morgan.halaska's blog

I didn’t have a lot of expectations when I headed to The Addams Family, the latest production to come to the Ordway stage. That’s not to say I wasn’t expecting much, I just didn’t put much thought into the production (maybe I haven’t been “stopping to smell the roses” lately).

It’s when you have low expectations — or no expectations at all — that you’re in the position to be blown away. And that’s precisely what happened to me Tuesday night as I watched the freakishly wonderful group that is The Addams Family. Read more »

Even before I went to Saturday night’s performance of Spring Awakening at the Rarig Center’s Stoll Trust Theatre, I counted myself as a fan.

My enthusiasm came from seeing a traveling production of the Broadway show two years ago, in Chicago. The build up left me worried that I would be disappointed. No reason. I walked out of the theater falling in love with the edgy and erotic musical all over again.   Read more »

Although the crows in Loring Park in the winter are admittedly spooky, it’s hard to think of birds as particularly scary. That may have been less true in the 1960s, when a freakish invasion of birds became fodder for many writers’ and artists’ imaginations and the feathery creatures became the harbingers of all things apocalyptic.  Read more »

Anne Frank provided a voice to the six million Jewish people who died as result of the Holocaust. It’s a voice that is as relevant and powerful today as it was when Otto Frank published her diary in 1947.

Which is why it’s a good thing the Park Square Theatre continues her legacy with their annual performance of The Diary of Anne Frank, first staged in 1956. Whether you read the book (translated into 55 languages), saw the film adaptation, or even just paid attention in school (or to life in general) this is a story that demands to be told and re-told. Read more »

Going to a show that’s never been staged before leads to a certain amount of anxiety.

But Mixed Blood Theatre’s Crashing the Party – which premiered on Friday and runs through March 4 – provides little reason for apprehension.  Read more »

The World War II era gave birth to a cast of attention-grabbing villains, heroes and martyrs. Edith Stein comes from that tumultuous time, but there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of her. Still, there is a fascination and drama about her story that makes hers a story worth retelling. Read more »

A Pulitzer Prize-winning play and acclaimed movie adaptation starring the late Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof comes with a fair amount of history. Fortunately, the Guthrie Theater’s latest take on the story lives up to its rightfully acclaimed predecessors.   Read more »

Let me put this simply: The Lion King deserves the hype. If anything it may be undersold.

As the show embarks on a month-long run in Minneapolis – its fourth staging in the city where it all began – the show is as good or better than ever.  Read more »

Minneapolis theater has a seat saved especially for The Lion King, which arrives in Minneapolis this week for the fourth time since its premiere at the Orpheum in 1997.

But it’s not just the show that’s celebrating a bit of a homecoming this week. Nick Cordileone, who has been playing the role of Timon for the last 18 months, was also reared in Minneapolis.

The lifelong Twins and Vikings fan recently spoke to METRO about what it means to perform in Minneapolis, the community’s theatre credentials and what it takes to play Timon.  Read more »

Jason Schoneman was just a pre-teen when had his first taste of beer – an Old Milwaukee. “America’s best tasting beer, that’s what it said on the can,” he jokes.

When you begin with a beer like that, the only place to go is up.

Shoneman, the founder and owner of the Twin Cities’ newest brewery, Steel Toe Brewery, has managed to do that and more.

DOWNLOAD OUR MAP OF AREA BREWERIES Read more »