Email Author Brad Richason

2011 Stories by Brad Richason

• The Maids

  published June 15, 2011

  A summary description of French playwright Jean Genet's The Maids would no doubt focus on the seething class resentment that drives the... More >>

• The Lighter Side...of Homicide

  published June 8, 2011

  Rational people tend to agree that murder is no laughing matter. Such accepted moral wisdom, however, places no restrictions on cinematic... More >>

• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

  published June 8, 2011

  From a conceptual standpoint, musical adaptations of popular movies have grown far too ubiquitous to impress by novelty value. Every so often,... More >>

• Pirates! Pirates! Pirates!

  published June 1, 2011

  Arr! Avast ye addled speech, me mateys, and damn the scallywags of the Caribbean as landlubbers all. Accursed CGI hornswagglin' be fit cause... More >>

• Steerage Song

  published June 1, 2011

  Nationalistic rhetoric notwithstanding, the United States has always possessed a conflicted view of immigration, advertising a land of... More >>

• The Debate over Courtney O'Connell of Columbus, Nebraska

  published May 18, 2011

  As anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of a let's-just-be-friends speech knows far too well, the only thing worse than being dumped is... More >>

• TheScrewtape Letters

  published May 11, 2011

  With its thematic inspiration steeped in Christian orthodoxy, a staged adaption of The Screwtape Letters might be greeted with... More >>

• Toru Takemitsu: The Music of Anxiety

  published May 4, 2011

  Concluding an overarching series of notable film composers, the cinephiles at Take-Up Productions are presenting arguably their most daring choice... More >>

• Next To Normal

  published May 4, 2011

  Surveying the prevailing state of Broadway musicals, one could get the impression that originality is in short supply. Faced with rising costs in... More >>

• Western Classics

  published April 20, 2011

  Is any cinematic genre as associated with American mythos as the Western? From 1903's The Great Train Robbery onward, movies have... More >>

• Three Viewings

  published April 13, 2011

  Generally speaking, death seldom makes for hotly anticipated homecomings. Nevertheless, enthusiasm is a perfectly suitable reaction to the... More >>

• MN Opera: Wuthering Heights

  published April 13, 2011

  Don't be alarmed if the Twin Cities feels a little sinister of late; Bernard Herrmann is in town. Although the composer died in 1975, his iconic... More >>

• Arsenic and Old Lace

  published April 6, 2011

  Though the Guthrie's 2010-11 season has already featured an abundance of comedic works, none of those previous productions can boast of the... More >>

• H.M.S. Pacific Princess Boat

  published April 6, 2011

  In the pop culture-savvy year of 2011, deriving ironic laughs from the stale clichés of decades-old television series is about as... More >>

• River of Passion: The Saga Continues

  published March 30, 2011

  Life in our Twin Cities can be plenty loopy, but even the ongoing saga of Denny Hecker seems nearly staid compared to the sexual imbroglios,... More >>

• Uncle Vanya

  published March 30, 2011

  At first glance the Twin Cities of 2011 has little in common with provincial Russia of 1899. Despite the vast spans of geography and time,... More >>

• Stomp

  published March 23, 2011

  For many people, music provides a passive diversion from mundane everyday tasks. Others, however, have learned to use the tools of such seemingly... More >>

• Arms and the Man

  published March 16, 2011

  With thoughts of spring occupying the mind of many a Minnesotan, the Guthrie Theater's latest production of George Bernard Shaw's romantic comedy... More >>

• Little Shop of Horrors

  published March 16, 2011

  Producers of stage musicals often demonstrate a curious tendency to mine the campiest of sources for inspiration. While the results can be... More >>

• Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake)

  published March 9, 2011

  In these tumultuous times, as the national economy falters and the world copes with widespread instability, where can we turn for reassurance if... More >>

• Red State

  published March 9, 2011

  Since his 1994 indie debut, Clerks, filmmaker Kevin Smith has refined his cinematic signature of irreverent vulgarity mixed with... More >>

• Heroes

  published March 2, 2011

  As portrayed in popular entertainment, heroes tend to be defined by perilous adventures in which the fate of nothing less than the entire universe... More >>

• Hair

  published February 23, 2011

  As a symbol of social rebellion, hair length carries precious little weight these days. Vastly changed mores, one might presume, have reduced a... More >>

• Snow Bound!

  published February 16, 2011

  At some point every Minnesotan must face the question, typically posed by baffled folks from warmer climes, of why we tolerate our notoriously... More >>

• Agnes Under the Big Top

  published February 16, 2011

  As much as the United States trumpets our country's multiethnic makeup, even a cursory glance through history shows that each era has singled out... More >>