arts criticism

exposure and opinions

From Pearl Jam to Pagliacci to Picasso, Brett Oppegaard has been immersed in the arts world for more than a decade. The National Endowment for the Arts honored Oppegaard by choosing him to be one of the first critics in the country to go through its arts journalism fellowship. Oppegaard has written about a variety of forms of expression, including professional theater, dance, visual art, film, music and opera. That includes hundreds of reviews, featuring critiques of extravagant Las Vegas productions, touring Broadway and Cirque du Soleil shows and the offerings of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (one of the top regional theaters on the West Coast).

Here is a partial list of his repertoire as a professional critic, in alphabetical order:

theater / dance / opera

"A Christmas Carol"
"A New Brain"
"Aida"
"Always, Patsy Cline"
"Anna in the Tropics"
"Annie"
"Annie Get Your Gun"
"Appalachian Ebeneezer"
"Babes in Toyland"
"Bat Boy, The Musical"
"Beauty and the Beast"
"The Beauty Queen of Leenane"
"Big"
"Blast!"
"Blue Man Group"
"Blue/Orange"
"Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk"
"Bug"
"Cabaret"
"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"
"Chicago"
"Cinderella"
Cirque du Soleil's "Alegria," "Delirium," "Dralion," "O," "Saltimbanco," "Varekai" and "Zumanity"
"Closer"
"Contact"
"Copenhagen"
The Cripple of Inishmaan"
"The Crucible"
"Crumbs From the Table of Joy"
"Death of a Salesman"
"Dirty Blonde"
"Don Giovanni"
"The Fantasticks"
"Faust"
"Fiddler on the Roof"
"Flesh and Blood"
"Fosse"
"42nd Street"
"The Full Monty"
"Fully Committed"
"The Glass Menagerie"
"The Goat"
"The Graduate"
"Grease"
"Guys and Dolls"
"Gypsy"
"Hairspray"
"Honey in the Horn"
"Humble Boy"
"I Do, I Do"
"Jekyll and Hyde"
"Killer Joe"
"King and I"
"La Cage aux Folles"
"The Laramie Project"
"Les Miserables"
"The Light in the Piazza"
"The Lion King"
"Little Shop of Horrors"
"The Love for Three Oranges"
"Man and Superman"
"The Man Who Came to Dinner"
"Mamma Mia!"
"The Mercy Seat"
"Metamorphoses"
"The Mikado"
"Miss Saigon"
"Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge"
"My Fair Lady"
"Never the Sinner"
"The New House"
"Nickel and Dimed"
"Night of the Iguana"
"No Exit"
"No, No Nanette"
"Nunsense"
"The Nutcracker"
"Oklahoma!"
"Oliver!"
"O Lovely Glowworm"
"On Golden Pond"
"One"
"Outrage"
"Pagliacci"
"Peter Pan"
"Pillowman"
"Pirates of Penzance"
"The Producers"
"Proof"
"Ragtime"
"Red, White and Tuna"
"Rent"
"Rigoletto"
"Riverdance"
"The Santaland Diaries"
"Saturday Night Fever"
"The School for Scandal"
"Seascape"
"Seussical, The Musical"
Shakespeare's "As You Like It," "Cymbeline," "Henry IV" parts one and two, "Hamlet," "Henry V," "Julius Caesar," "The Merchant of Venice," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Much Ado About Nothing," "King Lear," "Romeo & Juliet," "The Taming of the Shrew," "Timon of Athens," "Twelfth Night" and "The Two Gentlemen of Verona"
"Side Man"
"Some Like it Hot"
"Sweet Charity"
"Stomp"
"Sweeney Todd"
"Take Me Out"
"Tap Dogs"
"36 Views"
"Thoroughly Modern Millie"
"Topdog/Underdog"
"Tosca"
"Two Sisters and a Piano"
"True West"
"Urinetown"
"Vilna's Got a Golem"
Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Cats," "Evita," "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," "The Phantom of the Opera," "Starlight Express" and "Sunset Boulevard"
"Victor/Victoria"
"West Side Story"
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
"Wicked"
"Wit"
"The Wizard of Oz"
"You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"