'The Gospel at Colonus'
After starting out in the Twin Cities in the early 1980s, Lee Breuer's gospel-doused retelling of Sophocles' tragedy, "Oedipus at Colonus," has played on Broadway, in Greece and on stages far and wide. This is its first time back to the community where it premiered. J.D. Steele oversees the music for a production that has been praised for its heart-pounding electricity and spirit-loosing singing. The show will feature the vocal talents of the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Legendary Soul Stirrers, and the Steeles, Minnesota's first family of song.
'Wicked'
"Wicked" became a blockbuster not because of reviews, which were mixed, but because of word of mouth. You can see why: It tells an engaging girl-bonding story about the young women who would grow up to become the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch Glinda in "The Wizard of Oz." In Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's musical telling, based on Gregory Maguire's book, the smart, misunderstood Elphaba gets to know Glinda in a show with themes of friendship and falling from grace. "Wicked" broke box office records when it played in Minneapolis in 2006 and 2008. Its multi-week run makes it the biggest Broadway offering this summer.
