Kevin's Minnesota Theatre Adventures- SOMETHING ROTTEN, GREAT COMET, and THE MIRACLE WORKER- Page 2

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 2/29/24 at 5:52pm

Wow, that is a great season, much better than many other cities I've seen announced. And you guys getting the world premiere of Purple Rain? What a wonderful tribute to Prince in the state he called home and loved so much. Enjoy. 

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 2/29/24 at 6:14pm

GiantsInTheSky2 said: "Kevin, have you or are you seeing Clue?"

I've been too busy lately to see a lot of theatre, but I may take a day trip to MSP to see it this weekend. Will report back if that's the case!

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 3/3/24 at 10:52pm

I managed to get down to the Twin Cities to see Clue.  Was it worth a 2.5 hour drive both ways to see a 90 minute show?

Indeedy-do.

I've always enjoyed playing the board game, but have only seen the movie beginning to end once or twice, so while I can't recall all of the specific beats the play sems to be capturing them well, while adding its own specifically theatrical flair, and it's a blast.  I was laughing consistently throughout, thanks to a script with a well balanced combination of clever wordplay and dumb jokes(executed in a smart way).  The whole cast was wonderful, but this show really belongs to John Shartzer as Mr Green and Mark Price as Wadsworth.  Shartzer is particular gives a masterclass in comedic acting - it's the sort of performance that teeters on the edge of being too much (he plays up the mincing and neurotic nature of the character much more than I recall Michael McKean doing in the movie) but then he breaks out some incredible physical comedy - he has a gag involving a slow motion falling chandelier that had my audience dying.  Mark Price is also excellent, from how hard he tries to maintain a modicum of dignity on the proceedings, to how he herds the group from place to place, to a monologue he has near the end that plays like a non-musical version of "Betrayed" from The Producers. I also really liked John Treacey Egan, who plays Colonel Mustard as a galoot who is too much of an idiot to realize he's an idiot, and Michelle Elaine as Miss Scarlet, whose deadpan cracks show she's the only character who doesn't much seem to care if her secret gets out.  The set was also very impressive, with modular elements coming in and out to represent the different rooms of Boddy Manor, and there was some delightful choreography, including dance breaks to represent how the characters move from room to room (I know there's already a Clue musical available for licensing, but I could easily see this script being used as the basis for a musical as well).

The madcap nature of the script might be too much for some people, and the ending probably goes on a bit too long, but I had a wonderful time and would definitely recommend this script for local theatre groups.

Another show I saw recently was a production of The LIghtning Thief.  This was done by a community theatre, albeit one with a six-figure operating budget (my DREAM!), so it was probably as close as I've seen to one of these regional groups having production values that rival a professional production.  I'm totally unfamiliar with the Percy Jackson franchise, having not read the books or seen any of the screen portrayals, so I can't speak to whether the show is an accurate representation of them, but as theatrical entertainment it was a rock-solid show.  The story was pretty standard YA stuff we've seen a hundred times before (when's someone going to do a stage production of Animorphs?) but there were plenty of clever jokes and some really good production design, effects, and choreography.  The songs were fun in the moment, but only "The Campfire Song" and "Drive".had any staying power in my mind afterwards.  The diverse cast were all clearly having a good time - the actor playing Percy seemed a little unsteady at times, but he had a lot of charm and likeability and clear vocal chops, and played well opposite the actors playing Annabeth and Grover.  The actor playing Dionysus was also a hoot, playing up his grouchiness at just the right level of over-the-top.

As far as my own community theatre experiences go, I just wrapped up production on 12 Angry Men which was one of the best ensembles i've been honored to be a part of and went straight into rehearsals of a production of The Miracle Worker.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 3/7/24 at 11:34am

The 24-25 Broadway At the Ordway lineup was announced and like last year's, it feels somewhat underwhelming. I'll happily drive down to see Ain't Too Proud  again, but  Mean Girls? Dear Evan Hansen? Mystic Pizza? Not a lot that's jumping out to me as a must-see.

On the other hand, the Guthrie Theatre's 24-25 season sounds fantastic, a combination of classic, contemporary, and new. There's hardly a production in the bunch that reads as skippable. 

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 3/7/24 at 1:44pm

I think almost the opposite, lol! I saw the Guthrie announcement which felt very anticlimactic to me, and I love Ordway is getting Fire Shut Up In My Bones. 

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 3/17/24 at 11:54pm

I saw two more shows in St. Paul this weekend, and by sheer providence once again they were bound by a common theme - both shows were 1960s-set pieces about integration and what happens when white people who hadn't thought much about racism find themselves caught in the middle of the fights for, and against, the presence of Black people in previously white spaces. 

A Unique Assignment is the new original drama premiering at the History Theatre. This theatre earned a lifetime's worth of good will from me with their excellent production The Boy Wonder last year (and I'm still kicking myself over not being able to see I am Betty last November), so I was definitely excited for their latest fact-based show.

This play tells the story of James Merideth,  the first Black student to try and enroll in Ole Miss. It also tells the story of Henry Gallagher, a young Army lieutenant from Minnesota who was assigned to lead Merideth's security detail after racist backlash to his enrollment led to deadly riots on campus. It's natural to be wary of whether a story like this will end up being another Green Book or Driving Miss Daisy, with the white outsider being taught a valuable lesson by proximity to a Black person facing discrimination. While there are elements of that here, the script by Harrison David Rivers doesn't reduce the story to something so simplistic, and while that leads to some curious structural elements it's still overall a satisfying drama.

The story is told almost on two separate tracks. Gallagher's story, appropriately enough for a soldier who sees his historic task as just another mission,  is told in a procedural, almost Dragnet-esque manner that is infused with a lot of humor. Gallagher is played by two different actors: Pearce Bunting is the 73-year-old Gallagher whose memories provide the frame of the story while Kevin Fanshaw is the 23-year-old Gallagher in the moment, with the two of them alternating and sometimes sharing narration duties. James Merideth is played by James A. Williams, who playwright Rivers and director Richard D. Thompson wisely allow to tell his own story through a series of powerfully-delivered monologues that almost feel like excerpts from a one-man-show. There is a historical basis for this - Merideth was certainly grateful for and aware of the role Gallagher and the other soldiers played, but he never became friends with them.  As he puts it, he had his own reasons for enrolling at Ole Miss, doing his part to break the system of white supremacy and discrimination, and by  comparison the presence of the soldiers assigned to his security was mostly incidental. Gallagher, born in a working-class Minneapolis neighborhood circa the 1940s, interacted with mostly white people his entire life, so being tossed into a charged environment like Mississippi in the 60s turned into a trial by fire for him. In a nice tough, Gallagher at point says that he never saw much of a difference between white soldiers and Black soldiers,  while Merideth says of his experience serving in the Air Force that he understood every day why being a Black soldier was different (I would have liked more peeks into Merideth's personal life, but I can understand why the show preferred to focus on his experience at the Ole Miss campus)

Kevin Fanshaw as the younger Gallagher is the only actor confined to a single role. Bunting, Williams, and Kevin Brown Jr. all alternate between the various other people who find themselves caught up in the story. Sometimes this leads to some confusion as to who exactly is playing who at any given time, but once you get into the show's rhythm it works (I still would have preferred a larger ensemble, though). Kirby Moore's starkly effective set design allows for dynamic use of lighting and projections to help build the atmosphere, and Thompson's direction creates some great stage images.

On the far other end of the spectrum, I saw the touring company of Hairspray  at the Ordway. My only previous exposure to this material was the 2007 movie (just about a perfect movie, if you ask me) and this touring production captures every bit of the same infectious energy and joy - this is really a show that makes you want to get up and dance. This performance had a few understudies stepping in, and I want to give special mention to Amy Rodriguez who gave a brilliant performance as Tracy Turnblad, brimming with all of the energy and enthusiasm you'd want in the role.  Of the regular cast, Greg Kalafatas made a very good Edna, not making the drag element a joke in and of itself but as just one element of humor in a sincere and earnest performance.  Skylar Shields as Link felt kind of limp at first - I never really bought him as a star or heartthrob until he was able to match Rodriguez's energy during "Without Love".  After that and through the end his performance was much livelier and more exciting.  Josiah Rogers as Seaweed, Andrew Scoggin as Corny Collins, and Scarlett Jaques as Penny were also standouts. As for the production as a whole the songs were infectious, the choreography dazzling, and all of it together added up to a ton of fun.

Updated On: 3/18/24 at 11:54 PM

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 4/28/24 at 11:43am

My community theatre experiences this spring have involved three different shows:

I drove to the University of Minnesota Duluth to see their production of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, and it was truly a remarkable show.  I had previously seen the U's production of The Spitfire Grill (a show that shares several cast members with this) and as much as I enjoyed that show, nothing could have prepared me for this much more ambitious and elaborate production.  Using the entirety of a thrust stage, the audience is catapulted into the world of Tolstoy by way of Dave Malloy's infectious music.  Director Thomas Jackson takes the complicated narrative and turns it into an experience you don't so much lose track of as lose yourself in, always finding a character or plotline to focus on and care about at any given moment.  He's helped by an immensely talented cast, who slide into their characters with ease, building upon the archetypes from the prologue into layered and real people.  One quibble I have is that the sound design felt unbalanced at times, especially with the male voices who at times risked being overwhelmed by the live musicians (even when they were performing instruments themselves a la the original Broadway production) That's a shame, because Aaron Dumalag as Pierre and Tanner Longshore as Anatole gave very powerful performances, to the point where they'll probably embody the characters in my imagination whenever I think about the show from now on.  I also want to give recognition to the ensemble, who keep the energy up and the show mo9 ving, especially during "The Abduction" where they broke out some incredibly exciting and fun choreography.  This was as good as any college production I've ever seen in my life.

I also saw a community theatre production of Something Rotten!, a show I was aware of by reputation but had not seen or heard the music from until now. I can't pretend to be objective watching this, as I have worked on various shows with many of the people involved, but for a show this broad and goofy all you really need to know is whether or not I laughed.  And I laughed a ton. The rapid-fire references to to Shakespeare and musical theatre got me every time, as did the bawdy wordplay involving poetry.  I also loved their portrayal of Shakespeare as an Elizabethan rock star.  Having worked with this director on 9 to 5 and Kinky Boots I initially thought this show lacked some of her signature high energy, but once they got to "The Black Death" everything kicked into high gear.  The cast was clearly having the time of their lives, and that level of fun is just infectious to the audience.

For my own part I had a small role in my local community theatre's production of The Miracle Worker. This production was a little rough getting going - from what I understand the (first-time) director had difficulty securing a performance space and ended up having to utilize a space other than what he wanted.  We ended up performing in a makeshift theatre in the round, which fit the material well enough.  The director also seemed to lack an overall vision - he appeared to know what he wanted to a few key sequences but the rest he seemed to be making up as he went along, which led to some confusion among the cast.  Thankfully, our actresses playing Helen and Anne were game from the jump and many of the supporting cast members had experience directing so with their help we were able to bring everything together into a satisfying show by opening night. It's really nice when a show goes from a mess to something fully formed, and the audiences really enjoyed it.