Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Is That Why?"

Day: 9

Show: 29

Title: Is That Why?

Category: Comedy / Solo Show / Spoken Word / Storytelling

By: Ari Hoptman

Created by: Ari Hoptman

Location: American School of Storytelling

Summary: A solo show about the origins of words, from your favorite professor Ari Hoptman.

Highlights: If you love words and languages, you'll love this show (and you can still see it today at 1!). Based on a series of large flashcards drawn randomly by an audience member, Ari shares short (3 minutes or so) stories about the origins of words and the relation of various languages, using no notes, but occasional visual aids. The handout (professors love handouts) shows a map that connects Germanic, Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit languages via their common ancestor, "the Indo-European Machine." I love words, and I love nerds (i.e., people who are passionate about a specific subject), and Ari is charmingly obsessed with this sort of thing, and his enthusiasm for the subject and simple way of explaining things (with some pop culture references thrown in) make this a very entertaining and educational show. The history of language is the history of humanity, and this show is good nerdy fun.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Fringe Festival: "Hello, I Must Be Going..."

Day: 8

Show: 32

Title: Hello, I Must Be Going...

Category: Drama

By: Mercury Ninety Productions

Written by: Garrett Rademacher

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: The true life story of Groucho Marx and the controversy around his late in life companion/secretary/manager Erin Fleming.

Highlights: When looking around for shows to fill the hole in my schedule last night, I saw "Ari Hoptman as Groucho Marx" and needed to look no further. Ari is impeccable as Groucho, portraying both his wry humor and his failing health in this fascinating story. He even does a bit of charming improv chatting with the crowd. Playwright Garrett Rademacher has constructed the play as a flashback of an older Erin (Deborah Frethem), who ended up homeless and (spoiler alert) shot herself in 2003, 26 years after Groucho's death. She expresses regret and nostalgia about her time with Groucho in the '70s, and then we see their relationship play out briefly. The younger Erin (Colleen Thul, who really looks like a younger version of Deborah) starts out helping Groucho with his life and career, including bringing about an honorary Oscar, but ends up verbally and physically abusing him. I would love to see this play expanded and fleshed out, with more time spent on how the relationship went from good to bad. But even as is, it's a fascinating look at an intriguing real life relationship. But you really don't need to know any more than "Ari Hoptman as Groucho Marx."


Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Hope You Guess My Name"

Day: 8

Show: 38

Title: Hope You Guess My Name

Category: Comedy

By: Ante-Deluvian Productions

Written by: Ari Hoptman

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: Two people sell their souls to the devil and then sue him on a technicality.

Highlights: I had high hopes for this one based on the playwright (Ari Hoptman, see also the excellent The Consolation) and cast (Eric Webster, Shanan Custer, Joshua Scrimshaw), and while there are plenty of funny lines and physical comedy bits, the whole thing didn't quite seem to hang together. Or maybe I was just too fringesausted at the end of a long, hot, stressful day to appreciate it. The good news is Eric makes for a devilishly charming Satan, Ari and Shanan are great as the people who sell their souls in exchange for a better life as a rock star and country hick (respectively), and Joshua is as delightfully goofy as always. So it's fun and amusing, if not great.

Fringe Festival 2015: "The Consolation"

Day: 3

Show: 9

Title: The Consolation

Category: Drama

By: Ethel-Ready! Productions

Written by: Ari Hoptman

Location: U of M Rarig Center Arena

Summary: The story of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann on trial in Israel is told along with the Milgram experiment that tested just what people would do when ordered.

Highlights: Friends, this one is intense. The Consolation is not your typical fun and frivolous Fringe show. The story of a Nazi war criminal on trial may not be new, but it's beautifully and succinctly told in this thought-provoking play that lays bare all of the complexities involved and leaves the viewer with an unsettled feeling. Eichmann is at times infuriating and at times sympathetic, thanks in part to a brilliant performance by David Mann. Scenes of the trial in front of an unforgiving judge (Jim Pounds) are interspersed with scenes talking to an unnamed visitor (Jennifer Blagen) who seems to be trying to understand how one can be driven to do such horrific things, which Eichmann tries to explain was just a bureaucratic job to him (seen in flashbacks with his assistant, played by Clarence Wethern), despite the fact that millions died as the result of his paperwork and meetings. And then there's the experiment. Dr. Milgram (Edwin Strout) asks the subject (Robb Krueger) to deliver increasingly greater shocks to a person in another room, and even though he's disturbed by the pain he's inflicting on this stranger, he continues. The play is well constructed by playwright Ari Hoptman, with scenes and timelines intersecting and flowing into one another. Clear direction by Jean Wolff and great performances by the cast bring this story to life in a disturbing way. The Consolation is a heavy drama, beautifully done, that makes one think not just about the crimes at hand, but the complicated idea of following orders vs. following your conscience.

"Prints" by Torch Theater Company at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage

This has been a most excellent week of theater. I saw five shows (four plays and one musical), and each was so different from the rest but so wonderful in its own unique way. I truly experienced the breadth and depth of the Twin Cities theater community this week, from a lovely and intimate two-person musical, to an intensely dramatic historical play, to a funny and poignant play about small town Minnesota, to a wildly inventive new fairy tale. And capping it off is Prints, a sharp and funny new play written by local actor John Middleton and presented by Torch Theater Company (their first production in over a year), brilliantly acted by the company of eight, "corrupted from a true story" about the kidnapping of Minnesota beer tycoon William Hamm in 1933.* I couldn't have asked for a better conclusion to this most excellent week of theater.

The story in Prints features a mishmash of facts from the true story of the Barker-Karpis gang, along with completely made up bits designed to tell an entertaining story. And it works. We view the kidnapping through the eyes of two reporters who are asked by the kidnapped man's daughter Pearl to help investigate. They soon decipher that it must be the work of the infamous Barker-Karpis gang, and work with a corrupt cop and the Hamm family to try to prove it and find Hamm. The FBI gets involved and applies the brand new "Silver Nitrate Method" to pull fingerprints off the ransom note (this part of the story is true). Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the stage, the gang is holding poor Mr. Hamm hostage and trying to figure out how they're going to get out of this mess.

The highlights are many and include:

• The tone is pitch-perfect, as director Craig Johnson gets just the right mix of sharp humor and occasional darkness from his cast. Some audience members were laughing during the shooting scenes but I found them sad and scary.
• Speaking of, Zach Curtis is truly formidable as the unstable gangster "Creepy" Karpis, and is the one dark element that anchors the comedy and gives real weight to this crime story, despite the silly shenanigans going on around him. There's nothing funny about Creepy (at least not that you would admit in his presence).
• On the opposite end of the spectrum, Karen Wiese-Thompson cracked me up as the flighty socialite Mitzi Hamm with her every expression and gesture, and also brings a bit of pathos to the role of Ma Barker - a mother who loves her boys, even though those boys are gangsters.
• Playwright John Middleton and Mo Perry share a witty banter and sly humor as the reporters, in a His Girl Friday sort of way.
• Most of the cast play multiple roles, and slip easily and quickly back and forth between the different skins they inhabit, including Summer Hagen as Pearl, Creepy's girl, and FBI director Hoover; Casey Hoekstra as an uptight FBI agent and the nervous gangster Doc, who's on the receiving end of much of Creepy's brutality; Ari Hoptman as everybody's favorite bartender, the kidnapped man with a bag over his head, and a stand-up comic with jokes so bad they're funny; and Sam Landman as the corrupt Minnesota cop and one of the Barker boys. Just really beautiful and interesting and funny performances by everyone in every role.
• The writing is really fantastic - sharp and tight, with one particularly clever scene featuring two interrelated and overlapping interrogations by the two reporters.
• I love the range of accents, from gangsters who talk like we think gangsters talked, to women who talk like women in old movies, to Mitzi's occasionally returning German accent, to the very Minnesotan cop.
• The set by Michael Hoover (who I swear is the busiest set designer in the Cities) is a perfect backdrop. A brick wall with several doors, and a Hamm's label functioning as a scree upon which videos are played and behind which shadowed scenes take place. (Although the multiple levels seemed to be a bit tricky for the cast to negotiate as they tripped more than once, but never breaking character for a moment so that the stumbles almost seemed planned.)
• Finally, the period costumes (by John Woskoff) look pretty snazzy and help differentiate the multiple characters.

Welcome back Torch Theater Company, don't be gone so long next time! This is a great example of why the Twin Cities theater community is so stellar - a new play by a local playwright, an ensemble of individual talents who work well together, and an all around high quality production. Playing now through March 8 at the Minneapolis Theater Garage, with discount tickets available on Goldstar.

*This is not the first show I've seen on this topic, see also History Theatre's Capital Crimes: The St. Paul Gangster Musical.

"Words By... Ira Gershwin and the Great American Songbook" at Park Square Theatre

Park Square Theatre's Words By... Ira Gershwin and the Great American Songbook is a little like an installment of the Ordway's Broadway Songbook series come to life. In it, we learn about the less famous Gerswhin brother Ira, the one who wrote the words that accompanied many of his brother George's timeless melodies. But unlike Broadway Songbook in which a narrator regales the audience with stories and facts about the chosen subject, in Words By... the stories and facts are relayed by Ira himself. Or at least, an actor (Ari Hoptman) playing him. He also sings a few of the songs, along with the fantastic singers T. Mychael Rambo and Jennifer Grimm. The result is an educational, fascinating, entertaining, and inspiring two hours of music and theater.

Before seeing the show, I didn't know much about the Gershwin brothers, and in fact was only vaguely aware that they were brothers. The children of Russian Jewish immigrants growing up in Brooklyn in the early 20th century, younger brother George was a prodigy on the piano from an early age. Not wanting to capitalize on his brother's success, Ira began writing lyrics with other composers under a pseudonym, only later working with his brother after he had established some success of his own. As told by Ira in the play, the brothers had a wonderfully collaborative working relationship writing for musical theater (including the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama, Of Thee I Sing) and movies. Sadly, this collaboration was cut short when George died of a brain tumor at the age of 38. Ira continued working with other composers, but many of his great works (and the majority of the songs in the play) were written with his brother.

As Ira, Ari Hoptman is incredibly personable and believable, to the point where I almost forgot it wasn't Ira himself telling the stories. His stories and recollections are accompanied by photos show on a screen, and of course, the songs themselves. Songs with fast, clever, lovely lyrics like "Fascinating Rhythm," "'S Wonderful," "How Long Has This Been Going On?," "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," and "They Can't Take That Away From Me." The songs are performed by a wonderfully jazzy four-piece band led by Joseph Vass on the piano (who also wrote the show) and two incredible singers. T. Mychael Rambo is always such a dynamic performer with a beautifully smooth voice, so it's no surprise that he is that here. But I was kind of blown away by Jennifer Grimm. I've seen her a few times before, but nothing like this where she takes center stage and just owns in (in a series of fabulous dresses). Her gorgeous voice is no better on display than in the Act I closing number "The Man That Got Away," a song that Ira and Harold Arlen wrote for Judy Garland (to whose voice Jennifer's is not dissimilar). Another highlight is Mychael and Jennifer singing songs from the Gershwin brothers opera Porgy and Bess (the new revival is coming to the Ordway in March).

Words By... continues through December 29. It's truly a treat to hear these classic songs performed by such talented artists, accompanied but the wonderful stories about how they came to be, and to learn a little about the art of writing lyrics. Ira describes it with this quote by his friend Yip: "Words make you think a thought, music makes you feel a feeling, a song makes you feel a thought." If you love the standards, or are interested in the history of American music, this show is a must-see (discount tickets available on Goldstar).