"Worm Teeth" by Melancholics Anonymous at the Phoenix Theater

Worm Teeth is a sweet and silly little play written by Scotland-based playwright Kelsey Sullivan, but it feels very much like a Melancholics Anonymous show. Meaning a little weird, a little dark, but with a lot of heart and a deeper message about finding oneself and loving who you find. The play itself is only about an hour long (and very Fringey), but it's preceded by a half hour or so of music by "The Buggy Band," joined by a guest musician at every performance. It's a great evening of music and laughter, continuing at Phoenix Theater through May 24.

"Mistletoe & Mayhem" by Just Us Theater at the Phoenix Theater

I caught Just Us Theater's new Hallmark holiday movie spoof Mistletoe & Mayhem on their final weekend. I wasn't sure I could fit it in during this busy #TCTheater holiday* season, but my fellow Twin Cities Theater Blogger The Stages of MN assured me it was worth it. So I drove to the Phoenix Theater in snowy Uptown, got a decaf mocha from their extensive concessions counter, and settled into the theater for some festive comedy. I found it to be charmingly goofy and delightfully spoofy, poking fun at all of those holiday romance tropes, and even includes an original song! Mistletoe & Mayhem would be a great 70-minute-no-intermission show, if not for the unnecessary intermission, with only a couple shows left before it closes on Sunday.

"A Pink Triangle" at the Phoenix Theater

Local playwright Kirby Taylor has written a new one-act play called A Pink Triangle, referring to the symbol that gay men imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps wore on their clothing. In addition to targeting all Jewish people and pretty much anyone who disagreed with him, Hitler also attempted to stamp out the thriving gay culture that existed in pre-WWII Germany (see also Cabaret, for which this play could be the sequel). The 1979 play Bent, which I saw a production of in 2019 by The BAND Group, also covers this topic in a pretty horrific way. The horrors in A Pink Triangle are more implied, not explicitly seen but ever-present. It's really more of one long conversation between a father and son, both imprisoned in a concentration camp for reasons that become clear. Both actors in this two-hander give powerful performances, in a story that's becoming more and more relevant as our own government begins to take action against and slowly chip away at the rights of various marginalized groups. The short run of A Pink Triangle concludes with two final shows this weekend.

Twin Cities Improv Festival at the Phoenix Theatre

With the closure of HUGE Theater last year, the Twin Cities Improv Festival has a new home - Phoenix Theater in Uptown. For four days, you can watch improv troupes from here in the Twin Cities (and we have a lot of great ones) as well as troupes from around the country and even some from other countries. I attended the first, all-local, night of the festival and had a great time watching some beloved familiar improvisors and some new-to-me improvisors. Each had their own spin on the artform, most started with a suggestion or two from the audience and they took that somewhere unexpected. The Phoenix is a great welcoming location (despite the never-ending construction on Hennepin), with snacks and drinks (including espresso drinks) sold in the cozy lobby. Keep reading for my thoughts on the eight improv troupes I saw (two or three troupes are grouped together in each set, with up to four sets a night), and click here for the schedule of shows continuing through Sunday.

"Berlin to Rügen" by Michael Rogers at Phoenix Theater

Traveling by train through Europe, specifically Germany (or even better - Switzerland), is one of life's greatest pleasures. I highly recommend it if you haven't done it yet. Firstly, it's so easy and convenient and accessible; you can get anywhere, and America has a lot to learn from Europe about public transit. But it's also a fun and relaxing way to travel. You can get up and walk around, get a snack, or just stay in your seat and nap or read or stare out the window. Watching the world pass by is an ideal environment for rumination, about the big and the little things in life. Such is the beginning of Michael Rogers' new solo show Berlin to Rügen. It starts off with a person on a train staring out the window and ruminating about their life, and then those ruminations go places I wasn't expecting. Places that are funny or heart-wrenching, and often both. See this new work by the artist who gave the best performance I saw a Minnesota Fringe last year, through Saturday only at the Phoenix Theater in Uptown.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2024: "Daddy Issues"

Day: 6

Show: 20

Title: Daddy Issues

Category: Drama / Physical Theater / Storytelling

By: Pretend Productions

Written by: Allison Vincent

Location: Phoenix Theater

Summary: A solo show about Allison's journey guiding her father through the end of his life, and their complicated relationship leading up to it.

Highlights: Developed a couple years ago with Pillsbury House + Theater, this is an excellent example of a very personal solo storytelling show that's funny, moving, and relatable. Using her skills in physical theater and transforming into multiple characters, Allison conveys her experience as her father's guardian/caretaker/health care advocate. Suffering from a myriad of health issues after years of hoarding and ignoring his health, she moved him from Illinois to Minnesota and advocated for him as he entered hospice care in a facility, despite the fact that their relationship was... complicated. She tells the story in a convivial way, voicing multiple other characters, with excellent choices for music during scene transitions and one very funny radio driving scene. The set is charmingly constructed of cardboard boxes, with some fun cameo voiceover performances. The story is well constructed and delivered with ease, true emotion, and vulnerability, and doesn't leave a dry eye in the house. Allison is always a highlight of any show she's in (including as company member of two of my favorite Fringe-born companies Transatlantic Love Affair and Four Humors, and her recent foray into directing), and it's a joy to get to spend these 50+ minutes with her and get to know her a little better, and watch her use all of her skills in telling this personal story.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2024: "The Banana Wars"

Day: 4

Show: 10

Title: The Banana Wars

Category: Solo Show / Storytelling

By: The Miller Conspiracy

Written by: Derek Lee Miller

Location: Phoenix Theater

Summary: A remount of one of my favorite shows from the 2017 Fringe, this is a fascinating deep dive into the Banana Wars, that's really about so much more (militarism, capitalism, globalism, oh my!).

Highlights: This show is the reason the Fringe Festival exists. Most shows - dance, sketch comedy, drama, musicals, even clowning - have another performance home. But where else can someone give an hour-long history lesson about the banana that manages to also comment on the US military through history to today? What Derek Lee Miller has done here is, simply put, brilliant. It's like if John Oliver were to do a piece on the so-called Banana Wars, and at the beginning you think, "why is he talking about the Banana Wars?" And at the end you think, "OMG why isn't everyone talking about the Banana Wars?! Smedley Butler, people, Smedley Butler!!" Using a series of silent film placards, Derek walks us through these small, brutal wars (which I won't even begin to explain here, just go see the show), interspersed with personal remembrances, all to paint an ugly picture of greed and power. Smedley Butler, by the way, that guy with the funny name you've never heard of, was the most decorated Marine in history who at the end of his life spoke out against the US military. Like a speeding freight train, Derek barrels through history at a breakneck head-spinning fast-talking pace that makes 60 minutes feel like 10. This show probably won't make you feel good about the world or about being an American, but like a good John Oliver piece, it'll make you glad you know about the Banana Wars. And you'll never look at a banana the same way again.*

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

*Highlights borrowed from what I wrote about the 2017 production.

"The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)" by Jackdonkey Productions at Phoenix Theater

William Shakespeare wrote 37(ish) plays, an astounding feat for any playwright, but especially when you consider that they're still being performed 400 years later. I'm not even the biggest Shakespeare fan, I don't seek out Shakespeare, but after being a Twin Cities Theater Blogger for 14 years and a Guthrie season subscriber for 20, I've seen about two-thirds of his plays, and some of them multiple times (over a dozen Romeo and Juliets alone!). That's a lot of hours of Shakespeare. But if you don't have time to see 37 plays (who does?), now you can see them all in under two hours! In Jackdonkey Productions' version of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), three talented actors take you through them all, well sort of. Each play at least gets a mention or a line, with a couple of them getting a bit longer treatment. The script (by Reduced Shakespeare Company) is really just a framework upon which the cast and creative team build a silly, fun, fourth-wall-breaking romp of a show. And you don't need to have seen any of Shakespeare's 37 plays to enjoy it (although if you have, you'll get a few more of the references). See it now through July 21 at Phoenix Theater in Uptown (still open despite the construction on Hennepin). Or you can catch it in Lanesboro or Stillwater the following week.

"The Closing Night Audience Q&A for ROCCO'S CRIMES" by An Alleged Theatre Company at the Phoenix Theater

If you've been to a post-show discussion, aka talkback, aka Q&A, you know that sometimes they can be really great, and sometimes they can be painfully awkward. And sometimes even both at the same time! New theater company An Alleged Theatre Company plays with that idea in their original play The Closing Night Audience Q&A for ROCCO'S CRIMES. It's a clever conceit that allows them to poke loving fun at this theater thing that we all love so well, and maybe take too seriously sometimes. The cast is delightfully committed to the earnest silliness, showing off a bit of improv skills as well. See it at Phoenix Theater in Uptown this weekend or next weekend only (don't mind the unfinished entry way - it's open!).

"Analog and Vinyl" by Minneapolis Musical Theatre at the Phoenix Theater

Minneapolis Musical Theatre's latest "rare musical, well done" is a sweet and quirky little piece called Analog and Vinyl, billed as a "hipster rom-com spin on Faust." It's a smaller musical than their 2022 offerings (Hands on a Hardbody staged in a car dealership, and the not-really-a-holiday-show Striking 12). Here the band (four) outnumbers the cast (three), and it's well-staged in the intimate space at the Phoenix Theater. In addition to the classic Faustian sell-your-soul-to-the-devil dilemma, the musical also delves deep into music history and obscure references (most of which this theater nerd probably did not catch). Chalk this one up as another rarely done musical that MMT dug up brought to life in a fun, earnest, entertaining way.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2021: "Turnabout Musical"

Day: 4

Show: 11

Performance Type: In Person

Location: Phoenix Theater (inddoors, masks required)

Length: 2 hours 15 minutes

Title: Turnabout Musical

By: Albino Squirrel Productions

Summary: A "fan-written parody" musical based on the Ace Attorney video game series.

Highlights: I'm old and uncool, so I don't even know what a video game series is, much less where to find it or how to play (watch?) it. But it seems to have a built in fan base; the young women behind me were talking about the different characters, scenes, and songs as if they knew all about it. Even though that wasn't the case for me, I found it to be a fun and entertaining show. In a world where trials last at most three days and are decided by a judge because of an increase in crime (scary thought), underdog defense attorney Phoenix Wright (Christian LaBissoniere) works to free the innocent. The musical is a series of trials, each one lasting a few scenes/songs, often featuring defendants we met in an earlier episode. Since I did not see the runtime hidden on the "more information" tab on the show page and assumed it was 60-ish minutes like Fringe shows typically are, I had to leave halfway through the second act to get to my next scheduled show. But I got the gist of the accusation-trial-Phoenix wins formula. The huge and talented cast delightfully ham it up playing these broad crime characters, and do a good job with the score, singing unmiked to a recorded track. I would have preferred a trimmed down 60-minute version that adheres to the spirit of the Fringe Festival, but it's a great effort on a novel idea.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2021: "Compromised"

Day: 4

Show: 10

Performance Type: In Person

Location: Phoenix Theater (indoors, masks required)

Length: 50 minutes

Title: Compromised

By: Reservoir Frogs 

Summary: A long-form improv show based on audience prompts.

Highlights: The show description is "An improvised tale of greed, lust, hubris, and failure. A dark comedy of people letting their ambitions get them in over their heads." Using the suggestions "ice cream," "post office," and "lawyer/client," this team of improvisors (Adam Boutz, Jenny Benusa, Rob Ward, Amy Zajack, Andy Christian, Heather Jo Raiter, Mickaylee Shaughnessy, and Mike Deneen) created just that, in a world centered around a small town post office that was being shut down, sending all of its employees scurrying. There were bees and bee-keepers, junk mail scams, real estate, a hit man, and arson. But who knows what you'll see when you go see the show, that's the fun of improv.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2021: "Open Your Eyes, Be Bully-wise!: An Anti-Bullying Spectacular"

Day: 4

Show: 9

Performance Type: In Person

Location: Phoenix Theater (indoors, masks required)

Length: 60 minutes

Title: Open Your Eyes, Be Bully-wise!

By: An Alleged Theatre Company 

Summary: An edutainment show about bullying, how to recognize it, and why you shouldn't be a bully.

Highlights: This is a ridiculous show, in the best way. Creators Jake Mierva, J. McIntyre Godwin, and Danylo Loutchko play characters with their same name, but hopefully are nothing like them. The show opens with a hilarious parody of YMCA, like an anti-bullying PSA. They then proceed to educate the audience about bullying, all while Jake and Mc are subtly, and then not so subtly, bullying Danylo. There is audience participation in the form of questions for the audience, confessions to Santa, and a beach ball Q&A about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There are skits and ads for their sponsor HERTZ, which they transform into a handy acronym about bullying, and more songs. It's a lot of silly fun, with the performers fully committing to the concept and these over-the-top characters (smoothly responding to audience prompts), culminating in an important lesson learned by all.     

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

A Reading of "Eat, Slay, Leave" by the Playwright Cabal at the Phoenix Theatre

The Playwright Cabal is "an ambitious group of female-identified professional playwrights who promote the development of new scripted plays in the Twin Cities and one another’s success." This fall, they're presenting a series of readings of new works by each the five members (Katherine Glover, Gemma Irish, Alayna Jacqueline, Heather Meyer, and Rachel Teagle). This program, entitled New Leaf, is free to attend, and includes pre- and post-show happy hour as well as a post-show discussion of the work presented. All readings are at the Phoenix Theatre in Uptown, and it's a really great way to see what our local female playwrights are up to.

"Bent" by The BAND Group at the Phoenix Theater

Partnering with OutFront Minnesota, The BAND Group is bringing us the 1979 play Bent about the imprisonment and murder of gay people in Nazi Germany. A look at the daily news should tell you that those days are not as long ago and far away as they may seem, with increasing violence and discrimination against the LGBTQ community. One of OutFront's current campaigns is to end conversion therapy, which is still legal in Minnesota. You can find more information about this and sign the petition here. And you can see The BAND Group's powerful and sobering production of Bent at the Phoenix Theater in Uptown through this weekend only.

"George" by Sheep Theater at Phoenix Theater

Celebrate Independence Day with Sheep Theater, who is bringing back their delightfully wacky original comedy George for the July 4th weekend. This show was my first introduction to Sheep four years ago, with their motto of "Original plays. Deranged sincerity," and I've enjoyed many moments of deranged sincerity since. At the time I called George "funny, clever, and irreverent, with jokes about the many things America is best at (giving speeches, celebrating) and how it's OK to lie if it's for the good of the country." Revisiting it, it gave me all of the patriotic feels, watching a bunch of goofballs make fun of our founding fathers (and mothers!) in the most lovingly irreverent way, celebrating all of the freedoms we hold dear, and remembering the ideals this country was founded on (which is easy to forget these days). As my great-grandmother, daughter of Polish immigrants, used to say - hooray for the 4th of July!

"Prescription: Murder" by Ghoulish Delights at the Phoenix Theater

Lieutenant Columbo, as personified by Peter Falk, is one of the best TV detectives of all time. The original series ran for seven season in the 1970s, two more in the late '80s, with specials continuing through 2003. Columbo, with his trench coat and cigar and "just one more thing," is a TV icon. But did you know that this detective series actually started as a play (as most good things do)? The creators of the TV show, William Link and Richard Levinson, first wrote a play about the disheveled detective who always gets his man, a play that was then turned into a TV movie that became the pilot for the long-running series. And the rest is history. Now, thanks to Ghoulish Delights, you have a chance to revisit that history and see Columbo's origins on stage at the Phoenix Theater in Uptown: a must see for Columbo fans and fans of retro thrillers.

Fringe Festival 2017: "Blackout Improv"

Day: 3

Show: 13

Title: Blackout Improv

Category: Comedy

By: Rogues Gallery Arts

Created by: Blackout Improv

Location: Phoenix Theatre

Summary: An all POC improv group that discusses and improvs around topics of the day suggested by the audience.

Highlights: Blackout Improv is one of the few POC improv groups in the Midwest, performing regularly at the Phoenix (you can find their schedule here). For this MN Fringe show, the rotating cast (I saw Alyssa DiVirgilio, Duck Washington, Joy Dolo Anfinson, Kory Pullam, Nimene Wureh, and special guest Grammy winner Billboard Top 100 Artist Jamila Anderson) does an excerpt of their usual show. It starts off with "Take 'Em to Church," an improvised church sermon which last night featured Deacon Jamila and Pastor Kory. Then the main action begins, which is drawing an audience-suggested topic out of a hat, such as cultural appropriation, edginess in comedy, or white playwrights writing black characters. First the group discusses the topic (which was my favorite part of the show), and then they improv a comedy sketch about it. Blackout Improv is funny, smart, relevant, topical, and sure to sell out so reserve your tickets in advance.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Fringe Festival 2017: "The Best of All Possible Worlds"

Day: 3

Show: 12

Title: The Best of All Possible Worlds

Category: Comedy

By: David Mann

Written by: David Mann

Location: Phoenix Theatre

Summary: An auto-biographical one-man show about what happens when you get the American dream and it's not quite what you thought it would be.

Highlights: As Glinda sings in Wicked, "getting your dreams, it's strange, but it seems a little... well... complicated." That's the gist of David's honest and real story of his life. Growing up "a white kid living in the Minnesota suburbs in the '70s - nothing was hard" (been there, done that), he expected to grow up to live a happy life in a nice home with his family. David talks about having kids and looking for that perfect house with his wife. He found it, but in order to afford it he took a job traveling around the country as a motivational speaker at corporate events, to "get the money to buy the stuff to make you happy." Except that he wasn't happy, so then what? This is a funny, poignant, relatable story about societal pressure and expectations to live the seemingly perfect life.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Fringe Festival 2017: "What You Will"

Day: 3

Show: 11

Title: What You Will

Category: Drama

By: Jammed Desk Productions

Created by: Henry Ellen Sansone, Sam Bates Norum, Kiaran Hartnett, Danylo Loutchko, and Laura Torgeson

Location: Phoenix Theatre

Summary: An adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night focusing on Viola's transition to becoming Cesario.

Highlights: Examples of cross-dressing abound in Shakespeare's plays (maybe because all parts were played by men in his day), but what if it's not simple disguise but rather an individual exploring their gender identity and searching for their more authentic self? This talented group of young artists ask that question of Twelfth Night. They've created a short version of the play that still makes sense by cutting out all the stuff about Olivia's relatives and servants and focusing on the separated twins (Viola/Cesario and Sebastian) and those that love them, the Duke Orsino and the Lady Olivia. The five creator/actors (Danylo Loutchko, Henry Ellen Sansone, Kiaran Hartnett, Laura Torgeson, Sam Bates Norum) are clear and compelling as they recite Shakespeare's words, using lovely and haunting music to help set the tone (composed by Kiaran). The story plays out as usual until the end, when Cesario is supposed to transform back into Viola, but this time he decides to remain Cesario. Even though Cesario does seem to love Orsino, he chooses to leave and remain his authentic self rather than be forced to return to the life he left behind. This is a fascinating look at a classic and a new but legitimate interpretation. If music be the food of love, play on!

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.