and, SEEN!

The Popcorn Debacle (blah blah Dumbledore, film)

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (film, 2022)

SEEN: May 24, 2022

A Raisin in the Sun (Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis)

SEEN (by one of us): May 18, 2022

 

A Raisin in the Sun

by LORRAINE HANSBERRY
directed by AUSTENE VAN

McGuire Proscenium Stage

 

“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” In 1951, poet Langston Hughes posed these questions, and Lorraine Hansberry answered with a theatrical masterpiece that broke down racial barriers both on and off the stage. The play follows the three-generation Younger family as they grapple with different definitions of the American dream and how to achieve it. When the matriarch, Lena, buys a home in an all-white neighborhood, the Youngers are greeted by thinly veiled racism and financial pitfalls that threaten to pull the family apart and push their dreams out of reach.

Three things to know

• Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry’s own family’s experience in Chicago in the 1930s, A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959 and, for the first time, hailed an all-Black principal cast, a Black playwright and a Black director.
• The play was nominated for four Tony Awards, and Hansberry was the first Black woman to be produced on Broadway.
• Director Austene Van is an acclaimed Twin Cities theater professional, co-founder of New Dawn Theatre Company and Producing Artistic Director at Yellow Tree Theatre. She was last seen on the Guthrie stage playing Truvy in our 2019 production of Steel Magnolias.

Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ (Old Globe)

SEEN: April 26, 2022

 

Bob Fosse's Dancin'

Original Broadway production created, directed, and choreographed by Bob Fosse
Choreography by Bob Fosse
Direction and musical staging by Wayne Cilento
Produced in cooperation with Nicole Fosse

Bhangin’ It (La Jolla Playhouse)

SEEN: Apri 5, 2022

 

Bhangin' It at the La Jolla Playhouse

 

Bhangin' It: A Bangin’ New Musical

Book by Mike Lew and Rehana Lew Mirza | Music & Lyrics by Sam Willmott

Additional Music by Deep Singh | Musical Staging by Lisa Shriver

Choreography by Rujuta Vaidya | Directed by Stafford Arima

WORLD-PREMIERE MUSICAL

Find your beat. Find your team. Find yourself.

While East Lansing University senior Mary Darshini Clarke has spent her entire life trying to figure out where she fits in, she has always found community dancing on the school’s prestigious bhangra team. But when she becomes the self-appointed captain of a new team of enthusiastic novices more interested in making friends than the right moves, Mary quickly learns that carving out her own path complicates her journey. As the pressure of the big national competition approaches, can both teams learn that what makes them unique could actually be the key to their success? Bursting with vibrant dance and electrifying music, Bhangin’ It: A Bangin’ New Musical is an exhilarating and joyous new musical comedy for America today.

El Borracho (Old Globe)

SEEN: March 8, 2022

El Borracho

By Tony Meneses
Directed by Edward Torres

Raul is ill. He drinks, because he always drinks, just like el borracho on the lotería card. In his final months, Raul moves in with his ex-wife, who swore she’d never see him again, and their son, who’s longing to connect with his father at last. Developed as part of the Globe’s 2020 Powers New Voices Festival, the world premiere of Tony Meneses’s vibrant dramedy follows one family’s journey to come together so they can finally say goodbye.

Contains strong language.

Trouble in Mind (Old Globe)

SEEN: Feb 2, 2022

Trouble in Mind

By Alice Childress
Directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg

A thrilling new production of a too-often neglected American classic. New York, 1955. A leading Black actress and a multiracial cast rehearse a challenging new Broadway play set in the South. Backstage rivalries and showbiz egos cause excitement of their own, but artistic differences between the cast and the White director soon bubble to the surface, revealing the truths that American drama covers over and the ways in which even well-meaning people can harm others under the guise of helping. The New York Times recently called Alice Childress’s groundbreaking Trouble in Mind “a rich, unsettling play that lingers in one’s memory long after its conclusion.”

Contains strong language.

West Side Story (film, 2021)

SEEN: Dec 28, 2021. Enthusiastic thumbs up!

 

West Side Story (2021)

An adaptation of the 1957 musical, West Side Story explores forbidden love and the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds.

• Director
  • Steven Spielberg
• Writers
  • Tony Kushner(screenplay by)
  • Arthur Laurents(based on the stage play, book by)
• Stars
  • Ansel Elgort
  • Rachel Zegler
  • Ariana DeBose

to the yellow house (La Jolla Playhouse)

SEEN on Nov 30, 2021. Two thumbs up!

 

By Kimber Lee 

Directed by Neel Keller

selected credits (mentioned in podcast):

scenic design by Takeshi Kata

lighting design by Masha Tsimring

projection design by Nicholas Hussong

music composition by Justin Ellington

performers we especially liked: Deidrie Henry, Brooke Ishibashi, Paco Tolson

 

synopsis: February 1886. Vincent van Gogh is broke again. Trailing past-due notices and annoyed innkeepers, he arrives unexpectedly at his brother’s doorstep in Montmartre determined to make another fresh start. Caught in the fiercely competitive Parisian art scene, he drinks too much, falls in love with the wrong woman, argues with everyone – and paints. Night and day he works to translate what he feels onto the canvas, relentlessly chasing a new form of expression that seems to be always around the next corner. But at what point in an endless cycle of failures do faith and persistence become delusion and foolishness? A meditation on love, art and not being popular.

 

Shutter Sisters (Old Globe)

SEEN: Nov 7, 2021

 

Shutter Sisters

World premiere
A Globe-commissioned world premiere
By Mansa Ra
Directed by Donya K. Washington

A Globe-commissioned world premiere that was developed in the 2020 Powers New Voices Festival. Shutter Sisters tells the story of two women living parallel lives on the hardest days of their lives. A White woman named Michael attends her adopted mother’s funeral, while a Black woman named Mykal kicks her adult daughter out of her home. It’s a heartfelt and surprising journey through womanhood, identity, and what it means to belong.

Gardens of Anuncia (Old Globe)

SEEN: Oct 5, 2021

Gardens of Anunicia

Globe-commissioned world premiere musical

Book, music, and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa
Directed and co-choreographed by Graciela Daniele

A Globe-commissioned world premiere musical by five-time Tony Award nominee Michael John LaChiusa. The Gardens of Anuncia is inspired by the life story of an icon of the American stage who directs and choreographs the show at the Globe: Broadway legend Graciela Daniele. Anuncia tends the garden of her country house as she reflects on her life, looking back on her girlhood in Juan Perón’s Argentina and paying homage to the family of women whose sacrifices allowed her to become an artist. This funny, poignant, and beautiful musical features a beguilingly romantic and tango-infused score filled with the exuberant sounds of women reveling in the joys of being alive.