Angel Street

Spooky! The Manningham family has recently moved into a new house full of old secrets. While husband Jack struggles to conceal his past trangressions, wife Bella drifts toward insanity, as the house’s gaslights flicker and footsteps echo in the attic. Even Scotland Yard makes a signature appearance. Does the mix of plot-driven whodunnit and dark twentieth-century character study sound familiar? It should. Angel Street inspired the 1939 film Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman, and successfully ran on Broadway in the late sixties. Now it’s coming to Theater in the Round, who will no doubt show us all sides of this complex mystery. 245 Cedar Ave., Minneapolis; (612) 333-3010, www.theatreintheround.org

THEATER: Dirty Blonde
Park Square Theatre, July 17-August 8
In the realm of legendary twentieth-century blondes, who looms largest, Madonna, Marilyn, or Mae? We’d vote for the brassy, bossy, up-front-and-in-control Ms. West. So, apparently, would Claudia Shear. In her 2000 play Dirty Blonde, the early-American sex bomb inspires a connection between a librarian, Charlie, and an actress, Jo, who explore their love for each other and West against the backdrop of West’s life. Jodi Kellogg plays both West and Jo, returning to Park Square in a reprise performance that further blends the stories of the legend and her fans. 20 W. 7th Place, St. Paul; (651) 291-7005, www.parksquaretheatre.org

THEATER: The Phantom of the Opera
Orpheum Theater, July 14-August 8
Antiques Roadshow fans beware: The Orpheum’s production of Phantom contains graphic scenes depicting violence against excessive ornament. Broadway’s most beloved romantic tragedy moves to Minneapolis, along with its ten-story, half-ton chandelier, which, during the performance, crashes onto the stage and shatters to bits. And you thought Prince smashing his nonsensical symbol-shaped guitar was dramatic! For a play that is known far and wide, with every song memorized by many a teenage girl (or middle-aged housewife), the only way to go out is to go big. So it is that Phantom arrives with the full array of accoutrements from the New York set, including that ill-fated chandelier, to give Minnesota audiences an affair to remember. (612) 339-7007; www.hennepintheatredistrict.com

RESTAURANTS: Machu Picchu
2940 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis;
(612) 822-2125
If the question is “do French fries belong in a stir-fry?” then the answer is Machu Picchu. While the game of musical chairs continues apace with restaurateurs at the intersection of Lyndale and Lake, the Saltados at this Peruvian-style joint have made us glad they’ve stuck it out. Their new expansion features a nifty little bar in a nicely lit room facing Lyndale. Gastronomic temptations include Papa a la Huancaina, about which you only need to know the phrase “feta cheese cream sauce.” If Paddington Bear ate this well, he never would have left darkest Peru.

RESTAURANTS: Tin Fish
3000 E. Calhoun Pkwy., Minneapolis; www.thetinfish.net
Everyone thinks they could be a writer, and everyone thinks they could run a restaurant. Folks don’t realize how much work, tedious work, is involved in either enterprise. Well, we confess that our second-best idea—after starting this magazine—was to open a good fish-and-chips joint, in the classic British style of a walk-up chippy. True, you can find fish and chips all over town, but other than Mac’s in St. Paul, none is dedicated exclusively to this noble cause. Now Minneapolis has a proud contender, in an amazing location: The Tin Fish is the Minneapolis Park Board’s seasonal restaurant in the boathouse at Lake Calhoun. The prices are a little steep (running $10-$15 for an actual meal) and the wait can be unsettling, but the quality (walleye, salmon, cod, cross-cut fries, slaw—upscale!) has us beaming with civic pride. Each of the city’s great lakes deserves a delightful gathering place like this. Now how about a model yacht club at Loring Pond?