The Carp Who Would Not Quit is a transporting and inspiring show for preschoolers and their families. I was fortunate enough to attend the show at the Cargill Stage at the Children's Theatre Company (presented by the Honolulu Theatre for Youth Ensemble) on its opening weekend. I was very excited to attend because I went to see the show with my three and half year old in tow and this was the first time I was sharing my love of theater with him, and the experience and show did not disappoint. The 50 minute performance is split into multiple Japanese folktales - all with animals at their center ..read more

The Pajama Game with music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, currently playing at Artistry, is a classic musical comedy. It is a fun, well paced story, with catchy tunes and plenty of laughs. I couldn’t help but feel like the show felt like Spring – blooming with new life. The story of the Pajama Game is based on the novel 7 & ½ cents by Richard Bissell, it centers around the union at the Sleep Tite Pajama Factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and their desire to get a deserved 7 & ½ cent raise. Throw in a blossoming romance between the head of the grievance committee, a proud union ..read more

Last night I was lucky enough to attend opening night of the National Tour of Oklahoma at the Orpheum. This production is a tour of the 2019 Broadway revival directed by Daniel Fish, which took Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s oldest show and gave it a modern take. I was lucky enough to see the production in New York, and was both thrilled and anxious to be able to see it again. In New York it played on Broadway’s smallest stage (The Circle in the Square theater, with 776 seats), in comparison the Orpheum Theater has 2600 seats. In addition the national tour translates the groundbreaking production ..read more

The Jungle Theater is back! Last Friday I was lucky enough to go to opening night of the latest show at the Jungle, Every Brilliant Thing. It is a show that feels brand new, but rooted in the core of theater that is story telling and community. It is told in a theater that also feels new, the stage in this production has been shifted to the middle of the theater, running like a wide runway with seats rising on either side so you are watching not only the narrator but also fellow audience members who also get pulled into the story. It felt very reminiscent of another Twin Cities Theater favori ..read more

Last night I sat in a dark room with strangers and was told a story. It was mesmerizing, hypnotic, thrilling and in a way healing. It had been nearly 500 days (495 to be exact) since I experienced live, in person theater, and Theatre Elision's Islander was the perfect welcome back. The show is small on paper, it has a run time of just 75 minutes and a cast of 2 on a mainly empty stage. There is no band, no fancy set pieces, just two women, their voices and a looping board. But the show directed by Lindsey Fitzgerald feels expansive and transporting, it brings you to the small Scottish island ..read more

Over the past 15 months I have experienced very little theater. For obvious reasons, in person theater was not an option. Theater makers were creative and there were some great online options, recordings and streaming of past shows, and live zoom theater. But at the time I didn't feel compelled to watch any of it. I like so many of us, was filled with zoom fatigue and to watch theater on a screen only seemed like a cruel reminder of the in person connection that we couldn't have. But now thanks to science and technology, vaccines have made more in person connection possible. And now that ther ..read more

My Fair Lady, currently on tour and playing at the Orpheum, is a show with a beautiful score and a story and characters that are uncomfortably relatable to our current times. The plot almost seems to exist in our cultural consciousness, but I sat around a couple people who knew nothing about the show, so forgive the short plot summary. In London in the early 1900s Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, happens upon Eliza Doolittle selling flowers in Covent Garden and is horrified by her accent. He proclaims that in 6 months of lessons he could pass her off as a lady, and with the encouragem ..read more

History Theatre's most recent show Superman Becomes Lois Lane is a touching and thoughtful look at the career and influence of Susan Kimberly. Susan Kimberly was born Bob Sylvester and had a career as the president of city council and an investment banker before transitioning and continuing on in her career to become the deputy mayor of Saint Paul. What makes the show even more special is that the play was written by Susan Kimberly herself. What makes the show so unique is that both Susan Kimberly as portrayed by Freya Richman and Bob Sylvester as portrayed by Sean Michael Dooley exist togeth ..read more

Do you remember the comfort and wonder of reading or being told stories as a child? The way that the story would envelop you like a warm blanket and the world and details of the story would come to life filled with color like magic in your mind? This is what it is like to see a show by the Transatlantic Love Affair, and their latest show After The Fires seems to fill this magical and fully engrossing mold more than any other show that I have seen of theirs in the past. Perhaps that is because unlike past shows of theirs that I have seen which have been based on fairy tales or moments in histo ..read more

Once On This Island, currently on tour at the Ordway, is a feast for the eyes, ears and soul. The stage of the Ordway has been transformed into a Caribbean island, complete with sand, bright vibrant colors, an on stage band, and also an on stage audience. Once On This Island is a story within a story. We (the audience) watch a story be set up and then told, sometimes listening to narration, and sometimes watching the story unfold. The tale at the center of this musical takes place on an island containing two worlds, one of the rich hotel owners and one of the peasants who give off the land da ..read more