Tag: review
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“Oregon Trail: A Musical” at the Minnesota Fringe Festival is a 16-bit miracle
Every year at the Minnesota Fringe Festival, it’s often—correctly—observed, there are bound to be one or more shows that take some appealing pop culture trope and slap “the musical” on it. Some of these are good, and some aren’t, but Oregon Trail: A Musical is absolutely fantastic. I laughed my way through the entire show, a…
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“Bobby Gould in Hell”: Things to do at the Minnesota Fringe Festival when you’re dead
The devil—or at least a devil, in the person of Edwin Strout—comes roaring out of the gate in David Mamet’s Bobby Gould in Hell, as produced by Joking Apart Theater at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Strout turns it to 11 and doesn’t let up, showboating and screaming and jabbing at the confused Bobby Gould (Michael Lee), who’s been…
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“We Do Every Show in the Fringe”: Well, at least five of them
We Do Every Show in the Fringe is like a bonbon for experienced Fringegoers: a show starring some of the Twin Cities’ best improv comedians (on Saturday evening, Jason Ballweber introduced them as “the Twin Cities’ best improvisers” before deciding that was too bold a claim and revising it to “some of the best”) in…
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At the Minnesota Fringe Festival, “Ministry of Ideas” could use a few more
It takes a while to get good at Fringe. Four of the nine members of the Ministry of Ideas creative team make a point in their bios of disclosing that this is their first foray into the Minnesota Fringe Festival, and while they may do great things in the future, unfortunately they’re not there yet. The…
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“Post Traumatic Super Delightful” at the Minnesota Fringe Festival: Clowning about rape, harrowingly
Rape culture on campus has finally been receiving increased attention in the past few years, but you’ve never seen an account of it quite like Antonia Lassar’s Post Traumatic Super Delightful, now being presented at Phoenix Theater as part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival. In a one-woman show based on “interviews with a huge range of…
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“A Mermaid in Narnia (on LSD)” at the Minnesota Fringe Festival: Fear and loathing in Minneapolis
Though Ariel Leaf’s one-woman Minnesota Fringe Festival show is titled A Mermaid in Narnia (on LSD), Leaf’s monologue isn’t much concerned with the mythical kingdom of Aslan. Instead, it’s largely set in the all-too-real kingdom of Minneapolis—specifically the West Bank circa the 1990s, when Leaf took classes at the U and worked at the Hard Times,…
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“Girlhood” at the Minnesota Fringe Festival warps time and wins your heart
I’ve never been very good at keeping journals. I’ve only done it twice in my life. First, at around age five, I filled a green graph-paper notebook with scrawled disclosures like “I have a confession to make…I LOVE GIRLS!!!” Then, many years later after a tough breakup, I filled a Moleskine with things my friends were…
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“Art (Like It Matters)”: Conceptual theater goes normcore at the Minnesota Fringe Festival
As Art (Like It Matters) began last night at the Weisman Art Museum, I felt like John Cusack getting off on floor 7½: not quite sure if I was being put on or not. The site-specific show, produced by Lesser Mortals, purports to be a series of exercises that bring you into a closer relationship with nothing…
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“Pretty Girls Make Graves” at the Minnesota Fringe Festival: Vinyl, but not very warm
With a lead character’s Morrissey fandom presented front and center in publicity materials, and a title taken from a Smiths song that also inspired the name of a post-punk band, Pretty Girls Make Graves is bound to draw an audience of music fans looking for a little nostalgia at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Prospective viewers, though, would do…
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“Total Eclipse of the Heart”: A Minnesota Fringe Festival art farce
Before Illusion Theater’s house lights went down on Total Eclipse of the Heart, I pulled up the lyrics to Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 anthem and quickly studied them, assuming the show would be full of sly references. It turned out that I did need the lyrics—but not for the reason I thought. Though the song is credited…
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“Frankenstein”: Have you heard the one about the man and his monster who walk in to the Minnesota Fringe Festival?
If your list of things a Fringe show can do doesn’t include “scare the pants off you,” allow me to introduce you to Victor Frankenstein, tortured protagonist of Tyler Olsen’s creepy show. (I should disclose right off the bat that Olsen and other members of the show’s creative team are personal friends of mine, so…
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“Kinky Boots”: A magnificent musical comes to Minneapolis
When critics pan shows, we’re often regarded as being spiteful, jaded, or simply out-of-touch. In my experience, though, we’re all too in touch: in touch with how many shows are desultory, uninspired, and cynical. Once in a blue moon (or, if we’re lucky, once a season), a show comes along that demonstrates how high the bar…