change, we ask you to stand with us today. Every dollar makes a difference. Every gift fuels our ability to continue. Donate today to help us sustain our mission, keep our doors open, and continue making Yellow Tree Theatre a home for all.

We are going to see this more and more often going forward. Theaters will close, but let’s not let it happen today, let’s not let it be Yellow Tree. I’ve written before about my belief that these theaters like Yellow Tree and Lyric Arts in Anoka create a valuable link in reaching the goal of creating new theater audiences. That goal is more important now than ever before. We can make the theater community stronger by building that audience. I’m going to ask you to click on the button below and make a donation to Yellow Tree Theatre if you can. I’m also going to ask all of you, faithful readers, to take someone new to a show in the next few weeks. Let’s build that audience up!

https://ci.ovationtix.com/35626/store/donations/39012

Need ideas of what to see?

Tired of missing reviews from The Stages of MN? Do you find yourself left out when all your friends are talking about that great new play that you didn’t even know about? Never fear, that need never happen again. Now you too can subscribe and have every post from The Stages of MN sent directly to your email box. No more hoping the algorithm works in your favor and you actually see a post on facebook or Instagram. No relying on so-called friends to tip you to the best shows in town. To subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn.

But that’s not all! You can also read some of my reviews syndicated on the MN Playlist website https://minnesotaplaylist.com/ from time to time. Think I may have steered you wrong on a show? Well, I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by m’colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers.

Paradise Blue is Sexy and Soulful at Penumbra Theatre

Paradise Blue at Penumbra Theatre revolves around a Jazz Club but surprisingly features very little actual jazz. It’s more concerned with the people that call The Paradise Club home. Jazz may be their bread and butter, but of larger the issue is of change, who it effects and at what price. The five characters all have different priorities and value different things, just as in real life. One person’s future is another’s past, one person’s home is another’s prison. It’s a wonderfully acted play and the design is the best I’ve seen at Penumbra. The first Act is undeniably too long, it’s not a case of knowing what should be removed or tightened, just a general consensus among myself and other audience members I spoke with, we were all waiting for intermission. Act one just feels too long, fortunately Act two does not. The play runs two and a half hours including the intermission, I’d guess rather than large changes it needs about 10 minutes of judicious trims from the first Act to play perfectly. It’s a strength of the writing that the answer isn’t an easier fix, it’s hard to imagine the removal of any whole scenes or character arcs. It just needs a minute or so cut from each scene to overcome that sense the first Act needed to end sooner. I don’t think Director Lou Bellamy could accomplish it just by quickening up the pace, I think he has the individual scenes paced and staged brilliantly. The problem lies in the script, which aside from being too long before intermission, is really great. It’s such an odd criticism, I know, but thankfully the only negative thing I can say about it is that Act One seems 10 minutes to long.

Set in Detroit’s Black Bottom district in 1949, during a period when the city was attempting the gentrification of the Paradise Valley. The Valley is an area that is filled with black owned and operated businesses. One such business is The Paradise Club which is owned by Blue who inherited it from his father as well as his musical gift on the Trumpet. Blue’s also rents out the rooms above the club, mostly to the remaining other musicians in his quartet, Corn the pianist, and P-Sam on the drums. Helping him run the place is his woman, Pumpkin (I’m not trying to be sexist here, but it’s never clear in the play if Pumpkin and Blue are married or just together, his woman is how she’s referred to). Blue is making changes after firing the bass player until they find a new one. He first appears after a meeting downtown with the city who are looking to buy up all the property in Paradise Valley. Into the club comes Silver, who is new to town and on her own, with a wad of money looking for a room. Silver might as well be named Sex, because watching her leave a room feels like a sin. Throughout the play we comes to understand the characters roles in this fragile found family. There are struggles between the characters that seem to divide them into those who are looking out just for themselves and those who care for others. It also explores the ideas of what we inherit from others either through family or environment.

A great cast to be sure, but the woman are so truly unforgettable. Nubia Monks plays Pumpkin who really is the glue that holds the club together, she cooks the meals, cleans the rooms, and anything else that needs doing. Monks doesn’t play Pumpkin’s goodness and caring, she exudes it. With every smile, line reading, or moment of peacekeeping she broadcasts Pumpkin’s innate love of her friends. Whereas Pumpkin seems to be purity incarnate, Angela Wildflower plays Silver with a worldliness that comes of intelligence and realism. Wildflower seems to spend about a third of the play in her lingerie, she uses her sex appeal strategically to be sure, but you also feel that when she does end up the lover of one of the characters, it isn’t just for leverage but a genuine attraction. Like the character Wildflower knows how to use her sex appeal to her advantage as illustrated everytime she leaves a room. She is full of confidence and it’s that aspect as well as her walk that has all eyes on her when she’s on stage. Lester Purry plays Corn and Darrick Mosley plays P-Sam, they have an easy banter and understanding of each other. Purry plays Corn as the calm in the center of the storm, watching and coaching and trying to keep the peace between everyone. Mosley plays P-Sam as someone a bit impetuous, who hasn’t been around long enough to see the big picture as Corn does. Mikell Sapp plays Blue, slowly revealing with his eyes that something isn’t quite right. His performance gives us a nonverbal clue to information that is revealed later so we are prepared for it.

The Set Design by Maruti Evans is really something. It’s the bar and stage of the Paradise Club, and some of the tables and chairs, which looked great. Before the show started I was commenting on how much I loved the set design. Then at one point the mirror behind the bar slides up and we see into Silver’s room. It was unexpected and a thrilling surprise. I also loved the costumes by Wanda Walden. Walden has Blue always looking extremely dapper including some really cool shoes that match the color of his ties. Walden dresses Silver in a way that accentuates her sensuality but still preserves the Actors modesty. Some of my favorite touches from Walden though were Corn’s apparel, it isn’t flashy like Blue and P-Sam’s outfits can be, they are more subtle, but beautifully coordinated. The Lighting Design by Marcus Dillard and the Sound Design by Composer Gregory Robinson also add invaluably to the quality of the production.

Don’t let that run time dissuade you from what is really a very good play. Paradise Blue runs through March 9th at Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://penumbratheatre.org/event/paradise-blue/#6

Tired of missing reviews from The Stages of MN? Do you find yourself left out when all your friends are talking about that great new play that you didn’t even know about? Never fear, that need never happen again. Now you too can subscribe and have every post from The Stages of MN sent directly to your email box. No more hoping the algorithm works in your favor and you actually see a post on facebook or Instagram. No relying on so-called friends to tip you to the best shows in town. To subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn.

But that’s not all! You can also read some of my reviews syndicated on the MN Playlist website https://minnesotaplaylist.com/ from time to time. Think I may have steered you wrong on a show? Well, I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by m’colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers.

School Pictures Schools the Audience at Theater Latté Da in Northeast Minneapolis

Writer-performer Milo Cramer in School Pictures at Theater Latté Da. Photo credit: Dan Norman.

Milo Cramer’s solo show School Pictures Which just won a 2025 Obie Award makes its local premiere at Theater Latté Da. A low tech, low key, delightfully quirky and quick 75 minute show that makes you laugh and think. Cramer wrote the show about a five year period in his life when he tutored students in New York City. Cramer sings with a voice that won’t win him any singing contests. And yet, it’s his slightly high pitched kinda in and out of key quality that gets the audience on his side right from the start. It’s charming and relatable, as are his instrumentations which are simplistic. He’s telling us up front that he’s not a musical theater major who composes songs for full orchestras, he’s just like us, with an ability to carry a tune and learn a few cords on a ukulele. He’s just here to sing us a few silly little comedic songs about some teenage kids he tutored and their sometimes eye rolling attitudes and problems. He lulls you into a sense of comfort and humor and then, there is the big reveal!

As you can see in the photo accompanying this review there are sheets of colored paper with names on them on a bulletin board. Cramer goes through them sequentially, each is a seperate song/story about a student he taught. They are each unique and humorous as little episodes, but the cumulative effect is building to that big reveal. Which is where Cramer takes the audience to school asking us to do a few math problems and giving us facts about the inequity of the New York City school system. The conclusions are eye opening to the uninformed and audiences may find themselves grateful they don’t have kids in that school system. Well, ask an educator at an North Minneapolis Middle School I know of and you will hear stories that will make you furious at the Minneapolis School Board. After the stories I’ve heard from several educators I’m left with the conclusion that like the President they want the public education system to fail. When the students first went back after Covid, the school would repeatedly falsely report there were no covid cases when there were dozens of cases per grade. Guns in the school not being reported by the administration, teachers being told to lie about. Teachers being blamed for getting assaulted. Teachers without text books for students. I have a niece and nephew in South Minneapolis schools which are much better, and have more resources, but that could all easily go away very soon.

The education system in this country has been at a crisis point for a long time now. We need more resources directed at schools, so that we don’t lose dedicated teachers who go unsupported with no resources and no support. But the worst thing is that there is a large segment of a generation of kids that are not being given the opportunity to succeed. Why would anyone want that? Well, you might want that if you wanted a generation of people who didn’t have skills or knowledge to question things. People who haven’t been taught problem solving skills. People like that would be easy to control through fear and misinformation. And if you eliminate independent sources of information, you can control the message and the people. You can continue to keep the wealthy educated and rich, and you can keep the nonwhite and/or poor, in survival mode. These are the thoughts that Cramer’s show stirred up in my mind as I drove home from the show. So cute and funny? Yes, but also with a message of real value and substance.

School Pictures runs through March 2nd at Theater Latté Da. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.latteda.org/school-pictures

Tired of missing reviews from The Stages of MN? Do you find yourself left out when all your friends are talking about that great new play that you didn’t even know about? Never fear, that need never happen again. Now you too can subscribe and have every post from The Stages of MN sent directly to your email box. No more hoping the algorithm works in your favor and you actually see a post on facebook or Instagram. No relying on so-called friends to tip you to the best shows in town. To subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn.

But that’s not all! You can also read some of my reviews syndicated on the MN Playlist website https://minnesotaplaylist.com/ from time to time. Think I may have steered you wrong on a show? Well, I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by m’colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers.

Hadestown Heats up The Orpheum Theatre Again!

Megan Colton (Eurydice), Jaylon C. Crump (Hermes), Bryan Munar (Orpheus), and Hadestown North American Touring Company, 2024. Photo by: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.

Hadestown takes a couple of ancient mythological tales from over 2,000 years ago and creates a wholly original piece of musical theatre. It’s easy to see why it took home eight Tony Awards in 2019 including Best New Musical. It’s one of those shows that feels like it’s doing something new and that’s always exciting. The songs are a mixture of blues and folk with hints of industrial opera and musical theatre as channelled through the early 20th century. It sounds completely unique without sounding alien. The music, lyrics, and book are all by Anais Mitchell who has found a sound that perfectly matches the story and design of the production. If you didn’t catch Hadestown when it came through in 2022, I hope you have tickets already, if not get them while there are still a few left. It’s a stunner of a show with a lived in look that dazzles with the change of a lighting cue.

Hadestown is a story that is told by Hermes, a story he has told before and a story he will tell again. It starts with Orpheus, a poor boy, but he has a gift to give. A song that will make you see the world as it could be, rather than as it is. It’s about a girl, Eurydice, who comes to town and has nothing but falls in love with the boy. It’s also about the God Hades and his wife Persephone, who spends half her time in Hadestown and half in the upper world where she came from. Hades rules the underworld represented as an industrial factory where they build “the wall”. After Hades and Persephone have a fight, he heads to the above world and finds Eurydice, who is cold and hungry, and asks her to come to Hadestown where she will be warm and fed. Egged on by the Fates, she falls for it and gets a ticket on the train to hell. When Orpheus learns that Eurydice has gone to Hadestown, he goes there to find her to bring her home. But Hades is not in the habit of letting people go once they have signed a contract with him.

The roles of Orpheus and Eurydice were performed by Bryan Munar and Megan Colton and unfortunately they are not evenly matched. Colton is fantastic as Eurydice soulful and compelling in songs like “All I’ve Ever Known“. The role of Orpheus I noted in my previous review requires someone with the range of Frankie Valli, unfortunately Munar doesn’t quite have the range, when he goes to the upper registers there’s no power behind it. Munar’s vocals are impressive when it gets down into his comfort zone, but his acting is flat and even his body movements seem devoid of any emotion or tension. In the role of our narrator Hermes is Jaylon C. Crump who has style and sass and everything you want in the role, he was a crowd favorite. Nickolaus Colon and Namisa Mdlalose Bizana play Hades and Persephone, Colon’s deep rich voice is thrilling as the King of the Underworld. Bizana seemed a little flat in the first Act but after intermission she turned the tables and the dance she and Colon do to Orpheus’ song is enchanting. Several big moments to shine, both are top notch vocalists. Scenic Design by Rachel Nauck, Costume Design by Michael Krass and Lighting Design by Bradley King all play crucial roles. The production itself is really well done with all the departments clicking to create a unified whole.

I was talking with M’Colleague Jill, from Cherry and Spoon (if you don’t follow her for her reviews you should http://www.cherryandspoon.com/) and we were commenting on how it feels like everything we see lately seems to reflect the world we find ourselves in no matter when it was written. Hadestown began its theatrical life back in 2006 but check out these lyrics from the song “Why We Build the Wall” sung by Hades the greek, equivalent you might say of Satan.

Because we have and they have not
Because they want what we have got
The enemy is poverty
And the wall keeps out the enemy
And we build the wall to keep us free
That’s why we build the wall
We build the wall to keep us free

“Why We Build the Wall” by Anaïs Mitchell

It’s hard not to view Hades as a certain political figure with his wall meant to distract preying on the unfortunate using fear to get them to act against their own best interests. Hadestown runs through February 16th at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis for more information and to purchase any remaining tickets go to. https://hennepinarts.org/events/hadestown-2025

Tired of missing reviews from The Stages of MN? Do you find yourself left out when all your friends are talking about that great new play that you didn’t even know about? Never fear, that need never happen again. Now you too can subscribe and have every post from The Stages of MN sent directly to your email box. No more hoping the algorithm works in your favor and you actually see a post on facebook or Instagram. No relying on so-called friends to tip you to the best shows in town. To subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn.

But that’s not all! You can also read some of my reviews syndicated on the MN Playlist website https://minnesotaplaylist.com/ from time to time. Think I may have steered you wrong on a show? Well, I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by m’colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers.

The Ostentatious Outlaws of Neehai Valley or Why I Love Theater so Damn Much

Tonight, or I suppose technically it was last night, I attended a workshop and stage reading of a new musical in the works from Keith Hovis commissioned by Trademark Theater. I haven’t attended a lot of staged readings, my schedule is usually so full with shows to allow for it. I am so grateful I attended this one. I’m not going to review the show here, this is a work in progress, though to my mind it’s ready now to be fully mounted. But I do have to write something because it’s after midnight and I’m so excited by what I just saw that I’m not going to be able to sleep until I get something out of me. Hovis, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics has created something very special here. It’s the sort of show that’s hard to categorize because it’s more than one thing. First and foremost, it’s hysterically funny. Secondly, it’s a musical without a single dud or time filling song, every single one is memorable. But it’s also social commentary, representation, raunchy as hell, and moving. In short, it’s genius. But more important than what it is, is how it made me feel. I can only describe the feeling of being in the room when this display of creativity, humor , and humanity was happening as feeling fully alive. This is the feeling a theater junkie like me is always chasing. We feel lucky if we feel a quarter of this feeling, it’s so rare to have this strong of a reaction, and this was just a reading. Wow.

The Cast in Rehearsal: Photo courtesy of Trademark Theater
(L-R) Kiko Laureano, Armando Ronconi, Neal Beckman, Hope Nordquist, Em Adam Rosenberg

There are two downsides to an evening like this, I can rave all I want about it, but if you weren’t there, you missed it. I do this because I want to share experiences like this with you, faithful readers, and until they stage it I can’t. The second problem, and there are honestly only a handful of times this ever happens, this cast is so good, that any cast other than this will never be able to measure up. I can only think of two examples of other shows that have had that effect on me. The first was one of the shows that led to The Stages of MN’s creation, and that was Hedwig and the Angry Inch featuring Trademark Theater’s Founder and Artistic Director Tyler Michaels King as Hedwig and Jay Owen Eisenberg as Yitzhak. The other was a a musical called Interstate that opened at Mixed Blood in March 2020, only to be closed early due to the Covid pandemic. I saw both of those three times each, and wished I could have seen them more. I went back, bringing new people each time because I know that live theater exists as it’s happening. Once a shows run ends, it’s over. The next production will be something different. I’m so excited by what I just saw and I’m so sad that I cannot bring you with me to see it again tomorrow night or next weekend. I have no doubt that Trademark will mount this and I’d be very surprised if we didn’t see it in their 2025-2026 season. When it comes, I’ll remind you that this is a moment that you don’t want to let slip away. My greatest hope is that this cast returns as I’m going to have a very difficult time picturing anyone else in these roles. Everyone of them is perfectly cast, they brilliantly mine every line for maximum effect, it’s rare to hear an audience laugh out loud so much. It is almost non stop laughter, but there was one particularly moving moment. Towards the end, Em Adam Rosenberg sings a song that is so eloquent so moving and so beautifully sung, that they had not only me in tears, but also some of their fellow cast members. It’s a moment I wish I could have shared with my son George, it would have connected for him. I hope I get a chance to share that moment with him in the future.

Tired of missing reviews from The Stages of MN? Do you find yourself left out when all your friends are talking about that great new play that you didn’t even know about? Never fear, that need never happen again. Now you too can subscribe and have every post from The Stages of MN sent directly to your email box. No more hoping the algorithm works in your favor and you actually see a post on facebook or Instagram. No relying on so-called friends to tip you to the best shows in town. To subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn.

But that’s not all! You can also read some of my reviews syndicated on the MN Playlist website https://minnesotaplaylist.com/ from time to time. Think I may have steered you wrong on a show? Well, I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by m’colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers.

The Snowy Day from MN Opera at The Ordway

The Snowy Day an adaptation of the classic groundbreaking and award winning children’s book by Ezra Jack Keats make for a simple but sweet Opera. As one might assume given its picture book origin, this is a short opera running a little over an hour. The subject matter and the length make it a great option for people interested in introducing their musically interested children to the art form. The plot follows a young boy named Peter who wakes up to the first snowfall of the season and the ways in which he spends that first snowy day of the season. We follow along as Peter suffers through his parents insistence that he eat breakfast, put on all his warm clothes and snow gear, and worst of all get his face smeared with Vaseline to avoid chapping. The last one was a new one on me, but I assume comes from the book which was published in 1962. Once finally allowed to go outside we see his disappointment at being told he’s too young to join the bigger kids in a snowball fight. Finding a new friend in a young girl named Amy, and with whom he sleds down a hill, makes snow Angels and a snowman. Before returning home with a snowball in his coat pocket. After lights out he discovers to his disappointment that his snowball has melted, he then has a nightmare in which all of the people he encountered that day appear and begin to melt away as well. When he awakens the next day he finds another fresh layer of snow has fallen and prepares for another day of adventures in the snow.

I’m not knowledgeable enough to discuss the performers singing other than to say for me the best vocals were from John Mburu as Peter’s Daddy, his were the vocals I could hear most clearly as well. Raven McMillon who plays Peter, was too soft to be heard much of the time but gave a very charming performance, childlike without being childish. I also really enjoyed the performance of Leah Hawkins as Mama. She plays it with just the right amount of motherly love combined with, don’t you give me that look, motherliness. They even comment of the fact that she has eyes in the back of her head, my Mom had those too! There are moments such as after Peter has left the house and we stay with Mama as she expresses love and protectiveness that seem to tread water for a little too long. But they are few and though the Libretto by Andrea Davis Pinkney is very simple, one assumes drawing directly from the book for the most part, the music by Joel Thompson is lush and enchanting. The scenic design by Amy Rubin emulates faithfully the look and style of Keats’ original illustrations. There are fun touches like the sledding hill and snowballs. While it lacks the detail and grandness of the spectacular designs we saw in Edward Tulane back in 2022, it perfectly matches this material.

The Snowy Day runs through February 16th at The Ordway in St. Paul. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://mnopera.org/season/2024-2025/the-snowy-day/

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