It was just a little over three years ago, March 14th 2020 to be exact, I was sitting in the Mixed Blood Theatre, probably in the same seat I was in tonight. I saw Interstate the Musical for the third and final time before it closed early due to the Pandemic. Faithful followers will know that I see a lot of theater, and my schedule doesn’t really allow for me to see things more than once. I did something I’ve never done before, and havent done since, I cancelled reviewing another show in order to see Interstate for a third time knowing it was going to be the final performance. You see, Interstate the Musical spoke to me, it’s in my top five favorite musicals of all time. A big part of that are the songs which were written by Melissa Li. Li is also the writer of the music and lyrics for Again which I attended on opening night of Theater Mu’s world premiere. Next Thursday April 6th is my Birthday, I think what I want for my birthday this year is to see Again, again.

The book and additional lyrics are by Katie Ka Vang who has a long association with Theater Mu. A cancer survivor herself, Vang has clearly drawn on her personal experience battling the disease. Again is the the story of two artists who are both cancer survivors. Mai See is a writer whose book, The Cancer Year, is a memoir of her battle with cancer. Quest is a filmmaker who at 20 has been living with chronic cancer for years. Mai See’s book has been a inspiration to Quest who wants to make a documentary about her. Mai See, reluctantly agrees, partly because Quest offers to pay her $700. As the documentary is being made Mai discovers her cancer is back. Throughout the show we will learn about the long term and short term side effects of cancer treatment. We also learn about the two women and their families, Quest has a mother, whom we never see but has had a lasting effect on her. Mai’s sister doesn’t return her calls, we will see her throughout the play. Frankly, a musical about cancer with such broken family relationships has no business being as funny and heartwarming as this is. Vang’s gift is in creating characters, despite having to deal with difficult things, also finds the humor in life. Constipation for example can be a painful side effect of chemotherapy, Vangs characters deal with it in a very real way so that we who haven’t dealt with it get an understanding of what it’s like. And then, there’s a song that Mai sings while sitting on the toilet that has the entire audience laughing out loud. It’s these explorations of the intersection between pain and humor that make the characters and situations relatable. The other aspect is the fact that none of the characters are perfect, they all have flaws, they all struggle at times which makes them feel real and helps to create empathy for them. It wasn’t long into the show before I had those pesky teardrops crawling down my cheeks.

Melissa Li proves once again that she is one of the best songwriters working in contemporary musical theater. Geared heavily in the pop/rock tradition for most of the songs we also get tastes of other genres. The song “Santorini” feels like an homage to a classic musical like South Pacific. Whereas “The Messenger” had touches of a Disney animated musical, both in the best ways possible. Li has a real strength in writing songs that reveal the characters to us, we fall in love with the character of Quest in the song “Quest” learning so much about her through it’s lyrics and the style of the song. “Lifeboat”sung by Shia, Mai See’s sister, is a brilliant reveal of Shia’s feelings about Mai and the reason for their estrangement. She also writes wickedly clever lyrics that are massively entertaining in such songs as “Constipation” and “Are You Fucking Kidding Me?”. Once again as was the case with Interstate the Musical what we desperately want after the show ends is a cast recording album to listen to on the way home. There is not a throw away song in the entire show, and that’s a surprisingly rare thing. Most classic musicals have a at least a song or two that we all skip past while listening to them in the car.

For a musical it has a surprisingly small cast, there are only four actors. Melody Her is making her professional stage debut as Quest. This was my favorite performance, she sells Quest from her first moments on stage and before the end of her first scene the tears had started, which is weird because she’s such a positive and funny and infectious character. It’s those attributes that make you take an immediate liking to her and when you hear some of the struggles she’s faced your heart breaks for this girl who refuses to pity herself. It’s a remarkably engaging character and Melody Her is an enormously appealing performer whom I cannot wait to see what she does next. Aaron Komo returns to the stage after a seven year hiatus playing multiple roles, such as Broc the owner of the Bookstore where Mai works, and the Doctor who tells her the cancer has returned. he’s good in every part but the favorites are his roles in fantasy or dream sequences in songs like the aforementioned “Santorini” and “The Messenger”. Pagnia Xiong is Shia, Mai’s sister and, nothing against the two leads, but she is by far the best vocalist in the show, with oddly enough Komo taking second place. Xiong has focused primarily on music over the last two decades but her performance dramatically would make you assume she’d been acting nonstop. Dexieng “Dae” Yang is Mai See and the only performer I’d seen before tonight. Yang is present during nearly every minute of Again, even the scene she’s not in, ends up turning up in a flashback. Her character is the most nuanced and Yang expertly shows us the different sides on Mai. There is a reveal late in the play that sheds a new light on the character, one that could make her a little less sympathetic. Yang has built such a solid character that the reveal simply deepens our understanding of the character and identify with her more.

The production is directed by Nana Dakin who isn’t afraid to take the show in a whimsical direction at times. Deftly switching between reality and fantasy without ever feeling jarring, even switching back and forth during the song “Are You Fucking Kidding Me?”. There are a surprising number of scene changes in the show and Dakin consistently finds ways to hold our attention and focus as the scene changes occur quickly and efficiently onstage. The set is designed by Alice Endo and primarily consists of two wall sections on either side of center stage, which if seen from above would be in the shape of a pie divided equally in thirds. The wall rotates allowing for three separate locations and with some minor redressing they able to add two more locales. It’s a creative and effective design which allows for quick location changes by cast and stage managers, as the walls rotate the set pieces such as a couch or the counter at the bookstore are moved backstage. The lighting is well designed by Erik Paulson who has an active role in creating some of the humor via the clever use of spotlights. Sandy Agustin’s choreography is never too elaborate, frequently acting as extensions of the characters natural movements within a scene. Her work really shines in the movements of Melody Her as Quest, who’s movements are almost always at a more amped up carefree level representative of her characters personality. Her’s performance melds perfectly with Agustin’s moves, she looks completely comfortable and the dances feel spontaneous.

Again runs through April 16th at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.theatermu.org/again

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 (TCTB), 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 or to get another blogger’s take on one I did. We have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers. Follow us to be the first to know about those happenings like our recent Prom Date with the TCTB that we held on March 4th. If you didn’t make it to that event there’s still time to see the The Prom at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres (CDT) thru June 10th . You can view the TCTB Talk Back that we held on March 4th with the CDT Artistic Director and three of the stars of The Prom here https://bit.ly/promtalkback

Watch for an exciting announcement of the next TCTB event soon and save the date, May 4th!

By the Bog of Cats does what every Theatre Pro Rata production I’ve seen has done, surprised me in some way with a performance. In this production It was Emily Grodzik in the lead role of Hester Swane. If I’ve seen Ms. Grodzik before I don’t recall it, having seen her, I’m wondering why I haven’t seen her before, she is incredible. The play is an Irish take on the ancient Greek tragedy Medea by Euripides, but set in a more recent time period. While it isn’t slavishly faithful to the source material, it does maintain the tragedy aspects, and doesn’t end well for anyone. There are two warnings in the program, one is a content warning which states: This script is loosely based on Euripides’ classic tragedy of Medea. Hester’s story ends with infanticide and suicide, and there are descriptions of fratricide and other violence. You should heed this warning, if those are triggers for you, this might be a show to skip. The other warning is to alert the audience that water-based theatrical haze will be used throughout the performance. You can ignore that one, I was not at any point aware of any haze, though that would be a nice addition. If you are not triggered by the content issues or physically affected by non existent haze, I highly recommend By the Bog of Cats. It’s a powerful work that will wreck you in that meaningful way that good art can. *** UPDATE I’ve been informed that the production I attended the haze machine was not functioning, so there is a good chance there will eb haze when you attend in case you are sensitive to that. I’m assured that it is water based haze that is safe for the actors and audience members…and man am I bummed I missed the haze!

The play is written by Marina Carr and while its basis is from an ancient Greek tragedy, it’s really about the abandonment and the scars left upon the one left behind. Hester Swane was abandoned by her mother at the age of seven and it has had a tragic effect on her life. Everything that happens in the play, every action Hester takes and every secret that is revealed is a result of her mother leaving her as a child. When the play opens, Hester lives in a house by the Bog of Cats with her daughter Josie, but she is supposed to be packing to move so that Josie’s father Carthage can move in after his wedding that day to Caroline. Hester meets a Ghost Fancier who is there for her but realizes that he has arrived too early as she is still alive, for it’s dawn, not dusk. She is also informed by the blind woman known as Catwoman, who has visions and can speak to ghosts, that on the day she was born her mother laid her in a nest with a black swan and said that Hester will live until the day the black swan dies. She tells her this as Hester is digging a grave to bury the black swan, that died in the morning the same day. Hester’s fate has been prophesied but she will not go quietly into the night. She refuses to accept that Carthage has left her, she will not be left by anyone else, he is hers until she is done with him, she states. This sort of spiral from there, you probably already feel like you know too much, so I’m going to leave the plot there, you’ll find there are still many surprises in store.

So back to Emily Grodzik and her performance as Hester Swane. First off, is she Irish? Most of the performers attempted to add a bit of an Irish accent to their performances with varying degrees of success, most doing just fine. But Grodzik, nails it so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn she’s an Irish immigrant, though I don’t think that’s the case. Accent aside she is simply mesmerizing. Her stage presence is off the charts as is her presence in the moment. Right from the beginning, when she is talking with Catwoman while digging the grave for the swan. As I think back on it, my memory is of her outdoors, actually digging in the dirt and talking to this woman whom she wants to leave her alone. She is physically and emotionally in the place and time that her character is in at every moment and that is what makes a performance feel authentic. Really most of the cast is very good. Raul Arambula as Carthage is excellent, he gets a very emotional scene at one point that just makes your heart ache for him. Meri Golden is the Catwoman and gives a very strong performance with a character that could easily be played simply for laughs, she hits those moments to be sure, but she also ground this modern day blind prophet in a reality. She also has a moment that rips your heart out at her howls of despair. Kayla Dvorak Feld has the unenviable task of being a woman in her 20’s I’m guessing, but having to play Josie, a child of seven. There’s no way that isn’t going to be a little annoying, seven is awfully young and childish and it’s to Feld’s credit that we can mostly tolerate Josie. Nissa Nordland Morgan plays Caroline in an unusually straight but sweet role for this much loved character actor. We don’t get her usual touch of unique humor, but instead get to see yet another side of this versatile favorite. A quick tip o’ the hat to Jean Wolff who provides some much needed comic relief as the overly critical and emotionally blackmailing mother of the groom and Josie’s Granny.

The Director is Amber Bjork who makes really good choices. I particularly applaud the handling of the final tragedies, one could easily imagine some directors leaning into the violence that takes place. Bjork depicts the violence but wisely chose to keep it a bloodless affair, which allows it to be impactful without be gratuitous. I also like the occasional use of live music and song, that helped create the proper mood for scenes. MJ Leffler’s set design was a delightful surprise. I guess I’m so used to seeing the Twin Cities Horror Festival shows in this space that I forget that they can do a full set. It’s a combination of branches and tree stumps and the some walls that represent the outside of Hester’s house. There are even tree branches coming out of the walls towards the ceiling, it really creates a sense of being outdoors. The Sound Designer, Jacob M. Davis creates a wonderful soundscape as well, it effectively puts the audience in the frame of mind that they are out on the bog even before the play begins. Including some nice directional effects such as a bird that calls out and the sound of a fire. The Lighting Designer Emmet Kowler gets everything right except when a fire breaks out, there needed to be some orange and red flicker added to the yellow.

By the Bog of Cats runs through April 2nd at the Crane Theater in NE Minneapolis, for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.theatreprorata.org/bogofcats/

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 or to get another bloggers take on one. We have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers. Follow us to be the first to know about those happenings like our recent Prom Date with the TCTB that we held on March 4th. If you didn’t make it to that event there’s still time to see the The Prom at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres.

Bakersfield Mist is an engaging play anchored by two extremely good performances and directed by Angela Timberman with an authenticity that transports the audience to another place. Very humorous but also moving, at around 70 minutes it’s perfect for a weeknight or a trip to the theatre before heading out for a night on the town. It really hits a sweet spot that far, too few, shows do. It’s funny without being frivolous, it’s a window into the lives of other people, and for those that like their theatergoing to explore something and not just entertain, it does that too. The plot is about the verification of a possible Jackson Pollock painting, but it explores what is art and what is truth. It doesn’t answer those questions for you, it’s interested in raising those questions, but also in maintaining a reality that would be shattered if things were tied up neatly at the end.

The play is written by Stephen Sachs and it opens in the trailer home of Maude in Bakersfield, California. Maude is waiting for the arrival of Lionel Percy who has flown in from New York to determine if a painting she purchased at a thrift store for $3, might in fact be a previously unknown Pollock painting. If genuine, would be worth between $50 to $100 Million dollars. Maude is your average trailer park denizen and Lionel is your average New York Intellectual. So what did you think when I said that? Did you picture Maude as a whiskey drinking, cigarette smoking, Tchotchke hoarding, tattooed, profanity spewing woman with too much eye makeup? What about Lionel? Suit wearing, cold, detached, superior, full of himself, $12 word using, “expert”, and judgemental? If so, you hit the nail on the head on both counts. But, like all real people, they are more than what we see at first “blink”. We all look like a certain “type” to people. What the play is telling us, we cannot rely on first impressions, that’s the surface, no one is just what can be read on the dust jacket of their life. The central idea of the play is this challenging of expectations. Lionel’s judgement and what follows is the metaphor for this idea. It’s a really clever script in that we never sense the connection because the play doesn’t feel over written, it feels grounded in real life and the characters behave like real people. When you get to the end you are struck by how artfully Sachs script has illustrated it’s ideas without compromising the reality of this world.

Jen Maren plays Maude as the kind of woman who just is, she’s lived so long in her community that she doesn’t try and make an impression she just behaves like herself. John Middleton plays Lionel as a man who is always on, he is always the expert, he is always in control, he probably hasn’t just been himself for decades. One seems to have no filter, the other is all filter. These performances are so well realized, you will recognize these characters as people you have known. If you come to this show to see some acting you are out of luck, I didn’t catch either of them acting once. I simply saw Maude and Lionel, and I can’t think of a better response to have to a performance.

The production is directed by Angela Timberman who never makes a bad choice. The staging is perfect right from the opening when Maude races out her front door to yell at the neighbors dogs. There was something about seeing Maude through her kitchen window yelling at the dogs and then running over to get them away from Lionel that just added to the feeling that we were not at a play but actually in this trailer home in California. Touches like that throughout the show built upon that reality. The Fight Director Annie Enneking staged one of the most realistic scuffles I’ve ever seen on stage, it was movie quality physicality. There’s a reason that stage fighting usually looks pretty fake, it’s because nobody wants anyone to get hurt, and it’s not like we are going to forget we’re at a play. Well you almost do in this one, the skirmish between Maude and Lionel, is just one of a multitude of reasons why. The Set and Lighting design by Carl Schoenborn and Sound Design by Katharine Horowitz’s are other reasons. The set has a real lived in feel to it down to the scuff marks on the linoleum floor. Hats off to Prop and Costume Designer Sarah Bauer who also contributes to the feeling of reality.

Bakersfield Mist is running through April 2nd at the Gremlin Theatre in St Paul, it’s in the same building as Lake Monster Brewing which is an excellent place to stop after the show and discuss what you saw over one of their local brews. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://gremlintheatre.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 or to get another bloggers take on one. We have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers. Follow us to be the first to know about those happenings like our recent Prom Date with the TCTB that we held on March 4th. If you didn’t make it to that event there’s still time to see the The Prom at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres.

It’s always great when you get the chance to see one of the classic musicals restaged especially when they have been mounted with an eye towards making them relevant to our modern sensibilities. They don’t always work, sometimes the source material just will not support the tweaks the new adapter intends. A recent example of the revival of Oklahoma, which has a sort of love it or hate it response, for the record I loved it. When this new Lincoln Center production of My Fair Lady came to town a few years back I called it a smashing success. I’m not sure if the bar has just moved that much since then or if I’ve just become better attuned, but I now find it to be a less qualified success. It still works, it’s a reminder that great material never goes out of style, but it’s major tonal shift which occurs in the last moments of the musical, feels like it suffers slightly from a case of too little too late. Whatever one thinks of the social politics of the piece, you can’t deny that the songs and plotline are truly classics. This is a richly designed and wonderfully performed production of a musical masterpiece. It is filled with great songs and, as it always has, shines from a rich vein of humor. It’s easy to see why its revival was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, and difficult to see why it lost Best Musical Revival to Once on This Island, which I saw, and while good, it doesn’t hold a candle to My Fair Lady.

My Fair Lady is a musical adaptation of the George Bernard Shaw 1913 play Pygmalion. It tells the exact same story only with musical numbers. Cockney Flower girl Eliza Doolittle is taken on as an experiment by Professor Henry Higgins a phoneticist. He will attempt to turn her into a proper english speaking woman in 6 months time. He is accompanied on this seemingly impossible task by fellow language enthusiast Colonel Pickering. But the road will not be easy, for even when they succeed in how she sounds, they have to contend with what she says. For their first test they will take Eliza to the horse races, she sounds perfectly elegant and proper, while she relays her belief that someone “done in” her relative. This “new small talk” as Higgins tries to pass it off as, acquires a devoted suitor for Eliza in the form of Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Who will spend much of his time thereafter hanging out “on the street where she(sic) lives”. We will also get to know Eliza’s Father who comes looking for money from Higgins to allow her to stay with him. He’s a man with a unique morality and strange logic, which will improve his station in life much to his consternation. At the end of the six months Professor Higgins presents Eliza at an Embassy Ballroom to see if anyone can tell she is not of their class. When the experiment is done, the reality sets in, Eliza should be on her way, but to where and what is she now fit for?

Eliza is played my Madeline Powell, she has a lovely voice, and handles the challenging speaking role well. Imagine having to master a nearly indecipherable Cockney accent and then a uber correct posh and proper english voice in the same show. Her standout song is “I Could Have Danced All Night”. Her physical transformation is equally impressive, to the point where when she enters dressed for the Embassy Ball we are as blown over as Higgins and Pickering at the image of elegance before us. Jonathan Grunert as Professor Henry Higgins reminded me of David Tennant, playing a decidedly younger version of the character than we are used to. In a show full of accents and linguistic acrobatics, his is the crystal clear and concise voice that cuts through everything. He sings well and almost more importantly he has the perfect touch when it comes to the humor. The two qualities meld perfectly in his song “Why Can’t the English?”. Nathan Haltiwanger, who plays Freddie, gets the most romantic song to sing “On the Street Where You Live” and while the character is underwritten and serves as more or less a plot device, that is a beautiful and superbly performed song. In terms of comic acting, Michael Hegarty, delivers the goods as Eliza’s Dad Alfie. Also of note is Becky Saunders as Higgins mother, whom along with Hegarty were my favorite performances of the show.

The production itself is beautiful to be sure. The sets by Michael Yeargan are very detailed and beautiful. The London street scene at the beginning starts everything off right. Designed using perspective and layered flats, Yeargan creates a sense of scale that’s very effective. This is clearly a scaled down production from the version that played at the Orpheum in 2020, gone is the set for Higgins’s home which was built on a turntable, instead we have a similar set of Higgins library that simply moves forwards and back as needed, no longer allowing us to follow characters into other rooms. It’s not a terrible loss and doesn’t really affect the story in any way. The backgrounds for the streets as well as at the ballroom are also less elaborate if memory serves. The Costumes by Catherine Zuber are beautiful creations, particularly the outfits work at the horse races and the Ball, with Eliza’s being the standouts in both cases. There were a couple of technical issues with the performance, a curtain that didn’t want to fully rise during the ballroom scene threatened to hold up the production before finally sorting itself out and rising fully. The spotlight operation or perhaps the lighting design by Donald Holder was having issues as well. Characters clearly not lit as well as they were meant to be was an issue in several scenes and actors silhouettes on the backdrop were ugly and distracting. Of course the great source material from the celebrated collaborators of Lerner & Loewe is what really makes the show dazzle. Aside from those minor issues mentioned all of the various elements are brought together under the direction of Bartlett Sher to create a well mounted and enjoyable evening with this classic of musical theater.

My Fair Lady runs through March 25th at The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Broadway @ the Ordway season. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://ordway.org/events/.

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 or to get another bloggers take on one. We have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers. Follow us to be the first to know about those happenings like our recent Prom Date with the TCTB that we held on March 4th. If you didn’t make it to that event there’s still time to see the The Prom at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres.

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company (GSVLOC) latest production is The Sorcerer. GSVLOC only performs the works of Gilbert & Sullivan and has been doing so in rotation since 1979. Clearly GSVLOC is passionate about the works of G&S and I hope they continue to produce them for many years to come. Unlike what we usually think of when we say “Opera”, for these productions there’s no need for captions to understand what everyone is singing. Firstly, they are in English and it’s not so stylized so as to be unintelligible. Secondly, they have a wonderful sense of humor, in fact it’s rather remarkable how modern the humor feels despite being nearly 150 years old. It’s the sort of Opera you can safely bring the whole family to as the humor is universal. This latest seemed a little shorter than the previously productions I’ve reviewed, The Pirates of Penzance and Ruddigore, and not quite as good, I’m not actually referring to the production quality which is excellent, but the Opera itself.

Like all Opera’s, it’s recommended that one arrive early and read through the plot synopsis, it’s less crucial in this case because it’s really quite easy to understand the vocalizations in a G&S production. But the plots are also comically convoluted, so, yeah read the synopsis:

The Sorcerer’s plot involves an engaged couple, Alexis and Aline, the son and daughter of the community’s two aristocratic families. The couples wish is that everyone could be as happily in love as they are. In addition, Alexis believes that love should level all ranks and social distinctions. To achieve both goals, Alexis hires John Wellington Wells of J. W. Wells & Co., Family Sorcerers, to put a love potion into the tea that the villagers will drink at a celebration in honor of the couple. The love potion causes everyone in the village to fall in love with the first person they see, regardless of rank or social distinction. This results in the pairing of comically mismatched couples … including Alexis and Aline’s parents. All is made right in the end, when a sacrifice is made to break the spell.

From the GSVLOC website https://gsvloc.org/on-stage/

What is always amazing about the GSVLOC productions is the size of the cast, there are over 30 performers in The Sorcerer and the Howard Conn Fine Arts Center is not a large theater or stage. Somehow they make it work. Most of the performers are villagers and aristocrats and the sound they all make together is superb. Music Director Randal A. Buikema is certainly an asset to the company, both the vocals of the cast and the musical performance of the orchestra are wonderful. The performance I saw, the role of John Wellington Wells the Sorcerer, was played by the cover Sam Vinitsky, he was good in the role, so no worries if you attend and he’s on for Sifryn Oberon who is scheduled to perform the role at all other performances. Seth Tychon Steidl plays Alexis, he has a real talent for G&S, a wonderful voice, and a gift for the comical. Other highlights of the cast were Anna Maher, he played Aline at this performance. J.R. Andrews as Mrs. Partlet is a hoot and Kaoru Shoji as her daughter Constance had possibly the best voice of the female cast.

Gary Briggle directs the show finding ways to make the size of the stage and cast somehow work smoothly, that’s no small accomplishment. The Set Designer & Scenic Painter is Wendy Waszut-Barrett and it has that classic G&S look to it. I really enjoy what they do with this limited space, the sets are all about pulling back layers to reveal something different whether it’s the landscape in the background or the inhabitants of Hell. The Lighting Designer Carl Schoenborn plays a key role in that last variation and the lighting throughout is very effective. The other thing that usually impresses at GSVLOC is the Costumes, which were designed by Barb Portinga. It really is amazing the quality of these productions and that they take place in such an intimate space, it makes them a real treat.

I enjoyed The Sorcerer, though I imagine it’s considered lesser G&S, it doesn’t have the reputation of The Pirates of Penzance or the intriguing classic Hollywood angle they used for Ruddigore. But it still is an evening filled with laughs and greta musical performances. The Sorcerer runs through April 2nd, for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://gsvloc.org/on-stage/

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 or to get another bloggers take on one. 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. Such as our Prom Date with the TCTB that we held on March 4th. If you didn’t make it to that event there’s still time to see the The Prom at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres.

Diesel Heart, the new play on stage at the History Theatre in St. Paul, is an adaptation of the book of the same name, about and by Melvin Carter Jr. Now the fascinating thing about the History Theatre is that all of their plays are based on history, either the story of a real person or event that has happened. And so far as I’ve seen there is always a Minnesota connection. It’s also the kind of theatre where things like this happen; at tonight’s performance Melvin Carter Jr. was walking around the theatre before the play began, greeting friends and introducing himself to folks at random. How cool is that? Not only does the man live in St. Paul, but his son is the Mayor. I’m sure the History Theatre has an open invitation for him to come see the show whenever he wants. And given what I’ve learned of him tonight I think he probably stops by fairly often. He is a person who is able to connect with people, who found his life’s work when he started using that talent to connect with young black men who needed a guiding hand to find a way out of violence. I think the best marketing in the world for the History Theatre is Melvin, it was clearly a thrill for the people I saw him stop and talk with. Now don’t worry if he isn’t at the performance you attend, the good news is the show itself is worthy of your time. Diesel Heart tells the fascinating story of Melvin Carter Jr. which is at times difficult, at others laugh out loud funny, and in the end ultimately inspiring and uplifting.

The play, which is written by Brian Grandison in collaboration with Carter begins with a moment from 1969 when Carter was in the Navy and stationed in Morocco, North Africa. It shows us the beginning of a boxing match which we will not see the ending of until later in the play. From there the narrative goes back in time to when Carter was a kid growing up in St. Paul. We get to know a little about is family, basically his Mom, Dad, sister, and some cousins whom he is very close to. We see him struggle with school work and making good decisions. After his time in the Navy his life is shaken by an act of violence that takes the lives of his two cousins. That act almost leads him down a very different path from the one he ended up taking. We see the night when everything changes. He applies to be a police officer, then he meets his wife, and they have three children. But even on this path there will be trials. He is a policeman on a police force that is mainly white, and would prefer to stay that way. When he confronts the racism, he finds himself transferred, and it is in one of these transfers to the Juvenile unit that he finds his calling.

Headlining the cast is Mikell Sapp as Melvin, who has the charisma to stand in place of the real Carter and guide us through this story frequently addressing the audience directly. He is also deeply compelling in the moments when he is expressing anger or struggling with how to persevere in a world and career that seem to be against him. There were two other performances that really stuck out for me. Ron Collier plays his father, a man of few words, but those words usually count for something, they either give insight into the wisdom of the man or show his dry sense of humor. He’s not overly affectionate, nor is he too strict, but he’s the kind of man when he says he’s proud of you, it means something. Monica E. Scott plays his Mother, and she is no nonsense. You don’t want to cross his Mother. Scott has to do a couple of things that could come off as caricaturish in lesser hands. First she has to play that Mother no one can pull anything over on that we’ve seen many times before, but she makes it feel real. Secondly she has to be a little bit of a badgerer to her husband. This could play as unlikeable but somehow Scott is able to make us understand her behavior and accept it as one aspect of a woman who is many things.

Warren C. Bowles directs the play letting the humor play when appropriate and leaning into the darker material at times without letting it become oppressive. Seitu Jones is the Scenic Designer and his design is very functional. A large turntable under a portion of the stage revolves to create different formations for the actors to play on. Within that center section that revolves panels open up from which furniture and props can be pulled out of as the scene changes. The production design is assisted by some video projections by Kathy Maxwell. At times the video is very effective, but it seems to be a non issue for much of the play and there is one set that simply looks too cartoonish to fit with the tone of the play. Finally, Annie Enneking deserves a mention for her fight choreography, young Melvin seems to always be fighting and Enneking has made those fights feel surprisingly real.

Diesel Heart runs through April 2nd at the History Theatre for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.historytheatre.com/

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 or to get another bloggers take on one. 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. Such as our Prom Date with the TCTB that we held on March 4th. If you didn’t make it to that event there’s still time to see the The Prom at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres.

I’m a theater guy, I’m a Shakespeare guy, but I’m too busy going to shows and writing about them to read as much as I should about either of those things. That’s why a play like Born With Teeth and a program as filled with information as the Guthrie’s usually are was so fascinating to me. One thing I learned tonight, in 2016 The New Oxford Shakespeare used a computer to analyze the Henry VI history cycle written by Shakespeare and they concluded that Christopher “Kit” Marlowe contributed to the scripts. That piece of news was the catalyst for this new play by Liz Duffy Adams which is running at the Guthrie Theater this month. I found the basis for the play intriguing while watching it and now afterwards having a chance to peruse the program, I find it doubly so. What I thought was a fun experiment in “what if?” turns out to be closer to a “Maybe this?”. Of course it’s all speculation and there are detractors who dismiss the The New Oxford Shakespeare supposition, and whether true or not, the play is of course the creation of Adams own imagination. The script approaches the time period from a much dark point of view than we are used to associating with it, but it’s unquestionably a more accurate portrayal. This is a play about fear, intrigue, and survival set in the backroom of a London Tavern with the two greatest writers in English literature as it’s characters.

The play opens with a brief vignette of Marlowe and Shakespeare being tortured for information. After a few moments they say that never happened. We then proceed to three separate meetings between Marlowe and Shakespeare as they collaborate on the the three plays of Henry VI. By the end, it becomes clear the moment that opens the play is a metaphor for the characters inner lives. These are tortured men, they live in a world that is rampant with accusations of religious treason, where a writer’s words can be used against him to imply guilt. They are tortured by their rivalry and by what Lord Alfred Douglas called “the love that dare not speak its name”. At the time of the plays opening, Marlowe is the great and admired writer of the age, Shakespeare is the actor who shows promise as a writer. Much of the play deals with Shakespeare’s uncertainty of Marlowe’s motives for working with him. Marlowe is known as a spy and also for being wild and controversial, Shakespeare just wants to keep his head down, write and stay out of trouble. Shakespeare is never sure if he’s simply a pawn that Marlowe plans to sacrifice when he needs a lamb to offer up to save his own hide. While the play takes place during a dark and dangerous time period in history it’s also filled with humor, most of it coming from Marlowe’s super confidence and Shakespeare’s uncertainty of how to respond or interpret the behavior.

As you might have suspected this is a two man show. In the role of Kit Marlowe is Matthew Amendt who returns to the Guthrie where he was part of the inaugural class of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Acting Program in 2000. (There’s a fun little conversation between Amendt and the Guthrie’s Resident Casting Director Jennifer Liestman in the show’s program that I recommend reading) I’ve been a little vocal in the past of the Guthrie’s over reliance on bringing in actors from out of town and not using more local talent in productions, in this case it’s really nice to have them bring someone in who was trained here and has performed many times on the Guthrie’s stages. His performance as Marlowe is sassy, sexy, and at times emotionally raw. wisely those moments when we see into Marlowe’s heart are kept to a minimum and are fleeting. Kit is outrageous, purposely shocking and it is his very nature to keep his true feeling guarded. Those flashes of genuine feeling are felt all the more keenly due to their rarity. In contrast, Dylan Godwin’s Shakespeare is timid, at least at first, he is cautious, and uninterested in intrigue. He seems like an open book and the mouse which Kit the cat is toying with. There will be moments in the play where Shakespeare will surprise Kit and us, it’s to Godwin’s credit that those moments don’t feel false in the least. He has played the less experienced, more cautious Will, with enough awareness and intelligence that when we see more than what he shows on the surface it feels authentic. The two have a great rhythm in their banter and debate, you can sense the characters growing understanding of each other and a bonding that deepens the meaning of the events of Marlowe’s short life.

Rob Melrose who previously directed Frankenstein – Playing With Fire at the Guthrie is back to Direct Born With Teeth. Melrose is the Artistic Director of the Alley Theatre in Houston Texas where Born With Teeth had its world premiere in May of 2022. Melrose doesn’t clutter the play up with elaborate design, he trusts Adams script and his actors to draw the audience in. The minimal set design and props allow us to keep our focus on the actors and their words. Melrose allows the actors themselves to hold our interest blocking them around and upon a large wooden table. The jump up and walk upon the table creating dynamic movements that work far better than a more elaborate set would have. What set design there is from Michael Locher is enough to convey that we are in the time and place in which the play takes place. There is the use of glass or plexiglass in the background of the set that is it’s one flaw, a couple of times I caught the actors reflection in the glass taking one out of the play momentarily. The Costumes by Alejo Vietti deserve a mention, they feel very authentic and Kit’s feel like the times equivalent of a celebrity. I enjoyed the music and sound design from Sound Designer/Composer Cliff Caruthers, the music is not period but adds a nice link to the modern version of what Marlowe represents and how he behaves. The lighting throughout is well handled, I especially liked a moment at the end where Lighting Designer Carolina Ortiz Herrera drops down a row of track lights as Shakespeare addresses us directly, it emphasizes the change that has occured and points a light towards us as he tells us what we should have understood all along.

Born With Teeth runs through April 2nd and is the perfect way to get ready for Hamlet which opens next month at the Guthrie in honor of it’s 60th year, they are producing the play that opened the theater in 1963. For more information and to purchase tickets for either of those plays go to https://www.guthrietheater.org/shows-and-tickets/2023-2024-season/

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 or to get another bloggers take on one. 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. Such as our Prom Date with the TCTB that we held on March 4th. If you didn’t make it to that event there’s still time to see the The Prom at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres.