Steve On Broadway (SOB)

Floyd Collins (The SOB Review) - Theatre Latte Da, Minneapolis, MN

Floyd Collins (The SOB Review) - Theatre Latte Da, Minneapolis, MN

*** (out of ****)

I walked into Floyd Collins wondering, "How on earth could anyone write a musical about a cave-explorer?" Perhaps the more appropriate question would have been to ask how deeply in earth someone could write such a nugget. Floyd Collins, the musical written by Adam Guettel -- grandson of the musical great Richard Rodgers -- and Tina Landau, has landed at Minneapolis' Loring Playhouse in a surprising production directed by Peter Rothstein, and all is good.

Even though the eponymous hero was not saved in real life, the actor portraying him, Dieter Bierbrauer, soars. I've had several opportunities to see Bierbrauer before and never has his beautiful singing and emotional sense of timing been more well-suited for a role, particularly with music that so eloquently conveys both the dreams and desperation faced by the lead character during the two and a half hour performance. For anyone seeking to understand the musical roots of The Light in the Piazza's gifted composer, they need dig no further than Floyd Collins.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Click here for tickets.

Labels: Floyd Collins, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Musical, The SOB Review

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Monday, April 24, 2006