"Urinetown" at Lakeshore Players Theatre

Lakeshore Players Theatre's 71st season just keeps getting better! I would say that their new production of the hilarious satirical musical Urinetown is the best thing they've done this season, but then I remember the other great shows they've done this season (She Loves Me, I Am My Own Wife, and more). Suffice it to say that this is their best season since I've been attending shows at the Hanifl Performing Arts Center in lovely downtown White Bear Lake (which admittedly has only been about six years). Urinetown is one of my favorite musicals, since seeing the Broadway tour over 20 years ago. There have been a handful of #TCTheater productions, but it's been a while, so I was thrilled to see it as the conclusion of this ambitious season which began with the smart, funny, and relevant play What the Constitution Means to Me. I'm even more thrilled to report that it's a fantastic production, with a talented and energetic cast, detailed design, fun choreography, and direction that hits on all of the humor and relevancy of the script (continuing through May 19).

"I Am My Own Wife" at Lakeshore Players Theatre

Lakeshore Players Theatre's ambitious 71st season continues with perhaps the most interesting choice of the season - playwright Doug Wright's solo play I Am My Own Wife, chronicling his interviews with an East German transgender woman known as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf - antiques collector, museum curator, and gay icon. Charlotte lived through the Nazi and Communist occupations of Berlin. She provided a haven for the gay community in East Berlin during a time of persecution, but also worked as an informant for the Stasi (the Communist secret police). She was truly a singular individual, and the play explores not just her life, but also the playwright's investigation into her life, and his conflicting feelings about her complicated life.* I've previously only seen one production of this play 12+ years ago at the Jungle, and I was thrilled to revisit it. It's so smartly written, weaving Charlotte's stories, the playwright's questions, and historical facts into the storytelling. Lakeshore's production in the intimate immersive space of their black box theater features a charmingly detailed design and a tour de force performance by Lewis Youngren. Only five performances remain - don't miss your chance to see the truly impressive work happening out here in the 'burbs of White Bear Lake.

"Noises Off" at Lakeshore Players Theatre

The classic farce-within-a-farce Noises Off is a perfect choice for Lakeshore Players Theatre's winter show; two and a half hours of laughter will warm you up on a cold night. It's ridiculously funny and very meta as it gives us a glimpse into what it takes to make a show, and all the things that can go wrong. Fortunately for the real show, things go very right. Everyone in the nine-person cast as an absolute delight (most of them playing actors playing characters), and director Greta Grosch (of Church Basement Ladies fame) keeps everything hurtling towards the finish line in a beautiful display of organized chaos. Add to that the impressive set that you get to watch the hard-working four-person run crew transform not once but twice, and it's just an all-around good time. Sometimes what you need is what one of the characters says in the show: "I don't go to the theater to listen to other people's problems, I go to be taken out of myself, and hopefully not put back in again." This show delivers on that, although you likely will have to be put back in again when you go back out into the cold and not as funny real world. See Noises Off weekends through February 12 at Hanifl Performing Arts Center in lovely White Bear Lake, plus a pay-what-you-can performance on Monday February 6.

"Lumberjacks in Love" at Lyric Arts

Lyric Arts is easing into their ambitious season with the charmingly corny musical comedy Lumberjacks in Love. In the vein of Deer Camp the Musical or the Don't Hug Me series, Lumberjacks is full of local humor (northern Wisconsin, but that's pretty close to Minnesota*), dumb but amusing humor, and goofy songs. But thanks to the amiable cast you can't help but fall a little in love with these oddball characters in their search for (or running scared from) love. 

"Singin' in the Rain" at Lakeshore Players Theatre

To open their impressive 70th season in White Bear Lake, Lakeshore Players Theatre is presenting Singin' in the Rain. The classic 1952 movie musical was written by legendary musical theater team Comden and Green, and adapted into a stage musical in 1983. It's a big old-fashioned musical with comedy, romance, dancing, and tons of familiar songs, and the team at Lakeshore does a great job in this fun, feel-good musical. See it in the beautiful Hanifl Performing Arts Center weekends through October 6.

"Little Women" at Lyric Arts

NYC-based playwright and actor Kate Hamill is known for her modern, feminist adaptations of classics, several of which have been seen on #TCTheater stages in recent years. The Guthrie will premiere her adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma later this month, but first: Lyric Arts' production of her adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's beloved novel Little Women, commissioned by the Jungle Theater a few years ago. This quote from Kate's website very much applies to this play: "She is deeply passionate about creating new feminist, female-centered classics, both in new plays and in adaptation: stories that center around complicated women. Her work as a playwright celebrates theatricality, often features absurdity, and closely examines social and gender issues - as well as the timeless struggle to reconcile conscience / identity with social pressures." This, as they say, is not your grandmother's Little Women. While staying fairly true to the events of the novel, the play sees the characters and situations through a modern lens, and veers more towards comedy, at times broad and absurd, than the quiet drama of the original. But at its heart, it's still about the love between four very different sisters, each finding her own identity and path through life (click here for info and tickets).

"An Evening with Ella and Harold" at Lakeshore Players Theatre

The Queen of Jazz and one of the greatest composers of the American Songbook -  a match made in music heaven. Such is the subject of the new original play with music by Lakeshore Players Theatre. An Evening with Ella and Harold parallels the lives and stories of Ella Fitzgerald and Harold Arlen, featuring music from the 1961 album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book. Though they never met, the two were connected by music. Local playwright Alayna Jacqueline imagines a sort of conversation between them, for a lovely evening of music history and performance.