Friday, April 26
Lowertown Love
WHAT: St. Paul Art Crawl
WHERE: Lowertown, St. Paul
WHEN: 6 to 10 p.m. (also Saturday and Sunday)
The burgeoning Lowertown neighborhood (named one of the top nodes in the Twin Cities in the May issue of Minnesota Monthly) was settled by artists long ago, and this semi-annual weekend tour of their studios and galleries remains a great insight into their work as well as their live/work spaces. If it’s not exactly the bohemian dream anymore, it’s pretty darn close (see: the Tilsner Artists Co-op and Northern Warehouse). Learn more at stpaulartcrawl.org
Friday, April 26
Flammable Vacation
WHAT: Stick Fly
WHERE: Park Square Theatre, St. Paul
WHEN: 7:30 p.m.
The sons of a well-to-do African American family bring their new girlfriends home to an unexpectedly tense family vacation at Martha’s Vineyard. Family secrets, sibling rivalries, sexual tension—this play, with the great James A. Williams as the family patriarch and the striking Brittany Bradford returning from the East Coast to play the daughter of the family maid, has it all. Learn more at parksquaretheatre.org
Saturday, April 27
Hearts on Fire
WHAT: Lucy Michelle solo debut
WHERE: Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis
WHEN: 8 p.m.
Lucy Michelle, without her Velvet Lapelles. The jazz and folk influenced singer-songwriter celebrates the release of Attack of the Heart, her introspective solo album (inspired by a trip to Madeline Island) with the rock stars who helped make it happen, Chan Poling and John Munson. The girl group Southside Desire opens the show. Learn more at thecedar.org
Saturday, April 27
Springtime in the Galleries
WHAT: Art in Bloom
WHERE: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis
WHEN: 10 to 5 p.m. (also Friday and Sunday)
The timing couldn’t be better, really, as the MIA offers its 30th annual floral display in the galleries just as the snow finally vanishes from the Twin Cities. It’s an aromatic breath of fresh air, literally as well as thematically—this year’s theme is Global Nature, a nod to the museum’s new emphasis on globalism. Learn more at artsmia.org
Sunday, April 28
A Downton Abbey Nanny
WHAT: Mary Poppins
WHERE: Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis
WHEN: 1 and 6:30 p.m.
Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes wrote the book for this new stage take on the 1964 Disney film, working with the renowned West End veteran Cameron Mackintosh. The result is a showcase of wry and crisp, stiff-upper-lip manners and stunning stagecraft, nearly enough to make up for the absence of Julie Andrews. Learn more at hennepintheatretrust.org
Sunday, April 28
Retro Diva
WHAT: An Evening with Diana Krall
WHERE: State Theatre, Minneapolis
WHEN: 7:30 p.m.
She’s a noir diva for our time, a jazz singer in the smoky old tradition. Minneapolis is just one of 11 stops she’s making on a tour behind her latest album, Glad Rag Doll, which came out last fall with production from T-Bone Burnett and 13 songs that largely hail from the 1920s and ’30s. Learn more at hennepintheatretrust.org
