"Ball: A Musical Tribute To My Lost Testicle" by The Catalysts at the Southern Theater

My favorite show from the 2016 Minnesota Fringe Festival is back! In fact, it never really went away. #TCTheater artist Max Wojtanowicz has been touring his original auto-biographical solo musical "Ball: A Musical Tribute To My Lost Testicle" around the state for the last two years. Shortly after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in January of 2016, his friend/collaborator/director Nikki Swoboda suggested he might want to write a musical about it. Unthinkable, yes, but that's what artists do, they process what's going on in the world and in their lives through their art, creating something that's both personal and universal. So that's what Max did. He journaled through the process of surgeries, chemotherapy, and recovery, and even invited Nikki and several composers into the chemo suite to start working on songs. He finished treatment in April (and is now in remission), and performed his show at Fringe that August. At the time it was so new and raw, a really emotional moving experience. Now with a few years of distance, it may not be quite as fresh, but it's just as moving. If you're in the Twin Cities, you can see it at the Southern Theater this weekend only before it continues its tour to places like the Mayo Clinic and the United Solo Theatre Festival in NYC.

Fringe Festival 2016: "Ball: A Musical Tribute To My Lost Testicle"

Day: 5

Show: 22

Title: Ball: A Musical Tribute To My Lost Testicle

Category: Musical

By: The Catalysts

Created by: Max Wojtanowicz

Location: Southern Theater

Summary: A solo musical show about one person's cancer experience that is as funny and musically delightful as it is heartfelt and moving.

Highlights: Friends, even though I'm only halfway through the 50+ shows I plan to see, out of the 168 shows in the Minnesota Fringe this year, I'm calling it: Ball: A Musical Tribute To My Lost Testicle is the best show of the fringe, and Max Wojtanowicz gives the best performance of the fringe. Even though it may not technically be acting since he's essentially playing himself and telling his own story, it's one hell of a performance. Firstly, he's as funny and charming and beautiful of voice as always. But even more than that, he shares his heart and soul with the audience in a beautifully and painfully real way, entertaining and connecting at the same time, which is the essence of art. The show is funny, clever, and well-structured as Max walks us through his initial diagnosis in January of this year, his surgery, and the physical and emotional effects of chemotherapy. Director Nikki Swoboda ensures that there's not a slow moment in the show, and it nicely builds from light-hearted to sobering to hopeful. The songs are fantastic and still stuck in my head (which is to be expected when you work with composers Jason Hansen, Michael Gruber, and Andrew Cooke, who also music directs), ranging from hilarious (a medley of songs with the word "one" in the lyrics) to moving ("be brave") to inspiring ("I'm gonna live anyhow, until I die"). Max had tears streaming down his face by the end of the show, as did, I'm guessing, everyone in the packed house. When you can take a painful and difficult experience and turn it into something that's entertaining, engaging, and moving, that's a true gift.

Warning: the performance I attended sold out, so you might want to make advance reservations or show up at the theater early to ensure a spot.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Shelly Bachberg Presents: Orange is the New POTUS: The Musical"

Day: 3

Show: 10 

Title: Shelly Bachberg Presents: Orange is the New POTUS: The Musical

Category: Musical Theater

By: The Catalysts

Directed by: Nikki Swoboda

Location: U of M Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: A musical political satire in which former Minnesota congresswoman Shelly Bachberg is running her 2016 presidential campaign from prison.

Highlights: If you saw the 2013 Fringe hit Shelly Bachberg Presents: How Helen Keller and Anne Frank Freed the Slaves: The Musical, then you know what to expect. But you don't need the background to appreciate this smart, funny, ridiculous political satire that also includes TV and musical theater references while delivering a half dozen fantastic new songs. This is the third new original musical by creative team Max Wojtanowicz (book and lyrics), Michael Gruber (music and additional lyrics), and Nikki Swoboda (direction and more), and the experience and teamwork shows in this ridiculously funny show that's a mash-up of the Netflix hit Orange is the New Black, musicals like Chicago and West Side Story, and the worst that politics has to offer. And the cast is to die for. The incomparable Kim Kivens reprises her role as Shelly from the first show, and I can't imagine anyone else in the role. Her parody of you-know-who is spot-on hilarious and her vocal control is impressive as she sings to great comedic effect and delivers Shelly's ridiculous lines with campy convictions. She's backed by three music-theater divas as her cellmates - Kendall Anne Thompson as Viper, Joy Dolo as Lazy Eyes (having a lot of fun with Crazy Eye's unique mannerisms), and Erin Schwab as the Russian Bread. Along with Todd Bruse as a guard and campaign manager, they take you through this silly tale of Shelly winning over her cellmates and escaping to become president, inspiring catch phrases along the way like "you can even" and "hashtag blessed." This show is a great example of the Fringe musical at its best.

"Fruit Fly: The Musical" at Illusion Theater

Have you ever imagined your life as a musical? Lifelong BFFs Max and Sheena have done more than imagine it - they've written it! And since in addition to being best friends, Max Wojtanowicz and Sheena Janson are both super talented music-theater artists* (you may know Max from the Children's Theatre and Sheena from numerous production with Mu Performing Arts), the result is a musical that's not only fun and entertaining, but also brutally honest and from the heart. Fruit Fly: The Musical began as a hit Fringe show in 2012 and has had several workshops and readings since, and is now a full-fledged show at Illusion Theater. Each time I see it, it has a bit more depth, but always retains the beautiful, poignant, hilarious, endearing heart that is this real life friendship.

Max and Sheena have been friends for 20 years, which means they met when they were babies. Just a couple of musical-theater-loving kids in the St. Cloud area, singing and acting on stage and off. The story of their friendship plays out on stage and in song in a somewhat fictionalized way, paralleled with gross science facts about actual fruit flies, not the gay man/straight woman kind. We learn that Max hated Sheena when they first met (there's proof!), Sheena asked Max out (and was gently rebuffed) in high school, their moms thought they were perfect for each other, Max told Sheena he was gay before he told his family, the friendship went through growing pains in the post-college years when Sheena started spending time with her new boyfriend and Max got jealous. But these two just can't quit each other, and the real Max and Sheena's love and respect for each other, as well as their easy, natural, charming chemistry, shines through their characters.

Max and Sheena as Max and Sheena
(photo by Lauren B Photograpy)

Fruit Fly is very meta in a [title of show] sort of way. Max and Sheena are playing themselves but not exactly, portraying their story but not exactly, and it's hard to tell where the real people end and the characters begin. The whole play has a "we're putting on a show, how exciting!" sort of attitude, and at various points they break out of the show to comment on it. It gets pretty intense near the end as their true thoughts and feelings are laid bare, and it feels so real and raw there's a brief moment of "wait, this is scripted, right?"

The show includes 7 or 8 songs, mostly duets but with solos for both Sheena and Max, who both perform the songs with much heart and vocal talent. The fun, clever, fast lyrics** combine well with Michael Gruber's catchy tunes and interesting melodies to create a strong score that stands on its own (dare I hope for a cast recording?). Music director and piano accompanist Jill Dawe has a playful musical repartee with the cast, who are not miked (hooray!). The musical theater references abound in this show about two musical-theater-loving friends. The cast keeps a tally of Sondheim references on the onstage white board, which also adorably diagrams out the scenes and songs in the show.

The best kind of theater is theater that comes from a place of truth, as this show most definitely does. It takes courage to spill your deepest secrets and intimacies of a relationship on stage, but it makes for theater that's so rewarding for the audience, and, I imagine, the creators. Like the aforementioned [title of show], this new musical is a piece that could play on stages around the country with any two actors with the right chemistry. But of course Max and Sheena are the best and most honest Max and Sheena. If you're a fan of musical theater, you really must go see this show that's a love letter to good friends and musicals. Playing now through April 11 at Illusion Theater in downtown Minneapolis (be sure to check out the discount tickets on Goldstar).



*To see more of Max and Sheena's talent and adorableness, check out their monthly cabaret series Musical Mondays at Hell's Kitchen, in which they and their super talented friends sing songs around a different theme each month.
**Listen to Sheena and Max talk about the process of writing a musical about their life on Twin Cities Song Story and Twin Cities Hit Show.


This article also appears on Broadway World Minneapolis.

Fringe Festival: "A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant"

Day: 4

Show: 11

Title: A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pagean

Category: Musical theater

By: The Catalysts

Written by: Alex Timbers and Kyle Jarrow

Location: New Century Theatre

Summary: Seven precocious children tell the story of L. Ron Hubbard and how he founded the Church of Scientology, in pageant form.

Highlights: These kids are so stinkin' cute, with their expressive faces and adorably awkward dance moves, playing adults and reciting long technical speeches while still remaining childlike. And I learned much about the origins and beliefs of Scientology, which is fascinating and terrifying. An angel narrator (an appealing Jillian Jacobson, a rising star) tells us of L. Ron's (a confident and charismatic Ethan Davenport) rise from humble birth, to science fiction novelist and Hollywood screenwriter, to WWII soldier, to founder of a new "science" he called Dianetics and a Church to promote its methods, to a defendant on trial with celebrities as witnesses (watch for the littlest cast member as John Travolta). The show is adorable and funny, and more than a little scary. Like Book of Mormon it exposes the truth about a religion in a satirical musical way, but unlike Book of Mormon it did not leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling about faith. Go see the cutest and most talented kids in the Fringe (and kudos to director Whitney Rhodes for corralling this raw young talent into a cohesive show) .