Fringe Festival 2017: "A Pickle"

Day: 11

Show: 45

Title: A Pickle

Category: Comedy

By: Really Spicy Opera

Written by: Deborah Yarchun

Location: Ritz Theater Studio

Summary: The true story of a woman who petitions the Minnesota State Fair to add a category for Kosher salt brine pickles.

Highlights: Sometimes a pickle is more than just a pickle. Sometimes it's a symbol of one's cultural heritage, a symbol of inclusion. Such is the true story of Doris Rubenstein's pickles. In a nearly perfect hour of theater, playwright Deborah Yarchun has written the story as an engaging one-woman show with direct address to the audience, bouncing back and forth between "the pickle story" and other significant moments in Doris' life. She describes herself as possessing a series of jars that hold the important things in her life - baking, her upbringing, social justice, and of course, pickles. When Doris entered her pickles in the "other" category at the State Fair, the judges disqualified them because they didn't understand the traditional Kosher salt brine pickles, because they're different than the pickles they usually see. Which is when pickles become a symbol for a whole lot more, and Doris becomes a bit of a local hero. This is a great story, well written, and personified brilliantly by Angela Timberman, so personable and funny and real. It's no wonder this show sold out all (or nearly all) of its performances and won the encore slot.

"It's chutzpah that puts the cherry on the spoon."

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Fringe Festival 2016: "Game of Thrones: The Musical"

Day: 10

Show: 48

Title: Game of Thrones: The Musical

Category: Musical

By: Really Spicy Opera

Created by: Basil Considine

Location: Ritz Theater Proscenium

Summary: The epic HBO show Game of Thrones told in a campy musical style, with puppets.

Highlights: If Game of Thrones: The Musical doesn't scream Minnesota Fringe Festival, I don't know what does. It's a completely ridiculous, totally fringetastic spoof of the beloved series and the people who love it to the point of obsession (it seems to be based more on the TV show than the novels by George R. R. Martin, continuing up through last season's finale). Because it's only an hour and the series is 60 hours (and counting), some characters, places, and storylines are understandably left out, like Daenerys, Tyrion, Theon, Ramsay Bolton, Dorne, the Iron Islands, and there wasn't nearly enough Jaime for my taste (but there never is). But still, writer, music director, and accompanist Basil Considine managed to fit in a lot of stuff in a short time. The songs are funny and clever (including ones set to the tune of "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas and "On My Own" from Les Miserables). And the cast completely commits to the over-the-top, campy, Avenue Q-like tone. It's great fringey fun, especially if you love Westeros.

Fringe Festival 2015: "The Clever Artifice of Harriet and Margaret"

Day: 4

Show: 15

Title: The Clever Artifice of Harriet and Margaret 

Category: Musical Theater

By: Really Spicy Opera

Written by: Leanna Kirchoff

Location: New Century Theatre

Summary: Two women and their inner voices meet for tea and sing about the man they both love, while hiding their true their true thoughts from each other but not from the audience.

Highlights: I saw the improv guys from We Do Every Show do this show, and it's surprising how accurate they were. Harriet and Margaret, along with their inner voices Hetty and Maggie, meet for tea, but it's about so much more than tea. Harriet and Hetty regret not marrying the artist John, who's now married to Margaret and Maggie, who have a secret of their own - money troubles. It's a clever device to see the personification of one's inner voice, and have them sing the inner dialogue that we all have going on in our heads. These four women (Megan O'Leary, Shelley Mihm, Victoria Erickson, Victoria Seiffert Temiz) sound gorgeous singing these modern operatic songs, their unamplified voices filling the New Century Theatre as "Collaborative Pianist" Banchinda Laothai somehow makes a keyboard sounds like a grand piano. It's a beautifully sung clever conversation between the four voices of two people. And it makes me wonder, what should I call my inner voice, and why can't she sing like these four women?

Fringe Festival: "The Frat Party: A Comic Opera in One Act"

Day: 4

Show: 14

Title: The Frat Party: A Comic Opera in One Act

Category: Musical theater

By: The Really Spicy Opera Company

Written by: Basil Considine

Location: Rarig Center Thurst

Summary: A typical story about a college frat party, atypically told as an entirely sung-through opera.

Highlights: I won't mention the opening scene, which was completely unrelated and not even musical, and seemed tacked on to fill the hour. I'm just going to get right to the main show (as I wish they would have done). A well-voiced cast of eight sings about college woes and joys, including needing money to buy beer, convincing their R.A. to let them have a party, avoiding campus security, drinking, and love. It's quite amusing to watch this all play out as an opera. Each of the eight ensemble members get an aria and do well with it (one character even sings, "I haven't had my aria yet"). Michael Burton has an everyman, or everydude, quality as Dan, the main orchestrater of the party, Amanda Weis has a strong voice as the young woman having her first drink (and whose performance as a Noir-ish detective was the only good thing about the opening scene), Jennifer Zabalesky sings passionately about Chemistry, and Eric Peters is adorkably charming as the requisite nerd in love with Fiona (reminiscent of "Johanna"). Although not perfect, this is a fun, tongue-in-cheek, well-sung show, and a promising debut of a new-to-Minnesota opera company.