THROW YOUR (JAZZ) HANDS IN THE AIR: THREE CAN’T-MISS MUSICALS GIVE NEW LIFE TO THE OLD SONG AND DANCE.

2010.By Jamie Thomas, Metro Magazine.

VIOLET by Theater Latte Da at the Guthrie, 2/26-3/21 Violet is not a musical that belongs on Broadway, and that’s a good things says local actor/director Peter Rothstein, who directs the show this month at the Guthrie. According to Rothstein, Broadway’s “bells and whistles” and big dance numbers would ruin this intimate show. The title character is a young white woman living with a disfiguring scar duing the pressure-filled years before the Civil Rights Movement. She hops a Greyhound to travel from the hills of North Carolina to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where rumor has it there’s a prophet who can heal her. On the journey she meets a young black soldier who breaks down her racial stereotypes and ultimately helps her heal herself in an unexpected way. “The ultimate theme to me is that miracles don’t happen at Mecca, they happen on the way to Mecca,” says Rothstein. The music by Jeanine Tesori (who also wrote the score for Tony Kushner’s Caroline, Or Change) is a mix of grace and gusto – influenced by gospel, rock and country. [guthrietheater.org; latteda.org]