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PRESS RELEASES

When Hair exploded on Broadway, several songs from the show were at the top of the pop charts. When “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)” was No. 1 for The 5th Dimension, “Good Morning Sunshine” was No. 3 for Oliver. Three Dog Night hit No. 4 with “Easy to Be Hard,” and the Cowsills made it to No. 2 with their sanitized version of “Hair.”

Consequently, Hair in concert has a big advantage over any non-jukebox musical you can name. Five singers delivered on the familiar songs and several times captured the spirit and power of the show itself.

I saw Michael Crawford do Phantom in Los Angeles and Cherry Jones in Doubt in Minneapolis. On Saturday afternoon at the Depot, I added the name of Edward Tulane to that short but distinguished list. Because of the sponsorship of local families and individuals, the charming rabbit doll from the original production of Dwayne Hartford’s adaptation of Kate DiCamillo’s 2006 novel stars in the Playhouse Family Theatre’s captivating production of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

In February 2018, the Duluth Playhouse heralded the rebirth of the NorShor Theatre with Mamma Mia! Thursday night (April 29), performers Jen Burleigh-Bentz, Vicki Fingalson and Tanya Moore returned to that stage for Dancing Queens: The Music of ABBA’s Mamma Mia! to reopen the NorShor from its lengthy pandemic slumber for an audience happy to hoot and holler for an hour at every song they heard.

Audiences returned to the Depot Theatre for the first time in almost a year last Saturday afternoon (Feb 27) for the Family Theatre’s charming production of Charlotte’s Web.

No night out on the town on tap this Valentine’s weekend with your special sweetie? Order delivery from your favorite restaurant instead, and then snuggle up to enjoy a free virtual concert with a “bouquet” of tunes from many of your favorite area performers, in the Playhouse’s From Broadway, With Love.

Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on the night of April 3, 1968. On the last night of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is trying to figure out what he should say in a speech to be entitled “Why America is Going to Hell.” But he is easily distracted, searching the room for listening devices, and craving coffee and a cigarette.

Every holiday season, the Playhouse traditionally presents a big, colorful blockbuster musical with sold-out audiences of folks dressed up in their best “out on the town” finery. This year, however, a virtual small concert was the safest choice for both performers and audiences.

A completely blackened theater, late at night, can be one of the scariest of places to be alone. Having been in many myself, I can attest to their eeriness and the powers of the imagination to create all sorts of ghostly visions and unearthly sounds.

Duluth Playhouse Names New Executive Director (FOX 21 – May 12, 2021)
NorShor Theatre announces performance for live audience (FOX 21 – April 23, 2021)
5 Cultural Non-Profits Spreading Appreciation for the Arts (Wiki-eVids – March 11, 2021)
Playhouse welcoming in-person audience for the first time in months (Fox 21 Coffee Conversations – Feb 22, 2021)
Duluth Playhouse allowing in-person audience for Charlotte’s Web (KBJR 6 News – Feb 19, 2021)
Duluth Playhouse welcoming small audience for first time during pandemic (Fox 21 – Feb 17, 2021)

Wes Drummond, whose recent credits include assisting director Matthew Warchus in a production of A Christmas Carol that moved from The Old Vic in London to Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre in 2019, has been named the Duluth Playhouse’s new executive director.

When Duluth’s historic NorShor Theatre debuted in restored form in 2018, the musical Mamma Mia! welcomed audiences back. So it only made sense when, more than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic darkened the stage, the music of ABBA revives it.

With its Family Theatre production of Charlotte’s Web, the Duluth Playhouse is doing something it hasn’t attempted since it pulled “Matilda” mid-run last March: It’s staging a production in front of a live audience — a smaller and more distanced audience, but an audience nonetheless.

Thousands of gallons of water from a burst pipe flowed into Duluth’s Greysolon Plaza early Tuesday evening. According to City of Duluth spokesperson Kate Van Daele, a pipe in the skywalk connecting a parking ramp in the 200 block of East First Street to the Greysolon and the NorShor Theatre burst late Tuesday afternoon. Due to the slope of the skywalk, water flowed into the basement, first and second floors of the Plaza.