Posts tagged with ‘2011 reviews’
Combining the movie Alien with Shakespeare’s The Tempest, is already kind of a confusing idea. Notice, I didn’t say original idea. Going even further to actually combine Alien with a sequel to The Tempest, which isn’t an actual play is even more confusing. Notice, I didn’t say original. Why, oh why do people think we need yet another Shakespeare slash fill in the blank show? We don’t. In fact, I’m willing to bet that someone will do a show next year called, Re-imagined Shakespeare Show…The Musical. I know it’s not fair, but I went into this show prepared to be bored and annoyed. I wasn’t annoyed. In fact, I was pretty impressed with the interesting blocking. The cast did some really cool tricks to portray Ariel, the “Alien.” I was a little bit bored. Mostly because, as I said, this isn’t something we haven’t seen already. The production team did a fine job melding the two stories. But at this point in the game, if you are going to take on a project like this, you better do a brilliant job. Especially when you note in the program how much money you got in donations to produce this show. If this whole Shakespeare mash-up thing is here to stay, I’m going to need to be blown…away.
While my away wasn’t blown, I did think there were a couple of delightful performers; Katie Willer, Ben Tallen and Jane Froiland.
I give this show Three Gaye Golden Stars and One Leg in the Air.
Camelot is Crumbling: An Arthurian Nightmare
Listen, I don’t know what phillip andrew bennet low does. Is it storytelling? Is it spoken word? Sometimes it sounds like slam poetry, sometimes like epic verse, sometimes like nothing else on the planet. Sometimes it sounds like the inside of low’s head which he’s spitting forth, desperately seeking some sense in the jumble of words.
I don’t know what low does, but I’m obsessed with it. Because it seems like he’s seeking desperately for the truth, and I can get behind that. This year’s show is messier than last year’s. Like, literally the stage is messier and full of props and set pieces that I didn’t think needed to be there, and there is this weird voiceover thing going on, but the whole performance feels like part of a longer journey. Feels like part of a larger picture. Feels like part of a question – one of those questions that’s so big that the hardest part of answering the question is formulating exactly what the question is.
This show is not for everyone – in fact, I don’t know who it’s for, really, and I don’t know if low knows who he’s writing for, except himself. But he’s not writing for himself in a selfish way, he’s writing for himself, and then sharing it with us in hopes that we can help him along the path. Because we’re on the path, too, whatever the path is. The path for truth? For philosophical enlightenment? For mutual understanding? Any of those. All of those.
I liked this. I did. But, I think the world is too easy on mimes. (Never in my life did I think that sentence would come out of me…) This show got a Standing O yesterday, and granted David Gaines is a great performer and works really hard for 55 minutes, but…I think a lot of the audience had never seen a mime show before. In fact, I heard someone say “I’ve never seen anything like that before!” And as someone who has had multiple friends go through clown school (don’t ask), and who has seen a fair bit of clown and mime, I have to say I think it’s kind of unfair that a solid performance benefited from the audience’s ignorance to earn a Standing O, rather than a stellar out-of-this-world performance earning it the old fashioned way. Which, as I’m sure you’ll point out in the comments, is more the audience’s fault than Gaines’.
The show is basically a one-man version of the epic Seven Samurai, and each of the Samurai are clearly recognizable characters with individualized fighting skills, marching gait, and way of seeing. I had fun meeting each of them. Only, sometimes the battle scenes are a little imprecise (wait, what just hit him in the head? Is that the sleeping Samurai or the star-throwing one?), and the pacing kind of drags in the middle. This show has toured several Fringe festivals, so it’s not like Gaines hasn’t had time to fine-tune it. This is what I mean about audiences being too easy on mimes – if we’re impressed with most of your show, we’ll overlook the messier parts, because holy crap, mime! There aren’t even any props! You just show us with your body what’s happening! Holy shit, mimes!!!!!!
Having said all that, I am in awe of how articulate a person can be just with their body. Gaines is an experienced and skilled performer, and this show is definitely worth seeing (especially if you’ve never seen a mime show – it may blow your mind).
Comedy = Tragedy + Someone Else
Mike Fotis put a twist on his usual sit-at-a-desk-and-read-stories Fringe show by cleverly using a juggling group called The Danger Committee (you may have recently seen them on America’s Got Talent), headed up by Brave New Workshop artistic director Caleb McEwen.
If it sounds a bit cheesy, you can relax; it’s not. The two groups (Fotis and TDC) work together wonderfully. The night I saw it, the entire bottom section of the Rarig Thrust was full and every single person was consistently laughing, and laughing hard.
Wondering what to bring your non-theatrey friend from work to? Congratulations. Your search is over.
Blue Water Theatre Company of Plymouth has a mission statement: to build and sustain a theatre community that will provide young actors with opportunities to perform, learn, and experience theatre that is important, meaningful, and life-changing.
This show is not important or meaningful, and it certainly didn’t seem life-changing. However, I opened my eyes several times to see if people were still on stage, and the kids did seem to be enjoying themselves.
There was no program, and there’s no cast/crew info listed on the website…so I’m just going to hope this show was directed by a child, as well.
Once Upon a Time in the Suburbs
This was probably the show I was most excited for prior to Fringe. After last year’s fantastic Ferrari McSpeedy show Speech!, I was ready and willing to take anything these guys were ready and willing to dish out.
The quirky western script is jam-packed with fun bits and gut-busting one-liners. The fact that the show includes six hilarious female performers is reason enough to get your ass there (Katy McEwen…there are no words). Funny ladies don’t usually get their fair shake on stage, so it’s really nice to see here.
Once Upon a Time in the Suburbs isn’t as strong as Speech! was…but that’s kind of like saying Dunkin’ Donuts aren’t as good as Krispy Kremes; they’re both delicious donuts, so stop whining and eat them, you fat fuck.
This show is Reginald Edmund’s twisted love letter to the Twin Cities, and I really liked it. Edmund is a bona fide up-and-coming playwright (I will resist the catch-all “emerging”, but “up-and-coming” maybe doesn’t convey the clever, quick, funny, thoughtful writing – Edmund is clearly a master of the craft), and Jay Dub is a local legend, and that writer-director pairing is really successful.
The show gets off to a slow start with a ghost-ish story about a couple lost somewhere near the river at St. Anthony-Main. The actors are great to watch, even when the material drags (Darius Dotch is especially great), but the show gets better as the pace picks up.
The second vignette, about a St. Paul sculptor trying to find her creative mojo after losing her wife in the 35W bridge collapse, was the stronger of the two. JoNae Villeneuve and Adam Western have a great rapport as the sculptor and her agent, and the sense of creepy almost-magical-realism that has a slow burn in the first short play appears with a jolt in the second piece.
Totally worth seeing, especially since it’s at the Rarig and whatever else you were trying to see there is probably going to sell out. Let’s give this playwright some love.
It’s really too bad. The performers were SO prepared. I mean, they knew this show inside and out; every dance, every line, everything. And that’s rare for a Fringe opening. There’s usually a stumble or two.
Unfortunately, all that preparation was for one gigantic turd of a musical.
The songs - although not terrible…I guess - were about the most inane things. The opening number was over ten minutes long and included such amazing topics as “what’s an emu” and “I own a bike”.
If I have to pick one, the saving grace was the fact that Andi Cheney is a pretty funny performer (even though I doubt she’ll have a voice left after one more performance - she screams 80% of her lines) and Sarah Frazier will probably land on the Frot List.
Alright boyz and girlz, let’s be honest. I went to see this show because I knew it contained my favorite things: boys in a locker room wearing only a towel, and singing. It’s like Glee, only naked. Now, let’s get real. I didn’t love this show. Let’s start with what I liked. The singing was good. The harmonies were fun, and the cast worked great together as an ensemble. Jordan Roll was especially fantastic. Not only do I want to trick him into sleeping with me, but he was maybe the best singer in the group, and he was certainly the strongest entertainer. Here’s what I didn’t love. The gimmick was pretty much used up after the first number. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but…it wasn’t necessary for them to be in towels the whole time. It would have helped some of the other songs, especially “Alpha Male” and “The Scare”, if the ensemble pulled us into different scenes with actual costumes. My biggest problem with the show was the length of the songs. Every song in the show, with the exception of “The Boobie Song”, was about a hundred years too long. Each song had literally five or six verses, at least. That’s too many. The joke is old after the second verse.
Though I didn’t love the production…I did think the cast was very talented, and very naked.
I give this show 3 Gaye Golden Stars and both legs in the air.
I’ve seen a handful of shows from this group and I’m usually very impressed with their work. This show was pretty good. But it wasn’t what I expected from them. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see a talented group of kids, write, direct and perform in their own show. However, this group could have benefited from a little more guidance from more experienced producers. The show was at its best when the cast was working as one unit, moving the set pieces around and telling the story with one clear voice. It tended to lose its way a bit in between the bigger scenes. I think this show could be really great with some better editing. There were way too many side bars in the show that distracted from the main plot. The show should have either ditched the main plot and just had a cabaret of funny auto-corrected scenes, or it should have ditched all the random extra stuff and stuck with the main plot. At the end of the day, this is a fun idea, but I’ve seen much better from this group.
I give this show 2 Gaye gold Stars.
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