Review: BALL: A MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO MY LOST TESTICLE at Artistry

With a title like Ball: A Musical Tribute to My Lost Testicle, you probably have some idea of what you are getting yourself into. What you might not expect is just how funny, touching, and personal the show becomes.

Written and performed by Max Wojtanowicz, Ball tells the true story of his Stage 3 testicular cancer diagnosis in 2016 and everything that followed. Ten years later, Wojtanowicz is cancer-free and has brought the show back to the stage at Artistry.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the show was how comfortable Wojtanowicz is telling his story. He doesn't shy away from the awkward details, and there are definitely some stories that you probably wouldn't expect someone to share with a room full of strangers. That is also where a lot of the humor comes from.

And this show is funny.

You might not think cancer and comedy would go together particularly well, but here they do. Wojtanowicz finds humor in some of the strangest and most difficult things that happened to him without making the experience itself feel like a joke.

There are also moments when things become more serious. Those parts work because Wojtanowicz doesn't overdo them. He simply tells us what happened and lets the story speak for itself.

The songs, written by Andrew Cooke, Michael Gruber, and Jason Hansen, are mixed throughout the evening and give Wojtanowicz another way to tell different parts of his story. The music also keeps things moving and helps the show jump between comedy and some of its heavier moments.

I also really liked seeing this in Artistry's Black Box Theater. This is the kind of show that benefits from a smaller space. Wojtanowicz is right there with the audience, and it makes the whole thing feel much more casual and personal.

But what makes this particular run of Ball especially meaningful is the timing.

Wojtanowicz first performed the show in 2016. Now it is 2026, and he is celebrating ten years cancer-free. There is something pretty special about watching someone stand onstage and tell you about one of the scariest times in their life while already knowing that the person standing in front of you made it through.

Ball: A Musical Tribute to My Lost Testicle is certainly an unusual night at the theatre, but that's part of what makes it work. It's funny, it's honest, and it doesn't try to turn Wojtanowicz's experience into something bigger or more complicated than it needs to be.

Sometimes it's simply one person standing onstage telling you what happened to him.

And in this case, it's a story I'm glad Wojtanowicz is still here to tell.

Ball: A Musical Tribute to My Lost Testicle runs through September 20 at Artistry's Black Box Theater at the Bloomington Center for the Arts in Bloomington.

For more ticket and show information, please click the ticket link button below

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