Minnesota Fringe Festival 2022: "A Day with the Newhearts"

Day: 3

Show: 7

Title: A Day with the Newhearts

Category: COMEDY / HORROR / ORIGINAL MUSIC / HISTORICAL CONTENT / LGBTQIA+ CONTENT

By: Melancholics Anonymous

Created by: Rachel Ropella and Timothy Kelly

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: A mock 1960s sitcom set in Minnesota that turns very dark when the Newhearts try to force their new neighbors into their "Minnesota nice" way of life.

Highlights: Complete with a theme song, laugh track, and ads, A Day with the Newhearts feels very much like a sitcom about a happy family in the early '60s (there's a reference to "that new baseball team the Twins," so around 1961 or so). Mom, Pop, and daughter prepare for a barbecue with their new neighbors, a single mom (horror) and her clingy and socially awkward son. Daughter tortures son with news of a recently escaped serial killer, Pop shames single mom for her independence and plans to open a business, but Mom admires her for the same reason, feeling stifled in her Stepford/Minnesota nice life. Things go from odd to deadly very quickly, as we see the dark side of Minnesota nice (which definitely exists, although hopefully not to this extent). The cast (Claire Chenoweth, Bee Davis, and Matthew Humason along with the creators) fully commits to the dark and campy sitcommy tone; costumes, set, and props are charmingly period appropriate (including some Tupperware pieces I recognized from my childhood); and the Minnesota references (scotcheroos, hot dish, and snicker salad) are plenty. It's a darkly funny and disturbing show, consistent in tone, and perhaps a morality tale about how not to welcome new people into the community.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2021: "On Air: The Wuppet Time Murders"

Day: 4

Show: 8

Performance Type: Virtual

Location: Streaming Anytime

Length: 60 Minutes  

Title: On Air: The Wuppet Time Murders

By: Melancholics Anonymous

Summary: A delightful spoof of true crime documentaries that features gruesome murder of puppets on the set of a local cable children's weather educational show.

Highlights: I loved this group's show at the virtual Fringe last year, the sweet and poignant children's grief counseling session, so I was eager to see more of their work. This doesn't bear much resemblance to last year's show, except for the clever concept and spot-on execution. With deadpan seriousness, a true crime documentarian (voiced by Claire Chenoweth) investigates multiple murders that happened in 1999 on the set of a children's puppet show called Wuppet Time (a questionable show that cheerily warned children about snow-related disasters and head trauma from falling staircases). Like any good docuseries, it has interviews with survivors, found footage of events, and people obsessed with the crime who have tried to piece together what happened on that tragic day. The truly funny and absurd thing is that the weather puppets in the show (played by Claire Chenoweth, Gillian Gauntt, and Matthew Humason) are treated as people - the victims and possible perpetrators of the crime. Watching a jaded puppet of a raindrop smoking a cigarette as they reminisce about a tragic event in their youth is just ridiculously amusing. As are the two humans in the cast (played by co-creators Rachel Ropella and Timothy Kelly), one of whom is a controlling jerk with anger issues, the other of whom tries to share the nuance of the situation. Like Avenue Q, casting these sorts of familiar human dramas in puppets just makes everything funnier.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2020: "Good Grief (and other ways to process loss)"

Location: Nightly Fringe (Aug. 3)

Length: 35 minutes

Title: Good Grief (and other ways to process loss)

By: Melancholics Anonymous

Summary: A group of children who recently suffered the death of a loved one gather for a group counseling session.

Highlights: This is a sweet, funny, and poignant little show. It's reminiscent of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, both in the tone of humor mingled with sadness, and in the portrayal of children by young adults. The actors (Annika Isbell, Bianca Davis, Claire Chenoweth, Matthew Humason, Rachel Ropella, and Timothy Kelly) are all very convincing as they embody these kids (and one adult leader), specific in differently odd and interesting ways. Some of the kids are traumatized by the death they've experienced, while others are more focused on the snacks. Turns out even children experience their grief in different ways, and that's OK. Some breakthroughs are made, some friendships are made, some eggs are thrown. As they wrapped up their session, I found myself wishing I could sit in on next week's session too. These kids endeared themselves to me over the 35 minutes.

Read all of my Nightly Fringe mini-reviews here.

Read all of my Digital Hub mini-reviews here.