"Groucho Marx Meets T.S. Eliot" by Illusion Theater at Center for Performing Arts

Comedian Groucho Marx. Poet T.S. Eliot. Two influential artists of the 20th Century that probably no one would put in the same sentence together, much less the same play. But they had a brief pen-pal relationship (after Eliot wrote Groucho a fan letter asking for a photo) and met once for dinner at Eliot's home in London. Not much is known about the dinner, which gives playwright Jeffrey Hatcher free reign to imagine it in a clever, funny, acerbic, fourth-wall breaking way. Groucho Marx Meets T.S. Eliot is a highly entertaining 75 minutes of theater that digs a little bit deeper into these two enigmatic figures and their possible relationship (continuing through March 15).

"The Big Blue River" by Mariah Theatre Company at North Garden Theater

It's great to welcome in a new #TCTheater company, after we've lost too many in the last two years. Theater and film actor/director/writer Patrick Coyle is debuting his new company, Mariah Theatre Company: "a boutique theatre company in St. Paul, MN producing world premieres with a mission to produce work that honestly depicts issues of mental health, suicide awareness, and addiction." Patrick wrote The Big Blue River before and during the pandemic. It's a funny, quirky, poignant play about a woman looking for connection, something probably everyone can relate to after the isolation of the recent past. He's assembled a fantastic cast of local actors to bring his story to life in the intimate space of the North Garden Theater in St. Paul's West 7th neighborhood.

"Dancing with Giants" at Illusion Theater

I'll admit it. Before I was a theater geek, I was a TV geek. I grew up watching TV, and my best friends were characters on TV shows. I'm still a TV geek, and I still consider TV characters* my friends. So when I heard that an actor from two of my favorite current shows was doing a play in Minneapolis, I didn't even care what or where the play was. I was going to see Rebecca Bunch's mother / Deanna (who's Deanna?) no matter what. As it turns out, Tovah Feldshuh has some ties to the #TCTheater community, having studied and worked at the University of Minnesota and the Guthrie back in the day. Her brother, playwright/director David Feldshuh, has an even deeper connection, specifically with Illusion Theater, which is premiering his new play Dancing with Giants. I'm happy to report that not only is Tovah a delight live on stage, but this is also an entertaining, educational, funny, and sobering play. It's obviously a labor of love for the Feldshuh family, and Minneapolis/St. Paul theater-goers are lucky to be able to experience it first.

"It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play" at the St. Paul Hotel

#TCTheater friends, there's a well kept secret in town. At least I've never heard of it in the theater world, but my parents have heard of it from their favorite radio station (and the one I grew up listening to) WCCO. Every holiday* season at the beautiful St. Paul Hotel, there is a charming performance of It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play accompanied by a three-course meal. My mom has been wanting to go to it for several years, but it has a loyal following and is a tough ticket to get. We finally got in this year, and I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed it. Now in their 12th season with the same cast, this company puts on an entertaining show filled with nostalgia and the warmth of the holidays, with a lovely meal (see menu to the left, vegetarian options also available). Performances continue through December 24 and are sold out except for a few dates. Or you can listen to a live broadcast of the show on WCCO on December 17 at 7 pm, with a re-broadcast on December 24 at 5 pm.

Fringe Festival: "Sex and Sensibility"

 Day: 2

Show: 5

Title: Sex and Sensibility

Category: Comedy

By: The Recovery Party

Written by: Joshua Will

Location: Intermedia Arts

Summary: A dozen or so comedy sketches, most of which are not nearly as risque as the title implies, interspersed with Jane Austen quotes.

Highlights: Not much to say about this one other than it's very funny and very clever. The sketches cover a wide variety of topics, from learning through spontaneous osmosis, to "The Housewives of Isanti County," to an ad for a new drug Limpital (the anti-Viagra), to a kid Jesus complaining that he never gets Christmas presents because his birthday is on Christmas, to perhaps my favorite, an alternate animal alphabet. The cast is great, whether working solo, in duos, or as a group. Highlights include: Dawn Brodey as the bitter bridesmaid, Jim Cunningham sternly reading the alphabet (if you've been to a Twins game in the last 17 years you'll recognize his strong radio voice - he's the "P.A. Guy"), Eriq Nelson as a New York tough answering phones at an Isanti County dairy company, Amy Shomshak serenely reading an alternate version of "Footprints in the Sand," and Joshua Will reciting facts from physics formulas to "The Modern Major General." It's funny, clever, sketch comedy, perhaps like what Saturday Night Live is supposed to be.

"Bill W. and Dr. Bob" at Illusion Theater

Bill W. and Dr. Bob is the story of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, but it's also about the friendship between two men who quite literally saved each other's lives, as well the lives of countless others. It's fairly well accepted today that alcoholism is a disease, but in the 1930s when Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith began their program that became known as AA, alcoholics were just drunks who threw their lives away, to the frustration of those who cared about them. Bill and Dr. Bob were both pretty serious alcoholics, on the road to self-destruction, when a chance meeting brought them together. They began a lifelong friendship as well as a movement that has grown to over two million members.

The play begins and ends as an AA meeting ("Hello, my name is Bill W., and I'm an alcoholic"). Bill and Dr. Bob tell their stories, and we flash back to watch their lives play out. Before they meet, the two men lead parallel lives. Both are successful professionals from Vermont whose lives and careers are damaged by drinking, and both have supportive but frustrated wives who suffer because of their husbands' habits. The first act of the play shows us these parallel lives, as similar scenes are played out on opposite sides of the stage in each man's life. The women beg their husbands to quit drinking, they promise to do so, and then go back to their self-destructive ways. Both become involved with a Christian movement called The Oxford Group. With the group's help, Bill is able to stop drinking, but Dr. Bob is a reluctant attendee of the meetings, dragged there by his wife. Bill travels to Akron Ohio on business, and when that business fails, he feels a relapse coming. He reaches out to the local Oxford Group, and is eventually introduced to Dr. Bob. The first act ends with a powerful scene of the two men sharing their similar stories and listening to each other. In the play's second act, Bill moves in with Bob and his wife and helps him get sober. They then decide to try their method on others, and scour Akron for an appropriate drunk. After several failed attempts, they achieve success, and a movement is born. The key to the solution is "talking to another drunk," sharing one's personal experience with someone who understands. Simple really; isn't that what everyone wants, alcoholic or not?

Jim Cunningham and Stephen D'Ambrose
as Bill W. and Dr. Bob

The fantastic six-person cast is led by Jim Cunningham and Stephen D'Ambrose as the title characters. Jim is very charismatic as the determined Bill; it's one of those performances that ceases to feel like a performance by the end of the play - he is Bill. Stephen is appropriately crotchety as Dr. Bob, who finally opens up to Bill, this stranger he's just met. Bill and Bob make a great team, as do Jim and Stephen. As the wives of these two men, Carolyn Pool and Laura Esping illustrate the destructive nature of the disease in terms of family. Your heart breaks for them as they try to help the men they love and can no longer recognize. Rounding out the cast are Kate Guentzel and Michael Paul Levin playing every other character in the world of the play. Kate has some humorous and entertaining moments as everyone from a barmaid to the leader of the Oxford Group. I lost count of how many characters Michael plays, each a distinct character with a different accent and wardrobe, often with a quick change in between.

A really nice feature of this production is the music. Roberta Carlson plays piano between and during scenes, reminiscent of when they used to have piano players in movie theaters. It's not a necessary thing, they could have played recorded music during scene transitions as is often done, but it's a nice touch. Live music makes everything better.

Unfortunately I caught this one at the end of its run - it closes tonight, so if you haven't seen it yet you have one more chance. (Unless you live near Blue Earth, Brainerd, or Fergus Falls, then you can still catch it on tour in April.) I've only recently discovered Illusion Theater, but I have not been disappointed by anything I've seen there. If you missed this one, their next play is another story of an American pioneer - chef James Beard in I Love to Eat: A Love Story with Food.