"Wife of a Salesman" by Girl Friday Productions at Gremlin Theatre

A decade or so ago, Girl Friday Productions' performance model was one show every two years, focusing on large-cast American classics, and it was always worth waiting for. Then the pandemic happened, and a change in Artistic Director, to shake things up a little. But now they're back, three years since their last show, and hopefully will move into a regular cadence moving forward. Because while the model might have changed a little - their current show is the new play Wife of a Salesman with just a four-person cast - it's still worth the wait. Perhaps their new niche is new plays that examine classic plays (their last one was Aaron Posner's Life Sucks, very loosely based on Chekhov's Uncle Vanya). This Wife is a fantastic commentary not just on Arthur Miller's American tragedy Death of a Salesman, but on gender roles and women's rights in the last century, and in this one. The short run concludes next weekend, so get yourself to Gremlin Theatre to avoid missing another rare gem by Girl Friday Productions! If you don't, you may have to wait another 2-3 years for the next one. 

"The Cake" at Theatre in the Round

Once again, Theatre in the Round is bringing us a regional premiere of a new and very relevant play. Just a few weeks after closing How to Catch Creation, about Black artists now and in the past, they opened The Cake, about a conservative Southern baker forced to confront her beliefs when they contradict her heart. Written in 2017 by playwright and screenwriter (including for a little show called This is Us) Bekah Brunstetter, the play speaks directly to the divided and divisive world that we live in, that has only gotten more extreme in this second iteration of the current administration. The play is not preachy, the characters feel like real and complex characters instead of mere caricatures, and the conversations had are awkward and necessary. It's sweet and funny and spicy, and in the end provides hope that maybe we can overcome our differences if we're willing to have tough conversations, and look past our differences to find our shared humanity. The Cake plays weekends through March 15 at the oldest theater in Minneapolis, and if all the talk about cake gives you a craving for it, you may be rewarded.

"Misery" at Lakeshore Players Theatre

Lakeshore Players Theatre's 72nd season is taking a sharp turn from a lovely new adaptation of the holiday classic A Christmas Carol to another classic, this one of the dark thriller variety. So buckle up for a deliciously creepy and suspenseful ride through Misery. Stephen King's 1987 novel about an obsessive fan was adapted into the popular 1990 movie, for which Kathy Bates won an Oscar. It was adapted into a play (by original screenwriter William Goldman) just ten years ago or so. I wasn't that familiar with the details of the story when I saw Yellow Tree Theatre's production a couple years ago* so it was chock full of surprise moments. But even now being a little more familiar with it, I found Lakeshore Players Theatre's production to be thoroughly enjoyable. The set is really cool, and the whole package of the design elements creates a suspenseful tension-filled atmosphere that makes the great work of this trio of actors even better. Head to beautiful downtown White Bear Lake for a production of the classic Misery that is anything but.

"Glory" at Theatre in the Round

Similar to The Wolves or Flex, Glory is a play about a women's hockey team that's about so much more than hockey. These athletes are referred to as hockey dolls, sportscasters talk about how they look in their uniforms, when they're strong and tough and powerful people say they must be men, they get paid less and have less access to the things they need than male athletes, and people in power claim women are soft and weak and therefore aren't qualified to do hard things like play hockey (or serve in combat). Was this the 1930s or last week? The answer is both, which is perhaps why the cast and creative team of Theatre in the Round's production of this beautiful play made me cry about hockey, I sport I've never watched and care nothing about. This play (based on a true story and premiering in 2018) deals with sexism, anti-Semitism, war, poverty, and discrimination in a way that's unfortunately still incredibly relevant today. Go see Glory at the oldest theater in Minneapolis, continuing weekends through February 9.

"God of Carnage" at Theatre in the Round

Next up in Theatre in the Round's 73rd season: the "people behaving badly" dark comedy God of Carnage. There have been several local productions of the 2009 Tony winner, most recently by Dark & Stormy in 2022. But this play that I've called "a tightly wound, intense, darkly hilarious four-person play about what happens when our baser natures come to the surface" is worth another visit. These people don't get any more likeable, if anything the reveal of their inner natures is even more vile with each passing year, but Theatre in the Round has assembled a great cast, and their in-the-round staging brings something unique. This play shows us what happens when people say the quiet part out loud, which maybe should have stayed quiet. See it now through April 28, and be prepared to laugh, cringe, and maybe even uncomfortably see yourself a little in these people.