Fringe|Famous

YOU DID IT…LIVE! Yes, theatre summer camp has come to a...

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:44:00 -0500

YOU DID IT…LIVE!

Yes, theatre summer camp has come to a close (sadness). But we all learned a little something, right? We learned that if there is a Hell, it will be you constantly trying to get around on University Avenue. We learned that HUGE Theater is a thing that’s in our lives (thank god). And finally, we learned that FringeFamous is fucking brilliant. Yup, this year we correctly predicted nine of the top 15 best-selling shows (although, we only nailed the #1 and #3 shows - hey, we’re not perfect). Want to see the whole list? Ugh…fine.

Brain Fighters presented by Joking Envelope at U of M Rarig Center Thrust
7 (x1) Samurai presented by David Gaines Productions at U of M Rarig Center Proscenium
The Smothers Brothers Grimm presented by Comedy Suitcase at U of M Rarig Center Thrust
Red Resurrected presented by Isabel Nelson at Lab Theater
Minnesota Middle Finger presented by Ben San Del Presents at Theatre in the Round Players
Hamluke presented by the Nerdyad at U of M Rarig Center Arena
Fletcher & Zenobia Save the Circus (by Edward Gorey) presented by Live Action Set at Mill City Museum
Tempests presented by Tedious Brief Productions at U of M Rarig Center Thrust
Comedy = Tragedy + Someone Else presented by the Importance of Being Fotis at U of M Rarig Center Thrust
Knit One, Purl the Other presented by Unfold the Sky Productions at Theatre in the Round Players
Disney Dethroned: Snowcahontas and the Tangled FrogBeast presented by Tom Reed at Mixed Blood Theatre
Underneath the Lintel presented by Pat O’Brien’s Vanity Theatrics at U of M Rarig Center Arena
Buckets and Tap Shoes presented by 10 Foot 5 Productions at U of M Rarig Center Proscenium
Taiko Blast! presented by Mu Performing Arts at Mixed Blood Theatre
Balls Out! presented by Late Night Menu at Mixed Blood Theatre

The Fringe issued 48,350 tickets this year…which is an absolute shit ton. The Fringe issued an absolute shit ton of tickets last year, as well. So both years were basically the same. HOORAY!

2011 FRINGIES! Remember that thing where you voted for some...

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 02:36:36 -0500

2011 FRINGIES!

Remember that thing where you voted for some shows? Here is that.

Outstanding Family Show: The Smothers Brothers Grimm

Outstanding Spoken Word: Callahan and Lingo presents: The Last Ditch

Outstanding Solo Show: Underneath the Lintel

Outstanding Dance Show: Buckets and Tap Shoes

Outstanding Musical: History Camp

Outstanding Play: Tempests

Outstanding Performance (female): Adelin Phelps (Red Resurrected)

Outstanding Performance (male): Derek Lee Miller (Red Resurrected)

Outstanding Direction: Isabel Nelson (Red Resurrected)

Outstanding Production: Red Resurrected

And if you haven’t heard about this year’s Fringe Encore winners, go here and be enlightened.

God bless the Fringe.

THE 2011 FROT LIST

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 11:28:01 -0500

You’ve seen ‘em at Rarig. You’ve seen ‘em at HUGE. You’ve seen...

2011 FRINGIE NOMINIZZLES! Boom! Just like that, we’re...

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:17:00 -0500

2011 FRINGIE NOMINIZZLES!

Boom! Just like that, we’re almost done. Monday morning is going to make you feel sad…but until then, have a little fun and vote for your favorite Fringe show (until Sunday at 2am). Now remember: we obviously didn’t see every single show. And we didn’t review all the shows we saw. So, don’t get all up in our face about this shit, okay? Gawd!

More on Reviewing

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:29:00 -0500

Just in case you’ve missed it in the comments, Johnny and I are engaging in a discussion of reviews...

Hamluke If you fucking LOVE “Star Wars” and are...

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:55:23 -0500

Hamluke

If you fucking LOVE “Star Wars” and are somewhat familiar with Hamlet I’ll bet one million Fringe Bucks that you will die from a geek-induced orgasm of nerdosity no later than halfway through this show. Its premise is to hang Hamlet’s skeleton on a tree branch and have the entire Ewok nation hurl “Star Wars” jokes on it until said branch bows under the immense weight of as much as fifty Geoge Lucases. It’s not intelligent. It’s not even terribly clever. But it is fun. Even for this reviewer who hasn’t seen either source material in a good five years.

-Leigh-

Your Responsibility for Sex Failure Several people recommended...

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:50:54 -0500

Your Responsibility for Sex Failure

Several people recommended this show to me and I was totally looking forward to seeing a fun play about the ridiculous clichés, stereotypes, and ideas about sex in the 1950’s. Unfortunately, the show’s tone and style left me confused and annoyed. What makes plays of this genre successful are their innocence, naïveté, and honesty. None of this works as humor when it’s played as a hard melodrama with a shit-ton of mugging. There were some moments when I smiled and yes, even laughed, but there were so many opportunities lost in the writing and playing of it that could have made this show a monster hit. Anyone remember Commedia Beauregard’s Five Fifths of Romeo and Juliet? Those kids knew what they were doing.

-Leigh-

Nineteen Cows Leaving Beirut I love theater. Really. But...

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:47:01 -0500

Nineteen Cows Leaving Beirut

I love theater. Really. But sometimes I see shows that make my soul cry. This one came awfully close. A parody? Commentary? Satire? On the No Child Left Behind Act this play follows a struggling teen and the girl that, for some reason, loves him. Something happens to them…they get captured by the government or something. I don’t really know. All I remember is a violent ending whose profundity was completely unearned by the grade-school antics that drove the show up to that point.

-Leigh-

Animal FarmVille: A Friend Me, Like Me, Poke Me...

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:43:06 -0500

Animal FarmVille: A Friend Me, Like Me, Poke Me Musical

Disclaimer: I do not play Farmville, nor am I on Facebook or FourSquare or Twitter or Google+. I am probably the worst person to review this show. However, I believe that I can say with some authority that this was half-baked. The premise is fine; it’s a series of sketches that revolve around a war that breaks out between Mayors real and virtual over local turf. And while it’s certainly cute, I didn’t find it particularly clever. I mean, it’s sketch comedy, right? It’s not supposed to be well-written. But at the same time, it’s a real show with a great plot idea that simply comes up short. But, like so many other shows this year, I found that my fellow audience members enjoyed it much more than I. Even the senior citizens in the house were laughing at a few tech jokes which only made me feel even more like an uber-luddite that just crawled out from under my rock for my weekly dose of whatever. So they get an extra half-star for that. Also, you should know that while the cast can sing they are by no means singers. So just be prepared for that.

-Leigh-

The Great Midwestern Drug Circus I can’t really describe...

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:09:25 -0500

The Great Midwestern Drug Circus

I can’t really describe to you what this show is about other than it’s possibly the most unique fringe experience I’ve ever had. It’s honest and dark and wonderfully weird. While it’s not for everyone, it’s definately worth seeing and discussing post-show. Whatever your expectations are, forget about them and just come and see this show. There were only about 16 people in the audience the night I was there and 8 of them got in for free so please come support there guys. They deserve to make their money back.

-Ryan-

Robot Lincoln: The Revengeance (The Musical) I was going back...

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:53:00 -0500

Robot Lincoln: The Revengeance (The Musical)

I was going back and forth over whether or not to post a review for this show. I mean, I sat there and watched it. There were clever costumes and they had more props than Carrot Top and The Amazing Johnathan combined. But I couldn’t really concentrate on the actual show due to the astonishing amount of heckling coming from the audience. It was almost an entire row of what looked like college-aged dudes, some of whom were wearing Red Hamlet tees. Now, look…I have no idea who these people were. They could’ve been anyone. Hell, at one point I thought they were plants being utilized by the producers (I did find out later that this was not the case). Regardless of who they were, they absolutely ruined this performance for any of the other audience members who were actually trying to pay attention to the show…and are probably a little responsible for this 1-star review.

-Jay-

FLESH Nic Lincoln might be this year’s Joel Smith....

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:29:44 -0500

FLESH

Nic Lincoln might be this year’s Joel Smith. It’s been a while since a dude made my lady bits all warm and tingly, but seeing Mr. Lincoln’s near-perfect form in high heels and latex pants bent over on all fours and prancing around like a horse might have been the highlight of my day. Also, Ms. Ober is totally topless and moves around the stage like some sort of deer with a chromosomal abnormality. What were they doing? Oh, right. They were dancing. Yes…FLESH is a five-piece dance show curated(?) by Tamara Ober, the long-time Zenon member and PIPA creator (Fringe ‘09). It’s also a last-minute replacement show and though the pieces don’t really form a cohesive whole, it’s admirable that she’s able to pull this all together on a few weeks’ notice. The show is a veriety of modern dance and movement and while I didn’t love or even understand every piece there’s definitely something for everyone. Ms. Ober’s piece, as I mentioned before, is more abstract and unconventional, but it’s fascinating to watch a human being move in that way. But the most profound moments of the show belonged to Leslie O’Neil. Her bathtub transformation gave me chills and was one of the more raw and beautiful pieces I’ve seen in a while.

-Leigh-

Sousepaw: A Baseball Story You don’t need to like...

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:18:10 -0500

Sousepaw: A Baseball Story

You don’t need to like baseball to understand this play. It’s a well-crafted and ably-acted story about two desperate people who need each other to survive the night. If you arrive expecting to see a Traveling Treasure Trunk you’ll be disappointed. But what you will find is a good character-driven drama and a refreshing break from the clowns and innuendo. It’s a terrible fit for HUGE, which, I maintain is a terrible stage for the variety of shows that Fringe attracts, but nevertheless, they do the best they can and though it feels confined, the actors never feel trapped. Their characters on the other hand…

-Leigh-

Macbeth: The Video Game Remix If you play WOW or any sort of...

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:14:51 -0500

Macbeth: The Video Game Remix

If you play WOW or any sort of MMO, I’m willing to bet ten Fringe Bucks that you will love this show. If you haven’t played video games since your friends’ NES because your parents refused to buy you one for fear of your brain turning to mush like mine did, you’ll still appreciate the humor and plot. Its writing is better than I expected and while not perfectly acted, I got the feeling that these guys love gaming and love theater and what better way to combine the two but at Fringe. Also, Dawn Krosnowski can wear a costume.

-Leigh-

HOFF John Middleton made it…he fucking made it.

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:13:23 -0500

HOFF

John Middleton made it…he fucking made it.

Gaye's Just The Tip!

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:42:00 -0500

Guurl, guess what. There is a fab bar near the Lab. If you love yourself, you’ll go there. If you’re...

Is it just me, or is the 2011 Fringe super weird? There are no...

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:27:27 -0500

Is it just me, or is the 2011 Fringe super weird?

There are no great life-changing standout shows this year. Or there are fifty great life-changing standout shows this year. Most years after the first weekend, I have some sense of who is going to Win the Fringe. But this year there doesn’t seem to be a clear front-runner (I mean, aside from Joe Scrimshaw, who could sell out the proverbial reading of a phonebook if it was called “Joseph Scrimshaw Presents: The Entire Yellow Pages!”). Or maybe there are fifty front-runners. I’m having a hard time narrowing down the list of shows I want to see because I keep hearing buzz about EVERYTHING. Which means NOTHING.
What is up with the on-crack reviews coming from the bigger newspapers? I love that I live in a city where the Fringe Festival is a big enough deal that the mainstream press sends a team of journalists to cover it. But have these reviewers ever been to the Fringe Festival before? Like, even once? How can the same show get a “Must See!” review in one paper, and an “Avoid Like the Plague!” in another paper? Critics are allowed to have differing opinions, from each other and from me. But there doesn’t seem to be any standard against which critics are measuring Fringe shows. It’s like a free-for-all. It shouldn’t be this hard to figure out which Fringe shows are working, and which aren’t.
Why is everyone so angry about the pre-show announcements? I have heard so much bitter smack talk directed towards these announcements. The reason the pre-show speech exists is because morons keep leaving their phones on during shows, and chatting in the theater seats after the show is over like it’s the Southdale AMC. If you hate the pre-show announcements so much, you better be turning off your cell phone like a fucking champ. Just think of the pre-show like the safety spiel on an airplane, or the robot lady who explains how to leave a message after the beep as if you haven’t left eleven thousand voicemails in your life. Yeah, it’s mildly irritating if you see a lot of shows, but it’s not doing you any actual bodily harm.
WTF, Moto-i? True fact: I was never a huge fan of the Bedlam. The bartenders always ignored me, and the whole place smelled like sweaty bicyclists. But it was ours. During the month of August, it was all Fringe all the time at Bedlam, and I appreciated that. Southwest High School class of 1986? You suck. Why are you having your reunion at Moto-i on a Fringe night? I do not care about your retarded slideshow of past glories, and if you don’t move that fucking slideshow screen I am going to have to shove past it in a rude and slideshow-disruptive manner. Oh, wait, I just did. Fringe Central is where I get the lowdown on what to see, what to skip, what has partially-naked hotties in it, who has a surprisingly good singing voice, where the best new Fringe-adjacent food is (thanks, Gaye!), et cetera. Not to mention getting drunk and telling people what I really think of them and/or their show. But when I have to fight off a birthday party or a reunion or a stupid-confused bouncer from Moto-i, I can’t get any of this shit done.

-SWF-

The Day the Nineties Died I love the question “what is...

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 09:12:12 -0500

The Day the Nineties Died

I love the question “what is terrorism?” I love the debate between non-violent activism and militant activism, between the hippies and the Weather Underground, between Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. I love that the theater is a place where we can explore these philosophical differences, and I am pro-Political Theater.

But this was some bullshit.

The script was fine. Not amazing, but not horrible. The acting was fine – the performers were solid, but not so strong that they could make an OK script compelling. But I was with them, I was following them on their journey as they executed some left-wing organization’s plan to plant bombs in the building where the IMF and WTO were meeting, and I was right there with them when they came back to their hotel room after planting the bombs, turned on the television, and watched the events of September 11th, 2001, unfold. (This, by the way, is where the play should have started. This is the crux of the question the play is asking, and we only spent seven minutes on it.)

And then! We hear actual audio from a New York newscast on September 11, 2001. The newscaster’s shocked silence, the struggle to find words, the heartbreaking eyewitness interviews. And we watch our OK actors react to the news. Now, this should be an incredible moment, watching these people, who have just planted b0mbs under a building, react to what’s happening in Manhattan. But to play actual audio from that day is a cheap trick. Because we immediately stop caring about what you’re doing on stage. If you’re me, you’re smelling that burning smell that emanated from lower Manhattan for weeks after the attacks. If you’re me, you’re hearing sirens and fighter jets and helicopters and then a strange silence – New York is never silent.

That is some PTSD-triggering shit, and it’s a fucking cop-out. It would have been way more interesting to have no audio, and to just watch the actors react to the news. To let them show us, instead of tell us.

Better luck next time, guys.

-SWF-

How Do You See It? I saw it as a wonderful dance show. If you...

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:03:29 -0500

How Do You See It?

I saw it as a wonderful dance show. If you are a fan of dance, this is a great show to see. If you are not a fan of dance, this is a pretty good show to see. Every dancer in the show was amazing to watch. They were all very well trained performers and they all stood out with their own unique styles. If you have Fringe-tots in your group, I would caution that there is some strong language in the last half of the show. Some of the dances are choreographed to excerpts from Margaret Cho, Wanda Sykes and Lisa Landry. Also, everyone in the show is beautiful. I wanted a few of the guys to leap onto my face. Yup, I said it. Deal with it.

I give this show Four Gaye Golden Stars and Two Legs In The Air

-Gaye-

Entwined I love me some Amy Salloway. She is one of my...

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:59:00 -0500

Entwined

I love me some Amy Salloway. She is one of my favorites. This performance showcases what she does best. She is incredibly funny, and moving. I was with her from the very second she stepped on stage. The time flew by, and at the end of the hour, I wanted more. H.R. Britton is also amazing in this show. He holds his own with Amy. Their partnership on stage is near perfection. My only critique would be that Amy’s voice was a little too soft at times. If she had pumped her volume just a tiny bit, it would have been the perfect show.

I give this one Four-and-a-half Gaye Golden Stars.

-Gaye-