Broadway tour of "My Fair Lady" at the Ordway Center for Performing Arts

The 2018 Broadway revival of the beloved Lerner and Loewe classic My Fair Lady ran for a little over a year and was nominated for ten Tony Awards, winning Best Costume Design. The tour is back in the Twin Cities for the second time, but I missed it the first time around, so I was more than happy to spend a loverly evening at the Ordway with this luscious production. While a little dated, the musical "deals with issues of class, gender, societal expectations, and the intersection of wealth and power" (to quote myself). And this production, directed by the legendary Bartlett Sher, is fully aware of all of that, with some thorny conversations about those topics between its two main characters. I wish it were shorter (three hours is tough to sit through no matter the show), but I can't think of what I would cut because even the songs that have little to do with the plot (e.g., Eliza's dad's songs) are so much fun it's hard to imagine parting with any of them. If you haven't yet seen this new production and have a fondness for My Fair Lady, you'll definitely want to check out one of the four remaining performances (limited tickets remain).

"The King and I" Broadway Tour at the Orpheum Theatre

Last night I finally had the opportunity to see the one musical of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Big Five that I hadn't seen - The King and I, the Tony winner for best musical in 1951. The national tour of the 2015 Broadway revival (also a Tony winner) has landed in Minneapolis for the week, and it's a gorgeous production. Another beautiful Rodgers and Hammerstein score, played by a big and wonderful pit orchestra, luscious costumes and impressive set, and a talented cast that includes the most Asian-American actors I've seen on stage since... Mu Performing Arts and Park Square Theatre's production of Flower Drum Song (another R&H musical) last month. While it's pretty old fashioned (it's not the most feminist piece and suffers from the white savior complex), it is a classic, beautifully presented, and makes for quite the luscious feast.

"Newsies" on tour at the Orpheum Theatre

I'm just a little bit too old to be among the ranks of teenage girls that fell in love with the 1992 Disney movie musical Newsies. Loosely based on the historical newsboys strike of 1899, the movie starred a young Christian Bale and was a flop at the box office, but found success among said teenage girls through the burgeoning home video market. So it seems inevitable that Disney would capitalize on this popularity by bringing the movie musical to the stage, as they did with the 2012 Broadway hit that ran for four years and launched a tour that is finally landing in Minneapolis this week. While it's very much a Disney production and I'm still a little too old to completely fall in love with it, I thoroughly enjoyed Newsies because of the fantastic dancing by a huge cast of charismatic young men (this is not a show that employs a lot of women), impressive set, rousing songs, and charming performances by all. But it's only here for a week, so embrace your inner teenage girl and head on down to the Orpheum Theatre.*