November 2012 Arts Calendar

What you need to do, see, and hear this month


Theater

In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) • Electricity brought us light bulbs, air conditioning, medicinal vibrators. Wait, what? Sarah Agnew, Christina Baldwin, and Christiana Clark star in this Tony-nominated comedy about one doctor’s, er, stimulating cure for “hysteria” in the late 1800s.  • 11/2–12/16, jungletheater.com
 

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Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas •  The only U.S. theater approved to produce Seuss. See why. • 11/6–12/30, childrenstheatre.org

A Christmas Carol • J.C. Cutler as a sardonic Scrooge. • 11/13–12/29, guthrietheater.org

Kill Me Don’t Go • A new comedy on what “till death do us part” entails. • 11/3–11/17, workhauscollective.org
 

Music

Stephen Hough • One of the world’s great pianists, Hough is as British as he is virtuosic, listing theology, hats, and puddings among his interests. That said, his Schubert Club recital at the Ordway is a kind of homecoming—in 2009, he recorded all of Tchaikovsky’s piano works with the Minnesota Orchestra. • 11/20, schubert.org
 

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Magnetic Fields • A rare visit from the kings of clever, touring behind their new album, Love at the Bottom of the Sea. • 11/13, first-avenue.com

An Evening in Havana • VocalEssence hosts the first U.S. visit of acclaimed Cuban choir Schola Cantorum Coralina. • 11/10, vocalessence.org

Lindsey Buckingham • The Fleetwood Mac star plays an intimate show at the Dakota. • 11/20, dakotacooks.com
 

Film

Mother…She Isn’t Quite Herself Today • The shower scene made Psycho famous, but would those screams have been as effective without the strings? Hitchcock originally wanted the slashing sequence silent. You’ll be glad it isn’t when the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra tackles this classic score during a live screening. • 11/3, dsso.com
 

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Minnesota Transracial Film Festival • Adoptees’ stories of self-discovery, screened at the U. • 11/10, mntrff.org

Marilyn Monroe: Luminous Why Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, and other lessons Marilyn taught us, at the Riverview. • 11/5–11/26, take-up.org

The Watertown Film Festival • Hip bands, hot international films. • 11/10, watertownfilmfestival.com
 

Dance

Zenon’s 30th Anniversary • Balancing on the cutting edge of the ever-shifting dance world for 30 years is no pirouette in the park. Neither is breeding some of Minnesota’s finest modern and jazz dancers. Zenon’s Linda Z. Andrews has done both, and celebrates her feat at the Cowles with new and classic works . • 11/16–11/25, thecowlescenter.org
 

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TU Dance • Modern, classic, structured, versatile: it’s TU Dance. • 11/16–11/18, oshaughnessy.stkate.edu

Hofesh Shechter • Britain’s fiercest choreographer, at the Orpheum. • 11/13, hennepintheatretrust.org

Choreographers’ Evening • Ten troupes, seven minutes each, one great night. • 11/24, walkerart.org
 

Visual Arts

When They Came to Take My Father • Mark Seliger shot a lot of famous people as the former chief photog for Rolling Stone. But his most indelible images, inspired by a trip to Auschwitz, may be these of Holocaust survivors, exhibited with the subjects’ stories at the Minneapolis Photo Center. • 11/10–1/4, mplsphotocenter.com
 

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Winterlights: Celebrating the Season • An early gift from MIA: holiday displays in the period rooms and art about renewal. • 11/26, artsmia.org

Materialized • Forty-five applied, four were chosen. See why these fiber artists made the cut. • 11/1–12/9, cva.edu

Lutefisk Sushi E • A delicious sampling of local cartoonists’ work at Altered Aesthetics gallery. • 11/2–11/29, cartoonistconspiracy.com
 

Events

Bob Dylan + Madonna + Bruce Springsteen • Sadly, they’re not performing together. But stick close to the Xcel Energy Center and you’ll see three of the most influential performers in rock within days of each other. Springsteen seems the least long in the tooth, though Madonna is finding new ways to be ridiculous. • 11/3–11/12, xcelenergycenter.com
 

[THE RUNNERS-UP]

Back Home • Mason Jennings and Kevin Kling share songs and stories about home. • 11/23–11/25, fitzgeraldtheater.org

Erin Morgenstern • The author of The Night Circus, about dueling old-time magicians, joins Talking Volumes. • 11/9, fitzgeraldtheater.org

Live On Stage • Jeremy Messersmith plays the Minnesota Zoo’s new acoustic series, attractively staged in the steamy tropics area. • 11/7, mnzoo.org