"The Butler Did It" at Park Square Theatre

The Park Square Theatre summer mystery is back, and it's a good one! Summery mystery plays have been a tradition at Park Square for decades, with a few years off for various reasons. This year they're premiering a brand new mystery play by prolific local playwright and screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher, an expert at the form. The title of the play - The Butler Did It - tells us that this play is not a whodunnit, but rather a "howcatchem," in which the fun is not in trying to solve the mystery, but rather in watching a smart detective figure out what we already know. In a note in the program, Jeffrey Hatcher explains that he had the idea for this story when writing for the 1990s reboot of the 1970s Peter Falk howcatchem TV series Colombo. He never got to write that episode, so now we get to enjoy it on the Park Square stage. This production is practically perfect in every way - direction, casting, acting, design, execution - and it's very funny, entertaining, engrossing, and still with some surprises in the details even if we do already know whodunnit. See it at Park Square Theatre in lovely downtown St. Paul now through August 16.

"The Most Happy Fella" by Ten Thousand Things at Open Book

Frank Loesser's most popular and frequently produced musical Guys and Dolls is currently playing at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres in a big, splashy, "fantastically fun" production, full of jaw-dropping dance numbers and catchy familiar songs. But for the next few weeks you also have a rare chance to see his lesser-known musical The Most Happy Fella receive the opposite treatment - meaning quiet and intimate and exquisitely lovely. As much as I love a big splashy musical, I have a special place in my heart for a Ten Thousand Things production of a musical, which like all of their worked is stripped down to reveal the truth and heart of the piece, but for musicals also features stripped down music that's unamplified in an intimate space, and gorgeously pure. This is my third experience with The Most Happy Fella, and my favorite to date. This version really touched me; it's such a sweet and hopeful story about love, friendship, community, and finding happiness in life, even if it looks different from what you expected. It's also incredibly timely and relevant in its centering of stories about "women, elders, immigrants, and the working class" (as noted by TTT Artistic Director Caitlin Lowans). But the word is already out - many performances have already sold out and others are close to it, so get your tickets now to experience this lovely classic musical the way that only TTT can do it! (Continuing at Open Book this weekend, Hennepin United Methodist Church next weekend, with best availability at the Capri Theater and 825 Arts the following weekends, through June 7).

"The Glass Menagerie" by Theater Latte Da at the Ritz Theater

Every now and then, Theater Latte Da ("we don't do musical theater we do theater musically") tries their hand to a play (e.g., their 2024 production of Stones in His Pockets). This season, Artistic Director Justin Lucero has chosen Tennessee Williams' tragically beautiful and beautifully tragic play The Glass Menagerie (which happens to be one of my favorite plays). Thankfully, Latte Da has not turned The Glass Menagerie into a musical, but they have subtly infused it with music via live underscoring, as well as live video projections from onstage cameras. The result is perhaps the best realization of Williams' quintessential (and semi-autobiographical) memory play that I've seen. It's dreamy, and cinematic, and intimate, and nostalgic, and heartachingly beautiful. The innovative and risk-taking concept is gorgeously executed by the entire team, with a cast that is simply perfection. Pay a call to the Wingfields now through March 1; you won't be disappointed, but you may feel pleasantly melancholic after the visit.
UPDATE: extended through March 8!

"Holmes/Poirot" at Park Square Theatre

A year and a half after cancelling the remaining shows in their 2022-2023 season, Park Square Theatre is back! After experiencing financial difficulties, they took a season off to reassess and regroup, and are coming back with a four-show season on their main stage in the Historic Hamm Building in downtown St. Paul. First up is one of those cancelled shows - a world premiere new mystery combining two of literature's favorite detectives. Holmes/Poirot was inspired by a dream that Steve Hendrickson (who has played Holmes multiple times) had, and told to prolific local playwright Jeffrey Hatcher. The result is not one but two thrilling and well-plotted mysteries, brought to life by a fantastic nine-person cast. Park Square has a long history of presenting summer mysteries, and while it is now finally, thankfully, fall, Holmes/Poirot fits well in that popular tradition. Playing Thursdays through Sundays until November 3.

"Johnny Skeeky; or, The Remedy for Everything" by Theater Latte Da at the Ritz Theater

I'm not sure what I expected from the new work of music-theater Johnny Skeeky; or, The Remedy for Everything, based on Puccini's one-act comic opera Gianni Schicchi, but it wasn't... that. #TCTheater legends Bradley Greenwald and Steven Epp have adapted the story about a wealthy man's family fighting over his will (with additional inspiration from Succession and Arrested Development) and written new English lyrics for the music. The result is the most ridiculous and delightful opera I've ever seen. If it can even be called an opera anymore; there's much more dialogue than operas typically contain. But whatever you call it, it's simply a joy to watch this outrageously talented cast sing this gorgeous music with modern, silly, and even sometimes crude words. It's a 100-minute wild romp of an opera. You have plenty of time to get to the Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis and see it before it closes in early July. And if you like music, comedy, and creativity - you definitely should.

"Three Decembers" by Skylark Opera Theatre at Jungle Theater

Skylark Opera Theatre is definitely my kind of opera. No offense to traditional opera with large casts in large venues sung in foreign languages. But the kind of opera that Skylark does - always sung in English, usually with smaller casts in smaller or non-traditional venues - is easier for me to connect with. For six performances only they're presenting the new (i.e., written this century) opera Three Decembers, with music by Jake Heggie and libretto by Gene Scheer based on a play by Terrence McNally. Just three performers accompanied by two pianos tell the intimate (and Mother's Day Weekend appropriate) story of a mother and her two adult children. She may not be the best mother, but she loves her children, she just may love the theater more (can you blame her?). I had an almost front row center seat for this gorgeous performance, feeling really connected to the story that's told so beautifully through words and music in the entirely sung-through show. The characters are singing their dialogue instead of speaking it, which only heightens the emotions of love, grief, frustration, disappointment, and betrayal. If you're someone who feels intimidated by opera, or isn't quite sure it's something you'd like, I encourage you to start with the accessible, intimate, English kind of opera that Skylark does (click here for info and tickets).

"A Servant's Christmas" at History Theatre

For longtime History Theatre Artistic Director Ron Peluso's final show, he chose an old favorite - A Servant's Christmas. It premiered in 1980 and ran for over a dozen years. Early in his 27-year reign Ron had the idea to turn this stalwart play into a musical, and hired composer/ lyricist Drew Jansen to work with playwright John Fenn to add music to this story of servants in a grand house on Summit Avenue around the turn of the last century. The result is a lovely musical about a found family and the atypical way they celebrate the holiday* season, which can include many different traditions. The cast is chock full of fantastic singers, who also bring out all of the emotions of this story of love and longing. See A Servant's Christmas at the History Theatre in downtown St. Paul through December 18.

"Beyond the Rainbow: Garland at Carnegie Hall" at History Theatre

I hope HERstory never ends! After a successful spring of three new works by women about women, HERstory Theatre has continued this fall with the powerful and moving more-than-just-a-play Gloria: A Life (a regional premiere), and now a remount of the History Theatre's original play-with-music Beyond the Rainbow: Garland at Carnegie Hall. This commissioned piece (as many of their work is) premiered in 2005, and has since been produced at regional theaters around the country, including a few return engagements at the History Theatre, most recently in 2011 when I first saw it. Some of the original cast returns, including the incomparable Jody Briskey as Judy, in this story of one of Minnesota's favorite daughters. Everybody loves Judy, especially here in the land of her birth, and this play is a beautiful homage to the human behind the legend, while still celebrating her incredible legacy of music and film.

"Nature" by TigerLion Arts at Lebanon Hills Regional Park

I went for a walk today. But not just any walk, although any walk through Nature is special. It was a walk with my favorite theater experience - TigerLion Arts' outdoor walking play Nature. Seeing it for the fifth time was as moving as seeing it for the first. There are many reasons why Nature is my favorite: it's outdoors in a beautiful natural setting; you get to walk around instead of sitting in an uncomfortable theater seat; it's about as site-specific as theater can get; it combines history, philosophy, spirituality, and ecology; it has elements of physical theater and music; and it's totally immersive in the best way. One of the most wonderful and the most challenging things about theater is that you really have to stay present in the moment. Who hasn't felt their mind wander in the theater? Our lives are so busy and jam-packed that it's difficult to put all of that aside for any length of time. But when you feel the sun warm on your back, or frozen raindrops pelt your face, it very effectively brings you right back to the present and to the experience that we're all having together, right here, right now. Such is Nature, which more than just theater, is an invitation to contemplate one's own relationship with Nature by taking a journey (literally) with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau as they contemplate their relationships to Nature and each other.

"Flowers for the Room" at Yellow Tree Theatre

#TCTheater friends, do yourselves a favor and head on up to Osseo to see Yellow Tree Theatre's new original musical Flowers for the Room. Combining the writing skills of Yellow Tree co-founder Jessica Lind Peterson (best known for her quirky and heart-warming Minnesota holiday plays) with the songwriting skills of Duluth-based musician Blake Thomas (one of my favorite local musicians - check out his music on iTunes and listen to his radio show Take It With You), Flowers for the Room is a truly beautiful new musical that gave me all the feels. Jessica and Blake are well-matched; both of their work has that quirky humor, but also tons of heart and a touch of melancholy. All of those elements are on display in this story of a woman who falls into a coma the night of her wedding, and how it affects her (because this is a musical, she still gets to talk and sing, even in a coma) and those around her. The stellar cast and innovative design bring this beautiful piece to life in a way I haven't yet been able to shake.

"Two Degrees" by Prime Productions at Guthrie Theater

In just their second production, new #TCTheater company Prime Productions (whose mission is "to explore, illuminate and support women over fifty and their stories through the creative voice of performance," hooray!) brings us the regional premiere of the new play Two Degrees by Tira Palmquist. If their goal is to provide interesting and complex roles for women of a certain age that aren't that of merely the wife, mother, or best friend, then this play is a resounding success. Norah Long is one of our best actors, period, and it's wonderful to see her tackle the role of a smart, mature, vibrant, messy woman (think Shonda Rhimes heroines, but on stage). The play is a nice balance of stories global (i.e., the dangers of climate change, from whence comes the title) and personal.

"Sister Act" at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres

Amazing things can happen when women stand together and raise their voices, something we've witnessed recently with all of the sexual harassment and assault experiences that have been coming forward. On the musical theater front, when the women standing together are some of the most talented in #TCTheater, and they're raising their voices in the joyous musical adaptation of the movie Sister Act, it's a very amazing thing. Chanhassen Dinner Theatres is bringing back their smash hit from 2015 with mostly the same cast, but while the show might be the same, the world is a much different place than it was two years ago. This beautiful story of sisterhood, friendship, community, and standing up together and raising your voices for joy, love, and faith, may be needed more now than it ever was.

"Nature" by TigerLion Arts at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

"This one thing I know for sure, we must all return to Nature." So says Henry David Thoreau in TigerLion Arts' outdoor walking play Nature, and I couldn't agree more. That's one of many reasons why I love this unique theater piece so very much and saw it last weekend for the fourth year in a row. It's truly one of my favorite theater things. Nature checks off all of my theater boxes: it's funny, whimsical, poignant, musical, physical (for performers and audience), immersive (but not interactive), historical, spiritual, inspiring, silly, 90 minutes no intermission, and performed in the best location ever - the great outdoors. It fills my heart with joy and my mind with challenging thoughts about the interaction between civilization and nature. The 2017 tour (which included a trip to Concord MA for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Thoreau's birth) has concluded, but follow TigerLion Arts on Facebook and/or Twitter for information on future performances and an upcoming documentary. As long as TigerLion Arts keeps performing Nature and there exists Nature in which to perform it, I will follow them on this beautiful journey.

"Sweet Land, the Musical" at History Theatre

Every place has a story
Every person has their time
Every tale has an ending
Don't know yours
Don't know mine
Every end has a beginning
All beginnings have an end
In between come all the hours
We can barely comprehend
And we hope what came before us
Was a story born of love
Trust the earth
Trust the sun
Trust in god above

"Twisted Apples: Stories from Winesburg, Ohio" at Nautilus Music-Theater

I first experienced Nautilus Music-Theater's lovely new piece of music-theater Twisted Apples: Stories from Winesburg, Ohio about five and a half years ago, when they presented one of the three acts at the 2011 Minnesota Fringe Festival. It was actually the first time I saw Nautilus' work, and I was immediately hooked. I saw another piece of the work at the 2012 Fringe Fest, and have been waiting for the full three-act work ever since. The wait is over! Nautilus specializes in developing new works of music-theater (a term that I've stolen because it can be used to describe anything on the spectrum of play with music/musical/opera without forcing it into a box). To that end, they hold classes and workshops for composers and playwrights, and present readings of new works roughly the second Monday and Tuesday of every month in their "Rough Cuts" series (watch their Facebook page for details, usually announced a week or two prior). Every once in a while they mount a full production of one of these new works in their tiny studio space in Lowertown St. Paul, and now, finally, it's Twisted Apples' turn to have its moment. But hopefully not its last; it's a gorgeous piece that I hope will live on and continue to be performed beyond this nine-show small space run that closes this weekend.

"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.

"Musical Mondays" at Hell's Kitchen, November 2016

I don't know about y'all, but it's been a pretty busy and stressful week for me. So it's taken me a few days to get around to writing this, but I don't want to let the 4th birthday of Musical Mondays at Hell's Kitchen go by unmentioned! This fabulous monthly cabaret series hosted by super talented local actor/singers and real life BFFs Sheena Janson and Max Wojtanowicz began in November of 2012. Four years, 43 shows, over 200 performers, and over 300 musicals (what?! who knew there even were that many musicals!) later and they're still going strong. On the first Monday of every month, from 7 to 9 pm (morning people everywhere rejoice) at Hell's Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis, some of our top local talent can be seen singing songs from musicals beloved and obscure. The goal is to provide performing and networking opportunities, to celebrate musical theater, and to have fun! Their next event is on December 5 when the theme will be a grown-up Christmas wish list. Watch their Facebook page for more details.

"Nature" by TigerLion Arts at Elm Creek Park Reserve

A few weeks ago, I spent four days and three nights in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, just outside of Ely, MN. Even though I've been to New Zealand and Northern Alaska, this was the most in Nature I've ever been. After paddling into the nationally designated wilderness area, the only signs of civilization I and my six companions saw were the campsite fire pits and latrines (if you can call a copper stool with a hole in it standing in the middle of the woods "civilization"). Nothing soothes my fears and relieves my stress like being in Nature. Those four days were like a balm to my soul; the challenge is to carry that feeling with me back into civilization. TigerLion Arts' outdoor walking play about the friendship between Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, simply titled Nature, challenges the audience to escape from civilization for an hour or two and feel Nature's balm. After touring around the Midwest, it was at the beautiful Elm Creek Park Reserve, just north of Maple Grove, last weekend. This was my third time seeing it and the third location (after the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and my alma mater St. John's University), and I will continue to go see it every year they continue to do it. It truly is one of my favorite theater experiences.

"A Night in Olympus" at Illusion Theater

An unpopular high school girl wants to be pretty so she can go to prom with the popular jock. Not exactly a compelling theme for a musical or one I'm particularly interested in seeing. But this tired old story, seen often in fairy tales and '80s movies, is so charmingly told in the infectious new musical A Night in Olympus with a dynamic cast, that it's almost possible to forget that it's about a prom. And the tired story is given a bit of an interesting twist with the injection of Greek mythology. So while I can't really get behind a story written and directed by men in which a girl just wants to be pretty, even if she does learn the obligatory lesson at the end, it's hard not to have a good time at this campy fun musical.

"Sister Act" at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres

While I was off in NYC seeing a bunch of Broadway musicals last week, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres opened a new show. I missed the Sister Act press night (the best press night in town), but they kindly let me attend last night - on my birthday! (I can now cross the Chan emcee wishing me a happy birthday off my bucket list.) Director Michael Brindisi has once again brought us a polished production, and one that's a lot of fun and also has a beautiful heart, I enjoyed it as much as anything I saw on Broadway last week. This is a relatively short run for the Chan (just four months), so make your plans now so you don't miss this wonderful and heart-warming musical. If you need more reasons to see it, I've got ten - read on.