Cold Planet Warm Heart World Premiere at the Crane Theatre

Cold Planet Warm Heart is a new musical from Daniel Pinkerton and Robert Elhai having it’s world premiere at the Crane Theatre. The Musical is staged by Fortune’s Fool Theatre of which Pinkerton is a co-producing Artistic Director along with his daughter, one of the actors in the show, Ariel Pinkerton. It’s a sweet little story about an alien who crash lands in Median Minnesota, which from the name we can assume is an average midwestern small town. The alien named Wubu is befriended by Andy a linguistics expert who has dropped out of her PHD program, lives in her Mother’s basement, and works as a Barista. Filled with touches of regional humor, sprinkled with Science-fiction easter eggs, and sporting a positive message it’s a low-fi sci-fi musical the whole family can enjoy.

Book and Lyrics are by Daniel Pinkerton with the music by Robert Elhai. The music has a toe tapping quality that keeps the proceedings up beat with a pop-rock vibe. Like many science fiction stories, Pinkerton’s script is clearly a commentary on our society with the outer space aliens taking the place of undocumented aliens. The show is staged as if it’s a pageant put on by the locals for tourists. Andy’s job is at Lagos Coffee and Tea run by Ifede who immigrated to the US from Africa twenty years ago with who she can practice her language skills. Her best friend is Sprocket who owns a local auto repair shop and not so secretly, pines for Andy and who’s with her when they witness Wubu’s spaceship crash. Andy quickly picks up on Wubu’s language which has a basis in musical notes. There is an ICE Agent who complicates matters adding the requisite drama and need for Wubu to find a way to escape.

The cast is good, but did feel slightly under rehearsed, possibly intentional to convey the idea of locals putting on a reenactment. There was one standout, Xan Mattek as Sprocket has a confidence, stage presence, and the voice best suited to her role. The entire cast does good work but most seemed to have moments where it seemed the singing was occasionally just out of their ideal range or they had over-taxed their vocals. It’s not bad, but there is a slightly discordant nature to it. Many of the cast play multiple roles, Fawn Wilderson for example plays Ifede and the Hockey Coach. Ifede is the deeper character and there are sweet moments of connection between her and Andy as they converse in her native tongue. Eryn Tvete plays Jerome K. Jerome the ICE agent and Mrs. Nelson, as Nelson she provides some fun MN humor, a bit of that exaggerated accent made famous by the film Fargo. Ariel Pinkerton plays Wubu which is a silent role as their musical language is provided by the band. Pinkerton uses her large expressive eyes and gift for body language to help communicate to the audience her characters feelings without the use of speech.

The band is a quartet made up of Musical Director Justin D. Cook conducting and on keyboards, Steve Cochran on Guitar, Brian Glenn on Drums and Percussion, and Joan Griffith on bass guitar and guitar. The costumes are by A. Emily Heaney, the highlight is Wubu’s costume which has extra appendages, it’s pretty cool looking though Director Jen Scott could have staged the production to show it off a little more effectively. Wubu’s translations are projected on the right side of the stage, which works well when they are on the right side of the stage where Andy’s Bedroom is located, but when they spend a scene in the Coffee shop on the left side of the stage, it’s a lot trickier to watch the action and read the subtitles. It would have been nice if they could have been on both sides of the stage or more centrally located.

Cold Planet Warm Heart runs through November 19th at the Crane Theatre in Minneapolis for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://tix.gobo.show/events/event/t6avXq60qef4G0GVZRx7

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