All Blog Posts (321)

Did you see that title? That's right, you can dare to bring your children along to a theater production! There will be no nudity, very little destruction of innocence and childhood, and altogether shocking amounts of child-appropriate humor! It's almost scandalous!

Joking aside, Mary Poppins was an excellent musical production. The costumes were exciting without being too over-the-top, the acting was realistic, and the props were fascinating. Although we weren't allowed to know how…

Walking into the Orpheum this past Tuesday night it was safe to say that I had very high expectations.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen that movie over the past seventeen years and really, once you’ve gone Disney, you can’t go back.  And after a few rough starts, it’s safe to say this show was certainly a spoonful of sugar.

The persona that is Mary Poppins began as the title character in a series of children’s books written by P.L. Travers, beginning in 1934.  It…

Mary Poppins, a whimsical Disney classic, is showing at the Orpheum and it is a show you do not want to miss. Liberties are taken throughout the production, but a fantastic cast, amazing set design and interesting choreography makes up for the blemishes. Broadway Mary Poppins gives an energetic and modern spin to the original movie. The beginning of Mary Poppins filled me with the organic feel I got as a child when I watched the movie but as the play unfolded my feelings began…

Marry Poppins Review

By: Anna Berger

Many memories come to mind when thinking of Marry Poppins. I can still remember the magic from the movie and how thrilling it was. I was initially very excited to review this show. I couldn’t wait to see what it was like performed live. Some of the characters in this production were played by Madeline Trumble as Mary Poppins, Con O’ Shea-Creal as Bert, Chris Hoch as George Banks, Kerry Conte as Winifred Banks, and Alexa Shae Niziak as Jane…

Max Singer 

Mary Poppins

Hokey, Pokey

I found myself, blown by the cold wind, into Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins is the story of the beloved nanny in Victorian England who comes and tries to reform two…

   …

            It was nearly three hours of my childhood playing on repeat. Mary Poppins, a musical playing at the Orpheum Theatre, is the innocence of childhood complete with the kind of magic that one would expect from a child’s imagination. For anyone who had the bad luck t…

    On Tuesday, April 23, I saw Mary Poppins at the Oprheum Theatre. There were two distinct age groups: middle aged people and families. The Disney movie was released in 1964, when many middle aged people were children. They probably wanted to come due to sentimental feelings from their pasts. Many children today also are growing up with this movie, so they and their families came, too. I watched the movie a lot when I was younger, so I was very excited to see the play.

    The…

I don't know why but all of the Disney shows that I've seen through this program, except The Lion King (to an extent), were just meh. Now, don't get me wrong. Mary Poppins isn't a bad show, I just didn't get into it that much. I mean, the production elements of the show were wonderful. The sets, the costumes, the special effects (magic) were really cool and spectacular. Two things that I found really cool were: 1. When the set for the Banks' house moved forward from a backdrop and…

As the scrim with MARRY POPPINS scrolls up at the top of the show, a dreary, black and white set is revealed. Don’t let this fool you, Mary Poppins is a colorful, amazing treat.

First, I have to talk about the set. It was amazing. The use of perspective allowed the stage to appear so much larger than it actually is. For example, the kitchen set had all of the shelves appear on a slant, creating the illusion of a vanishing point and allowing the set…

Mesmerized and inspired to journey to the Irish countryside, the world renowned musical ensemble, Celtic Women gave me solace in their captivating performance at the Orpheum this past Saturday eve. Made up of talented vocalists, Chloë Agnew, Lisa Lambe, and Susan McFadden, and energetic violinist Máiréad Nesbitt, they are supported by back-up vocals, two percussionists, a piano player, two bagpipers, and a variety of stringed instruments. Their venue incorporates solos by each of the Irish…

FlashDance

Kyanna Sturm 

The Orpheum hosted 80’s musical Flashdance. Flashdance tells the story of Alex, a construction worker by day and a club dancer by night, chases after her dreams. Alex falls in love with prince charming, who happens to be her employer at the construction job and is on and off but in the end all is well. I left the Orpheum that night with a spark of encouragement and inspiration and many adults, including my mother, left…

Flashdance is the story of a young women Alex Owens(Emily Padgett)who works in a steel mill but has big dreams of professional dancing. She dances at the local club but truly dreams of getting into the big dance school in town. To add to that predictable plot we add a clichéd romance with her boss(Mathew Hydzik), they start out bickering, fall in love with each other, get together, break up and by the end of the show decide the problems they previously had are gone and end up together. The…

    Yesterday, Sunday, April 8, I went to see the Bon Jovi concert at the Xcel Energy Center. It was one of the best nights of my life. The atmosphere was amazing and, of course, the music was too.

    The concert started with a bang with “You Give Love a Bad Name.” You could feel the energy in the room when the band took the stage and everyone got up and started dancing. “You Give Love a Bad Name” is one of my favorite Bon Jovi songs, so I loved it.

    After playing a few…

Warning: This review contains a bit of adult language

Eight rows from the front at a comedy show...I feel so grown up! There are attractive 20-somethings drinking beer out of plastic bottles, and menacing security personnel all over the place. I'm close enough to…

The big opening night of the flashy, dance-packed musical Flashdance at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis was above all…average. The heroine, Alex, has an incredible dream of going to a prestigious dancing school. Then she falls in love with the perfect man: her boss at the steel company. Her best friend breaks up with her boyfriend, Alex hooks up with her boss, breaks up, and then finally everyone comes together at the end. Of course it was average by Broadway standards, which means it…

With a show as iconic as Flashdance, there is something to be said for the capability to hearken back to the movie and the 80s, while also making it a new show with new songs. The movie is so well loved that it would have been simple to just recreate the movie and hope that people would adore it. While the iconic moments were not forgotten (the water-dousing, anyone?), the musical version felt like it was revisiting the characters in a familiar, but not dull, way.

The…

What a feeling is a wonderfully cliché movie/musical, a modern Cinderella.  Something meant to have us leave with warm happy butterflies inside, and filled with hope for the world.  I swear, it was this close to doing that too.  The only problem was, well, problems.  There was nothing that broke the play, no obvious fallings, no bad singers, no obvious missed lines, nothing that made it a terrible show.  It was, in fact, a good musical, just not all it could be.  It was the minor issues,…