Minnesota Fringe Festival 2018: "Gunplay!"

Day: 6

Show: 23

Title: Gunplay!

Category: Comedy / Sci-Fi / Political Content

By: Tom Reed

Created by: Tom Reed

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: The National Machine Gun Association (NMGA) sends its new youth liaison to a high school theater group to get them to perform a gun safety drill musical.

Highlights: Is it right to laugh about gun violence in schools? Nothing else has seemed to work to minimize the problem. Although this show doesn't laugh at gun violence, it laughs at the ridiculousness of the gun lobbies and politicians and the way that they speak about gun violence. It's a pretty hilarious and pointed show about one of the most sobering issues we face today. Naive Anders (Tom Reed) is sent to a small school that needs the theater funding the NMGA will provide in return for putting on their show. Teacher Laura (Adelin Phelps) reluctantly agrees so that she can put on the new musical Mortgage (based on RENT) in the spring. Her students (composer Austen Fisher, Karina Strom, Lauren Anderson, Matthew Englund, and Meredith Casey) at first go along with it, but once they realize the pro-gun content of these admittedly fun and peppy songs, they protest and decide to do their own thing (a hilarious mash-up of snippets of musical theater songs). Anders and Laura have chemistry and as Anders begins to learn about the larger world, and think about the organization he works for, he joins the students in their protest. The final moments are sobering as we hear some startling gun statistics, but the message is delivered in a clever, fun, and entertaining way. For a thoughtful exploration of the gun culture in America, go see Gunfighting: An American Story. To laugh at the ridiculousness of everything surrounding the gun culture, see Gunplay!.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Musical Mondays" at Hell's Kitchen, February 2017

Kira: It is a peculiar thing about these mortals. They all know they will die, yet they are determined to create something. The "human spirit" is termed. It makes me feel... feel... oh Erato what is the word for which I search? You know, where something is so grand and so earnest yet ultimately so preposterous that one has to laugh. What does one call that?

Erato: Andrew Lloyd Webber?

Kira: There we are! The human spirit gives me great feelings of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

"The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical" by Minneapolis Musical Theatre at Camp Bar

And now for something entirely ridiculous (in a good way). There is a lot that's sugary sweet about Christmas, and Christmas-themed theater in Minnesota (of which there is much from which to choose). But none of it exists in Minneapolis Musical Theatre's contribution to the holiday theater scene - The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical. It's pure campy and irreverent fun. This is a sequel to The Great American Trailer Park Musical, which MMT did in 2009 (and played Off-Broadway in 2005). If you saw the original, you will recognize some familiar characters (and even one returning cast member). But if you didn't, no matter, it stands on its own in all its trailer trash glory. The songs are catchy and fun, director Ryan McGuire Grimes sets the perfect campy tone, and the terrific six-person cast completely commits to the stereotypical characters and nonsensical plot. Appropriately performed in St. Paul's Camp Bar, with readily available alcohol, it's great escapist fun (at least until that one reference towards the end that will sober you up right quick).

Fringe Festival 2016: "Gilligan: A Tropical Musical"

Day: 5

Show: 25

Title: Gilligan: A Tropical Musical

Category: Musical

By: Literally Entertainment Productions

Created by: Literally Entertainment Productions

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: A musical based on the iconic 1960s TV show Gilligan's Island, told in the style of Hamilton.

Highlights: The team behind last year's smash hit Fringe show Oregon Trail: The Musical returns with a takeoff on the current Broadway smash hit Hamilton. You can watch the opening number here, in which First Mate Gilligan is introduced by the other castaways a la Alexander Hamilton's introduction. What follows is sitcom-like scenes interspersed with Hamilton parodies, including Gilligan singing "I'm not very good at knots" ("I'm not giving away my spot") and Mr. Howell singing "She'll be back" (my personal favorite song, "You'll be back"). The songs are incredibly clever (composed, er... maybe adapted, by Kyle DeGoey, with lyrics by Kyle and Travis Carpenter) and I wanted more of them! "The island sisters" are mentioned ("Marianne, Ginger, ... and Lovey") and I was really hoping we'd get to see that number (nope). There's a Wizard of Oz diversion that doesn't seem necessary when  you have source material as rich as Gilligan's Island and Hamilton to mine. But I'm being nitpicky. The show is incredibly clever and fun, with super fast lyrics well-delivered by the cast (Aleksandra Sobie, Chris Laumann, Erin Kennedy, Justin L. Rios, Kyle DeGoey, Matthew Englund, Roxanne Britz, Travis Carpenter). It's a must for the Hamilton-obsessed.

Warning: the first two performances sold out and the remaining three are at high risk to sell out, so you might want to make advance reservations or show up at the theater early to ensure a spot.

"Buried Child" by Red Bird Theatre at the Southern Theater

I'm starting to think Sam Shepard is a modern-day Tennessee Williams. Both write dark and tragic family stories, Williams focusing on Southern families, while Shepard's play have a modern Western feel (in tone if not geography). Shepard's first big hit was the 1978 Off-Broadway play Buried Child, which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Red Bird Theatre (a company previously unknown to me) is presenting this dark and twisted masterpiece as part of Southern Theater's ARTshare program, and I loved it. I'm not sure why, but the darker and more depressing a play is, the happier it makes me. Walking out of the theater after a Sunday matinee, it just felt wrong that the sun was shining on a beautiful day, and it took me a few minutes to shake the darkness off my shoulders. But what a wonderful experience; a terrific cast and excellent production of this darkly poetic and deeply disturbing American classic.

"Happy Days" by Minneapolis Musical Theatre at New Century Theatre

In the space of 24 hours I traveled from 1960s Detroit to 1950s Milwaukee, separated by about 400 miles and 10 years, but worlds apart. Penumbra Theatre's Detroit '67 is a sobering look at the musical highs and violent lows of that time and place, while Minneapolis Musical Theatre's production of the musical adaptation of the TV classic Happy Days presents an idealized version of the past, where people can't imagine the price of gas going above 12 cents, the worst insult is "sit on it," and fights are settled with a pie in the face and a wedgie. As such, it's faithful to the beloved TV show that I, and many Americans, grew up with. Not surprising since it was written by the show's creator Garry Marshall, with songs by Paul Williams, who's written many hits for The Carpenters and others. While the plot's a bit thin (it is based on a sitcom, after all), the familiar characters are there with their signature catch phrases and the songs are catchy in that '50s style, resulting in a fun and frivolous evening of happy nostalgia theater.

In what amounts to an extended episode of Happy Days, our gang is facing a crisis when beloved diner hangout Arnold's is in danger of being bought out by a large corporation. Richie and Fonzie and friends come up with a couple of ideas to raise money to match the bid, including a dance contest and a wrestling match. (How they're supposed to raise thousands of dollars through this, I'm not entirely sure, but I'll go with it.) Fonzie's ex, the super cool motorcycle-riding Pinky, returns to judge the dance conflict, and tensions run high with unfinished business between them. Fonzie agrees to wrestle his nemeses the Mallachi brothers, despite a secret shameful weakness - he has a bum knee. (Fonzie's getting old? How disappointing.) It takes Richie longer than his usual 30 minutes to solve this problem, but in the end our gang comes out on top and continues living those happy days.

Highlights of the show include:

Pinky and the Fonz
(Quinn Shadko and John Zeiler,
photo by Heidi Bohnenkamp)

• The six-piece band just to the right of the stage sounds great playing these '50s pop tunes, both uptempo and ballad, as directed by Lori Maxwell.
• The large cast is talented and enthusiastic, bringing great energy to the show.
• Fonzie and Pinky are the most recognizable and specific characters. Quinn Shadko is a standout as Pinky. She always sounds lovely, but she also has Pinky's attitude, walk, and voice down pat - tough and smart on the outside, hiding a tender heart underneath. John Zeiler is her match as Fonzie, channeling Henry Winkler. Together they have a sweet and spicy chemistry as the central love story.
• As boy next door Richie, Eric Heimsoth has the red hair, earnestness, and likeability needed for the character. Richie and his pals Ralph Malph (an expressive Matthew Englund), Potsie (an appropriately reserved Andrew Newman), and Chachi (a charming Kory LaQuess Pullam) create some great doo-wappy four-part harmony.
• Lisa Denninger's Mrs. C and Briana Patnode's Joanie are a believable mother/daughter pair, and bring sweet harmony to the song "What I Dreamed Last Night."
• I don't know anything about motorcycles, but what looked to be an authentic vintage bike was rolled out onstage, rounding out the character of Fonzie.
• The musical is chock full of catch phrases, familiar to anyone who's watched the TV show: Richie's angry "bucko," Ralph Malph's gleeful "I still got it!," Chachi's admiring "waa waa waa," and of course, the Fonz with his "aaayyyy," "correctamundo," thumbs up, and signature comb movement.
• While the mostly empty set leaves something to be desired, the period costumes are fun and bright; the leather jackets, blue jeans, bobby socks, poodle skirts, and saddle shoes perfectly represent the era. If some of the girls' dresses look like bad prom dresses, perhaps that's appropriate. Pinky outshines the rest in her fabulous pink frocks, as she should.

While there are a couple of strange jokes that didn't land well (including one about Bill Gates, who was 4 years old in 1959), and the show goes a bit too far into camp territory at times, on the whole it's joyful homage to a beloved TV show and iconic characters. These Happy Days are yours and mine, and continue at the New Century Theatre through May 17.

the Dial Tones - Kory LaQuess Pullam as Chachi, Eric Heimsoth as Richie,
Andrew Newman as Potsie, and Matthew Englund as Ralph Malph
(photo by Heidi Bohnenkamp)