"Passing Strange" at Mixed Blood Theatre

The rock musical Passing Strange was short-lived on Broadway, running just five months, but it earned seven Tony nominations and one win for Best Book. I recall hearing about it, but I never saw it. I'm so grateful to Mixed Blood Theatre for bringing it here and for assembling this talented cast and creative team, because Passing Strange is everything I want music-theater to be. It's a completely unique creation that comes from the heart, features an awesome rock score, and is wildly entertaining, poignant, funny, and relevant. Written by the musician known as Stew (with help from Heidi Rodewald on the music composition) and loosely based on his own life, Passing Strange is a coming of age story about a young black man from L.A. who travels to Europe in search of what he calls "the real." The narrator (played by Stew himself on Broadway) and his younger self take us on this epic journey with them, filled with the highs of love and music and the lows of grief and heartbreak, and it's a beautiful thing when he comes out the other end with a better understanding of life, love, and art.

Passing Strange feels more like a rock concert than a musical, with the narrator introducing himself and the band and talking directly to the audience. He doesn't pretend that he's not spinning a tale for an audience, yet at times he's deeply connected to and affected by his story as it plays out before him. We meet a nameless young man, presumably his younger self, in his too comfortable life in L.A. with his mother and the church. It's the late 1970's, and he decides to go to Europe to see who he can be, rebelling against his family and country and society. He lives a life of new friends, sex, drugs, and rock and roll, first in mellow Amsterdam and then in the intense world of Berlin. He loves art above all else, and through it strives for "the real." As he grows up and experiences loss, he learns that there might be more to life than art.

Anthony Manough and Nathan Barlow
backed by Lipica Shah,
Brittany Bradford, and Meghan Kriedler

This highly energetic and talented cast and band (at times it's hard to tell the difference between the two as they're all part of the story) drive through the show like a freight train that never stops or lets up. As two sides of the same man, Anthony Manough (narrator) and Nathan Barlow (youth) are both fantastic. Anthony is a great front man, funny and entertaining and captivating, but also shows us the character's emotional side as he observes his story from the outside. I've seen Nathan Barlow in supporting roles in the past (and called him "one to watch"), but this could be his breakout performance. He gives such an emotionally and physically intense and at the same time playful performance, literally running from one end of the stage to the other, all while making this youth someone to follow and root for, despite his selfish and self-centered wanderings (not atypical for someone that age). As his (their) mother, Jamecia Bennett brings a soul to the story, not to mention her incredible voice that is a force of nature. Also fantastic and fun to watch are the trio of Brittany Bradford, Meghan Kreidler, and Lipica Shah, functioning as a sort of Greek chorus, in addition to playing various friends and girlfriends that the youth meets on his journey. Rounding out this fine cast is LeRoi James as the preacher's son choir director and various other characters.

I don't see a choreographer or movement coach listed so I don't know who to credit for this (perhaps director Thomas W. Jones II), but there is some crazy wonderful movement and dancing going on. And you can't have a great rock musical without a great rock band, and they've got that here, with direction by Jason Hansen (the go-to-guy for rock musicals in the Twin Cities, and with good reason). I enjoyed seeing Eric Mayson (from last year's really cool Fringe show Elysium Blues) playing guitar in the band, with a great turn as the preacher. And I must also mention the crazy fun 70s-ish costumes by Trevor Bowen.

And this too (from the director):

Artist. African American. Expatriate! ... the 20th Century Odyssey of not only the African American artist, but the African American race, has been an unyielding search for acceptance, a disquieted reach for the ephemeral home. Passing Strange continues that exploration.

What a beautiful thing to use music-theater in that exploration. If you, like me, love the art form that is music-theater and believe that it can be more than the latest Disney movie adaptation, you owe it to yourself to go see this show. It's a unique and personal creation beautifully and powerfully brought to life by this fantastic cast. It'll make you think, feel, laugh, cry, and clap your hands. It's not often that the audience of a musical is cajoled, no demanded, to get on their feet! I guarantee you've never seen another musical like Passing Strange, which is what I love most about it. Playing now through May 11, click here to reserve tickets or take a chance and show up at the theater before the show to get a free ticket (assuming it's not sold out) as part of Mixed Blood's "Radical Hospitality" program.

Park Square Theatre's Season 2014-2015 Announcement

I had a great St. Paul theater day this past Sunday. In between seeing two powerful plays at the History Theatre (The Things They Carried and Lonely Soldiers: Women at War in Iraq), I stopped in at Park Square Theatre for their new season announcement. They have an exciting and ambitious new season planned, which includes opening a second stage, named for one of the theater's biggest supporters, Andy Boss, who passed away last week.

Park Square will put on 19 productions on the two stages, a crazy number of shows for one theater in one season. This new space in St. Paul is coming at a great time, since we recently lost the Ordway's McKnight Theatre on the other side of Rice Park. The new stage will house both Park Square productions and productions by other theater companies. In particular, Park Square has a three-year partnership with three nomadic theater companies - Theatre Pro Rata, Sandbox Theatre, and Girl Friday Productions.

After mingling in the lobby (or in my case, local theater celebrity spotting) with free drinks and food, the crowd moved into the theater where Artistic Director Richard Cook and Managing Director Michael-jon Pease led an informal discussion of the upcoming season, allowing the audience (mostly made up of artists and season subscribers) to ask questions. But first - a performance from the truly innovative and delightful Trick Boxing by Sossy Mechanics, a show so good I cannot wait to see it again on the Boss stage early next year.

A few other shows I'm looking forward to next season:

• The Color Purple: I saw the Broadway touring production several years ago and wept like I never have before or since at the theater. Alice Walker's story is so moving in book and movie format, and adding music just pushes the emotions over the top. I cannot wait to see it with an all-local cast, and if I were in charge of casting, I'd choose Brittany Bradford as Celie and Austene Van as Shug Avery.
• Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders: The brilliant and hilarious playwright Jeffrey Hatcher is adapting this novel by Larry Millett which re-imagines Sherlock Holmes in Minnesota. I'm not sure what this means for the whole is Benedict Cumberbatch coming to Minnesota controversy, but it's sure to be good fun.
• Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol: A returning favorite in which one actor plays all of the roles in A Christmas Carol. I can only hope that the one actor is again Jim Lichtsheidl, master of transformation.

Most of the other shows I'm not familiar with, but I look forward to discovering. Finally, the discussion ended with another excerpt from an upcoming show, the very funny, silly, and poignant 2 Sugars, Room for Cream. In this new scene, writer/performers Carolyn Pool and Shanan Custer worked out a custody arrangement for the Ivey they won last year. This is a show I will gladly go see a third time.

And that's it. Some good stuff is happening in St. Paul. You can see the full list of shows on their website, where you will also find info about the various season ticket packages. I wish them much success with this new venture. See you in St. Paul!

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Ten Thousand Things at Open Book

A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the wackiest of Shakespeare's romantic comedies. It's the one where lovers chase each other through a forest, a group of actors rehearse and perform a preposterous play, and a woman falls in love with an ass (a literal not figurative ass, the latter is nothing unusual). This makes it a great choice for the superb theater company Ten Thousand Things to bring to their typical venues of prisons, homeless shelters, community centers, and other places and people usually lacking in the joy that theater can bring. TTT's version features an ethnically diverse cast and a few gender changes (Lysander is played by a woman and referred to as she), as well as men playing female characters and women playing male characters. None of this interferes with the story (all you see are eight wonderful actors playing many different characters), and perhaps makes it so that everyone finds someone or something to relate to. I always love seeing Ten Thousand Things shows to witness the true craft of theater without any distractions that a big fancy production can bring. In a fully lit room, the actors look you in the eye and simply say and feel and live the words of the play. It's theater at it's most basic and true.

Highlights of the show include:

• Karen Wiese-Thompson as a very funny and earthy Puck. She shares a wonderful rapport with... 
• Sun Mee Chomet, who digs into the role of Oberon, King of the goblins, with glee and a lusty laugh.
• Elise Langer's hilarious transformation into the aforementioned ass, with the stomping of feet, an overbite, and subtle horse sounds in her speaking.
• The marvelous Gavin Lawrence as the distinguished duke and the lovestruck Titania.
• The delightful and surprisingly moving love story between the four lovers - Anna Sundberg's serious and devoted Lysander, Brittany Bradford as a radiant Hermia, Kurt Kwan's persistent Demetrius, and Mo Perry's hurt and disbelieving Helena. These four also have fun turns as the hapless actors rehearsing and badly performing the silly play-within-a-play.
• Peter Vitale's playful cacophony of sound coming from the corner of the room that never distracts from, but always adds to, the story.
• Fun, simple, and effective costumes by Sonya Berlovitz. Actors start out wearing pajamas, then don robes (color-coded to help remember which couples go together), with dark and fantastical coats and headpieces as goblins in the forest.
• Little ad-libs or side comments that perhaps aren't in the script, but make the story feel more current and relatable.
• During some scene transitions, actors slowly don a new costume, as if sleepwalking and waking up in a new life.

A Midsummer Night's Dream continues at Open Book through November 3. You can never go wrong with a TTT show, and this is a fun new take on a classic.

"Stick Fly" at Park Square Theatre

Why is watching a dysfunctional family on stage or screen so much fun? Maybe it's because it makes our own family look a little less dysfunctional in comparison. Such is the case with the LeVays, the upper class African American family at the center of Stick Fly, the 2011 Broadway play* making it's regional debut at Park Square Theatre. We spend a few days with the LeVays in their home in Martha's Vineyard, where they have intense conversations about race, class, gender, education, relationships, and family. It's the kind of play that draws the audience in and makes you pay close attention so as not to miss a moment of the rapid-fire dialogue. The compelling cast really feels like a family by the end of the play, with many of their issues still unresolved, forever changed by the weekend.

The patriarch of the LeVay family is a neurosurgeon who marries into one of the few African American families to have a home on the Vineyard. Elder son Flip is also a doctor (but in the less prestigious field of plastic surgury) and a womanizer. He brings his new girlfriend Kimber to meet the family. She's white, but comes from the same upper class background as the LeVays. Younger son Kent is the sweet, sensitive artist type who doesn't quite fit in with this family of overachievers. He wants to be a writer, of which his father definitely does not approve. He too brings his girlfriend, or rather fiance, Taylor, to meet the family. She's the daughter of a famous author who grew up middle class with a single mother, a stark contrast to the LeVays' lifestyle. Add to this mixture the daughter of the longtime family maid, who grew up almost a part of the family but always outside of it, and you have plenty of conflicts just ripe for exploding. And they do. Mrs. LeVay is often spoken of but never appears. Dr. LeVay's excuses don't cover the fact that there's something going on there. When the reason is finally revealed (it's a fairly predictable secret, I've watched enough soap operas to see it coming a mile away), it causes all of the conflicts of the weekend to come to a head.

just a friendly game of Scrabble
(photo by Petronella Ytsma)

This capable six-person cast is directed by the always excellent Marion McClinton. James A. Williams (who has worked with Marion in two plays from Pillsbury House Theatre's "Brother/Sister" trilogy, with the third hopefully coming soon) is the strict but genial dad, who soon reveals a darker side. Darius Dotch and Darrien E. Burks create distinct personalities as the elder and younger sons, and also share that brotherly love as well as conflict. Tracey Maloney (one of my favorites) is Kimber, the calm outsider at the center of the storm, and Traci Allen steals several scenes as the passionate Taylor. Last but not least is Brittany Bradford as the maid's daughter. I've enjoyed her performances of such diverse singing roles as Gary Coleman, Natalie, and Sarah Brown Eyes, and I'm happy to discover that she's just as compelling in a non-singing role. She believably takes her character from a hard-working and happy young woman to someone who's entire world has changed.

Besides the actors, the other star of the show is the set, designed by Christopher Mayer. It's a beautiful home that's nicer than any I've lived in! The living room and kitchen are side by side, separated by an invisible wall, that allows for two conversations to be going on at once. The space is well used, with people often congregating in the kitchen as happens in real life, or for a friendly game of scrabble in the living room.

This is a smart, engrossing, challenging (with several jaw-dropping moments of - they did not just say that!), thought-provoking, emotional, funny, and very real play. The opening-night audience was very engaged and responsive (I think I even heard an "Amen!" at one point), which is always fun to see. If that's the kind of play that interests you, it's definitely worth seeing. (Playing now through May 19 at St. Paul's Park Square Theatre.)



*HBO is reportedly going to produce a movie version of the play, adapted by playwright Lydia Diamond. I'll watch that!

"Next to Normal" at Mixed Blood Theatre

Next to Normal is not a light and happy feel-good musical. It's a gut-wrenching, emotionally exhausting musical, but in the best, most satisfying way. In what is arguably the best-written musical of this century, themes of loss, grief, mental illness, family dynamics, drug abuse, codependent relationships, and suicide are explored. Heavy stuff for a musical, but that's what I love about it. Next to Normal shows us just how deep, real, relevant, and meaningful musical theater can be. I've seen the Broadway production three times (including once on tour at the Ordway last year), but I'm always curious to see what a local theater company does with a familiar musical. Mixed Blood Theatre does an amazing job with this brilliant piece. They put their own spin on it, including a racially diverse cast, completely different sets and costumes, and recasting one of the male characters as a female, while retaining the moving story and driving rock score of the show.

Next to Normal is about your typical American family - mother, father, sister, brother. But this family is not as happy and "normal" as it appears. The mother has been suffering from mental illness (bipolar, depression, schizophrenia) for years, and the father is desperately trying to hold everything together for the family. The children are dealing with family issues on top of normal teenage issues like school pressure, drugs, and dating. All of this is told boldly and beautifully through music, with little spoken dialogue. The Tony-winning score is driving and edgy with some incredibly harmonies among the small cast. This is not an easy musical, but the actors and musicians (led by Music Director Jason Hansen) sound terrific (with some band members doubling as actors when needed).

This is a really well-cast show. Aditi Kapil is fierce, vulnerable, and raw as Diana as she goes through the ups and downs of her illness (a role that won Alice Ripley a Tony). Thomas W. Jones II is strong and sympathetic as her husband, trying to make everything all right. As the favorite son Gabe, Ricardo Vazquez is a dynamic presence with a strong voice. The final member of this family is tough but fragile daughter Natalie, played by Brittany Bradford. The more I see of Brittany, the more I like her. She's played such diverse roles as Gary Coleman and Sarah Brown Eyes, and again nails this role with her gorgeous voice and expressive face. The multi-talented Tom Reed is Natalie's sweet and supportive boyfriend Henry. The Natalie/Henry relationship is the one bright spot in this drama, a hope for the future that their lives can turn out better than Natalie's parents. Rounding out the cast is Regina Marie Williams as Diana's doctor, a role typically played by a man. It's not a huge change and doesn't really affect the story, perhaps making the doctor seem more sympathetic to Diana. But if you have the chance to cast Regina in any role, take it!

The set of the Broadway production of Next to Normal is so much a part of the show that I was curious to see how Mixed Blood would do it in their smaller space. In Broadway the set was comprised of three levels with the actors running up and down stairs to the different levels, almost representing different levels of consciousness or thought. Mixed Blood has turned their black box theater 90 degrees, so it's long and shallow. There's only one story to the set (designed by Joseph Stanley), but with some stairs and platforms so we still get some sense of different levels. And I was fascinated by the set pieces, moving blocks of gray that open up to reveal bathroom cabinets or lamps or a bookshelf. The costumes are also much different than the Broadway production, and successfully so. The Broadway costumes were sleek and business-like, but these costumes (designed by Mallory Kay Nelson) are more homey and colorful. The color and pattern are an interesting contrast to the darkness of the piece. And it makes more sense that a woman struggling with depression would put on a comfy sweater and house slippers rather than heels and a pencil skirt.

It's so interesting how this musical plays with ideas of "normal" - what is a normal family, what is a normal reaction to tragedy. And the conclusion is there's no such thing as normal. As Natalie tells her mother, "I don't need a life that's normal, that's way too far away, but something next to normal would be OK." That's really the human struggle, to make a life that's next to normal despite the sadness and setbacks we all have to live through. "The price of love is loss, but still we pay, we love anyway." In other words, you might want to bring a few tissues when you go to see the show. If you've never seen Next to Normal, now's your chance to see one of the best musicals of the last few years. And if you have seen it, you'll want to check out this production and see it in a different way. Playing now through November 11 at Mixed Blood Theatre.

"Ragtime" at Park Square Theatre

I would like to say that Park Square Theatre's production of the musical Ragtime is the show of the year, but I know that it's only January, and there are 11 months to go.  But 2012 would have to be a pretty good year for this show not to make it onto my end of the year best of list.  I was a little afraid my expectations would be too high; I've been looking forward to this show for months because Ragtime is one of my favorite musical theater soundtracks and the cast list looked superb.  But I was not disappointed, the show lived up to my expectations in every way.  The cast is indeed superb and includes several of my favorites in top form; the music sounds divine thanks to the depth of talent in the large ensemble and the fantastic orchestra (as expected when Denise Posek of Theater Latte Da is the Music Director); and the costumes, choreography, and sparse set all add to the feeling of time and place - 1906 in New York City and its suburbs.  With a cast of 35, this is Park Square's largest production to date, but the stage did not feel crowded, just full of life and music and pain and beauty.

Ragtime is based on the 1975 E.L. Doctorow novel of the same name and tells the story of three families - an upper class White family, an African American family, and an immigrant family.  The three families' lives become intertwined with each other, as well as with several historical events and figures, such as anarchist Emma Goldman, magician Harry Houdini, and chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit (played by Kersten Rodau, Sasha Andreev, and Caroline Innerbichler, all perfectly cast and wonderful in their roles).  The hero of our story is Coalhouse Walker, Jr. (the charismatic Harry Waters, Jr.), a ragtime piano player in love with a poor servant named Sarah (Brittany Bradford in a beautiful performance that's completely different from the last time I saw her, as Gary Coleman in Avenue Q).  Coalhouse's journey takes a drastic turn when he's faced with discrimination and tragedy.

Sarah lives with the seemingly perfect well-to-do family consisting of a father, a mother, and a son, as well as mother's younger brother and father.  Curiously, these characters (with the exception of the son, Edgar) don't have names, so that they could be anyone or everyone.  I've seen Lee Mark Nelson and Christina Baldwin many times, but I don't think I've ever seen them perform together.  It was worth the wait, they both give great performances as these layered characters.  Mark makes Father both sympathetic and aggravating as he's caught in the old ways and refuses to change.  Christina gives Mother such strength and yearning, hope and determination, and her voice is amazing as always, especially in the moving ballad "Back to Before."  Noah Coon is adorable as little Edgar, the boy who mysteriously knows more than he should (warn the duke!).  Finally, Younger Brother is on a journey all his own, always looking for something to cling to and finding it in unfortunate places (or persons).  Aleks Knezevich (the rightful captain of the Pinafore) is perfect for the role in this perfectly cast show.

At the center of our third family is another one of my favorites, Dieter Bierbrauer, as a poor immigrant trying to make a better life for his daughter (the adorable and talented Megan Fischer, who doesn't have as much to do here as in last year's Annie).  Tateh's path crosses with Mother's several times, in what turns out to be a most excellent love triangle.  (Lee Mark Nelson, Christina Baldwin, and Dieter Bierbrauer singing in three-part harmony, I thought I'd died and gone to Minnesota musical theater heaven!)  All of the characters in this story are connected somehow, and what each does affects the others.  The ensemble is spectacular, and several of them shine in their spotlight moments, such as Timotha Lanae (who was also on board the Pinafore last summer) as Sarah's friend.

In addition to the perfect cast and music, the choreography (by another Latte Da regular Michael Matthew Ferrell), set design (by Rick Polenek), and costumes (designed by Andrea M. Gross) also add to the production.  I'm not sure where the direction (by Gary Gisselman) ends and choreography begins when you're moving this many people around a small stage, but not only is it flawlessly done but it also really enriches the characters and helps define their story.  The same can be said for the costumes, especially in the opening sequence, when all the upper class people are dressed in pale linen, the immigrants in dark earth tones, and the "Negroes" in bolder colors, creating an obvious division that melts away as their stories blur together.  The stage is sparse, with a second story around the edge of the stage to allow for characters to come and go in the background. The few set pieces almost look like "silhouettes" (as Tateh sings), allowing the story to be the focus.  A screen is occasionally lowered to display real images from the time period, further adding to the sense of time and place.

This is a heavy show, at times so difficult to watch that I closed my eyes to try to erase the images of violence and injustice.  But there are also lighter moments of humor (I particularly enjoyed the ode to baseball, "What a Game").  I read the book after first seeing the musical in 1998, and remember thinking that it's not a book that screams "make me into a musical!"  But it proves that no topic is off limits for musical theater, if done thoughtfully and respectfully and creatively.  Ragtime is such a musical. 

This country is always struggling, always changing, always trying to better itself.  And there are always going to be tragedies and set-backs along the way, but hopefully each generation leaves the world slightly better for the next generation, for all the Coalhouse Walker IIIs of the world.  Ragtime deals with what it's like to be an American, then and now, good and bad.  As Gary Gisselman said in a post-show discussion, it's about racism and immigrants and the rich vs. the poor, themes that we are still dealing with today.  But it's also about family and love and hope for the future.  Ragtime officially opens tonight and plays through February 19, and it's definitely worth seeing.  It may even be worth seeing twice!



Ragtime trailer from Park Square Theatre on Vimeo.

"Avenue Q" at Mixed Blood Theatre

The Tony award-winning musical Avenue Q is Sesame Street for adults.  Particularly young adults in their early 20s who are transitioning to adulthood and realizing that Sesame Street didn't tell the whole story.  The happy sing-song-y score sounds like something you would hear on a kids' show, but with songs like "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist," "Schadenfreude," "It Sucks to Be Me," "If You Were Gay," and "The Internet is For Porn," you know you're not in kids territory anymore!  The show is delightfully irreverent and non-PC; pretty much every ethnicity and social group gets skewered.  But in the end it's a hopeful story about friendship and enjoying what you have in life when you have it, because "everything in life is only for now."  I've seen the show on Broadway and on tour, and Mixed Blood's production (directed by Artistic Director Jack Reuler) is just as wonderful and inventive.

Like Sesame Street, many of the characters in Avenue Q are puppets.  Mostly human puppets but a few monsters as well (aka people of fur).  But unlike Sesame Street, the actors portraying the puppets are completely visible.  The puppets were designed to look like their human counterparts and they wear identical clothing, so it's almost like you're seeing double.  This amazing cast does a fantastic job of matching their human emotions and movements to their puppet's emotions and movements.  The human emoting complements the puppet's movements so the puppet actually looks sad or confused or upset.

The show is perfectly cast, not a weak link among them.  In the Broadway/touring version several of the actors do double duty as more than one character.  There's less of that here; instead, several of the actors join the band (led by Jason Hansen) when they're not onstage.  In fact, there's only one member of the band who doesn't also play a character onstage.  The most ingenious example of this is Eric Mayson, who plays Trekkie Monster and also plays bass in the band.  He's dressed in black with a full-sized monster puppet strapped to his back.  He walks around backwards onstage, and then goes back to the band with Trekkie still on his back while he plays the guitar.  There is one instance of an actor playing dual roles; like in the Broadway version, the same actor plays our monster heroine, Kate Monster, and her nemesis, the sleazy lounge singer Lucy T. Slut (her name says it all).  Bonnie Allen does this brilliantly, at times having conversations with herself, smoothly going back and forth between the boozy, throaty voice of Lucy and the girlish voice of Kate (Ruth Christianson inhabits the puppet Kate when Lucy's on stage).  The center point of this triangle is Princeton, the naive and idealistic newcomer to Avenue Q who learns that adulthood isn't as easy as he thought.  I've seen Tom Reed before in a different incarnation - as Lounge-asaurus Rex, host of Sample Night Live (a monthly showcase of the local arts/music/theater scene), which I saw once last fall and am still hoping to get back to sometime soon.  Tom is very funny and clever as Loung-asaurus Rex, ad libbing songs and entertaining the audience between the acts.  But I could hear a great voice behind the comedy, which he shows off in this show.  Other puppet residents of Avenue Q include roommates Rod and Nicky (think Bert and Ernie).  Seth Tucker will break your heart as Rod, the closeted gay Republican investment banker who wants nothing more than to be loved.  He dreams one night of having his love for Nicky (Brian Skellenger, one of my Chanhassen faves) returned, and it's a beautifully cheesy and romantic scene with the puppets flying and twirling through the air (Lauren Chapman choreographed the puppet and human movements).  The non-puppet residents of Avenue Q include engaged couple Brian ("unemployed and turning 33") and Christmas Eve (a stereotypical Japanese immigrant who has two masters degrees but can't get a job), played by Shawn Hamilton (who also plays the sax, onstage and off) and Rose Le Tran.  The superintendent of Avenue Q is none other than Gary Coleman (Brittany Bradford) - "I had a lot of money that was stolen by my folks."  Rounding out the cast of characters are the adorably sinister "bad idea bears" who represent that little voice inside of us that says things like "spend all your money on beer!" or "have a long island iced tea, they're yummy!"  You know it's a bad idea, but they're so darn cute they're impossible to resist!

I didn't realize the Mixed Blood Theatre was a black box theater until I walked in and the stage was on the opposite end of the room.  The brick townhomes of the Broadway/touring production have been replaced by simple black and grey boxes with sliding sections that reveal the various apartments in the building.  It's an efficient and clever use of space, with scene changes accompanied by drum solos by Andy Mark.

This is a fabulous show.  If you're familiar with this blog, you know I love everything.  But really, this production is fun, hilarious, accessible, light-hearted, and heart-warming, with great performances of catchy, singable songs.  The house was packed last night and the audience was clearly having a good time.  It's playing through the end of the month, so get your tickets now!

Update: the show has been extended through May 29.