Zesty and full of hairpin turns
The biggest takeaway is the brilliance of the lyrics. “The Last Five years” uncorks 15 songs in 90 minutes, all by the Tony-winner Jason Robert Brown, and any one of [...]
Read More →
Posted June 06, 2017in Center online exclusive
Posted May 31, 2017in Center Stage
An epic anniversary, with music off the chain
Des Moines Metro Opera (DMMO) may be nearing the half-century mark, but it’s still open to fresh thinking. One of its three major productions this summer — “Billy Budd,” a [...]
Read More →
Posted May 18, 2017in Center online exclusive
Shock and awe
StageWest is going out with a bang. The fireworks of “Hir” put an exclamation point on the company’s final year, before it’s absorbed into the larger Iowa Stage Company. This [...]
Read More →
Posted May 03, 2017in Center Stage
A fresh cocktail for theater arts
Playhouse board of directors implements a three-legged leadership stool John Viars is happy to break down the numbers. “When I began here, we did six shows a year and employed [...]
Read More →
Posted April 05, 2017in Center Stage
Songs, shadow and sharp pangs, with a passel of awards
Robert Petkoff doesn’t worry about bringing what might be the weirdest musical ever made to Des Moines. He recalls that when he toured with “Spamalot,” a few years back, he [...]
Read More →
Posted March 20, 2017in Center online exclusive
Chock-Full O’Nuts
Everyone knows Mel Brooks made some of the funniest movies ever, and “Young Frankenstein” may rank right at the top. But when you see the stage version at the Playhouse, [...]
Read More →
Posted March 06, 2017in Center online exclusive
The Game of Thrones, with whiskey and pills
When I say one of the best moments onstage was incomprehensible, I mean it as a compliment. Director Matthew McIver has brought off a wow of a show in “August: [...]
Read More →
Posted March 01, 2017in Center Stage
Upping the game everywhere
Just how big of a splash has local theater made during the last decade? The best measure may be how far the ripples have reached. Community stages in Ames, Winterset, [...]
Read More →
Posted February 03, 2017in Center online exclusive
‘Well played, old sport’
Benjamin Sheridan has delivered the sort of supporting performances that put the leads in the shade. Last fall, in “Death of a Salesman,” his turn as the title character’s older [...]
Read More →
Posted February 01, 2017in Center Stage
Everything from electricity to silk
Matthew Baker, a product of the suburban Midwest, sounds inspired to work with a man whose roots are in New York hip-hop. Kyle Abraham, creator of Abraham.in.Motion, came out of [...]
Read More →
