"Dance 'Til You Drop" at History Theatre, a Co-Production with COLLIDE Theatrical Dance Company

What do you get when you combine COLLIDE Theatrical Dance Company, known for creating original dance musicals, with the History Theatre, dedicated to creating new work based on or inspired by true events in Minnesota history? You get Dance 'Til You Drop, a dance musical about a Minnesota dance team who competed and set a record in a dance marathon in the 1930s. Let's call it an original historical dance musical! Like all COLLIDE productions, it features exquisite storytelling through dance, and like all History Theatre shows, it's an informative and compelling look at history and how it relates to today. It's fun, inspirational, nostalgic, and over in a quick two hours that will leave you wanting more.

"Orphan Train" at History Theatre

The History Theatre excels at telling often unknown Minnesota stories, as they did in 1997 with the original musical Orphan Train. At the time, most people hadn't heard of the so-called orphan trains, in which from 1858 to 1929 some 200,000 children were sent west from the East Coast to new homes across the country. The recent New York Times best-selling book Orphan Train has brought more attention to this fascinating bit of American history. Perhaps that's why the History Theatre is bringing back Orphan Train this season. The musical tells fictional stories of orphan train riders based on real events. While it's a bit cheesy and, well, Disney (for lack of a better word), the stories and music brought a tear to my eye on more than one occasion. The wonderful ensemble of seasoned pros and children alike, the excellent folk/Americana score played by a sparse but lovely orchestra, and the moving stories about immigrant orphan children in search of a home is a very affecting combination.

"Watermelon Hill" at History Theatre

The History Theatre in St. Paul is committed to bringing new plays and musicals to the stage, usually inspired by true events in Minnesota history. Their yearly Raw Stages festival, a series of workshops and readings of new works, often results in full productions in the following season or two. But I often wonder, what happens next? After a new play or musical is developed, produced, and well-received, where does it go? In the case of 2001's Watermelon Hill, it comes back again 15 years later. As much as I love seeing new works of theater on History Theatre's stage, I'm thrilled that they brought this wonderful old new work back to the stage, giving it a fresh new production. Inspired by historical events, Watermelon Hill tells the stories of three young women in the mid '60s, pregnant and unmarried, sent in shame to St. Paul's Catholic Infant Home to wait out their pregnancies, deliver their babies, give them up for adoption, and then leave and never look back. Surprisingly light and funny for such a somber topic, the play brings light to the all too familiar tale of the challenges and lack of education and choices facing women in the past, and perhaps to a lesser extant, even today. Along with The How and the Why and Nina Simone: Four Women, it's another fantastic choice of theater to present during Women's History Month.