WEDNESDAY PICK | First Avenue’s Best New Bands of 2011
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It’s the best-new-bands time again; Radio K and City Pages are making it something of a tradition. The seven bands that wooed Minneapolis/St.Paul in 2011?
SUNDAY PICK | Last call for “Graphic Design: Now in Production” at the Walker
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The Walker Art Center’s major international exhibition that opened in October comes to a close on Sunday, January 22.
FRIDAY PICK | “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” at the Guthrie
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Tennessee Williams’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning play (that was also adapted into a movie starring the late Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman) is the first play this year on the Guthrie’s Wurtele Thrust Stage. Greed, sexual desire, and death—the usual trademark goodies in a Williams classic—run rampant throughout the play, all from within the setting of a bedroom where the magic is known to happen (wink wink, nudge nudge). Friday’s show is at 7:30; the production runs through February.Coverage of issues and events that affect Central Corridor neighborhoods and communities is funded in part by a grant from Central Corridor Collaborative. Continue Reading
Arts Orbit Radar 1/5/12
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On the radar1. By all accounts, Disney made a smart move when it enlisted director Julie Taymor to translate The Lion King to the stage. The stage musical has played to raves around the world; on Wednesday it opens at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis.2. Now in its 23rd year, the Walker Art Center’s Out There series is a can’t-miss opportunity to see some of the world’s best and most innovative performing artists. The 2012 series opens on Thursday with a world premiere show by Young Jean Lee: Untitled Feminist Show, featuring an all-nude cast.3. Continue Reading
Arts Orbit Radar 12/15/11
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On the radar1. The fourth annual Somali Entertainment Awards at The Cedar celebrates the best movies, sports, music and arts of the year (as voted by the SEA Family board) and features a blue carpet.2. Bedlam Theatre reunites the cast of their cluck-claimed production The Turducken for “the longest cabaret of the year” at the BLB. You have to appreciate that kind of truth in advertising.3. Just as Bedlam Theatre carries on despite the 2010 loss of their infamously awesome West Bank space, so does the dance night Bomp, the most gloriously shameless hookup hotbed in the Twin Cities.4. The Nutcracker According to Mother Goose by Zenon Dance Company combines Tchaikovsky with the timeless nursery rhymes of our collective youth. The show lasts only the weekend with four performances, so Jack be quick.5. Stuck Between Stations breaks away from its film festival roots and moves to St. Continue Reading
THEATER | Frank Theatre’s “The SantaLand Diaries”: Bittersweet without Sedaris
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The holiday season has the power to bring out the best and worst in people—just walk down Nicollet Mall before the Holidazzle parade and you’ll see it, you’ll feel it. Every year the holidays bring the same, for better or worse. And for what seems like its millionth year of production, Macy’s is putting on its “A Day in the Life of an Elf” animated tale. Those looking for a little more spice than sugar this month might find solace in Frank Theatre’s production of The SantaLand Diaries.
THEATER | Comedy Suitcase’s “The Harty Boys Save Christmas” at Bryant-Lake Bowl: Slapstick and satire make nice
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On the first day of winter (meteorologically speaking) sitting in the stadium seating of the Bryant-Lake Bowl theater watching The Harty Boys Save Christmas, it felt like summer. More specifically, it felt like the Fringe Festival had come early this year (or again, actually). Maybe because the show is at BLB, probably because Joshua English Scrimshaw and Levi Weinhagen revived their characters from their 2009 Fringe show The Harty Boys in The Case of the Limping Platypus. Either way, it was what the opposite of Christmas in July is, and the weird entertainment that the Fringe Festival produces was alive and kickin’.
Arts Orbit Radar 12/1/11
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On the radar1. The Seward Arts Festival now in its 12th year is a happy gathering of poets, writers, dancers, and musicians to celebrate the neighborhood arts and taste the fruits (wine and food) of labor by local businesses. The kickoff party for the art festival and Franklin Frolic is Friday at the Playwrights’ Center.2. When Uncle Tupelo broke up 17 years ago, everyone thought Jay Farrar was the real talent…but today, Son Volt are cult curiosities while Wilco have no problem filling the State two nights in a row. They’ll do so on Tuesday and Wednesday, with idiosyncratic postpunk icon Nick Lowe opening.3. Continue Reading
MUSIC | A.A. Bondy with Gold Leaves at 7th Street Entry
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On Saturday, Nov. 5, A.A. Bondy played at the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis with Gold Leaves as openers.
Arts Orbit Radar 11/3/11
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On the radar1. Journalist-historian-author Larry Millett chats up Garrison Keillor at the Fitzgerald about his architectural history Once There Were Castles: Lost Mansions and Estates of the Twin Cities.2. This weekend, the Walker Art Center says both goodbye and hello to the pioneering modern choreographer Merce Cunningham. At Cunningham’s death in 2009, he expressed his wish that his dance company disband at the end of 2011, so their performances at the Walker will be our last chance to see them in Minnesota. At the same time, the Walker opens an exhibit featuring Cunningham’s archive of props and costumes—a major new acquisition for the museum.3. Continue Reading