The Hobbit

Expect Lonely Mountain and Middle Earth to be spectacularly colorful. Expect a fantastical troupe of lords, dragons, and trolls, all cloaked and bearded and wearing their hair in those requisite sci-fi ringlets. Children’s Theatre Company has employed its own stable of sorcerers and wizards–costume and set designers, that is–to do justice to the beginning of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. When it comes to playing Bilbo Baggins, the story’s reluctant superstar, we can’t think of a better performer than the wide-eyed Nathan Christopher. With his hair in red curls and a wardrobe of nerdy wool vests and gaudy tweeds, this Twin Cities-based actor is just the tea-sipping, hapless hero we want him to be. 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-874-0400; www.childrenstheatre.org