Friday, May 12, 2017

Ragtime Women and The Rink - TCTB Review Roundup

Last chance to catch Ragtime Women and The Rink! Strong women abound in these shows, so they are perfect to bring your mother to this weekend!

Ragtime Women at Elision Productions (through May 14 at Dreamland Arts).

Tierney at Say Entirely: "While the music of the day (some of it written by the historical Julia, May, and Gladys) plays, the characters sing their stories of love, defiance, and work." More at: http://bit.ly/2qe5D09

Compendium - Minneapolis: "How often do you see a story told entirely from the perspective of women, without a single element of the male gaze around to change it?" More at: http://bit.ly/2pYDqfr

Cherry and Spoon: "In just a brief 75 minutes, Ragtime Women manages to tell a compelling story about four real life women who composed music in the early 1900s, while sharing over two dozen songs of the era, many of them written by these women." More at: http://bit.ly/cs_ragtimewomen

AND, take a day trip down to DalekoArts to see their production of the little-performed Kander and Ebb musical: The Rink (also through May 14).

Don't know The Rink? Here's Cherry and Spoon to tell you all about it:

"Set in a dilapidated roller rink on a fading east coast boardwalk (think a less classy Atlantic City) in the late '70s, it's full of great songs in the Kander and Ebb style (clever, funny, poignant lyrics, beautiful interesting melodies) with a compelling story about a mother and daughter reconnecting and coming to terms with their past mistakes." More at: http://www.cherryandspoon.com/2017/05/the-rink-at-daleko-arts.html

P.S. Minnesota Theater Love loved it as well and highly, highly recommends it. It features a marvelous central performance by Karen Weber, and by Bobby Gardner, who is not only funny but has a marvelous voice, and has just made it on their one-to-watch list. The entire cast is marvelous and the production makes one wonder why it's not performed more often.