Freshwater Theatre was ready to mount this play in 2020 but then the pandemic put those plans on ice. Now it’s spring of 2022, the ice has melted, and the play must go on. For women of a certain age, The Bucket List of Booze Club is the perfect show for a night out with your oldest girlfriends. I’m not trying to sound sexist, I just think that’s the group for whom this play will resonate the most. That said, I, as a man of a certain age and my 18 year old son, whom was my companion last night, both thoroughly enjoyed the production. Fans of shows like Steel Magnolias and The Dixie Swim Club are going to find themselves in familiar but welcome territory here. The story of four friends from high school, now in their 50’s, each facing the realities of the path they chose in life. Wisely, the theatre company has kleenex packets for sale before the show and at intermission, there will be tears, but before the tears there will be laughs a plenty.

The titular Booze Club is a group of four women who have known each other since high school or earlier, now in their early 50’s. They gather weekly to try a new and different adult beverage at the request of Collette, who is battling ovarian cancer, and believes you should try everything once. Bringing the weekly bottle is Jennifer who is a successful lawyer who put career before love and isn’t too impressed with who’s left in the dating pool now. Amy is the homemaker who brings a different homemade dessert each week, and finally there is Mary Ann who is dating a man almost 20 years her junior. Present for the meetings of the Booze Club is Collette’s daughter Ree-Ree, who looks up to and followed in her Godmother Jennifer’s footsteps becoming a lawyer, which has left Collette feeling a little jealous. Providing a hint of the male perspective are appearances by Mary Ann’s boyfriend Eric and Collette’s ex-husband Barry who dropped out of her and Ree-Ree’s life after their divorce. From that description of characters you can probably sense the general outline of where the story goes, and from whence the humor and tears come.

Written by Maureen Paraventi the plays considerable strengths and minor weaknesses are in the writing. Paraventi’s dialogue flows naturally establishing the characters and is filled with genuine humor. Opening with a scene of Jennifer on a first date with someone from an online dating app. The man’s dialogue in the scene consists entirely of “blah blah blah blah”. Lazy? Nope, brilliant! It opens the play with wit in a scene that establishes a conceit used sparingly throughout of breaking the fourth wall as Jennifer translates what her date is saying. From that scene we flow naturally into a meeting of the Booze Club where Jennifer is recounting the date to her friends. A perfect transition from the writer, though the transition on the stage takes longer than it should. From the notes in the program, I gleen that this is director Rachel Flynn’s first time directing a full length play. I think the transitions lack the confidence of a more experienced hand. Paraventi has already established in the first scene that the characters can break the fourth wall. Rather than dimming the lights for about 10 seconds too long have the character change some costume elements as she walks to the adjoining set already in dialogue with her friends. I think that pattern would have eliminated the slight sense of interrupted flow that pervades the production. Aside from the transitions Flynn shows that she knows how to direct actors and I think she has a career ahead of her in direction if she chooses to pursue it. The writing opens strong and maintains its naturalistic dialogue throughout, construction wise decidedly a play of two halfs. The first half has an easy flow, craftily developing the characters and their relationships. The second half seems more forced in that it has so many beats to hit story wise losing a little of what makes the first half so enjoyable. That said it still delivers plenty of laughs and the dramatic moments land solidly as well. Yes, you will want to fork out for the kleenex packets for sale in the lobby.

The cast adds to the natural feel of the dialogue creating a sense that these really are old friends. As Jennifer, Jean Wolff is a force of nature on stage, her comedic timing and stage presence launch us into the play on just the right footing. She has the showiest role and is at her best when she is holding court and being center stage. Two performances that are noteworthy more for their reactions than there actions are are Julie Ann Nevill as Amy and Ali Daniels as Ree-Ree. Watching these two as they reacted to the other performers was a reminder that good acting is listening and reacting. They both conveyed more genuine emotion in their non-verbal reactions than the other performers did during their dialogue scenes. Wini Froelich as the more and more weakened Collette was at her best when she was displaying her annoyance with Jennifer. The weary bitchiness of those exchanges were her best moments.

The Bucket List of Booze Club runs through May 15th at The Crane Theatre in Northeast Minneapolis for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.freshwatertheatre.com/bucketlist/

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A Raisin in the Sun Opened this week at the Guthrie Theater along the Mississippi River in Downtown Minneapolis. This is a classic of the American stage, a landmark show when it premiered on Broadway in 1959, being the first play produced on Broadway written by a Black woman Lorraine Hansberry and the first with a Black director, Lloyd Richards. The play earned four tony Award nominations and in 1961 was adapted for film utilizing the original Broadway cast, which included Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, and Claudia McNeil. This is an important dramatic work that reflected the issues that Black American families faced in the 1950’s and 60’s. We produce great works like A Raisin in the Sun or Shakespeare again for many reasons. One reason is because the people mounting a new production feel that it has something to say to us now. Another reason is to give current performers a chance to interpret the roles and share these stories with new audiences. These are the two reasons to see the Guthrie’s new production. A Raisin in the Sun absolutely has something to say to us in the 21st century. It was and is a powerfully written play and it will remind you of where we were at that time in this country and make you reflect on where we are now. But powerful words have little effect unless they are channelled through performers capable of making those word resonate with an audience. This cast Takes Hansberry’s words and boosts the signal creating a piece of theatre that speaks not just to the past but to the present and future as well.

It is the story on the Younger family who live together in a two room apartment in chicago’s South side. Led by matriarch Lena who is expecting a check for $10,000, the life insurance money on her husband who passed away. She plans to use part of the money towards medical school for her daughter Beneatha and the rest on a downpayment on a house for the family to move into. Her son Walter Lee, who works as a chauffeur to a white man, wants to convince his mother to give him the money to invest in a liquor store with his friends. Walter Lee’s wife Ruth discovers she is pregnant with their second child. Their son Travis, as we discover in the opening of the play, sleeps on the couch in the living room. Their day begins with everyone being pleaded out of bed by Ruth so they will be able to get through the shared hallway bathroom and off to school and work before the neighbors get in. There are several themes being played out throughout the play. One is about assimilation and is explored through the character of Beneatha and her two “boyfriends.” One is the son of a wealthy black family, the other is a student from Nigeria. These characters will represent the struggle Beneatha feels between assimilating into white culture or embracing her African roots. Another theme is about pride and it’s importance to our self esteem and our relationships. Walter Lee is a man who is a husband and father but has no authority, all of that resides with his mother. He feels trapped by his work in service, he dreams of being his own boss and becoming wealthy but he has no agency with which to enact this change. He feels that no one understands him and his need to strike out on his own. This has created a distance between him and his wife. When she learns she is pregnant she meets with a local woman and puts down a deposit on an abortion. An echo from the past that reverberates especially with recent news. Lena realizes that by controlling the family she has relegated Walter Lee from a role of leadership within the family that has fed his craving for wealth which he sees as freedom. When the money arrives she goes and uses $3,500 to put a downpayment on a house in a white neighborhood. It was the best house she could get for the least amount of money. She then gives Walter Lee the remaining money telling him to go to the bank and put $3,000 of it into a savings account for Beneatha’s schooling and open a checking account with the remaining $3,500 which he will control. Before long a representative from the White neighborhood, Karl Lindner comes to visit the Youngers with an offer from their community association to buy them out so they will not move into their all white neighborhood. Complications ensue.

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

From the Poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes 1951

The extract above from Langston Hughes’ poem is one of the central questions of Lorraine Hansberry’s play, making it the perfect title. Like Hughes, Hansberry was a social activist and her play A Raisin in the Sun addresses the realities facing Black communities at the time. Sadly, while the details have changed, it is far too easy to see how the overall issues are still with us as a society. The disparity in wealth and opportunity still exist. On the surface it would appear that things are much better now, 60 years on, and maybe it’s unfair to say they haven’t changed. But in 60 years they should have improved far more than they have. It feels that what has improved at a far greater rate was our ability to hide the disparity. There is a scene in the play when Karl Lindner comes to try and talk the Youngers out of moving into his neighborhood. He tries to put a pleasant face on what he is doing, if you took his words at face value, you might almost think of him as well meaning. But he is doing what we still do in this country, we cover up what we are really doing with excuses that almost sound valid until you do a little critical thinking. In the play it’s fairly easy for the Youngers to see what Lindner is really saying, and in this way we as a society have really progressed in the intervening 60 years. We’ve gotten so it’s a lot harder to see the racism. This is why this is still a relevant play, this is the enduring power of Lorraine Hansberry’s work.

Austene Van, who recently impressed me with her direction of Passing Strange at Yellow Tree Theatre, once again displays her significant talents with her skillful direction. Scenic designer Regina Garcia has created an impressive set. The focus is on the Youngers apartment which is presented in detail, the rest of the apartment building is suggested with isolated details. A set of stairs, a room from another apartment including a portion of the exterior wall, windows hanging in space. We are given a sense of the larger space as an idea so we can understand that this is one apartment among many, this is one specific story in this larger world. This is a remarkable cast led by James T. Alfred as Walter Lee and Tonia Jackson as Lena. Both give powerful performances. Alfred has to play multiple sides of Walter Lee, not all of them endearing, but his performance helps us to understand all of them. Jackson as well needs to deliver a multilayered performance, the wise matriarch, the angry mother, The sassy neighbor, the concerned mother-in-law. Both Alfred and Jackson have to give several speeches which could easily feel too on the nose or preachy in lesser hands, but they both handle them masterfully, finding the truth rather than just relaying the message. Nubia Monks as Beneatha is wonderfully versatile, her part and her strengths are in the way she interacts with the other characters. She isn’t given the longer dramatic speeches but she is given various characters to play off of and like a real life person she behaves differently depending on who she is interacting with. Some of her best moments are her reactions and interactions with the two love interests. The most promising relationship in the entire show is between her and Ernest Bentley as Joseph Asagai the Nigerian student. In two scenes Bentley creates an indelible character that is an audience favorite. In a scene which has be reinstated into the play having been removed in its initial Broadway run Jamecia Bennett provides some comedic relief as the upstairs neighbor Mrs. johnson. Including the scene was a wise choice by director Van, it gives us a much needed moment of comic relief not just in her scene, but by the fact the scene was included that meant there was an actor hired for that role that could then be used as a silent presence in the battle of the shared bathroom. Her racing up and down the staircase helped add clarity to those moments that might have felt a little ambiguous otherwise.

A Raisin in the Sun runs through June 5th for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.guthrietheater.org/raisin

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Monsters in a Mirror is advertised as a horror anthology of six short plays each with a different director. All of the plays are adapted from stories in the collection Monsters in a Mirror Strange Tales From the Chapel Perilous by Phillip Andrew Bennett Low. The thing is by my count, it’s four short plays with four musical performances between them. If the musical performances called “Fast Talking” are considered plays as well, then it’s either five or if they’re counted together, it’s eight. Mathematically what I saw tonight cannot be calculated as six. I’m assuming that two segments were cut, presumably the scary ones. The show clocks in at about 70 minutes, and it definitely should be categorized in the humor column rather than horror. As a horror show it fails, as an evening out, it’s enjoyable. Frankly, it made me curious about the source material. The four “plays”, I think they are using that term loosely, are quite varied and it’s not easy to picture all of them as short stories. For example the bookend, pieces are related to each by a character and are both a little more than sketches. They play very well live but it’s hard to imagine the form they take in the book.

So what you get is eight segments in about 70 minutes, with some downtime (minimal) for staging changes. To go into the plots would be to rob you of the entire experience. The bookend segments Speak Now, or Forever Rest in Peace and The Sleeper, Woke as I mentioned are basically sketches. They are ambiguous as to what is actually transpiring, but that doesn’t matter. The joy in these are all in the dialogue. The jokes and the wit come in a stream of consciousness that’s really very charming as are the performers Rob Ward who appears as Penner in both segments, and Remy Chacon as the Figment in the first. My favorite was the second segment Say Yes. This was the one that had a dark little idea behind it that kept one upping itself in a cleaver twisted way. The third segment, while my least liked, was actually my companions favorite. It’s performed as an old radio show with the cast doing the sound effects on stage. For me, the story wasn’t engaging enough; however, the performers were all strong. The minimal amount of sound effects were a disappointment after attending far more entertaining radio style performances of the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society at Park Square Theatre. Finally, the musical interludes are short but fun, performed by My Very Friend in a Mask with a Ukulele. The first song of the evening was the best and oddly reminded me of Lou Reed. Although I cannot really defend that statement, it’s just how it struck me at first.

So to sum it up, it isn’t what it’s advertised as, but it’s still enjoyable. I wouldn’t make a special trip into the city to attend it, but if you live in the Uptown area or are there for dinner there’s enough good stuff here to warrant stopping in and checking it out. But don’t go looking for horror, here there be clowns not tygers. For More information and to purchase tickets for Monsters in a Mirror go to maximumverbosityonline.org The Show runs through May 7th at the Phoenix Theater in Uptown Minneapolis.

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Memphis Opened this past weekend at Artistry Theater in Bloomington, this is the regional premiere of the musical which won 4 Tony Awards including Best Musical in 2010. It’s my first exposure to the show and I went in with very little beforehand knowledge. Whatever expectations I went in with, have been exceeded. Memphis is a fictionalized history lesson about the birth of rock ‘n’ roll in memphis in the 1950’s. The show has music and lyrics by David Bryan of the rock band Bon Jovi with book and lyrics by Joe Dipietro. One of the things I loved about this show were the period sounding original songs. In that respect, it reminded me of the underrated Allison Anders film Grace of My Heart, which does something similar with the singer songwriters of New York’s Brill Building in the 1960’s. Although a fiction, it’s loosely based on real events and while it has great music and plenty of humor, it doesn’t ignore the social realities of the 1950’s in the Southern United States. Many of the characters are black and this doesn’t shy away from the language of the time. Race is as much a part of this story as music is. This would be a nice jumping off point for parents of teenagers to discuss how things used to be verses how history is written by those in power. As director of Memphis Aimee K. Bryant points out in her program note, many credit Elvis Presley with inventing rock ‘n’ roll, but he learned it from the black musicians on Beale Street in Memphis. Bryant further points out that the play does the same thing, it credits DJ Huey Calhoun with the music taking off, rather than the people who created the music. There is a lot to unpack and discuss with children old enough to understand the use of certain words and phrases in an historical context.

This is the story: Huey Calhoun who seems lost, especially to the patrons in the bar he enters at the beginning of the show. Huey loves the music he hears in the bars and clubs in the areas of town where white men like himself don’t usually go. He hears the owner of the bars sister Felicia singing and proclaims in song that this is “The Music of My Soul”. Huey vows to make Felicia a star, even though he can hardly hold down a job. He convinces his boss at the department store he works at to let him play records over the store speakers in order to sell records. He makes a success of it but is fired anyway because he is playing “inappropriate music”. Huey then sneaks his way into a DJ booth at a radio station and plays some of his own records. Before they can throw him out of the station the phones start ringing off the hook with everyone asking for more of Huey Calhoun. His popularity grows, culminating in his own TV program. Along the way he begins to woo Felicia, much to her brother Delray and his Mother’s dismay. We get a view of history through the eyes of the people we come to care about in the story, we also see how music can bring people together. There is a nice little scene in the middle of the play where we see people getting excited about Calhoun’s show and “his” music. In addition, we see black teenagers and white teachers begin to mingle a little over their shared love of the music.

The cast is stacked top to bottom with stellar performers. Matt Riehle demonstrates a superb voice backed up by a winning performance as the idealistic and color blind, Huey Calhoun. Everyone in the play seems to understand the reality of the time in place in terms of race but Huey. This could have come off as unfathomable, but Riehle sells Huey’s naivete through his idealism. Vie Boheme as Felicia is his match both vocally and in acting. She knows the world and tries and keep Huey from having unrealistic beliefs. Boheme has us feeling with her the frustration in getting him to tone down his expectations and make sensible choices but also when she gets carried away by his optimism. Those two alone would make for a show worth attending, but they are also surrounded by so much talent, one hardly knows where to start unless you are going to run through the entire cast. Dante Banks Murray as Delray and Wendy Short-Hays as Mama Calhoun are standouts as well as is Rudolph Searles III as Bobby Dupree who Huey meets at Delray’s bar and later at the radio station where he works as a janitor only to end up singing on Huey’s TV show. Fun character work from Jay Albright and Rodney Patrick Fair in multiple roles and Carl Swanson at the owner of the radio station. Final mention of Emily Madigan as Gator, this is the third time this month I’ve attended a production that features woman or a non-binary performer in the role of a male character. In each instance it has been my sense that there was no intended comment on the work in such casting. In all three, I thought the casting was spot on and Madigan was perfect. I hope we continue to see casting along these lines which is to say, casting the person whose talents are the best match the role.

Aimee K. Bryant brings everything together with an energy that matches Huey Calhoun’s enthusiasm, which is no small feet. She does a wonderful job of producing a show that doesn’t shy away from some difficult subject matters but also doesn’t get bogged down in them. We still have an enjoyable entertainment, but one we talk and think about as well. A tricky balance no doubt but Bryant walked that tight rope and made it look easy. She’s got a terrific group of collaborators as well in Leah Nelson’s Choreography and Ginger Commodore’s music direction. When I saw stills of the Set Design by Michael Hoover and lit by Lighting Designer Kyia Britts, I wasn’t too impressed, but in the actual production I loved it. I thought the use of different levels whether we are at the DJ booth on the mid-side level or walking down the street on the upper level, created a well defined sense of place. In a moment when Huey and Felicia are at their highest, placing them on that upper level was a nice visual representation of where the characters were at emotionally.

Memphis runs through May 15th at Artistry for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://artistrymn.org/

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*(Portions of this entry were taken from my previous write ups of MORLS productions)*

The Park Square Theatre Hosted The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society again this past monday. If you missed it see the bottom of this entry for upcoming performances. Each show is different – Monday’s show entitled “Future Tense” was a double feature of science fiction tales. “The Veldt” was an adaption from (1951) of the classic Ray Bradbury story for the radio program Dimension X. The second story was “A Logic Named Joe” from a 1955 broadcast on the radio program X Minus One. The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society are Shanan Custer, Joshua English Scrimshaw, Tim Uren and Eric Webster. This Quartet of radio fanatics bring to life scripts from the golden age of radio. Their performances perfectly emulate the style of the radio programs of suspense, horror, mystery, and science fiction from the 1930’s thru the 1950’s. Along with their vocal work, they also create the sound effects that accompany the tales on stage. Using their voices to paint a picture so vivid that if you close your eyes you can see the action in your minds eye. There’s something magical about stories told this way. It can engage the audience at times even more than TV or film does because we are given the audio in a way that we use our imagination to fill in the visuals, it requires a more interactive response on our part.

I was introduced to the classic radio show Suspense, by my father. He had four little box sets of four cassettes each probably one show on each side, complete with commercials for sponsors of Roma Wines and Autolite Spark Plugs. We would listen to the shows in the car together and we loved them. Like my father before me, I also introduced my kids to this type of story telling when they were younger. My youngest son George used to listen and re-listen to Bradbury 13, a series of radio adaptations of Ray Bradbury stories created in the 1980’s. Tonight, George now almost 19 years of age, accompanied me to the program so that we could experience this live version of “The Veldt” that he used to listen to in those Bradbury 13 days. We both had a great time. George was reminiscing afterwards of listening to “The Veldt” and “The Screaming Woman” to go to sleep to at night, around age 8. Interesting how even an 18 year old can become engaged and be jogged into nostalgia by something that originated 70 years ago.

If you’ve never experienced a performance like this in the style of those old radio broadcasts you really need to check it out. I highly recommend these shows for families, including grandparents who may even remember listening to some of these very shows. It’s a unique opportunity to step back in time and show the younger generation what home entertainment used to look like. I think you’ll be surprised at how well they respond to something that seems so old fashioned. George and I started the MORLS podcast on the ride home from the show, it just left us hungry for more.

Upcoming productions of The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society at Park Square Theatre:

Friday May 27th 7:30 PM – Legends of the Old West

“Death of a Picture Hanger” from Crime Classics (1953) – A true tale of the Old West told with wry wit and a sense of tragedy.

“Matt for Murder” from Gunsmoke (1954) – When Marshal Dillion is accused of murder, the governor sends another legendary lawman to Dodge City.

Sunday June 26th 2:00 PM – More Best of the Worst

“Battle of the Magicians” from Lights Out (1934) – What do magicians, airplanes, and zombies have in common? Absolutely nothing. But logic is no defense against this madcap mystical mash-up from the mind of legendary radio writer Wyllis “Quiet Please” Cooper.

“The Cup of Gold” from Dark Fantasy (1942) – A sports reporter’s investigation into the death of a golf pro leads to a series of shocking revelations! Scott Bishop’s murder mystery turned Surrealist manifesto will keep you guessing (or at least scratching your head) until the bitter, inexplicable end

go Park square theatre for tickets for in person or to stream from the comfort of your own home. Also for more information about these shows as well as an upcoming production at Open Eye Theatre of Rattus Rattus a double feature bill of Rat Centric Stories featuring the classic “Three Skeleton Key” and “The Rats in the Walls” go to http://ghoulishdelights.com/ .

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