What’s happening this week
On the radar: Is Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake as exhilarating in real life as it is in Black Swan? If the Voronezh State Ballet Theatre of Russia can’t convince you, no one can. This will be the last dance performance held at Northrop Auditorium before it closes for a major renovation, and a “special reception” will follow the show.
Under the radar: A couple of weeks ago I received a message from my friend Teresa Mock, Batmama herself, with a link to the trailer for The Olympic Gene. “This is a very dear Brit friend of mine that I went to school with in London,” wrote Teresa. “She is performing this thing at the BLB on February 3rd and the 5th…Come come! It’s going to be epic.” Teresa would not lie to me, or to you.
On the radar: Katie Sisneros, Ph.D. candidate in early modern English literature, when asked via Facebook chat about why The Winter’s Tale is one of her favorite Shakespeare plays: “The play is great because it is Shakespeare’s best-executed late-career play. It rethinks time, tragedy, and reality in ways his earlier plays did not. It defies genre and challenges theatrical norms. And other such pithy remarks.”
Under the radar: It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Hüsker Dü co-founder Grant Hart: he’s “in limbo” and weighing his options after a fire did severe damage to his house. Expect a giant, enthusiastic turnout for his show tonight at Cause Spirits & Soundbar.
On the radar: Roger Ebert has a rule that no movie featuring F. Murray Abraham in a supporting role can be entirely bad. The same could be said of any play featuring Sarah Agnew, Luverne Seifert, Maggie Chestovich, or Adam Whisner; as it happens, all four actors are in cast of Workhaus Collective’s Little Eyes, with young Braxton Baker, who was recently seen in the title role of the Children’s Theatre Company production of The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.
Under the radar: The first production of Sartre’s No Exit I saw was at the Boston University Armory, which has since been destroyed to make way for luxury high-rise dorms. It starred a girl I had a huge crush on, but she was dating an unfunny comedian who she later followed to Vegas so he could find fame and fortune. (He didn’t, they broke up, she moved to California and got an MBA and I think got married and probably has kids.) The second production was in a cave in Stillwater. The third will be today, at the Lowry Lab Theater.
On the radar: The Super Bowl is taking place today. What should you be doing during it? Click here to take The Tangential’s quiz and find out.
Under the radar: Whatever your answer turned out to be, consider stopping by In the Heart of the Beast before the game to see a bunch of puppets reenact the wreck of Shackleton’s Endurance.
On the radar: John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett, two of the most distinctive and iconoclastic voices in contemporary country music—in fact, in contemporary music generally—share the stage tonight at the State Theatre.
Under the radar: Resist the temptation to take for granted the fact that the defending back-to-back National Poetry Slam champions, the Soap Boxing team, are based in St. Paul; they’re holding a slam tonight at the Artists’ Quarter.
On the radar: The McKnight Foundation is one of the Twin Cities Daily Planet’s major sponsors, but to prove that there’s no quid pro quo in my recommendation of this event, I’m going to be honest and say that “McKnighty Nights” is an absolutely ridiculous name.
Under the radar: How are you celebrating Black History Month? iTunes would like to you celebrate by buying Lionel Richie’s greatest hits for just $7.99; tempting though that is, you may also want to consider stopping by (or tuning in to) MPR tonight to hear Stephen Smith and Kate Ellis discuss their new book Say It Loud! Great Speeches on Civil Rights and African American Identity.
On the radar: Given that I haven’t been asked to pose for any airbrushing, it seems highly unlikely that I will be named one of the Twin Cities’ hottest people at tonight’s Vita.mn Hotness Gala—but aren’t you dying to know?
Under the radar: Our media partner Reviler celebrates its one-year anniversary tonight with a show at the Triple Rock featuring Buffalo Moon and Mother of Fire.
Daily Planet arts roundup
• Chinese-American teen reacts to Tiger Mother book (feature by Lisa Fan)
• Party for Life Session 2 to benefit ailing singer-songwriter Michael McElrath (interview by Dwight Hobbes)
• Guster gratefully grace the State Theatre (review by Jay Gabler)
• Mary Stuart at the Minnesota Opera: A long goodbye (review by Jay Gabler)
• Linkin Park at the Xcel Energy Center (photos by Jeff Rutherford)
• Bill Travers, perfect music for a Sunday afternoon (after the football season) (review by Dwight Hobbes)
• Disordered: thy name is teenager at Not OUR Kids! conference (blog entry by Sarah Malakoff)
• Phillipe Quesne’s L’Effet de Serge at the Walker Art Center: A delicate balance (review by Jay Gabler)
• Local teacher’s one-woman show uses humor to highlight serious education issues (feature by Steve Share)
• A sizzling Doubt by Ten Thousand Things (review by Jay Gabler)
• At Plymouth Playhouse, wonderfully Marvelous Wonderettes (review by Jean Gabler)
• Children’s Theatre Company’s Babe is a pip (review by Betsy Gabler)
• Theatre Mu and CHAT present Katie Ka Vang’s WTF (review by Sheila Regan)
• Shrek the Musical at the Orpheum Theatre: Best not to ogre-analyze it (review by Jay Gabler)
• Las Madres: Photo exhibit on Mothers of the Disappeared (blog entry by Dick Bernard)
• Minneapolis street art: Phil Jones’s random acts of design (blog entry by Paul Schmelzer)
• TAWU artists’ network explores, expands black culture: Northside exhibit reveals wonders of The Art Within Us (feature by Susan Budig)
• Fire breathing fun at the 2011 Art Sled Rally (blog entry by Alan Wilfahrt)
• Martin Luther King Park’s history and legacy (feature by Susan Gray)
• Farm to school in Wayzata (feature by Tom Niemisto)
• Lost in the shuffle… (blog entry by Melanie Danke)
• Skaters enjoy the ice as St. Paul Winter Carnival begins (feature by Erik Hare)
• The Pop Bowl (blog entry by Erik Hare)
• Winter wonderland and the hunt for treasure (blog entry by Brie Goellner)
• My hair is a statement I never planned to make (feature by Patience Zalanga)
• St. Paul Winter Carnival ice sculptures (blog entry by Ann Treacy)
• Minnesota Mamaleh: Let’s talk going green (blog entry by Galit Breen)
• Can’t blog…napping… (blog entry by Melanie Danke)
• February festivals 2011 (blog entry by Amy Rea)
• Reflections on a senior center (blog entry by Abdullahi Guled)
• Best tweets of January (blog entry by Jay Gabler)
• Arts journalism and the Twin Cities Daily Planet (blog entry by Sarah Harper)
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