"Peter and the Starcatcher" at Lyric Arts

For my first show of the 2024-2025 #TCTheater season, I saw Lyric Arts' production of the charming and whimsical play with music Peter and the Starcatcher. This is my 6th time seeing this show in the last 12 years (most recently at Duluth Playhouse this spring), but the great thing about it is that there is a lot of room for play and invention within the structure of the script. It's typically done with physical theater and low-tech theater magic, and it's always fun to see how a company interprets the story and adds their own spin. Directed by Lyric Arts' Resident Director Scott Ford, this production is very loose and playful, while also being polished and well choreographed. The talented 12-person cast works and plays well together to bring this charming story to life. It's very funny and entertaining, and also sweet and nostalgic as it taps into the familiar and beloved story of Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up. Make the short trip out to Anoka to see how Peter became Pan, with the help of a strong and spirted young girl, now through September 29.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2024: "Hugo and Maeve Join A Cult!"

Day: 3

Show: 6

Title: Hugo and Maeve Join A Cult!

Category: Comedy / Horror

By: Alex Stokes / Sky Blue Productions

Created by: Brendan Nelson Finn, Abilene Olson, and Alex Stokes

Location: Bryant Lake Bowl

Summary: Twenty-something friends Hugo and Maeve are seduced by chocolate into joining an Oompa Loompa cult in the bowels of the Mall of America.

Highlights: This is just good fringey fun. Liberally sprinkled with Minnesota references, cult references, and Roald Dahl references, it tells the story of these two friends who go to the mall for some Bubba Gump Shrimp and end up in wigs and cloaks, running for their lives. Exhausted from the forced labor of shrimp farming next to the Rainforest Cafe, they find an empty room and livestream their story in the hopes that someone will rescue them. They tell us the bizarre details of their cult, which really are no more bizarre than the real cults they bring to mind (NXIVM, Scientology, Heaven's Gate). Created and directed by Alex Stokes and performed by Abilene Olson and Brendan Nelson Finn (winner of the 2023 TCTB Award for best comedic performance), you're in good hands - these folks know funny. There's a bit of horror, and a fun voiceover cameo, but mostly it's just these two loveable idiots lamenting their fate. It's a short one at about 40 minutes, and I would have happily spent another 10 or 15 minutes with Hugo and Maeve in the basement of the Mall of America.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

"The Servant of Two Masters" at Lyric Arts

"On some evening 278 years ago, an Italian audience sat together and had an experience similar to the one you are about to have." So says Lyric Arts' Resident Director Scott Ford about their new production of The Servant of Two Masters, an 18th Century Italian comedy written in the style of commedia dell'arte. It's reassuring to think that as much as our world is vastly different than the world of this play's original audiences, we still laugh at the same things. At double entendres, at pratfalls and physical humor, at overly melodramatic emotions, at mistaken identities and near misses. Ford and his absurdly talented 15-person cast (plus one musician) are having a great time playing around with this classic piece and milking every comic moment, which translates to the audience having a great time too. I do wish the runtime were closer to the two-and-a-half hour mark than the three-hour mark, but take a nap or have a coffee and settle in to enjoy a few hours of classic timeless comedy at Lyric Arts in Anoka through June 23.

"A Very Electric Christmas" by nimbus theatre at The Crane Theater

nimbus theatre's first holiday* show last year, A Count Up to Christmas - a spoof of the Hallmark holiday movie, was such a success that they're doing another one this year. Last year, the show featured commercials for other "movies" in the network's line-up, and they took one of those and turned it into this year's show. While I didn't enjoy it as much as last year's show, it's still full of fun cliches, bad puns, and double entendres, with a festive design and entertaining performances. See A Very Electric Christmas at The Crane Theater in Northeast Minneapolis through December 17.

"Nimbus Presents: A Count Up to Christmas" by nimbus theatre at the Crane Theater

nimbus theatre's contribution to the #TCTheater holiday* space (and I think their first holiday show in their 20 years) is a delightful spoof of the beloved Hallmark Christmas movie. You know the one, in which a big city person finds themselves in a quaint small town, where they find love and a purpose. Nimbus Presents: A Count Up to Christmas is so full of these movie clichés that they offer a bingo card with items like "peppermint spice," "sledding," "coffee shop." And check off nearly every one. Whether you love or hate these movies, A Count Up to Christmas is a cute and fun way to experience them. See it at the Crane Theater in Northeast through December 18.

"Something Rotten" at Lyric Arts

Once again, Lyric Arts in Anoka is bringing us the regional premiere of a new(ish) Broadway musical (see also 2018's If/Then and 2019's Bright Star). The 2015 ten-time Tony nominated Something Rotten! is a hilarious musical about musicals, set in Shakespeare's time and featuring The Bard himself as a character. Lyric Arts has assembled a huge, talented, and largely unknown cast to bring this big, bold, wacky story to life on their intimate stage, and it's a hit. If you love musicals, or Shakespeare, or Renn Fest, or broad comedy that's both silly and clever, this is the show for you. Click here for more details and to purchase tickets to the show (continuing through August 14).