Glensheen Continues to Delight New Audiences in its 10th Anniversary Production

The Cast of Glensheen Photo by Rick Spaulding

Originally produced by the History Theatre in 2015, Glensheen returns once more to the stages of the History Theatre on this its 10th Anniversary. This was my third visit to Glensheen, and each time I venture back to the haunted mansion on the North shore I bring along someone new to share this wonderful true crime musical comedy with. This year it was my son and his Fiancé and they were very entertained, which gives me so much joy. Sharing great theater is what it’s all about, and when I get to see someone responding so positively, it replenishes my determination to share what I love with the world. It’s easy to see why the History Theatre brings the show back, it’s an incredibly fun production, that seems to get better the more times you see it. I really liked it the first time I saw it, and it just keeps getting better every time. I’m not a true crime fan, but it turns out you don’t need to be to enjoy this show. It’s less about the details of a true crime as it is watching in disbelief the train wreck of humanity that is the main character, Marjorie Caldwell. The amount of suspicious things that have happened around her and the lack of punishment she received is mind blowing. It makes for a fascinating story but it also raises serious questions about the criminal justice system…oh wait, we already had those doubts didn’t we? What’s amazing is how enjoyable the whole thing is. I spoke with playwright Jeffrey Hatcher two years ago on the podcast Twin Cities Theater Chat (you can listen to that episode by clicking here https://twincitiestheaterchat.buzzsprout.com/2150807/13157328 ) and he made a comment about it being a real story that seems populated by the characters from Fargo. I thought that perfectly embodied what Glensheen the Musical is. A great cast brings us into the past with songs that oddly do not feel out of place in a story as weird as this.

The book for the musical is by Hatcher with the songs written by Chan Poling who was a member of the alternative rock band The Suburbs. The two have collaborated several times on musicals including the History Theatre production, The Defeat of Jesse James, which was another wonderfully original piece of musical theatre. Hatcher’s script leans into the craziness of the events without drawing us into that frame of mind. This allows us to view them through our reality thus we see them for the absurdities they are. He tells us the story of Marjorie Caldwell and her husband Roger who conspired together resulting in the murder of her mother Elizabeth Congdon and her nurse, Velma Pietila. Very quickly, Roger is arrested and found guilty but Marjorie proves to be a much harder catch for the justice system. She’s a master of staying one step ahead of everyone, but also seems to lose a half step with every one that she takes. Always avoiding the punishment but somehow also losing the prize. Poling’s songs are fun, often witty, sometimes quite touching. Favorites are the hilarious “Conspiracy” performed by Marjorie’s defense team. The defense they mount is so crazy, it works. On a sweeter note is “Just You & Me” which is a duet between Marjorie and Roger. It’s a beautiful moment on the surface, but underneath it’s incredibly dark as it’s simply Marjorie manipulating Roger to save herself.

The cast is filled with actors familiar to theatergoers of the Twin Cities, most of the performers play multiple rolls. My favorite was Wendy Lehr who plays Elisabeth Congdon and Marjorie’s defense attorney among others. Her over the top defense attorney was a big reason that the song “Conspiracy” was a crowd favorite. Dancing like a man half her age, she was as believable as the elderly matriarch as she was unbelievably outrageous as the attorney for the defense. She also plays the Nurse Velma, and her sweet song “Stay With Me” is a nice moment playing tribute to a woman who was needlessly murdered just for agreeing to come out of retirement to help Nurse Elisabeth that night. Gary Briggle, whose rich vocalizations are a highlight and bolster every song especially the ensemble pieces. Dane Stauffer is perfect as the out of his depth, easily manipulated, Roger. He has the dumb and dumber act down perfectly and you are surprisingly sympathetic to him as the man in over his head. Jen Maren holds the whole show together as Marjorie, she perfectly straddles the line between being a smart manipulator and not quite smart enough to get what she wants.

Ron Peluso directs the show with a playfulness that lets the tone shift dramatically from scene to scene while still feeling like a cohesive whole. Rick Polenek’s set design is very impressive, recreating a section of the Glensheen mansion including the staircase on which the nurse was murdered. Bill Healey’s lighting design helps to emphasize the tonal changes and is cleverly used for dramatic effect, lighting flashes to create the dark and stormy night in an old mansion which basically screams for a murder. Bold flashes of red to strike a cord that syncs with Marjorie’s evil actions. It all works wonderfully with Sound Designer C. Andrew Mayer’s soundscape. David Lohman as musical director along with his orchestra are just off to the side stage right, with Lohman’s piano doubling as a bar. The choreography by Tinia Moulder is small and contained, it has to be due to the size of the stage. But Moulder makes every move count and the dancing and moves in “Conspiracy” are what makes that the showstopper it is.

Glensheen is running at the History Theatre in St. Paul through July 27th. If you’ve never seen it you should check it out. And if you have, you know you want to go again. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets https://www.historytheatre.com/2024-2025/glensheen

Necessity requires that going forward in order to produce a weekly YouTube show and podcast that reviews will become shorter. There are only so many hours in a day, but I have no intention of abandoning the blog version. Faithful readers, you have year after year grown The Stages of MN audience. While I hope you will become viewers or listeners as well, there will always be things here that cannot be found there. This will be the place for longer reviews, though slightly shorter than before, as well as Reviews of more shows than can be covered on the YouTube and Podcast versions. Essentially there will be some overlap, but each format will have unique content.

Don’t depend on a Facebook or Instagram algorithm to ensure you hear about a great show. You can subscribe and have every post from The Stages of MN sent directly to your email box. It’s the best way to ensure you don’t miss out on any of the theater action. 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. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn.

I’ve officially launched The Stages of MN YouTube Channel which you can view by clicking on this link. https://www.youtube.com/@TheStagesofMN. Check out the intro videos and the weekly episodes. Subscribe to the channel so you’ll always know when a new episode has dropped. Think I may have steered you wrong on a show? Well, I’m also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read review roundups of shows by m’colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers.

Kimberly Akimbo a Musical With the Sense of Humor of an Adult Animated Series

Carolee Carmello, Miguel Gil and Jim Hogan National Tour of KIMBERLY AKIMBO, photo by Joan Marcus

The tone of Kimberly Akimbo reminded me instantly of an adult animated series like Bob’s Burgers or F is for Family. Things that happen are so egregious as if this could either have gone the tragic route or the comedic. The show wisely chooses comedic, which allows it to also have some moments of meaning and sweetness. This is the story of Kimberly Levaco who is about to turn sixteen years old and has a disease that makes her age prematurely, at about four to five times the normal rate. People with her disease on average do not live past sixteen. As if that wasn’t hard enough, as the show opens she clearly has trouble making any friends with the kids her age and her father arrives drunk to pick her up from the skating rink three and a half hours later. It’s winter and she has had to wait outside for him. His excuse is that some guy in the bar bet he couldn’t fit an entire Mango in his mouth, which he can so he won a gameboy off the guy. In his eyes, this justifies his tardiness. It’s like Kimberlys entire family was imported from Matilda, though to be fair given slightly more scruples. But you can see how this could be a dour show. Which it isn’t, it’s funny, but not in a super dark way, in that Family Guy kinda way.

The songs are fun, mostly skewing to the humorous end of the spectrum but with slivers of sweetness and emotions here and there. It’s also a brilliant way to provide a great starring role in a show sure to be popular with young people for an older actor. Carolee Carmello who is playing Kimberly in the tour does a great job of playing a young girl at heart trapped in a body that is aging on her. I’m glad they cast the role as they did, there are enough roles for the young up and coming talents. It’s nice to see one designed for someone who has experience and talent and might otherwise be overlooked for leads. The supporting characters are well concieved, it’s a very small cast, and everyone feels vital. My favorite of them is Miguel Gil who plays Seth, a boy who befriends and sort of boyfriends Kimberly. He has a voice that feels perfect for the young awkward teenage boy and one of my favorite songs in the show, “Good Kid” is an excellent fit for Gil’s talents. The other favorite is Kimberly’s Aunt Debra played by Emily Koch who ropes Kimberly and her friends into a scheme to wash the checks from envelopes she pulls from a Federal mailbox she has stolen.

It’s a testament to the creators David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori that the show works, which it does like gangbusters. It doesn’t seem like a show about a sixteen year old girl who has been treated so unfairly by life and is basically prepared to die at any moment, could be this enjoyable. But it is. Perhaps it’s that underlying sense of dread that makes us laugh all the harder when something so wrong like Debra roping in kids for her check washing crime so they can afford to buy new costumes for their show choir competition. Director Jessica Stone gets the tricky tone just right. It’s small for a Broadway musical, but that really works for it. We have exactly the characters we need to tell the story. The set is really rather complex in the way it transforms to multiple location fully and convincingly, best of all with speed and efficiency. If it sounds too dark for you, I think you’ll be surprised and how funny and entertaining it is.

Kimberly Akimbo runs through Sunday July 13th at Hennepin Arts Orpheum Theatre in Downtown Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://hennepinarts.org/events/kimberly-akimbo-2025

The Stages of MN Jumps Off the Page and Into Your Eyes and Ears. The Good News is, a Short Course of Antibiotics Should Clear it Right Up.

I’m thrilled to announce that after months of hard work The Stages of MN has broken out of the confines of the blog and into new formats. The blog isn’t going away, but you might notice the reviews getting a little shorter. First off is the big one, the YouTube Show! Here is a link to the first episode https://bit.ly/TheStagesofMNEpisode1 . It clocks in at about 40 minutes but I think this first episode earns the extra time. Future episodes will be targeted at a 20 to 30 minute length, which I think is a little more digestible for the average viewer. The shows in general will feature an interview of some kind, a couple of reviews, and a montage of photos taken with people, like yourselves faithful readers, that I run into out at the theater. If you see me out at a show, or anywhere really, except standing at a urinal, don’t be shy, say hi, ask for a photo and you’ll be part of the next episode! I’m hoping this will allow me to meet more of you and connect with you in a more personal way. You love theater! I love theater! You know what I think of every show, but I want to hear what you think, I want to know what you are seeing.

I interviewed Austene Van, the Executive Artistic Director of Yellow Tree Theatre as well as an accomplished Actor, Choreographer, Director, and Writer for the first episode. You’ll see from that interview that we are having some fun with this show, but we’ll also at times talk about some really important things as well. We also have two reviews for shows closing this weekend Significant Other at Lyric Arts and Mae West and the Trial of Sex from Walking Shadow Theater Company. Along with a couple of other fun little items. I’m really proud of the show, it’s not perfect, but we’ll iron out the rough edges over time. For instance the opening sequence which was filmed in the historic Orpheum Theatre for which I’m very grateful to the folks at Hennepin Arts for allowing us to do. I think it came out great, but it is too long, you don’t want to sit through that every week. So sometime in the next few weeks I’ll get that edited down. But I wanted to share the full cut with you. And, if we have an episode that runs a little short in the future, we might pull it out and pop in from time to time.

The second new format is a podcast version of the YouTube show. You can hear the first episode by clicking here https://bit.ly/TSOMNPodcastEpisode1 or searching for The Stages of MN wherever you listen to podcasts. What’s the difference? Well the podcast version is a little shorter as some of the YouTube version is purely visual, like the opening and the photo montage, so those have been cut. My preferred version is the YouTube, but some folks don’t really want to sit and watch something on YouTube. Some would prefer to listen to a podcast, which they can do while driving, exercising, cooking, clipping their nails or shucking corn. And for those folks we have the podcast version, and to them I say happy shucking!!!

So while this exists for you to simply enjoy, you can also help do what this blog and these new versions of The Stages of MN was designed to do in the first place. Share the love of theater. You can help me spread the good words by sharing these shows on your social media pages, subscribing, liking, and reviewing them. For algorithms are a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion, the more these are viewed/listened to, the more the platforms themselves push them out to new folks. That is how we get others into the theater groove with us. They hear about a show and they check it out and then rinse and repeat! So let us rally to Austene Van’s call for us all to work together to ensure that theater does not go quietly into the night but blazes forth and comes out stronger and more vibrant and vital than ever. Theater is under attack, but we can do this.

Gratefully,

Rob Dunkelberger, Founder and Grand Poobah of The Stages of MN

Sixpack is a Little Flat But Fizzes to Life Thanks to the Secondary Characters at Jungle Theater

Megan Kim, Dexieng “Dae” Yang, Phasoua Vang, Pagnia Xiong Photo by Lauren B. Photography

Sixpack, a new play by Katie Ka Vang is having it’s world premiere at the Jungle Theater in Uptown. It’s a play in which the game of Volleyball plays a central roll in the lives of the woman of the Hmong community of MN. Jumping forwards and backwards in time, the central story is about the friendship between Pam and Jou, or that is to say what happened to that friendship. We see them estranged in the present when Jou, now a Vollyball professional, comes home in time for a fundraiser for her sick mother. In the past, Pam helps her bestie Jou through an unplanned pregnancy. It leads up to a moment when we learn what Jou did to earn the cold shoulder she receives from Pam. The problem with the play is that this central relationship is the least interesting thing about it. What is far more interesting than these two young women are their Mothers and Aunties. Maybe it’s that the older generation is played more for laughs, but those laughs are earned and relatable. It’s hard not to find yourself rolling your eyes at the Pam’s rigid anger, that isn’t even about the thing she has a right to be angry about. In fact, I’m not entirely sure it’s really clear what the chip on her shoulder is about. Jou, is slightly more relatable, she appears to be trying, but her betrayal is hard to get past when we learn of it. No, everything with them just seems a little underwhelming. The heart, and there is a good deal of it, comes from the older generation and I wish the play had either spent more time on them or integrated the two stories a little more.

Ashely Horiuchi plays Pam, Dorothy Vang plays Jou, and there isn’t anything wrong with their performances; the characters are just under developed, with too much attitude for attitudes sake. The real stars are the elders, the best of which is Dexieng “Dae” Yang who brings the energy up to eleven when she bursts on stage as Smiles, Jou’s Mother. As the character states she’s not like other mothers, she has attitude but it seems to come from inside and never rings false. She’s wild, loud, and very blunt and comes across like a force of nature as a young mother, as the older sick mother, she brings it down but never completely lets the fire go out, you can see it waiting to burst through. The other favorite is Phasoua Vang as Windy, who the girls ensnare to pose as Jou’s mother at planned parenthood. She’s the irresponsible friend of the girls mothers who never has a job, is always drunk or stoned, all of which could play very cartoonish but somehow just ends up being very funny and kind of endearing.

The show is directed by Dr. Sara Pillatzki Warzeha who injects some dynamic visuals into the staging. There’s little actual volleyball playing, but what there is was creatively staged. Including a final shot that might make you flinch in you’re in seated in one of the front rows, like I was. Ursula K. Bowden’s set and prop designs are well formulated and executed, there is a nice reveal of a secondary location that was surprising. I always enjoy a set that doesn’t reveal itself entirely at the beginning. I also do want to mention the Lighting Designer Claudia Errickson and Sound Designer Erin Bednarz, as there are several very effective lighting and sound effects like the glow of an off stage TV with the sounds of a VHS tape being loaded in a VCR. The show has several of those little moments that catch your attention and are very well done.

Sixpack runs through June 29th at the Jungle Theater in Uptown. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.jungletheater.org/sixpack

Now more than ever in the wake of the most recent election and the hailstorm of stupidity and hate it has unleashed, theater companies need you and we need them. Buy tickets to shows, go out and support work that reflects diversity and inclusiveness. Donate to your favorite theater companies, don’t wait until they are on the brink of shutting down. We all need to stand up and fight for our theaters whose funding is under attack for promoting inclusion, equality and diversity. In short, theaters are being threatened for sharing stories that reflect our countries cultural and racial diversity.

Don’t depend on a Facebook or Instagram algorithm to insure you hear about a great show. You can subscribe and have every post from The Stages of MN sent directly to your email box. It’s the best way to ensure you don’t miss out on any of the theater action. 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. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn.

Think I may have steered you wrong on a show? Well, I’m also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read review roundups of shows by m’colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. New things are in the work! Click here to go to The Stages of MN YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@TheStagesofMN. Right now there is just a short introductory video, but there will be much more coming this summer. For now, check out the intro video and subscribe to the channel so that when we fully launch you’ll be the first to know!

Finding J Mitchell is a Fun, Light Whodunnit With a Nicely Constructed Script.

Finding J Mitchell is a new comedy murder mystery play by Kiernon James having its world premiere this month at the Gremlin Theatre in St. Paul. The setting is the Shady Oak Lodge in Wisconsin run by Shelly and Jerry Brenner. It’s a quite place, where nothing ever happens at least according to the young errand girl, Molly. That is until now, with thirteen characters two of which will be dead before the end of the play there are plenty of suspects and lots of clues to mislead the audience.

Alison Anderson, Edwin Strout, Ward Eames, Nicole Wood Photo by BTE Media

Rounding out the locals are Chuck, Jerry’s hunting buddy who is also the town Sheriff and his deputy and Molly’s father Rob (no relation). Guests include Diane, a Senator whom Shelly used to be an Aid for; Kyle, her current aid; Alex, a P.I. from Chicago whose on the trail of a burglar known as J. Mitchell; Belinda, who is Alex’s client and wants the burglar who also killed her husband caught; Victoria Reichert, the governor’s wife who arrives a day early unexpectedly; Nate, her driver; Heather Sullivan, a journalist on the trail of a story; and a mysterious psychic named Jolie Donavon who arrives without notice. There is a survey in the program that allows you to keep track of the characters and make your guesses during intermission to compare with your friends afterwards. I got one of the who dunnits right, but didn’t quite have the motive figured out. It’s a very well scripted mystery with red herrings and real clues aplenty. The solution(s) make sense but are anything but simple and straight forward, which makes it hard to solve, but possible, which is the best kind of mystery.

The performances are good enough for what this is. Special shout out to my favorite performer of the show, Elliot Mayne who plays the young errand girl Molly, whom I’d guess was about 10 years old give or take 2 years, great job! If you like whodunnits, which I do, this is something to check out. If you do not, there’s not going to be anything to recommend this to you. There is definitely a community theater feel to the production. It has a solid set design by Marvin Jonason, some nice lighting effects and sound design from Ariel Pinkerton and Robert Hoffman, I’m a sucker for an effective thunderstorm. The costumes by Genevieve Kafka are nicely realized I really thought the garb worn by Jerry and Chuck helped telegraph their characters nicely right from the start. The show is directed by Brian P. Joyce effectively moving the multitude of characters in and out of the space leaving you always a little off balance in terms of remembering who was where and when. I brought the Aged P with me for Mother’s Day and we both really enjoyed the mystery and trying to figure out the solution. It’s a show best suited for Britbox junkies and Murder She Wrote fans, if that sounds like you, this should be a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.

Finding J Mitchell runs through June 1st at the Gremlin Theatre in St. Paul. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://kiernonjames.com/fjm-show/

No Sisters Completes a Unique and Rewarding Theatrical Experience

**Marci Lucht, Derek “Duck” Washington** Photo by Alex Wohlhueter

No Sisters is a companion play to Chekhov’s Three Sisters written by Aaron Posner. It is designed to be performed simultaneously in separate spaces in the same facility as Seven of the Actors in Three Sisters also play their characters in No Sisters. It’s amazing how precisely they are timed so that they reach the end of each act at the same time, they reach intermission at the same time and they finish at exactly the same time. The setting for No Sisters is listed as an existential greenroom and I don’t think I could say it any better. The seven characters that carry between the two plays are Andrei, the brother of the three sisters; his wife Natasha; Baron, who is in love with the youngest sister Irina; Vasily Solyony, Baron’s best friend who is very strange and also in love with Irina; Alexey Fedotik, a young soldier who also loves Irina; Fydor Kulygin, who is married to the middle sister Masha; and Anfisa, the elderly Nanny who has worked for Andrei’s family for 30 years. The Actors play the roles straight in Three Sisters but in No Sisters, while they do stay in character, they are also aware that they are in a play. It’s all fairly meta, slightly participatory, very funny, but also provides a deeper insight into some major characters and other lesser ones. Posner’s play also makes room for a more positive outlook on life. The character Alexey Fedotik rejects the opinions of his elders and espouses his belief that people are capable of change. Played by Jonathan Edwards who so joyfully delivers a speech with shining optimism that he got a rare mid-scene applause from the audience.

As with Three sisters, probably because it’s the same actors, there isn’t a weak performance in the entire cast. As noted in my Three Sisters review Duck Washington and Sean Dillon are great as Andrei and Baron. Here they get to add greater depth to their characters and fill in motivations and backstory. Jeremy Motz gets to really go full scary about to go postal with the character of Vasily Solyony, he not only addresses the audience directly but actually criticizes and shows distain for us. As they used to say in the early days of 20th Century Russia, “that’s so Vasily of him”. Motz is funny, but also intense and truly a little scary, it’s a great performance driven by an underlying current of volatility. Meri Golden plays the elderly Nanny Anfisa, and she gets to do so much more than we see in Three Sisters. We get greater insight into her relationship with Andrei and we even get to see her face her younger self via a video with May Heinecke playing a young Anfisa. There is a wonderful lesson contained in that video scene, one that contains as an important a message as Edwards’ speech as Alexey. The two performers that already had nice juicy roles in Three Sisters get the opportunity to clarify and deepen their characters. They are Marci Lucht as Natasha and Matt Wall as Fyodor Kulygin. As much as I enjoyed Lucht’s performance in Three Sisters, this one tops it. At times she is a complete bitch and then at others she becomes so incredibly emotionally open and vulnerable, it’s a revelation. Wall’s character in Three Sisters is pitiable, but in No Sisters the character is revealed to have more intelligence, and depth. While in the other play he is amusingly boring, in this play he is genuinely fascinating.

If you can only see one, see Three Sisters. And if you do want to see both, which I highly recommend, I encourage you to see Three Sisters first for the most rewarding experience. But book early, because of the space available in the theater lobby, there are not as many tickets to No Sisters. In fact some performances have already sold out. I went into No Sisters expecting it to be good, how could it not with this cast, but was also prepared for a decent sized dip in quality between the plays. And there is no denying that Three Sisters is the better individual play. For one thing it can stand on it’s own better than No Sisters could. But while Posner’s play is not the Masterpiece that Chekhov’s is, it is very good, very very good. Smartly it isn’t trying to do what Chekhov’s play is doing, it’s something entirely new that comments on the original play, in fact could not exist without it, but does so in a fresh and non traditional way. Julie K. Phillips’ direction is as perfect for this play as Carin Bratlie Wethern’s was for Three Sisters.

This is the sort of theatrical situation that doesn’t happen very often and so it’s important to jump on it while you can. Three Sisters and No Sisters runs through May 24th at the Crane Theater in North Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.theatreprorata.org/2025-season

Violet From Ten Thousand Things Is a Bus Trip Worth Taking

Annika Isbell, Tom Reed in the background Photo by Tom Wallace

Violet is another tribute to the inventiveness and creativity of the artists that gravitate to Ten Thousand Things (TTT). This is the company whose modus operandi is that their entire set, props, and costumes have to fit in a U-haul trailer. They do this so they can travel with the shows making theater available to all. They travel all over from senior living homes to recovery centers and correctional facilities. They perform in the round with all the lights up and they rely on the actors to create most of the world in which the shows take place. It takes creativity to direct and skilled actors to help paint the world of the story on the canvas of the audiences minds. While they eschew the use of lighting they do, as you may suspect, utilize music, which is very handy when performing a musical. And here is where I issue the words of caution I have shared before, but failed to heed myself this time. Don’t sit next to Music Director Sanford Moore. I’m sure he’s a lovely man, it’s not that, it’s just that being right next to the music at a show performed in the round with no mics, some of the lyrics get drowned out. It’s my own fault, I know better, I just forgot, but I encourage you to sit on the opposite side of the room for a more balanced sound.

The story follows a young woman named Violet who is taking a Greyhound bus from Spruce Pine, NC to Tulsa, OK in 1964. She is going to see a healing televangelist in hopes that he will use the power of God to remove the large scar she has on her face that was caused by an axe head. On the bus she meets two soldiers one black and one white named Flick and Monty, they are dealing indirectly with their own issues concerning race and the Vietnam war. Those are not the focus of the show, they are just part of setting the place and time of the story. She befriends the soldiers and they form bonds and find solace in each other. The story is intercut with scenes of young Violet and her father, which help to inform the 1964 scenes. Violet feels like an outsider because of the disfigurement, but one of the things I liked about the show is it doesn’t paint her as a victim. There are scenes that could have been told in a way that would make her appear that she was taken advantage of, but the musical doesn’t go there. She gets what she needs from interactions and she knows how to take care of herself.

Annika Isbell plays Violet in her TTT debut, she has a nice voice and I was particularly captivated by her song “Lay Down Your Head“, which to my mind was much to short, as it’s a very beautiful bit of music. I’m not sure if other productions create a scar on Violet and if TTT doesn’t in keeping with their lean approach, but I don’t think seeing the scar would add anything to the production. Mitchell Douglas and Ryan London Levin play flick and Monty and both get moments to take the spotlight. Douglas’s big song is “Let it Sing” and boy does he, I also liked the movement that Director Kelli Foster Warder designed for that song having Douglas up on the seats of the bus in his uniform had a classic feel to it. Levin’s character seems like he’s going to be the typical jerk just out for a good time, but a turn to sincerity, when it comes, feels very authentic. Tom Reed who plays the Preacher, brought me right back to the one of the first times I saw him on stage in what I still consider one of the best musicals I’ve ever seen Interstate: The Musical by Melissa Li and Kit Yan. He’s so good at playing Preachers, and bus drivers, and… oh who am I kidding, he’s always great in everything and this is no exception. The cast is rounded out by very talented cast playing multiple roles including the divine Lynnea Doublette fantastic as a Gospel Singer. Sophina Saggau who plays Young Violet, Kate Beahen as an older woman who befriends Violet on the bus, and Charlie Clark as violet’s father.

Violet is creatively staged by Director Kelli Foster Warder with Music Direction by Sanford Moore, whom I will remind you again not to sit next to. The costumes by Samantha Fromm Haddow have a great period feel to them and the sets and props by Sarah Bahr while simple are extremely versatile and perfect for a TTT production. Violet runs through June 1st at various locations. To learn more and to purchase tickets go to https://tenthousandthings.org/violet/