Fringe Festival 2017: "Never Wonder Land"

Day: 5

Show: 22

Title: Never Wonder Land

Category: Something Different

By: Laughing Nomad Productions

Directed by: Katherine Skoretz

Location: Crane Theater

Summary: A mash-up of Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan told with movement and humor

Highlights: To be honest, I wanted to like this show more than I did. It's a great concept - what happens when Wendy meets Alice? But the story lacks momentum and moved a little too slowly for me. Still, dancers Tamara Koltes and Kit Shelton are both lovely and childlike as they wander through this mix of Neverland and Wonderland, and Michael Terrell Brown is charming as he portrays multiple characters from the Cheshire Cat to the Mad Hatter.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Romeo and Juliet" by Mission Theatre Company at the Crane Theater

As of this week, I've seen Romeo and Juliet nine times in some form or other (not counting West Side Story, its most successful adaptation). Not because I particularly love Romeo and Juliet (although I still remember a few lines I memorized in high school English class many years ago). But because it's done a lot (the Guthrie is opening their season with it this fall). So why do it again? Why see it again? Romeo and Juliet still fall in love at first sight. Romeo still kills Tybalt. Romeo and Juliet still react to his banishment with despair rather than just running away together. And the friar's stupid messenger still fails to deliver the message, resulting in the senseless death of both of these teenagers. But there's a reason it's done so often and has inspired so many adaptations (the latest being James Corden and Emily Blunt's musical version). It's a story of love, crazy stupid irrational love, in the face of hate and violence. Mission Theatre Company promises a Romeo and Juliet like you've never seen before. And they deliver, with an energetic and physical adaptation that builds from romantic comedy to tragedy over two intense hours with no intermission.