"Man of La Mancha" by Mounds View Community Theatre at Chippewa Middle School

This is my annual PSA to support your local community theater! Especially if one of your favorite #TCTheater director/choreographers is involved. I'm lucky enough that Joe Chvala (founder of the dance company Flying Foot Forum) is directing and choreographing a production for Mounds View Community Theatre for the second time (after helming a delightful H.M.S. Pinnafore two years ago). This Man of La Mancha, playing at a middle school a mile from my house, is as good as what I see on professional stages around town. Of course there's fantastic dancing in Joe's trademark rhythmic percussive style, but he's also assembled a really talented cast, most of them unknown to me, with impressive set design, all of which combines for an all around funny, engaging, and inspiring show. This story of the idealistic noble knight fighting injustice in the world is one that we always need to hear.

"Red Hot and Cole" at Theatre in the Round

Cole Porter wrote many a song in the great American songbook, and dozens of Broadway musicals, his most famous being Anything Goes and Kiss Me Kate (currently being revived on Broadway). I previously learned about his career in musical theater and film at an installment of the Ordway's Broadway Songbook six years ago, but I didn't know much about his personal life. The musical revue Red Hot and Cole, now playing at the longest running theater in Minneapolis, Theatre in the Round, fills in those gaps. Song after hit song, interspersed with scenes from Cole's life and his fabulous and famous friend, all taking place at the swankiest cocktail party. It's an evening filled with great music and a deeper understanding of the man behind so many witty, clever, tuneful songs.