Twin Cities Community Theater Beat

Rent is one of the most iconic shows in musical theater history. Based more or less on the opera La Boheme , it follows a group of young people in 1980s New York trying to find their purpose or just trying to live despite poverty, addiction, and illness. The show is propelled by a rock and roll score, bold characters, and the sense that time is limited and precious - primarily because  multiple characters are living with AIDs at a time when long-term survival still felt like a longshot. This show brought me for the first time to Inver Grove Heights Community Theatre, which performs at the Simley High School Performing Arts Center. Due to COVID concerns, some of the cast was masked for the performance I attended. One thing I appreciated from this theater group was the inclusion of cast and crew pronouns in the program. That's something I'd love to see catch on. It's certainly helpful for me as a reviewer to know that I'm referring to people correctly! Quinn Forrest Mas...

 Sorority girl Elle Woods is ready to start her perfect future with her perfect boyfriend  — and even when he dumps her, she's sure that their love will win in the end. Her dedication gets her into Harvard Law School, but it's not the success she imagined. Eventually, Elle realizes that she'd rather use the law to help people than keep chasing her ex. But can she be her true self and still be taken seriously? Minneapolis Community Education had the second Legally Blonde  of the summer, and it's always fun to see which elements stay the same or change from one production to another. Minneapolis Community Education isn't primarily a theater group; its main focus is offering affordable classes to the community on all sorts of topics. But it's a natural decision to make use of the available resources (e.g. a nice performance space) and talent to put on a show! I really enjoyed last year's Matilda , despite the limitations of the outdoor space (mainly relating to...

Bobby is the kind of guy who always imagined he would get married someday, but as he turns 35 he realizes he’s reached “someday” with no marriage or even a serious relationship, even though he’s surrounded by married friends. This is the premise of Company, and as the show progresses we watch Bobby try to make sense of what marriage is about and what’s held him back from getting married himself. An interesting aspect of Company is that the scenes don’t go in chronological order.   The show starts and ends with two different versions of Bobby’s birthday party, and in between are vignettes of Bobby interacting with his married friends and women that he’s dated.   In act one, Bobby tries to make sense of his friends’ relationships, but he doesn’t really understand what makes their marriages work.   In act two, we see that Bobby’s friends rely on him for validation and vicarious freedom – in some ways, they’re a part of his single status.   Meanwhile, Bobby is try...

Pirates of Penzance , like all of Gilbert & Sullivan’s operettas, is a very silly story. When the story opens, Frederic, accidentally apprenticed to pirates as a child, is finally turning twenty-one. While in his apprenticeship, he was bound by his sense of duty to be a full-fledged pirate, but once released, his sense of duty means that he must be their enemy (beginning at 12:00 on the dot). Frederic quickly falls in love with a young maiden and is eager to leave his illegal ways behind, but the pirates find a complication – Frederic was born on February 29 th in a leap year, meaning that his 21 st birthday is still decades away! Will his fiancée wait for him until he’s 84? Will the local constables arrest the pirate band (Frederic included)? Will the Major-General ever assuage his conscience after telling the pirates a lie? Will any of the characters learn the folly of their black-and-white thinking??? (To that last one: absolutely not.) This play...

When Elle Woods’ boyfriend dumps her because she’s not “serious” enough for him, she decides to win him back by following him to Harvard Law School. But even after getting in, no one takes her seriously! With the help of a kind but determined TA, she works hard to prove herself as a student and finds a new passion for helping others through the law. But her future is on the line when she’s chosen to help with a big murder case. Can she win the case, and more importantly, can she do it while staying true to herself? This summer Cross Community Players was back in the Maple Grove Town Green Amphitheater with their production of Legally Blonde .   The space offers some challenges for the cast and crew, since the set has to come down and be stored after every rehearsal, and weather issues (this year, extreme heat) can interfere.   But as an audience member, this is a lovely spot to attend a show.   There’s plenty of room for seating and the lake behind the st...

When The Little Mermaid film came out in 1989, Disney had been struggling for decades to match the success of their early animated films, and they finally had a hit  –   The Little Mermaid  was loved by audiences and critics alike .   A big factor of the film’s success was Broadway veteran Alan Menken’s score, which won him two Oscars (and two Golden Globes, and a Grammy). Later, like so many other successful films, The Little Mermaid  was adapted for Broadway.  Not every film makes an easy transition to the stage, but in this case I think the creators made some very thoughtful decisions that make this show work.  For example, the climax of the film is an ocean battle between Prince Eric and a giant Ursula while Ariel watches helplessly; in the musical, this scene is replaced by one that focuses on Ariel and her relationships to the other characters.   Besides being easier to stage, it’s much more satisfying that Ariel doesn’t need to be rescued b...

There have been many retellings of the Cinderella story over the years; it turns out we’re willing to come back again and again to see a good person in adversity fall in love and have their dreams come true. All it takes, it turns out, is a little bit of magic. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s original Cinderella musical was written in 1957, and is a breezy, streamlined telling; no side characters like talking mice, no Grimm-style violence, and no unnecessary backstories (Cinderella has a godmother and she turns out to be a fairy – that’s that!). A classic musical like this feels different – and refreshing, really – amidst a summer of mostly modern musicals. Eden Prairie Players, according to a producer’s note in the program, had been hoping for years to put on this version of Cinderella , before finally getting the rights for 2020 and having to reschedule.   Luckily things have finally come together!   Eden Prairie Players performs in the amphitheater at Starin...