Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Chum!"

Day: 1

Show: 2

Title: Chum!

Category: Comedy / Musical Theater / Audience participation

By: Theatre Engine

Created by: Alexis Bacon & Alison Dobbins

Location: Rarig Kilburn Arena

Summary: A musical parody of the 1975 movie Jaws.

Highlights: I'm not sure I've ever seen Jaws, but now I kind of want to, although it's probably not as much fun as this musical parody is. The four-person cast, accompanied by a two-piece band (keyboard and percussion), tell the full story of the murderous shark who terrorizes a beachside resort town with humor and clever songs. MSU Mankato alums Justine Carroll Melchior as the police chief who's afraid of water, Kaitlin McInerney as the marine biologist (and the first victim), Jake McInerney as the town mayor who's more concerned with business than safety, and Jordon Oxborough as the grizzled sea captain, all have strong voices and strike just the right campy faux sincere tone. A couple of audience members are recruited before the show to play additional victims, which is fun and charming. The adorably DIY props and set pieces include the titular chum represented by an array of stuffed animals tied with a red ribbon, a boat made of two pieces of cardboard lined with blue painters tape (and a Chewy label for a nice detail), a silver shark fin hat worn by several cast members, bloody red ribbons, pool noodle spears, and a couple of beautiful sails that represent the water. It's not the Fringe without a musical parody of a familiar pop culture icon, and Chum! fits the bill quite nicely.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

"Spring Awakening" by Shoot the Glass Theater at the Lab Theater

I love Spring Awakening so much that after seeing the eight time Tony winner on Broadway (with most of the original cast), I named the next kitten I adopted Moritz Stiefel, after my favorite character. Nine years and three bladder surgeries later, my sweet Moritz is still with me, and so is my love for Spring Awakening. Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly), the themes of the late 19th Century German play, as seen through a rock musical, are still relevant today. Suicide rates are on the rise, there are some very real threats to abortion rights in this country, exposure and intolerance of sexual abuse and harassment is at an all time high, and 21st Century technology is making it harder to be a teenager than perhaps it's ever been. You think Wendla and Melchi had it rough? At least they never had their most embarrassing moment go viral for the entire world to bully them! For all of these reasons I'm grateful to Shoot the Glass Theater for bringing Spring Awakening to us now, in a beautifully staged production featuring a super talented cast of young and unknown actors. I found myself falling in love with this story and these characters all over again.