Welcome to One Show to See This Week, a weekly newsletter where I recommend the one play or musical you should see in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in the next seven days, because I believe live theater should be part of your routine. My inbox is always open, as are my DMs. Glad you’re here!
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One Action to Take This Week:
For every week that ICE is still terrorizing Minnesota, I’ll be including one action to take in this newsletter that can bring justice, help the community, and curb this violent, hateful, unlawful occupation. Minnesota businesses are struggling under ICE’s reign of terror, and that includes theaters. Kicking out ICE directly helps our local theater community.
Today, it’s another call to action to call your members of Congress: By the end of this week, Congress is voting on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats released a list of guardrails for ICE (click here to read them) they’re hoping to pass before approving funding. So please, call your senators and your representative (look them up here) every day for the rest of the week, whether they’re Republicans or Democrats, and urge them to adopt these new rules. You can add your own requests as well. I’m going to tell my legislators, Senators Klobuchar and Smith and Representative Omar, that I also support halting the operations in Minnesota, impeaching Kristi Noem, and abolishing ICE. Tell everyone you know to call, too.
Now, onto the local production…
One Show to See This Week:
Kiss Me, Kate
Artistry, Bloomington Center for the Arts, 1800 W Old Shakopee Road, Bloomington, MN, 55431
January 22 – February 15
What’s your favorite show within a show? Something Rotten! and The Phantom of the Opera immediately come to mind for me as highlights. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s The Play That Goes Wrong, a show so putrid that the one production I saw will forever be seared into my mind (the theater behind that staging shall remain nameless…for now).
The longtime classic Kiss Me, Kate (1948) sits comfortably on the positive end of this spectrum, with music and lyrics by the great Cole Porter (the show features his hit “Always True to You in My Fashion,” among others) and book by Bella and Samuel Spewack. The hijinks here involve a production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, in which two of the leads are exes and two others are young lovers, and the guy from the latter relationship gets the ex-husband of the former involved with some gangsters (like I said, hijinks).
Artistry’s production is a must-see for two reasons: Erin Capello (one of my favorite local actors, who I loved in Theater Latté Da’s Passion and Artistry’s Waitress) plays Lilli Vanessi, the ex-wife who’s starring as Katherine (the “shrew” of Shrew); and because Artistry has two incredible deals going through end of the run: they’re offering 50 “pay what you can” seats at each show, and as a Valentine’s weekend special (Friday-Sunday) they’re offering two show tickets, two drink tickets, and a box of chocolates for just $50 when you enter code VDAY26. That is an unbeatable, unbelievable Valentine’s steal. Procrastinators, rejoice!
Put This on Your Calendar: Alice’s Wonderland Concert Reading
There’s a new Alice musical in town. On Monday, March 2nd, a concert reading of Alice’s Wonderland by Jack Moorman and Lucas Ellingson will take place at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul. Show is at 7 p.m., tickets are free, you just need to reserve them here. Jack was a directing fellow on a production of Alice by Heart (Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater, and Jessie Nelson’s theatrical take on Lewis Carroll’s classic, which I love) I saw a little while ago, and the cast here includes Sophie La Fave, who starred in that show, so I’m excited to see their twist on the material. Hope to see you there too!
Stay safe, stay strong, and I’ll see you here next week.
Alex
Main image: Alyssa Kristine Photography
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