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Adam Jacobs (Aladdin) and Isabelle McCalla (Jasmine) star in the national touring production of Aladdin. Photo by Deen van Meer.

How many people does it take to put on a national tour of a Broadway show? If the show is Aladdin, the answer is 75…if you only count the people who show

The Catalyst Quartet rehearsing.

It was the first of August. Dr. Deborah Justice was settling in for a month of fiddling around – musically speaking – when the email arrived. “I’m afraid I have some sad news from Caracas,” it began. “Venezuela at this moment is now a war zone.”

At that

The late J. Otis Powell.

Poet, playwright, and overall multi-talented artist J. Otis Powell died on Monday, August 28. Powell was 61 years’ old, and had been awarded a Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Commitment just five days prior. He had struggled with ill health, and received a kidney transplant several

A bar chart showing historical box office totals for the Minnesota Fringe Festival.

The Minnesota Fringe Festival announced the final statistics today for the 2017 Minnesota Fringe Festival. The 11-day festival brought in 46,076 butts-in-seats, spread across 860 performances of 167 shows at 17 venues in Minneapolis.


Why Count Butts-in-Seats?
Since 2016, the

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts announced today the recipients of the 25th annual Sally Ordway Irvine Awards. These awards were given in five categories to recipients from across the State of Minnesota. This year’s recipients are all based in the Twin Cities metro area:

Hunter Gullickson (Arts Access)

Actors Gary Briggle (left) and Wendy Lehr (right). Photo by Keith Bridges.

The playwright A.R. Gurney passed away two months ago. Many of the various eulogies and obituaries cited his 1988 play Love Letters, a tale of charmed correspondence that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Love Letters encapsulated many of the themes

Lady Gaga rocked the Xcel Energy Center with her trademark costume-heavy, immersive performance. Here’s the set list from the concert:

Act I

“Video Intro”
“Diamond Heart”
“A-Yo”
“Poker Face”
“Perfect Illusion”



Act II

“John Wayne”
“Scheiße”
“Alejandro”

Act III

“Horns”
“Just Dance”
“LoveGame”
“Telephone”

Act IV

“Claws”
“Applause”
“Come to Mama”
“The Edge of

A mosaic of different graphs of Fringe Festival sold-out attendance data.

It’s been one week since the 2017 Minnesota Fringe Festival closed its doors and the Fringe staff are still tallying and double-checking festival data. While a fuller report on the festival box office is still forthcoming, here are six figures

Women dancing in Arabian Nights. Photo by Dan Van Meer.

The Orpheum Theatre is getting a magic lamp. Starting September 15, the Orpheum will host the Broadway touring production of Aladdin for three and a half weeks (closing October 8). This touring production stars Adam Jacobs, who originated the title role of Aladdin

Actress-musician-songwriter Claire Wellin. Photo by Tiffany Topol.

This Friday, Claire Wellin is bringing her band Youth in a Roman Field to Icehouse in Minneapolis. Youth in a Roman Field’s “ghost folk” sound emphasizes haunting strings, acoustic instruments, and multipart vocal writing. The MSU-Mankato graduate spoke with the Arts Reader’s Basil Considine about