So This has never happened to me before, I’m taking another stab at this review. Normally time simply doesn’t allow for it. But due to time constraints and a desire to get my review up ASAP so people had time to catch this amazing show before it closed I posted even though I wasn’t entirely happy with it. When you see one of the best shows you’ve seen since you began reviewing you want that review to be one of the best as well. Well I’m not going to put that pressure on myself but I do want to get it to a point where It isn’t gnawing at me that I could have done better.

Thank God this show was held over for another week or I would have missed it and so would’ve you. The Red Shoes still has these added shows; Thurs, Nov. 4, 7:30pm, Fri, Nov. 5, 7:30pm, Sat, Nov. 6, 7:30pm. Sadly Thursday has sold out, making it the 9th consecutive performance to have sold out. Thankfully not before I snagged three more tickets so my wife and I could seeit and take my eldest son. Go to https://www.openeyetheatre.org/the-red-shoes for more information and to buy tickets. I’ll wait while you go buy tickets, do it now, they may be gone before you finish reading this. Done? OK let’s get started. First of all when you go, keep all hands and arms inside your chair at all times, at least that’s what they should have said. From the second the house lights went down and the show experience began, I felt like I was on a theme park ride. There are certain shows that function as testimonials to what a magical thing theatre can be, that highlight creativity and fully immerse you in their own unique reality. The Red Shoes is just such a show. This is artists working at the highest level in Production design, Lighting, Sound, Costume, Puppetry, not to mention Direction and Performance. This is the reason I do this. Shows like this that you immediately want everyone you know to see as well. The Red Shoes is not only firing on all cylinders, the people behind it actually built the cylinders from scratch.

The plot reminds me of the Bogart classic The Big Sleep, in that you are not sure it all adds up at the end but you don’t care because the journey to the end of the line was so good. To give you an idea, the main character is a mousy woman who never leaves her apartment, she seems to be trying to figure out who she is by reconstructing memories or perhaps dreams using a miniature design of locations and puppets. She is terrified of the phone and of anyone coming to the door. She is badgered by her relentless Landlady, sympathized with by the local Newsboy, and stalked by a mysterious figure in a trenchcoat. There is something very interesting about all of these other characters but one hopes to leave that as a surprise. The wonder of this show is the surprises and the execution of them.

Kimberly Richardson plays the main character, assisted by Sabrin Diehl, Noah Sommers Haas, and Kalen Rainbow Kier, but it is Richardson’s show all the way. It’s a tour de force of physical and vocal dexterity. We wholly buy her timidity as the play opens, terrified of the ringing phone and her landlady who’s comments come through a very unexpected source. But she equally sells other characters as she acts out the nightmares with her puppets. The fairy tale on which the show draws its inspiration tells the story of a vain girl who after choosing to dance rather than attend her mother’s funeral is cursed to dance even after she dies. This version does not follow that plot but there are clues within it that might help us understand what we have seen. There is some dance, just enough to show us that Richardson is someone in complete control of her body. As fascinating as Richardson is in the central role, it’s not her only job, she also co-wrote the play and choreographed it.

As talented and engaging as Richardson is, the true star of the show may just be the Productions technical crew. As I sat preparing for the evening’s performance to start I was impressed with the sets design by Joel Sass and the lead Scenic Artist Michael Sommers. It has the look of a set but in all the right ways, there is a storybook quality to the 40’s era apartment that feels heightened. There are set designs that look like real locations and then there are set designs that look like sets, both have there place depending on what the production is going for. This was perfect for the nightmarish world we are witnessing. It has the feel of a film noir movie set as designed by Dr. Seuss. The set construction by Brandon Sisneroz and Sommers Haas is a marvel, when the show starts, it comes alive in truly original ways. Unlike some shows which amaze you at the start by spilling all their secrets up front, this one continues to surprise right up until the end. But it isn’t just the set. The play opens with a combination of lighting, sound, and smoke effect that announced right from the start that this was going to be a rollercoaster of an evening. Thrilling and visceral work from Bill Healey in Lighting Design assisted by Ellie Simonett. Sean Healey’s Sound Design puts you inside the play in a way I’ve never experienced before. I was filled with wonder and amazement at what I was seeing and with what these artists came up with to express their vision.

There is nothing more inspiring than seeing creativity brought to life in such a palpable way. One leaves the theatre wanting to create something to express the joy you feel inside at the marvel you have just witnessed. This production is in the top ten in person theatrical experiences I have ever had. It reminded me of the thrill I had in the spring of 2019 when two productions led me to repeat attendances, bringing new people with me each time. That is what gave me the idea to become a theater reviewer, that desire to share something that knocked my socks off with others. The Red Shoes brought me right back to spring 2019 and I started urging everyone to get tickets, see it! And that is the reason I had to take another pass at this review. Because it felt like this show represented why I have dedicated so many hours in theatre seats and twice as many at a keyboard writing about them. Because it inspired me to share. I still don’t think I’ve done the show justice, but it’s unfair to hold myself up to the standard of this production. If I’ve inspired a few people to see this show, and I know I have, that is enough to have made the ride worthwhile. The Red Shoes is everything theatre can be while at the same time being uniquely its own. What a beautiful thing that is to behold. I urge you not to miss your chance to experience The Red Shoes.

There is a new theater company in the Twin Cities, Stage North based at the newly renovated Capri Theater in North Minneapolis. They have chosen as their first production King of the Kosher Grocers a play written by a native of North Minneapolis Joe Minjares. The play is set in 1991 in the same neighborhood where it is now being performed. When I learned of this new theater company, where it was located, and what show they were opening with, I had an experience similar to what happened to me several times while attending the performance last weekend, I got a little misty eyed. We all lament the 18 months of shuttered theater, the performances we missed, and the great shows that closed early. As we go back, we reflect on the pandemic and all it took from us. Now 18 months later, it’s easy to forget in our excitement to be back in the audience, that the pandemic is not the only major thing that happened in the world or specifically in our city in the spring of 2020. Our city erupted after the murder of a black citizen by Minneapolis police officers. And so that we do not forget, let us mark that citizens name, George Floyd. I struggle at times as a middle aged white male theatre blogger to identify how to show my support without seeming to appropriate the burden of others. It is not my place to speak for people whose reality I cannot possibly really understand. I need to cede the floor to those who live it so that they can be heard. The only thing I can do is to try and boost their signal when they send it out if I can. There are many people, activists, advocates, and artists all trying to speak to what is wrong in our city and in our country, I look forward to the art that will come from them. This is a play that is about 30 years old, that speaks to some of the underlying issues that brought us to a city on fire. But the real message is about how we care for our community and it showcases a world that is real for some, will seem completely fake to others, but seems almost ideal to me.

The premise of King of the Kosher Grocers sounds like the set up to a joke that will get you canceled. a Jew, a Mexican, and an African-American… I take that from the press release, but you see what I mean. So let me lay it out in a different way. Izzy Silvers, an elderly jewish man, has been the owner of Silver’s Grocery. It’s the neighborhood store that still delivers phone orders to customers as it has for 50 years. Izzy has part-time help from Jamar Mooney a young black college student whose grandfather Elvis Mooney seems to also help out around the store. Elvis is basically just Izzy’s friend who takes deliveries to an old widow that lives nearby that he is a little sweet on. Another friend who brings Izzy fresh homemade tortillas to sell every morning is Joe Chavez who also thinks nothing of making the odd delivery for Izzy as needed. The conflict comes into the story in the form of a city electrical inspector who has issued a 30 day warning of repairs that need to be made to the building or it could be shut down. The thing about this play is it isn’t about the conflict. The play is about the community that we are witness to. It’s about the way a Jew, a Mexican, and an African American co-exist as a community and as friends. It’s about the benefits of continuity but also about change and the renewal that can come from bringing in new blood as represented by Jamal and his friend Billy. The conflict comes from the city inspector but the solution to that also comes from the city. The play isn’t about identifying the villain, even if superficially there is one. It’s focus is on showing us what works. How a neighborhood can remain a neighborhood, how people can be important to each other when they simply think of them as people and not as a skin color. It doesn’t ignore the cultural differences it just treats them as things that make us different and more interesting to each other. Even the resolution to the conflict comes through communicating with respect. Talking person to person and compromise.

It all sounds kind of heavy doesn’t it? And yet it isn’t. It’s a comedy and like most really good comedy the laughs come not from punchlines but from character. I mentioned getting misty eyed, but it was the good kind. This is an uplifting play that makes you long for a neighborhood like this. For a Grocery store where three old friends spend their days reminiscing about the old days. A place where they know the people in the neighborhood they run them their groceries and notice if they haven’t called in at their usual time. A place where as an old man is reaching the end, there is a place for a young man to come in and carry on these practices that have created and nurtured this community. I hope that people who are now part of the neighborhood where this takes place come to the theater. I hope they can see something in it that they recognize or if they can’t that they see it as an example of something to strive for. Minjares has written a play that speaks to so many things while hardly seeming to acknowledge them. It does what we should all strive to do in life, model the actions and behaviors we want to see. It doesn’t talk about the problems with society that led to the outraged protest and howls of anger and despair in the spring of 2020. It models what our neighborhoods should be. People of all races and religious backgrounds, old and young all caring for and respecting each other.

The cast was all excellent. Anchored, in the performance I saw, by Michael Tezla as Izzy and James A. Williams as Elvis who establish from their first exchanges the familiarity of old friends. The third character Joe is usually played by the author of the work Joe Minjares, sadly Joe was hospitalized that weekend but I’m told he will be fine and should return to the play later in the week. Until then, the role was being played by Pedro Bayon who stepped in at a moments notice and performs on stage with script in hand. From what I could see the script was there just in case as he seemed to have the lines down, and having performed the role previously, knew the character. He did a fantastic job and if we hadn’t been informed of the substitution I probably wouldn’t have even realized it. All three of these veteran actors are shining examples of what experience and a lifetime of practicing a craft can result in. There’s never a false moment on stage between the three of them, even with one of the trio jumping in at a moments notice. They bring an authenticity to the characters that prevents them from simply being reduced to a Jew, a Mexican, and an African American who walk into a grocery store. Like their characters in the play one hopes they are modeling what they have learned for the younger performers in the show Ian McCarthy as Jamar, and Domino D’Lorion as Billy. In act one McCarthy’s Jamar is little more than a background character. In Act two he and D’Lorion take on a more prominent role, almost as if this is Act one for their characters and the final act for the older characters. Both McCarthy and D’Lorion bring an energy to their roles that is in contrast to the older characters but not in conflict with them and both are perfect in their roles.

King of the Kosher Grocers is directed by Peter Moore the Artistic Director of Stage North clearly with an eye to welcoming the community into their neighborhood theater. It is an excellent choice to launch their inaugural theater season with and I hope they connect with their neighbors. This is a play that everyone can relate to in some way and the production is full of warmth and compassion and genuine humor. They have certainly priced it to do so, tickets are $20 ($10 if you’re under 30 years of age). For more information and to purchase tickets go to http://stagenorthmpls.org. The production runs through November 7th 2021.