Broadway Tour of "Once on this Island" at the Ordway Center

The 2018 Best Revival Tony winner Once on this Island is bringing all of the warmth, joy, and sorrow of a Caribbean island to frozen Minnesota. Based on a book that's based on The Little Mermaid, it tells the familiar story of a young woman who falls in love with a man she rescues on the beach, giving up her life for him, only to be rejected. But here the twist is that this young woman's love changed the world for the better. The beautiful thing about Once on this Island is the storytelling employed. It starts with a community gathered around a common space and telling a story to a frightened little girl, which humanity has been doing for millennia. This feels very much like that ancient tradition, only with a few more theatrical tricks. Head to St. Paul's Ordway Center this weekend to experience this wonderful story.

"The Parchman Hour" at the Guthrie Theater

"Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on freedom. Hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah!" The closing number of the fantastic music-theater piece The Parchman Hour by Mike Wiley is so uplifting and inspirational. This "docudrama" about the 1961 Freedom Riders, in which primarily young people, black and white, from all over the country, came together to make a stand for desegregation of the bus stations of the South, is pretty heavy and difficult to watch at times. But in the end it left me with an overwhelming feeling of hope. We've come a long way in 55 years, people are no longer beat up by a mob of bigots for sitting in the wrong waiting room, but we have our own issues today (the play ends with a chilling recitation of the names of black men and women who have been killed by police in recent years). But I believe that there are more people in this country like those Freedom Riders, perhaps not as brave and selfless, but with our minds stayed on freedom, than there are like the people who stood in their way. If we stand (or sit) together, stand up for freedom, practice non-violence, and sing, we can get through this difficult time and achieve true justice and equality for all. At least that's how I felt leaving the Guthrie Theater last night; such is the power of The Parchman Hour.

"The Heidi Chronicles" at the Guthrie Theater

Playwright Wendy Wasserstein (whose work was last seen on the Guthrie stage in 2008 with the excellent Third) won a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize for her most well-known work, The Heidi Chronicles. It's an epic play, covering nothing less than the changing role of women in American society in the '60s, '70s, and '80s through the life of one woman. We see about a dozen scenes of Heidi at 2-3 year intervals throughout her life as she struggles to figure out who she is and what she wants in life during a time in America that saw great social change. These snapshots of a life create a complete picture of who this woman is, although I couldn't help but wish we had more time to spend with each different Heidi throughout the years (someone should adapt the play into a TV series, with each scene expanded into a 10-episode season). This fantastic cast of Guthrie faves and newbies bring Heidi's story to life, along with some pretty fabulous period costumes and ingenious set design.

The play opens with Heidi in the present day, aka 1989, giving a lecture on women artists. We then flash back to a high school dance in 1965, and follow Heidi throughout her life as she goes to college, campaigns for McCarthy, becomes an art historian, and watches her friends get married and have children, until we end up back in the present day again. All of these events inform who Heidi has become, from a baby shower to lunch with an old friend to a TV show about baby boomers. We also follow three of Heidi's friends throughout the years: her friend Susan, who goes from a boy-crazy teen to living in a women's collective to a powerful TV executive; her on-again-off-again boyfriend Scoop, magazine editor for the baby boom generation; and her gay friend Peter, successful pediatrician. Their hair and clothing changes drastically over the years, but their friendship, although strained at times, never wavers.

As Heidi, Guthrie newcomer Kate Wetherhead is a likeable heroine, transforming from awkward teenager to confident professor. Fellow newcomers play the men in Heidi's life - Zach Shaffer as the charming and dependable Peter, and Ben Graney as the jerk Heidi can't seem to rid herself of. Local actors make up the rest of the cast, including Tracey Maloney as Heidi's constant friend who continually redefines herself, Stacia Rice as a range of characters from a conservative mother of four finding her liberation to a vapid TV anchor, Mo Perry (making her welcome Guthrie debut) as an early '70s radical and a soft Southern wife, Eleonore Dendy as a naive young woman in the '70s and a "have it all" woman of the '80s, and Sam Bardwell who is, as usual, fun to watch as multiple minor characters, even when he doesn't say anything.

Clint Ramos does a remarkable job with both costume and set design. From mod '60s dresses to '70s bell-bottoms to '80s shoulder pads, this show is like a fashion parade through the decades. Many quick-changes are involved, especially for Heidi who rarely leaves the stage, and marks the passage of years by adding a jacket or removing a headband. The set consists of a huge wall made up of drawers, file cabinets, empty frames, and shelves, with secret compartments that open to reveal signage that helps establish time and place in the rapidly moving years. Huge set pieces are efficiently moved in during scene changes, from massive museum stairs to a TV studio to a living room. Kudos to the stagehands and everyone behind the scenes for making everything run smoothly. The play also uses music well to set the time and tone, with scenes frequently ending with characters singing along to classics.

The Heidi Chronicles continues on the Guthrie Thrust stage through October 26.

Susan and Heidi in the '60s
(Tracey Maloney and Kate Wetherhead, photo by Joan Marcus)

Heidi and Peter in the '70s
(Kate Wetherhead and Zach Shaffer, photo by Joan Marcus)

can you tell it's the '80s?
(Stacia Rice, Mo Perry, Kate Wetherhead, and Tracey Maloney, photo by Joan Marcus)

"Crimes of the Heart" at the Guthrie Theater

If you have not seen Crimes of the Heart at the Guthrie in the last month, you have just over a week to catch it before it closes. I was previously unfamiliar with this tragicomedy set in the South in the 1970s and was delighted by what I saw. It's darkly funny and features a very real, somewhat dysfunctional, but loving family fully and comfortably inhabited by this six-person cast.

The Magrath sisters grew up in the small town of Hazlehurst, Mississippi with their grandparents following a tragedy. As often is the case, the eldest Lenny stayed behind to care for her ailing grandparents as the other two went off into the world. Youngest sister Babe married the successful town lawyer, while middle sister Meg went off to Hollywood to find her fortune as a singer. After Babe shoots her husband, for reasons that unfold over the course of the play, the sisters reunite in their grandparents' home to "get through these real bad days here" together. The "getting through" is complicated by cousin Chick, who's always resented the sisters and is more of a hindrance than a help, and Meg's encounter with an old boyfriend. At the end of the play we don't know if Babe will go to jail, if Meg will reunite with Doc, or if Lenny will be able to stop playing family caregiver and be happy with her new boyfriend, but we do know that for better or worse, the Magrath sisters will be there for each other.

Georgia Cohen, Maggie Chestovich, and
Asley Rose Montondo

As the three sisters, Maggie Chestovich, Georgia Cohen, and Ashley Rose Montondo create very full and different characters in Lenny, Meg, and Babe. Maybe it's because they've been performing the piece for a month, but the familial bond between them is palpable. Sarah Agnew is a hoot as cousin Chick, strolling into the house like she owns it and bossing the sisters around. David Darrow brings a great energy and physicality to the role of Babe's lawyer Barnette, literally jumping around the stage in excitement. Sam Bardwell usually plays the role of Meg's old boyfriend Doc but was out on paternity leave the night I saw the show, so understudy Dustin Bronson filled in. I consider it a privilege to see understudies perform; it's so wonderful to watch someone step into a cast that has been performing together for some time and seem like they've always been there, and you know they're going to give it their all since it's one of the few times they get to perform the role. Such is the case here. This is a cast that works and plays well together, centered on the three sisters.

This is one of those Guthrie sets that I wanted to climb right into and sit down with a glass of lemonade. James Youmans designed the cozy and lived in Magrath home with see through walls, so that you can see the blue sky and power lines behind it. The '70s period costumes by Clint Ramos are super cool, from Meg's Charlie's Angels outfit and classic wrap dress, to Barnette's three piece bell-bottom suit, to Chick's perfectly tailored bright-colored suits with matching shoes.

Crimes of the Heart is funny, tragic, poignant, and engrossing. Go visit these sisters at the Guthrie before they depart and move on with their crazy lives.