"Family Dinner" and "The Mess" at HUGE Theater

After pivoting to a very 2020 Zoom version last year, everyone's favorite improv show Family Dinner is back at HUGE Theater where they belong! Where we can watch a delightfully dysfunctional family reunite for a holiday* dinner and actually eat it, live in front of us! I saw the show last weekend with my blogger friends from Play Off the Page and The Stages of MN (and then stayed to watch the also hilarious improv troupe The Mess), and laughed harder than I have in a long time. Family Dinner is hugely popular and often sells out its twice-weekly shows from mid-November through the end of the year, because everyone can relate to that awkward family dinner, even if this one is a bit more extreme in awkwardness and drama. But it's never mean-spirited, you get the sense that this improvised family loves each other, even whilst driving each other crazy. The final two performances this year are on New Year's Eve and Day - get your tickets now! While you're on the HUGE website, check out what else is going on, with live shows six days a week.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2019: "Because I Said So"

Day: 6

Show: 21

Title: Because I Said So

Category: COMEDY / DRAMA / ORIGINAL MUSIC / STORYTELLING

By: Schmidtshow Productions

Created by: Emily Schmidt and Pat Robinson Schmidt

Location: Rarig Center Arena

Summary: Sketches, songs, and stories about the mother/daughter relationship, as told by local funny women and their real-life mothers and/or daughters.

Highlights: Emily Schmidt has written some really funny, clever, Minnesotan comedies for the Fringe (e.g., last year's Lakes 4), but this year she's doing something different. Along with her mother Pat Robinson Schmidt, she's gotten together some of the funniest women in the Twin Cities to talk about their moms and/or daughters. And the result is not just funny and relatable, but also very moving and sometimes serious. The show opens with Samantha Baker Harris singing a sweet little song with her young daughter Maya, and closes with a song by Samantha, Maya, and Samantha's mom Lynn Baker. It's a beautiful full circle moment, and in between are sketches and stories, based in truth, by Shanan Custer and her daughter Kate, Alex Byrne and her mother Maura, Taj Ruler (speaking about her strained relationship with her mother), Laura Zaber and her daughter Irene, Pat (Emily performed at the first couple shows but I assume has gone back to L.A. where she lives and writes), and Lauren Anderson and her mom Jinniece. It's a well curated selection that covers many of the facets of the mother/daughter relationship.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2018: "Lakes 4"

Day: 5

Show: 19

Title: Lakes 4

Category: Comedy

By: Schmidtshow Productions

Written by: Emily Schmidt

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: In a play on the movie Oceans 8, half as many women from the land of 10,000 lakes plan a heist: to steal the cherry from the iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry statue.

Highlights: This show wins the prize for most Minnesota references per minute. It's not the Fringe if you don't see at least one show that loving mocks Target, Perkins, traffic, and everything else we love (or hate) about our fair state. Emily Schmidt's clever and funny script delivers on that front, as well as creating a fun and fringey show. Suburban wife and mom Bridget (Samantha Baker Harris, who also directs) feels like she's lost that sense of adventure from her youth, and is bored sitting around the house with husband Dan (David Kappelhoff) all the time, so she decides to pull a heist just to prove that she can. She enlists her friend Grace (Jen Scott), their fitness coach Cheryl (Maureen Tubbs), and her friend Pam (Casey Haeg), an ace LuLaRoe saleswoman. They meet at Perkins to plan the heist, where waiter Jaden (ball of energy Aaron Vanek) overhears them and wants in. Of course the plans go awry, but the point is that Bridget rediscovers her inner spirit and sense of adventure. The cast is fantastic, the jokes are fast and funny, and the star of the show is the Cherry and Spoon. How could I not love it?!

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Fringe Festival 2015: "The Mrs."

Day: 9

Show: 39

Title: The Mrs.

Category: Comedy

By: Schmidtshow Productions

Written by: Emily Schmidt

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A new reality show called PolyGIMME A Break features four very different women married to the same man, who mysteriously goes missing.

Highlights: I really enjoyed this show that centered on these four fabulous women - Samantha Baker Harris (as the new wife), Rita Boersma (the child-bearing wife), Shanan Custer (the working wife), and Maureen Tubbs (the first wife). Polygamy is something that's so foreign to most of us, it's ripe for comedy, and Emily Schmidt's script delivers. When the husband (Nate Morse), the center of their spokes, disappears, the truth comes out about who these women are, why they chose to enter this family, and what they want in life. Not only is it funny, but it's touching too, and I found myself empathizing with these very different women and wanting things to work out for them. On a related note, I think I need to watch Big Love again.