Mary’s Wondrous Body is billed as a dark comedy, the plot description reads like a comedy, it is not a comedy. I hate to disagree with the creators, there are definitely humorous moments and the situation devoid of the graphic details we are given certainly would support such an idea, but a comedy? No. So don’t book this for a laugh, you will better appreciate it’s intent if you go in knowing what to expect. What you get is a so bizarre it must be true type historical oddity told by an amazing cast. It’s dark, it’s difficult, there is some humor, but it’s intent is to shine a light on stories of the womb. Through this strange moment from the past, we are led to reflect on where we are in the world today in terms of reproductive rights. The more you understand about these dark ages of medicine as covered in this production, the more your reflect on the events of the last couple of years and you get a sense that the sun may be setting on the age of enlightenment, such as it is.

Written, produced and directed by Madeline Wall the production tells the story performance and song of Mary Toft who in 1726 after suffering a miscarriage stumped the the medical world by pretending to give birth to rabbits, or pieces of them at any rate. It was thought by some in the medical profession that it was the result of maternal impression which was the belief that the mother’s imagination could have a direct influence on how a baby formed in the womb. Yep, as I write, I hear how it sounds like a comedy. Mary’s mother-in-law Ann is the midwife and after the miscarriage she her daughter Mags, a neighbor who is in labor, and Mary all conspire to try and get some money from the nearby surgeon with the faked rabbit births. This is born not out of greed but a desire to eat and stay alive. Being in a family with the local midwife and living in a time before contraceptive products, much of these women’s lives revolve around having and raising children. And so we hear of miscarriages and infant deaths but they discuss these things matter of factly as women who deal with these things daily would. I repeat this is not a comedy. Wall’s script wisely doesn’t shy away from the graphic and earthy nature of their discussions. It is through these realities that the power of the play resides. In 1726, life was hard, particularly if you are a woman. Olive is faced with the fact that if her labor is quick and the baby is born that day that tomorrow she will need to be out working the fields. Mary and her family and friend actually think stuffing parts of dead rabbits inside of her in hopes of earning money from gullible physicians is a hardship worth going through with, because life is that hard in 1726. Dark comedy indeed.

Two performers don’t have very large parts, one is Nick Miller who has a couple of short scenes but is mostly there for musical accompaniment. The other is Caleb Wagner who plays Mary’s husband and has more scenes but isn’t given much to do. This is really the story of Mary, Ann, Mags and Olive and the show belongs to the actors playing those roles. All four are incredible, their voices in song power the way in which they move through the performance with commitment and purpose. Isabella Dunsieth is Mary who does the performance acrobatics of playing in character and then seamlessly coming in and out of something like a stand up comedy act, where she addresses the audience while holding a microphone. It’s a great technique to add a relatability to the performance and also to give us some much needed momentary distance from the hardness of the past. Sarah Broude is Ann, she plays her with a hardness that feels appropriate for the times, when being hard is how you kept yourself and your loved ones alive. Emily Rosenberg is Mags, they play the most sympathetic of the women, perhaps she is softer because she is younger. Rosenberg has been on my one to watch for awhile now and once again they reminded me why, towards the end of the show they have a moment of song that was beyond anything I’d seen or known they were capable of before. Laila Sahir plays Olive the neighbor who gets a brilliant little scene towards the end when she is faced with a little bit of survivors guilt when Mary returns from London and they have to address the rabbit in the room, that Olives child has lived whereas Mary’s died. Sahir plays that moment beautifully, for the first part of the scene her back was to me, when she turned around the power in the moment came flooding in with one look into her eyes.

In almost every respect this is an accomplished production, the cast is perfect and the script and musical moments are are powerful and beautiful. There are a couple of things that worked while also sort of not working. The space, when one performer was singing the acoustics were phenomenal, it was like hearing them all singing in the shower. But, when they were speaking and not facing towards you, a lot of the dialogue was lost, even more so when they were speaking over each other as they do at several points. The message and themes of the work are powerful, important, and relevant, but why on earth are you producing this at the holidays? This is a February show if ever I saw one. When I’m asked to recommend one show to someone this holiday season, as top notch as this production is, it isn’t going to be Mary’s Wondrous Body. This is the kind of show people should see, these are stories that need to be shared because they get us thinking about our world and what is happening around us. But it’s the time of year people want to see Christmas at the Local or one of the Christmas’s at Pemberley plays. I think the show will suffer unfairly from being released now, and maybe by hammering home the fact that it is not a comedy, I’ve contributed to that. But, I also want those who do attend to know what they are getting so they are in the right frame of mind to appreciate it. You should also be aware that the language is quite strong, it’s not an issue for most of us in this day and age but there are several uses of the “C” word for example, I think it’s effectively used, but for some that is one of the more offensive words in the english language and so better to know going in.

Mary’s Wonderous Body runs through December 18th at the Elision Playhouse for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://minnesotaplaylist.com/calendar/show/marys-wondrous-body

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To Subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. Also you can follow me on Facebook, search @thestagesofmn and click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers, you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. Follow that group, It’s a great way to see reviews for shows I don’t get to. We have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers follows us to be the first to know about those happenings.

Nimbus Presents: A Count Up to Christmas is simply good old fashioned silly fun. A parody of the Hallmark Channel’s annual Countdown to Christmas campaign wherein they air 742 Christmas themed movies based on 4 not dissimilar plots, but featuring characters with completely different names, living in differently named but identical looking towns. Look, this isn’t the show to see if you can only see one Christmas show and finances are not a concern. But if you’re looking for a show to take the whole family to, that’s fun and won’t break the strained holiday budget, this one would be hard to beat. A target primed to be lampooned, Nimbus pokes fun at these films without being cruel. Playing with the tropes so that we knowingly laugh along, and you will laugh out loud throughout this clever little show.

The story centers around Caroline, a lesbian marketing person from the city, who two weeks before Christmas is fired from her job and dumped by her fiance. Her assumedly gay best friend swoops in to try and cheer her up sending her off to the small town of Wannacutatree for a week of relaxation. But it turns out that Wannacutatree is in the midst of its own crisis, the annual Christmas Festival on which the local businesses depend is drastically under attended due to lack of funds for advertising. Caroline who has never seen, let alone driven in snow, ends up with her car in the ditch. To the rescue is Deputy Sheriff Buck Sterling who gives her a lift into town and introduces her to award-winning Gingerbread Baker and Innkeeper Mavis. Buck is frequently and inexplicably accompanied by the ultra precocious Reggie, he’s eight, who is not his son but has assisted the deputy sheriff in solving several murders. Frequently and startlingly popping up is Mayor Chase Nulty who looks to Buck to help solve the city’s crisis. The town businesses, all of which seem to be owned by Charlene Larch are desperate to save the Christmas Festival. On Caroline’s first day in the town, she comes across the bookstore owned by Casey who shares her taste in authors. Will Casey help the town solve their marketing crisis? Will she fall in love with one of the townspeople? Will she learn to embrace peppermint spice and sprinkles? How old is Reggie? He’s eight, but for the rest of the questions you’ll have to see the show to find out. Though if you’ve ever seen one of those Hallmark Channel’s Christmas movies you can probably guess the answers.

The script for A Count Up to Christmas is by company co-founder Josh Cragun and is filled with inspired comedic ideas. One of which is the periodic commercial breaks in the play proper where we get commercials for upcoming movies including a Twin Peaks parody featuring the Yule Log lady. It’s a fun script with a lot of elements that work but several that fall flat, though, most of those those have potential. For example, the Mayor has a habit of startling the other characters by his sudden appearance, not a bad idea but it needs to be reworked for greater effect. Likewise, the Mayors almost sinister insistence jolliness & holiday cheer, it’s an idea that’s played with but probably should have been developed further or cut all together. More could also have been made of the Charlene Larch character who owns seemingly every business in town. Though in that instance it feels as if a tweak to the performances could have played that up better. Most of these are the types of things that you only really get a sense of once you see a show up and running. It would be great to see Cragun take another pass at the script for a future run. If he does so, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to add more Reggie, he’s eight, particularly in the final quarter of the play when he seems to more or less disappear.

Speaking of Reggie, he’s eight, but played by the cherubic adult Alex Stokes, who completely steals the show out from under the leads. In a play filled with laughs, the loudest are always due to the performance of Stokes whose line delivery and reactions are comedic gold. When you have a character as hilariously well-written as Reggie, he’s eight, you have to have an actor with Stoke’s comedic gifts to cash in on it. The wrong performer could easily squander the potential, it has to be a hard role to cast and find the perfect tone for, luckily they found Stokes as he nails it. The cast in general is fine, there were a couple who seemed to barely have their lines memorized, and as such had no time to actually develop a character, leaving us with someone more or less just speaking lines so that we have the necessary information. Annick Dall, as Casey the bookstore owner, however was more than fine giving the most natural and winning performance. She generates enough small town charm and wisdom to create enough chemistry for both her character and Tara Lucchino’s Caroline to make you feel all warm inside and happy as their relationship develops.

I suspect that Director Liz Neerland would have loved another week’s worth of rehearsal. There’s so much that works here that it’s a shame the show has to settle for being “very good” when it has the potential to be “great”. But sometimes that’s the nature of theatre, we do the best we can with the time and resources we have and Neerland has done just that. Kudos as well to Scenic Designer Gaea Dill-D’Ascoli, this is certainly the most elaborate set I’ve seen yet at the Crane theater. One half of the stage is an indoor set that doubles for bookstore and the Inn. The other half is the outdoors complete with Christmas tree lot and sledding hill. The Sound Design is by Jacob M. Davis and Lighting Design by Jon Kirchhofer help set the mood and the tone. I recommend getting to the theater a little early in order to enjoy the fun Christmas songs chosen to play before the show begins. Also, don’t forget to pick up a bingo card and crayon on your way into the theater if you play along you could win a prize!

Nimbus Presents: A Count Up to Christmas runs through December 18th at the crane theater in Northeast Minneapolis for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://nimbustheatre.com/productions/count-up-to-christmas. I know I pointed out some flaws above but to be honest that’s only because the show is already good and that’s a potential to be even better. I had a lot of fun with this show and laughed an awful lot, I think you will as well.

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To Subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. Also you can follow me on Facebook, search @thestagesofmn and click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers, you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. Follow that group, It’s a great way to see reviews for shows I don’t get to. We have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers follows us to be the first to know about those happenings.

John Fenn’s play A Servant’s Christmas has been staged at History Theatre 16 times since it premiered in 1980. In 2004, Fenn worked with Composer Drew Jansen to create a new version of the play A Servant’s Christmas – A Holiday Musical. So in one form or another they’ve been sharing this story every 3 years or so over the last 42 years. This was the first play that retiring Artistic Director Ron Peluso directed for History Theatre and fittingly, it’s his last; it makes for a wonderful bookend to Peluso’s tenure. Oddly, this was my first exposure to the work and I found it charming. While this isn’t a particularly edgy piece, there is still a message to it and it’s one that sadly, is becoming more and more important to remind people of. I don’t want to touch on that message because it involves a plot point that we are not clued into until the second half of the story. While the story isn’t groundbreaking, it’s well told and the lively cast really involves the audience in the characters lives and situations. So much in fact that I was surprised to find tears in my eyes at the end.

Without giving away too much the basics of the story center around the Warner household one of the great homes on Summit Avenue in St Paul in December of 1899. The servants of the title are Frieda the Cook, the Butler Eric, Miss Pettingill the Governess, and the new maid/second girl, Monica Leary, who arrives to help lighten the load shortly after the play opens. Mr. Warner is a widower whose wife died in childbirth in recent years leaving him to raise his two surviving children Richmond and Anne. Mr Warner runs a strict household, somewhat reminiscent Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, his children complain that the only interactions he has with them involves their school work and their Bible study. Everyone in the house feels the absence of Mr Warner’s late wife Angelina. Most of the characters have a scene where we see them interacting with Angelina, not as an actual flashback and not as a ghost, but in a way that conveys to us that they are thinking of and missing her. The arrival of Monica somehow acts as a catalyst for change and this well-oiled household begins to break out of its rut, much to Mr. Warner’s dismay. We learn early on that Monica has a secret but we are not clued in to what that is and while perhaps it isn’t a spoiler, because it is covered in the promotional materials, I feel it’s a more enjoyable experience if you discover her secret during the play so I’m not going to reveal it here. The strength of play really isn’t in the plot details, it’s in the interactions between the characters and the relationships they develop.

Gary Briggle is Eric the wise Butler who runs the household, juggles the personalities, smooths the ruffled feathers, and plays surrogate father to everyone. Briggle is fantastic in the role, he has just the right tone with each of the other characters. You can see that he’s playing a different role with each them and it’s Briggle’s skill that what we see is Eric the Butler playing those different roles. He also acquits himself well with the songs, a particular favorite is the song “Where Did You Get That Hat?”. The song is performed with Norah Long as a famous actress Lillian, whom Eric knew when he was younger, and tread the boards back in England as a “promising juvenile”. Long enters the show rather late but certainly makes an impact. Doing wonderful character work is Cathleen Fuller as Frieda the cook from Deutschland, whose bark is worse than her bite. Monica is played by Serena Brook who doesn’t seem to really come alive as a character until after she stops hiding her secret which is nearly at the end of the show. Showing some real chops are two promising juveniles, Sullivan Cooper as Richmond Warner and Nicola Wahl as Anne Warner. One interesting casting note I actually suspected, that the role Lillian and that of Miss Pettingill played in fact by Jen Burleigh-Bentz was the same actress playing both roles. They never appear on stage together and Miss Pettingill wears glasses and is very prim and proper while Lillian has an elaborate hairstyle and is made up rather glamorously. Add to that not seeing them next to each other, they seem to be about the same height and size and their hair coloring is similar. I’m actually rather surprised that the actor doesn’t double in both roles and suspect other stagings have utilized that in order to save on resources.

The set is designed by Rick Polenek and it’s a rather elaborate set that turns 160 degrees on a giant turntable as the play opens. It’s tall, essentially becoming a three-story affair allowing for multiple different locations with lots of entrances and exits available. So, while we might not see the library we know it’s through these doors which adds a sense of space, it’s a great use of real estate. The music director is David Lohman who also plays the piano along with the only other musician Zelda Younger on the clarinet. It’s a decidedly Lo-Fi approach but it works. To be honest, I’m not sure this needs to be a musical. There are several musical moments that could stay in the show even if all of the others were cut out and I think that would work just fine. The show is long, at 2 hours and 40 minutes with an intermission and cutting some songs might help. I’d be interested to see the play version of the show or if that version has no singing in it. Perhaps a hybrid where we still get Monica’s traditional song at the end, Lillian’s solo song, and the song where Eric and Lillian perform “Where Did You Get That Hat?”, and maybe the children singing the song their mother taught them. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of the songs are fine, the opening number “Double Up” is actually quite fun, The song “Stereopticon” is a good idea for a song but somehow didn’t grab me like it should have.

A Servant’s Christmas – A Holiday Musical Runs through December 18th at history theater downtown Saint Paul for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.historytheatre.com/2022-2023/servants%E2%80%99-christmas

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To Subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. Also you can follow me on Facebook, search @thestagesofmn and click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers, you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. Follow that group, It’s a great way to see reviews for shows I don’t get to. We have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers follows us to be the first to know about those happenings.

I’ve seen some fabulous touring productions over the years, I’ve even seen this touring production of Les Misérables when it was at the Orpheum in 2018. I recall enjoying the that production and being particularly taken with the set design, but this time was different. Perhaps it was the cast or possibly not being in the balcony as I was last time, but instead down close and centered on the main floor. Whatever the reason, this time I was completely swept up and amazed by the overwhelming beauty of Les Misérables. A jaw droppingly gifted cast including homegrown actor Christine Heesun Hwang and featuring a production and lighting design that makes every scene look like a Rembrandt painting come to life. Inarguably one of the greatest musicals of the late 20th century, every note of music, every lyric is perfection. A powerful story, the message of which seems especially pertinent given the ever-increasing inequity in the distribution of wealth and the dispensation of Justice. For a show nearly three hours in length there is not a single moment that doesn’t drive the story forward or feel completely necessary. I’ve no idea why I was so stunned by this production for I knew what I was getting into, I’ve seen it before, yet somehow I was unprepared for the power and artistry that unfolded before me.

Les Misérables for the unfamiliar is a musical based on the novel by Victor Hugo with music by Claude-Michel Schonberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Set in France in the first half of the 19th century, Les Misérables tells the story Jean Valjean who after spending 19 years on the Chain Gang for stealing a loaf of bread is finally paroled. Finding himself free only to discover that no one will give him a chance at a fresh start. Beaten down and starving, he’s taken in by a Bishop, given food and a place to rest, but out of desperation he steals some silver. When he is caught and brought before the Bishop by the police, the Bishop lies to the police saying that the silver cups were gifts. Given this reprieve from being sent back to the Chain Gang, Jean Valjean breaks his parole and changes his name in order to start a new life. The story then moves eight years into the future where Jean Valjean has become a factory owner and the Mayor. In his Factory we meet Fantine, who is soon dismissed unfairly, beginning the downward spiral which results in her having to sell everything she can including her hair and her body to stay alive and to send money for her daughter Cosette’s care. When she fights back against a wealthy man who is abusing her, she is on the verge being taken to prison by Javert when Jean Valjean comes to a rescue and has her taken to the hospital instead. A chance accident with a cart causes Jean Valjean to rescue a man. His act of strength reminds the policeman Javert of his former prisoner Jean Valjean he tells the Mayor of the similarity and comments that Jean Valjean has just been arrested. Jean Valjean realizing if he doesn’t say something then an innocent man will pay for his crimes goes to the court and confesses. Before he is taken back into custody Jean Valjean promises Fantine on her deathbed that he will look after Cosette. Overpowering Javert, he escapes again. He goes and finds Cosette, who is living with the unscrupulous Thenardiers, an innkeeper, his wife, and their young daughter Eponine. After paying them off he and Cosette head out to make a new start. The story picks up nine years later in Paris where all of these characters along with a few new ones converge. Cosette falls in love with young student Marius whose in turn loved without his knowledge by Eponine. It’s a time of unrest in the city and a group of students seeing themselves as revolutionaries build a barricade to have a standoff with the authorities. All the key players come together and their fates are all intertwined. It all seems terribly complicated but somehow the story is quite easy to follow. It also all sounds terribly depressing but it isn’t, it’s uplifting, it’s powerful, it is wonderous.

The cast is nothing short of amazing Nick Cartell plays Jean Valjean with a vocal range equally astonishing in the deeper registers as he is in the upper. Powerful and passionate in the song “Who Am I?” where he contemplates whether to let the innocent man be tried in his place for his supposed crimes. Then, angelic in the higher pitched “Bring Him Home” where he sings to God to spare the life of Marius. I expected him to be pushing his voice to the limits but surprisingly it seemed perfectly within his range resulting in a tremendous round of applause from the audience. Everyone is of that quality in the cast. Haley Dortch as Fantine delivers one of the shows signature songs “I Dreamed a Dream” with all the tragedy and heartbreak of her character seeping into every line. The stand out (this was in my mind before I did my post show reading) was Christine Heesun Hwang as Eponine. Hwang, it turns out, is no stranger to Orpheum stage where as a student at Minnetonka High School she was part of Hennepin Theatre Trust Spotlight Showcase Program, winning Triple Threat her Junior year. It’s not hard to see why, if the character of Jean Valjean is the conscience of the show, Eponine is the heart. When she sings “On My Own” it veers towards a misstep as we genuinely find ourselves hoping that she will get together with Marius as opposed to Cosette. Vocally and performance-wise Hwang is as good as any performer I’ve seen on the Orpheum stage and better than most. Devin Archer is grand as the leader of the students, rousing the them stoking their anger at injustice. Hayden Tee is suitably dogged as Javert and gets one of the biggest moments of audience amazement in his final scene, which I will not spoil, but will say I gasped in wonder. Matt Crowle and Christina Rose Hall play the scheming M. and Mme Thenardier adding some well timed and much appreciated comic relief.

Not only does this show contain one of the most talented casts I’ve seen in one show but its production design including everything from the sets, the lighting, projections, and costumes creates one of the most beautiful looking shows I’ve ever seen. On one side of the stage there’s a doorway, on the other side there’s an a Stone Archway, those elements remain constant. Throughout the play those sides Push out to varying degrees and somehow these two openings come to look like completely new structures. It is a fascinatingly versatile set. It’s large and impressive solid-looking and yet, it seems to flow and change and reconfigure fluidly. Set and image design is by Matt Kinley they’re inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo. Paule Constable is the lighting designer and he doesn’t just direct and point lights he seems to paint with light. There’s such a melding of physical set design and lighting in this show and it is through this marriage of these two art forms that this painterly aesthetic it’s achieved. And yes, when the set and the lighting design look this good it is absolutely an art form. Having just seen some of the least successful bigger scale projection use last weekend at the Ordway, the projection is this show realized by Finn Ross and Fifty-Nine Productions was a reminder how well it can be used. This is a judicious use a projection that effectively enhances the environment and created some breathtaking illusions.

Les Misérables runs through December 18th at the Orpheum Theatre in Downtown Minneapolis As part of the 2022 – 2023 Bank of America Broadway on Hennepin season. For more information and to get tickets go to https://hennepintheatretrust.org/events/les-miserables-broadway-tickets-minneapolis-2022/ A word of warning if you are one of those folks who can’t seem to be in your theater seats when the show begins prepare to wait in the lobby until an approved late seating interval. From what I’ve heard the production enforces some fairly strict policies in this regard. Frankly if you can’t be on time I don’t care if you miss 15 minutes of the show, but I do feel sorry for the people you disrupt when you are allowed to take your seat.

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To Subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. Also you can follow me on Facebook, search @thestagesofmn and click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers, you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. Follow that group, It’s a great way to see reviews for shows I don’t get to. We have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers follows us to be the first to know about those happenings.

The Ordway’s own production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast the Broadway Musical opened this last weekend and it is a splendid looking show to be sure. The set design is wonderful as are most of the elements of the production. With a cast filled with local favorites, this homegrown production is something the Ordway should feel proud of. Fans of the classic Disney film will enjoy seeing these characters brought the live-action life. Though a little long for young children it should appeal to fans age 10 and up, with the spectacle of the show holding their interest over its two and a half hour runtime. While I admired the show production values and many of the individual performances, I am aware that I am not the target audience for the show.

Based on the 1991 Disney film which was nominated for Best Picture and featuring songs by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, the Broadway version has several new songs with lyrics by Tim Rice. The book for the musical is written by Linda woolverton and is relatively faithful to the film with a few slight alterations, due to the inability to recreate certain aspects. Lori is a classic fairy tale of a young prince was transformed by a curse into a beast as are all of his servants who are transformed into objects. The curse can only be lifted if the Beast finds true love. Enter Belle who agrees to take the place of her trespassing inventor father Maurice and become the Beast prisoner. The servants led by Cogsworth, Lumiere, and Mrs. Potts attempt to get the Beast and Belle to fall in love and thus break the spell. But finding true love is not the only obstacle placed in front of the Beast and Belle, there is also interference from the village conceited heartthrob Gaston who with the help of his sidekick Lefou, plans to marry Belle himself against her wishes.

Leading the cast are Rajane Katurah as Belle and Nathaniel Hackmann as the Beast. At first I wasn’t sure that Katurah had the voice for Belle, the first songs didn’t seem to have the power behind them necessary but by the end, she had won me over. Hackman at times had trouble making every word heard but for the most part he was solid as well. Where the cast really shines is in the supporting performers filled with such local favorites as Max Wojtanowicz, Phillip Taratula, Rush Benson, Jamecia Bennett, and T. Mychael Rambo. Wojtanowicz as Lumiere and Taratula as Cogsworth, are a particular joy especially when they’re playing off of each other. Much of the show’s comic relief comes from their interactions and reactions. An equal share of the comedic fun comes from import Reagan Featherstone’s portrayal as Gaston which seems stepped right out of the animated classic onto the stage. You can almost see his teeth Sparkle when he smiles and like the above pair, his interactions with Benson’s Lefou are priceless. Jamecia Bennett’s portrayal of Mrs. Potts, particularly her rendition of the song Beauty and the Beast, is a little different take but had a soulful tweak that I found very appealing.

The production is directed by Michael Heitzman with music supervision by David Holcenberg and choreography by Robbie Roby. I have not seen Beauty and the Beast the Broadway Musical produced on stage previously. I have a few reservations about changes made from the film but they may be inherent in the original production which the Ordway probably doesn’t have the authority to change. One of these issues is that the end when the villagers storm the castle, rather than having a battle with the enchanted servants they simply disappear and are never seen again. One wonders if the villagers and servants interaction was going to be cut and the only action shown was Gaston’s battle with the Beast, why they simply just didn’t have Gaston come to the castle on his own. The scenic and projection design are by Adam Koch and Steven Royal, the set design is amazing. It’s basically a three-story set of the Beast’s Castle. What is really effective and certainly owes something to the lighting design by Cory Pattak, is how effectively when the scene changes to something like the village, to some extent the castle disappears into the background and their focus is entirely on this new location. What didn’t work as well for me was the use of projection. The back wall is a screen, on which various backdrops are projected. This can sometimes be an effective way to change the location and at times it works well here but the quality is inconsistent. There are times when it’s used to give us a sense of movement but it’s not well choreographed with the action on stage and just takes us out of the story. It also alternates between styles, at times it fits with the overall design and its animation roots, but at other times it looks like bad video game computer animation from the 90’s, the look is just too inconsistent. Highmark’s go unreservedly to the costume designs by Ryan Moller and hair, wig, and make up designs by Bobbie Zlotnik.

Beauty and the Beast runs through December 31st at the Ordway in St. Paul. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://ordway.org/events/beauty-and-the-beast.

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To Subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. Also you can follow me on Facebook, search @thestagesofmn and click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers, you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. Follow that group, It’s a great way to see reviews for shows I don’t get to. We have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers follows us to be the first to know about those happenings.

Christmas at the Local, you had me at Fairytale of New York. I know I’m not alone, because my wife agrees, but I was disappointed that Theater Latté Da’s home grown Christmas musical All is Calm was out on tour this year and would not be performed in the Twin Cities. Theater Latté Da you are forgiven, it is now my sincere hope that All is Calm will be absent from the theater’s stage every other year so that it can play in rotation with Christmas at the Local. In a theater holiday season filled with “must see” productions, Christmas at the Local raises the bar and becomes “the must see show.” Nostalgically reminding us of Christmases of the past while sending a message of peace for today and the future. Filled entirely of music, prose and poetry, there is no narrative among the characters on stage but that which we the audience project on them. All we are given, indeed all we need, are eight performers who gather at The Local, pull out their instruments and play and sing songs for one another and share a story and a poem. Gathering in a way that is familiar from our collective youths and yet so foreign to us now. It makes one long for the days when we uninhibitedly sang Christmas Carols around the tree and gathered with the aunties and uncles, cousins and family friends to celebrate en masse. More a gathering in a local bar listening to local musicians than a musical, more a feeling of sitting in a family room sharing stories then a poetry or spoken word recietal. It’s hard to describe the completeness one feels at this performance which is so simple, yet so perfect.

Christmas at the Local features songs from the likes of Paul Simon, Shane Mac-Gowan and Joni Mitchell as well as traditional Welsh songs. The eight performers including among them Jason Hansen, who is also the Music Director and arranged and orchestrated all of the music, play all of the music on stage and several play multiple instruments. It’s like hitting the right bar on open mic night where everyone is fantastic and joins in with one another. The show also features a telling of A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas with music composed by Cerys Matthews and Mason Neely. It was a version of this composition by Matthews and Neely on MPR radio that sparked the idea for Christmas at the Local with Theater Latté Da’s artistic Director Peter Rothstein. Originally slated to debut in 2020, the Pandemic caused the delay but also inspired the inclusion of the poem “The Longing for Amazing Peace” by Dr. Maya Angelou with music by Chastity Brown. The spoken word pieces are performed by the entire cast with the Proprietor of the Local played by Joy Dolo featured most prominently.

When you have a cast of eight and they are all perfect it’s hard to know what to say other than then entire ensemble is brilliant. So let’s start with Joy Dolo, who appears to be the least musically gifted member of the cast as the instruments she plays are the triangle and a couple of other moments of percussion whereas the rest of the cast are playing violins, guitars, horn, pianos, accordions among others. Now to be fair she is serving drinks and handing out candies and when it’s her turn to sing, she proves that you don’t have to play an instrument to be musically gifted. But where Dolo shines is when it comes to the spoken word performances. Taking the lead as the main narrator of A Child’s Christmas in Wales, she is wonderfully expressive sucking you into the humor and beauty of Dylan Thomas’ perfectly chosen words. Playful but not childish, it’s perfectly calibrated, changing tones from sentence to sentence; at times a wistful remembrance, at other times a riotous tale of childhood mischief. At the start of the show it feels like Dolo is there as a support, to keep the glasses full and lend her voice to the chorus, by the end it’s clear she is the heart and soul of the production. I first noticed Dolo last year at Jungle Theater’s production of Every Brilliant Thing, add this performance to the list of brilliant things.

The entire cast is fantastic, it’s an embarrassment of riches to be sure. Phinehas Bynum an alum of All Is Calm is on keys and has a nice supporting role in the Thomas piece as the narrator’s friend. Bradley Greenwald must feel right at home as this feels reminiscent of his own show The Longest Night, also a mixture of spoken words and music, his rich voice and baritone horn are a perfect compliment. Matt Riehle who came to my attention in Latté Da’s production of Once is once again here with guitar in hand and I loved his appropriately sanitized version “Fairytale of New York.” Rounding out the cast are Spencer Chandler on Accordion, Elizabeth Reese on Flute/Saxophone, Quinn Shadko on Violin, and of course as mentioned above Jason Hansen on a multitude of instruments including the Mandolin. All sing beautifully, particularly angelic are Reese and Shadko whose voices complement each other nicely. I also want to highlight the Scenic Designer Benjamin Olsen, whose set for The Local is one of the best I’ve ever seen. He has perfectly created the neighborhood haunt of our collective imagination, the place where everyone knows your name, where stories told are for all to share in, and everyone joins in the singing of songs. The set is recognizably a present day location while simultaneously feeling like it could have existed 50 years ago exactly as it is. It adds to the timelessness on the entire production

Christmas at the Local will transport you to an idyllic world. Where the Christmases of our remembered, with advantages, past seem like yesterday and there is a place we can gather together. A place where we all sing well and speak eloquently of peace and good will to all. The show runs through January 1st, for more information and to purchase tickets got to https://www.latteda.org/christmas-at-the-local

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To Subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. Also you can follow me on Facebook, search @thestagesofmn and click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers, you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. Follow that group, It’s a great way to see reviews for shows I don’t get to. We have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers follows us to be the first to know about those happenings.

Two weeks ago this very night I attended the opening night of the Guthrie Theater’s annual production of A Christmas Carol and enjoyed it thoroughly. Tonight I attended a new adaptation Christmas Carol A Ghost Story presented by Wayward Theatre Company and staged throughout the James J. Hill House. I surprisingly have to give the edge to this new staging. Maybe it’s a familiarity of the Guthrie’s production, it’s relatively unchanged from last year, or maybe it’s just the more intimate and altogether spookier take on the tale that Wayward has created. The fact is you cannot go wrong with either, they are both faithful tellings of a story so well constructed that no matter how many times we experience it we always come back for more. The uniqueness of this staging is that we move throughout the grand mansion from room to room, up and down staircases, experiencing the story in a more immersive way. This is the third of Wayward’s James J. Hill House staged production I have seen, I enjoyed each one, but this one surpasses both Hamlet and Macbeth. This is truly an outstanding experience and I urge everyone to get your tickets now, this show is selling out fast.

I’m not going to bore you with a synopsis of A Christmas Carol, the odds that one of the 37 people in Minnesota who don’t know the plot are reading this seems miniscule. I will instead touch on the emphasis and interesting touches that writer and director Sarah Nargang has brought out. First off, this is a very faithful adaptation but wasn’t sure when it began with a very brief scene that had a sort of music hall broad comedy feel to it. But that opening scene is designed I think to subvert our expectations as well as allow for any late comers or delays that might have occurred depending on which start time you are attending. Probably should clarify that, there are three start times each evening 7:00 PM, 7:30 PM, and 8:00 PM, each start time has a different cast in the three main roles of Scrooge, Cratchit, and Fred. The production is timed so that as one audience moves throughout the house and another is 30 minutes behind them. Aside from the main three characters the other actors can simply stay where they are and wait for the next audience to appear. I attended the 7:30 PM start time and I never saw any sign of the audience ahead or behind me. The planning that must have gone into the logistics of this production are sort of mindblowing, There is at least one room that we visit twice and is reset between visits, which must be redone three times a night. Nargang definitely leans into the “Ghost” or spooky aspects of the tale, not so much in script but in the look and mood of the piece. There is also a subtle emphasis on the concept of time, there are a few words added to dialogue that just slightly adjust how we look at Scrooge’s journey with the three ghosts. One touch that shouldn’t work is the use of the song “Time in a Bottle“, I say shouldn’t, but it plays wonderfully and feels perfectly natural despite being an anachronism.

My cast was led by Lolly Foy as Scrooge, she recently impressed me at DalekoArts in another spooky little play called The Thin Place. Miss Foy’s performance proved one thing, when it comes to Scrooge you need to cast the right person, not the right man. There is no gender swap in the role, it’s still Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge, she’s great in the role and after the initial realization, I never thought about it again – to quote Bill Murray in Meatballs “It just doesn’t matter”. Luke Aaron Davidson was our Bob Cratchit who initially functions as our entry into the story segwaying between the comic opening in an employment office to Scrooge’s place of business and the start of the story proper. In said place of business, we meet the other performer who is unique to our start time Michael Quadrozzi as Scrooge’s nephew Fred. All three, indeed the entire cast nail the difficult task of performing naturally in such intimate spaces. On top of that they are several sections where they need to sing and everytime the sound was exquisite. There is a scene towards the end where Scrooge’s sister Fanny played by Abigail Walker begins to sing “Auld Lang Syne” that is so beautiful that I felt transported to another plane of existence such as the one her character long deceased was singing from. Daniel Vopava as the Ghost of Christmas Past was tremendous, there was something about him, maybe it was the scottish burr or the costume or the way he carried himself, but I was reminded of Alastair Sim (my personal favorite film Scrooge) as the Headmistress of St. Trinian’s.

What is most astonishing is how technically solid a show this is given that it is staged in an old mansion that is now a museum. The production design by Justin Hooper is nothing short of amazing. Easy enough to let the structure itself do the heavy lifting, but it just takes a moment to look around each set up and realize how much goes into creating what is needed for each space and the requirement of each scene. The costumes designed by Rhiannon Fiskradatz were top notch, Particularly effective where the various Ghost costumes, my favorite being the above mentioned Ghost of Christmas Past. Rounding out the look and feel of the production were the various props assembled by Teri Ristow, the lighting design by Jake Otto and the sound design by Pete Kivdera. This is one of those productions where everything works perfectly together creating a unified feel and atmosphere.

As I said at the top the tickets are selling fast for this production and the reason is because it is a unique and rewarding take of a holiday favorite, if you see only one A Christmas Carol adaptation this year, it should be this one. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.waywardtheatre.org/

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To Subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. Also you can follow me on Facebook, search @thestagesofmn and click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers, you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. Follow that group, It’s a great way to see reviews for shows I don’t get to. We have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers follows us to be the first to know about those happenings.