Jay Gabler

What's happening this week

Thursday, February 4

On the radar: The buzz for the homegrown production of Rent opening this week at the Lab  (formerly the Guthrie Lab) kicked into overdrive when casting was announced, but dipping into the music scene—snagging Maria Isa and Harley Wood, among others—isn't this production's only innovation. The producers are staging the show as a theater-concert hybrid, with open seating and, after several performances, public afterparties. Tonight's procession from the Lab will lead to the Loop. Don't be the Loser who misses out on this one.

Under the radar: Proposition: the perfect cure for wintertime cabin fever is a big ol' hula hoop jam. If that idea sounds absolutely absurd to you, you'll really want to avoid tonight's event, at which participants are being invited to wear a fun hair piece, a colorful outfit, or furry leggings.

Friday, February 5

On the radar: The word "quotidian" is not particularly quotidian, but this is contemporary art, so if you're going to display commonplace objects you have to surround them with esoteric verbiage. Opening tonight at the Weisman with a preview party is Common Sense: Art and the Quotidian.

Under the radar: "Do you guys actually have an office?" I'm often asked that question, and the answer is yes! Today is your chance to not just see the Daily Planet's glamorous digs, but to party with us as we host a happy-hour reception to welcome 2010.MORE »

A sizable crowd of attentive and discerning chamber music fans settled in at the Southern Theater on Sunday evening for the first of two performances of a program of music by Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky presented by Accordo, a new instrumental supergroup comprising members of the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO). How good is this group? Imagine if Prince, Slug, Paul Westerberg, and Haley Bonar were to jam together. Actually, that would probably be absolutely terrible...but Accordo sound great.MORE »

I understand that Philip Bither, the Walker Art Center's curator of performing arts, chooses the productions to be included in each year's Out There series as a curator of visual arts would choose paintings to hang alongside one another on a gallery wall: Bither selects pieces that speak to one another and present different perspectives on a central theme. Certainly Hotel Modern's The Great War (originally created in 2001 and playing at the Walker this weekend) is interesting to consider in light of Radiohole's Whatever, Heaven Allows—which preceded it by two weeks in the McGuire Theater. Both pieces deploy formidible craft using transparent devices, but to very different effect.MORE »

With a cold rain falling on sheets of ice, Friday night was not a good night for outdoor jogging, but three times over the course of the night I found myself running at top speed through the streets of Minneapolis. At 7:50 p.m., I was careening through downtown, watching the little blue dot on my iPhone GPS map crawl up 9th Street so I could be sure I was running in the right direction.MORE »