The Time has come again -- but with a different moniker. Like the Family, the Time has been forced by Prince -- who owns the rights to the name -- to choose a different moniker in order to release a new album. The new name is the Original 7ven, meaning Morris Day, Jesse Johnson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Jellybean Johnson, Monte Moir and Jerome Benton. Their long talked about reunion album, "Condensate," will be released Oct. 18 on SRR Records. The last album by this lineup was 1990's "Pandemonium." The group reunited in 2008 for a performance on the Grammys, 15 gigs in Las Vegas and one in their hometown at the opening of the Hotel Minneapolis. (Only Moir and Jellybean Johnson still live in the Twin Cities.) The Original 7ven is not to be confused with Morris Day & the Time, a group started by the frontman in 1996 that performed at this year's Minnesota State Fair.
JON BREAM
Killer eyesLaura Osnes is taking on another lead role on Broadway -- Bonnie Parker in "Bonnie and Clyde," opening Dec. 1. Osnes, who grew up in Eagan, shot to national attention when on NBC's "The One That You Want" she won the role of Sandy in the 2007 Broadway production of "Grease." Post-"Grease," she has built a nice career for herself, filling in for Kelli O'Hara at Lincoln Center's hit "South Pacific" and playing Hope Harcourt in "Anything Goes" with Sutton Foster and Joel Grey. Osnes portrayed Bonnie when the Frank Wildhorn musical tested its wings in 2009 in La Jolla, Calif., and in a 2010 staging in Sarasota, Fla. I.W. thinks it's a good role for her. She has Faye Dunaway eyes.
GRAYDON ROYCE
Stone Arch, hard placeMinneapolis' most culturally rich summer festival since the demise of the Day of Music at Orchestra Hall, the riverfront Stone Arch Festival for the Arts appears to be in rocky waters. Founder and benefactor Ira Heilicher died of complications from pneumonia in August, shortly after the fest's 17th annual run over Father's Day weekend. His passing prompted this month's Oktoberfest bash on St. Anthony Main (another Heilicher staple) to be canceled outright. In recent weeks, the Stone Arch fest's manager, Sara Collins, resigned to accept another job, and then music booker Stacy Schwartz bailed (both helped turn it into a hipper, more diverse event). Other Stone Arch sources are hopeful it will live on, but no one seems to know for sure. Perhaps City Hall should get behind this fest instead of supporting ... oh, never mind.
CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER
Mr. Big retiresAfter a 25-year career, first at American Ballet Theatre and, since 1997, at New York City Ballet, Minneapolis native Charles Askegard is retiring from dancing. The Minnesota Dance Theatre-trained star -- at age 6, he was the littlest mouse in MDT's "Nutcracker Fantasy" -- is taking his final bow on Oct. 9 at Lincoln Center in a performance that includes George Balanchine's "Western Symphony" and Jerome Robbins' "In Memory Of ..." Askegard, a NYCB principal dancer for 13 years and widely regarded as one of the company's most accomplished partners, is married to "Sex and the City" author Candace Bushnell.
RICK NELSON
Hard Rock, R.I.P.Today is the last day for a local outlet of an international institution that never quite captured the imagination of Twin Citians -- the Hard Rock Cafe. The mega-chain is closing its Block E location in downtown Minneapolis -- and pulling down its Prince memorabilia -- after a nine-year run. I.W. is wondering: Where will Hard Rock's giant neon guitar marquee end up? Bahrain?
JON BREAM
Crier foulWhile his band nervously worked through some technical/sound issues at its hometown album-release party, Peter Wolf Crier frontman Peter Pisano coolly saved himself from one major blunder last weekend at the Cedar Cultural Center. He dedicated a song to the Current 89.3 FM for its strong support by declaring it "the only radio station that matters." At the start of the next song, though, he corrected himself: "There is another," he said, going on to praise the students at Radio K at the U of M, where PWC had taped an in-studio set just a few days earlier. The set is now archived at www.RadioK.org/instudios.
CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER
Party in the libraryNo librarians were saying "shhh!" during Bao Phi and Ed Bok Lee's rousing performance at the Minneapolis Central Library Saturday night. The two poets held a joint book-release party that, at times, felt like a rock show with fans on their feet and music bumping over the speakers (courtesy of DJ Nak). The duo filled the library's main auditorium and two overflow rooms. Of course, Phi and Lee are no ordinary poets. Their new books -- Phi's "Sông I Sing" and Lee's "Whorled" -- are filled with vibrant, in-your-face poems that jump off the page. During his performance, Phi quipped that as a young boy he used to spend hours at this library reading other people's books, but now his own work is sitting on those same shelves. And surely, no one is telling him to keep it quiet.
TOM HORGEN
For better and worsePark Square Theatre's production of the family-dysfunction drama "August: Osage County" takes on an unexpected subtext thanks to the shrewd casting of real-life couples. Barbara Kingsley and Stephen D'Ambrose play pill-popping matriarch Violet and enigmatic patriarch Beverly, while Karen Landry and Chris Mulkey are especially enjoyable as blowsy Aunt Mattie Fay and amiable Uncle Charlie. I.W. assumes art isn't imitating life.
MARCI SCHMITT
