STRANGE HEART: The Dream Songs of John Berryman is… Different. So a Perfect Fit for Open Eye Theatre

Bradley Greenwald & Anna Hashizume Photo by Bruce Silcox

Strange Heart: The Dream Songs of John Berryman is different. Not bad different, but very much its own thing. It centers on Pulitzer Prize winning poet John Berryman, who died by suicide in 1972, the year I was born, which may explain why I wasn’t very familiar with him going in.

Billed as a jazz-infused operetta, the show primarily focuses on one of Berryman’s hospitalizations for alcohol abuse. There, we meet a puppet named Henry, representing his subconscious and giving him someone to interact with beyond his nurse and his wife. Through reminiscences, we get backstory about his mother, his father, and his wife, Kate.

Much of the show unfolds in a fluid, stream-of-consciousness style. The subject matter is dark, but the tone is decidedly humorous. Bradley Greenwald plays Berryman with an almost impish sense of humor, as if everything is a joke and most people, aside from him and Henry, aren’t in on it. There’s a song about whiskey that he performs with Sam Albright, who puppeteers and voices Henry, and it’s genuinely delightful, or at least as delightful as an alcoholic singing about whiskey with a puppet can be. If that sentence makes you wonder what the hell this show is, that’s exactly the point. It’s different, with a capital DIFF.

There are also sweet moments, such as the first date between Berryman and Kate, played by the always fabulous Anna Hashizume, and another where they reminisce about those early days. The duet they share looking back, along with the whiskey song, are the musical highlights.

This world premiere, written and composed by Greg Brosofske, runs about 90 minutes with no intermission, which feels like the perfect length. There are only five or six songs total, fewer than I expected. It’s definitely not a play, but it also feels a bit light on songs to be a full musical. “Operetta” is probably the closest label, though even that doesn’t quite capture it. Again, it’s its own thing. And if you find it’s not your kind of thing, well, I refer you back to the 90 minutes, no intermission.

Directed and designed by Joel Sass, the production has that Open Eye Theatre aesthetic I love. Sass has a knack for offbeat material and feels like a perfect match here. Music direction is by Wesley Frye, and his quartet provides exactly the right sound for the venue. As an added bonus, they entertain the audience with 15–20 minutes of preshow music. Remember when Theater Latté Da used to do that for shows like Once and Hedwig?

Strange Heart: The Dream Songs of John Berryman runs through March 22 at Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. For more information and tickets go to https://www.openeyetheatre.org/strange-heart

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Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope Uplifts the Audience While Refracting a Spotlight Through the Prism of Black America

The Cast of Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope (March 2026 Penumbra Theatre) Photo Credit Caroline Yang

Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope is a historic piece of musical theater, the first Broadway show with music and lyrics by a Black woman and also the first Broadway show directed by a Black woman. That was back in 1972, the year I was born. The similarities end there.

Micki Grant’s musical revue doesn’t have a traditional narrative. There are no discernible continuing characters moving throughout the show, and no dialogue to speak of. And yet it feels as though each new number is a short story, complete with characters, a theme, and its own unique tone. Each of these short stories looks at the lives of Black Americans through a different social, political, or cultural lens.

Unlike other works that strive to examine the Black experience, this one feels like it’s looking at it from the inside rather than presenting it for an outside perspective. That allows the show to be, above all else, a celebration. This isn’t a laundry list of injustices or righteous grievances. It’s the world through a perspective shared by many in the audience and, for others like myself, perhaps a clearer sense of how that world looks.

What the show gets incredibly right is that no one is the sum of the bad things that happen to them. If that were true, all of us living under Trump would be defined either by our ignorance or by our outrage. I am more than my outrage, because outrage alone is no way to live a life. As with this show, many of the songs deal with social issues, and there are moments when the show allows that outrage to breathe. But it always reminds us that people living with outrage day in and day out still find ways to let joy in.

I want to convey as strongly as I can that this is not a work about anger and injustice. It’s a beautiful, engaging, uplifting, and ultimately joyous experience. It acknowledges reality and shows how people deal with that reality, by not letting it win, by fighting when they can, and by finding laughter, love, and yes, joy wherever they can. By refusing to be defined by what others have done to them.

The songs move through styles including gospel, jazz, funk, soul, and rock, though my personal favorite was the calypso flavor that kept popping up. One of the best songs early in the show, “Goin’ to Town This Morning,” immediately made me think of my favorite Donna Summer song, “Unconditional Love.” That number features one of my favorites, Austene Van, on lead vocals, reminding me yet again how amazing she is.

But here’s the thing: the entire cast is amazing. I could easily sit here and list every performer and tell you my favorite moment for each of them. But then I wouldn’t get to bed, and you’d probably stop reading a quarter of the way through. Suffice it to say they are all terrific, including Twin Cities Theater Blogger Favorite Emerging Artist of 2025 Antonisia Collins. This is her first role since winning the award, and it reassures us that we got that one absolutely right.

And Mrs. The Stages of MN would kill me if I didn’t also mention Aimee K. Bryant, who gave her goosebumps every time she sang. Did I know Bryant could sing? She can’t possibly be that good and I never noticed, so I must have known and simply forgotten.

Before wrapping up, I do want to acknowledge a few of the backstage artists. First, Patdro Harris, who directs the show so that each song has a distinct and clearly told story. Harris is also getting my nomination for Best Choreographer, one of the elements that makes this production truly unforgettable. Sanford Moore’s music direction, and the sound he gets from his band, is so thrilling that there wasn’t a moment in the entire runtime when I wasn’t bobbing along or clapping to the beat. The energy of some of these numbers is absolutely infectious.

I also want to mention projection designer Miko Simmons, whose work is exceptional. The projections add texture and weight where needed without overwhelming the show’s overwhelmingly positive “Good Vibrations“.

Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope runs through April 5 at Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit:
https://penumbratheatre.org/event/dont-bother-me-i-cant-cope/#4

Cake is Bittersweet With Layers of Rich Emotions Sprinkled With a Dash of Grounding Realism. Yep I Cried at Theatre in the Round

Natavia Lewis, Via Logan, and Jenny Ramirez Photo by Aaron Mark Photo Film

The Cake isn’t your play-it-safe, fairy-tale-ending play about bringing social consciousness to “The South”. You know what I mean when I put “The South” in quotation marks. I’ve made enough comments in these reviews and on the YouTube show that you probably know which side of the bed I fall out of. If you’re reading this, I assume you either land on the same side or at least respect the differences in our sleeping arrangements.

This isn’t really a play about changing someone’s views. It’s about personal growth, and about learning to push back against the things that feel wrong, even when doing so is uncomfortable.

Della, a Southern baker with strong Christian values, is asked to bake a wedding cake for her late best friend’s daughter, Jen. The complication? Jen is marrying another woman, Macy. Della who has trouble supporting this, is supported by her husband Tim. Jen, meanwhile, tries to appease everyone in her life, including Macy, who does not quietly suffer fools. It’s safe to say the situation turns all of their worlds upside down.

What follows is a tender, funny, and complicated reckoning with faith, friendship, love, and tradition. You may think you know how it ends, but it isn’t as neat and tidy as we expect. The play repeatedly subverts expectations, taking turns I didn’t anticipate.

As Della begins to question her stance, she’s also forced to confront other aspects of her life, including her marriage. There’s a pivotal scene in which she confronts Tim, beginning with their sexual relationship and expanding into questions of power dynamics. Depending on your age and relationship experience, their marriage may feel either deeply wrong or deeply real. I don’t personally agree with their dynamic, but there’s a difference between someone imposing a patriarchal structure and a couple who have simply been raised to believe that’s how things should be. Playwright Bekah Brunstetter deserves credit for wading into these murkier waters and embracing nuance. It allows us to see Della and Tim as a real couple, not just a couple from “The South.” By the end, both show a willingness to try, even if neither transforms into a tree-hugging leftist exploring gluten-free veganism and queer theory.

Jenny Ramirez as Della and D’aniel Stock as Tim deliver what we used to euphemistically call “brave” performances. This is where I warn you that this show contains strong language, sexual situations, and partial nudity. Since I doubt I have many 13-year-old readers, I don’t feel like I’m driving exploitative ticket sales by saying so. Ramirez and Stock deserve real credit for their vulnerability, which is what those scenes are about. These scenes are not about titillation, pardon the pun, but about two people opening up to each other in ways they haven’t in years. That’s difficult and deeply human. Is it necessary? I think it’s not only effective but appropriate in this play. It grounds the play and gives the audience a way in. Like Endometriosis The Musical last summer, it creates space for conversations we should be having more openly.

The entire cast is strong, but Ramirez especially impressed me. She plays the character who we assume in most audiences minds has it wrong. She never completely changes, but she does grow, and her performance allows us to view the character sympathetically and to understand her, even if we don’t agree with her. Stock likewise keeps Tim recognizable and grounded, never slipping into caricature.

Natavia Lewis brings confidence and clarity to Macy. She isn’t militant; she’s persuasive, thoughtful, and firm in who she is. Via Logan gives a moving performance as Jen, caught painfully in the middle. She beautifully captures the difficulty of embracing an identity that challenges everything she was raised to believe, not just about her sexuality, but about how those in her orbit think about people from “The South.” It’s an emotionally raw performance that hit home. And yes, I cried. Big surprise.

I’ve avoided mentioning Kjer Whiting as George until now because he provides something entirely different: delightful bursts of comedic fantasy that act as perfect palate cleansers between heavier scenes. It’s impeccable casting. It’s hard to imagine anyone else frosting those lines with quite the same flair.

Director Jennie Ward and Intimacy Director H. Ashley deserve enormous credit for bringing this production to vivid life. Ashley handles the intimacy between Della and Tim with a clear understanding of how longtime partners differ from young lovers. In contrast, the physicality between Jen and Macy emphasizes passion and immediacy over familiarity. Ward makes a particularly effective choice in overlapping Jen and Macy’s love scene with Della lying awake in bed, trying not to think about them. It deepens the emotional resonance of a later moment and ties the themes together beautifully.

The Cake is thoughtful, funny, and deeply human. It doesn’t hand you easy answers, and that’s precisely its strength.

The Cake runs through March 15th at Theatre in the Round. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.theatreintheround.org/thecake/

Watch the 2025 TCTB Awards on the one of the latest episode of The Stages of MN YouTube Show!! https://bit.ly/TSOMNEp25YouTube

Ride the Cyclone is a Dark and Wild Ride You Should Take, While You Can at Lyric Arts

The cast of RIDE THE CYCLONE Photo by: Dan Norman

The last three or four months have given me the opportunity to see several unique musicals that don’t get produced very often, the kind of cult shows most people have never heard of, but musical theater fans whisper about. Ride the Cyclone falls squarely into that category. After an Off-Broadway run in 2016 and, to the best of my knowledge, only one previous local production in 2019, which I did not see (possibly at the Jungle Theater, though I may be misremembering), this is not a show that comes around often.

I almost missed it this time as well. I was originally scheduled to see it earlier in the run, but a road closure and poor road conditions conspired to keep me away. I’m very glad I finally made it. If you enjoy bizarre, off-center musicals, I strongly encourage you to catch Ride the Cyclone before it closes at Lyric Arts in Anoka on February 8. Who knows when, or even if, it will be mounted locally again.

The musical is narrated by an animatronic fortune teller machine and centers on six teenagers stuck in limbo after dying in a roller coaster derailment at an amusement park. They’re told that one of them will be allowed to return to life, while the others will remain dead. The show unfolds as each character presents their case through song, revealing who they are and why they deserve to be the one who survives. Five of the teens are members of the St. Cassian High School Chamber Choir. The sixth is a mystery, known only as Jane Doe. She doesn’t know who she is either and moves through the show like a cross between a robot and a nonviolent zombie.

After the performance, the usual post-show question, “Who was your favorite?”, yielded no clear answer, which feels exactly right for this production. Ride the Cyclone is a true ensemble piece, and its underlying message is that no one is more worthy than anyone else. Every performer gets a moment to shine, and each character leaves an impression.

The real standout here may be the production design. Scenic design by Cory Skold, properties by Ren Edson, costumes by Sarah Christenson, lighting by Shannon Elliott, sound design by Paul Estby, and projections by Michaela Lochen all combine under the assured direction of Marci Lucht to create a striking, immersive visual experience. It’s a dark carnival brought vividly to life.

When I think back on the show, I don’t immediately hear the songs replaying in my head, though several are quite good, but rather the images and sensations. Jane Doe levitating. Roller coaster tracks climbing the walls of the stage. The giant rat. The Great Cassandra, perfectly played by Dezhane Antoinette. The sound of the roller coaster itself, rumbling even before the show begins. And the video design that opens the show and punctuates key moments throughout.

Ride the Cyclone feels less like a traditional musical and more like a trip through a shadowy carnival, full of unexpected thrills, strange beauty, and moments of genuine wonder.

Ride The Cyclone runs through February 8th at Lyric Arts in Anoka. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.lyricarts.org/ride-the-cyclone

Watch the 2025 TCTB Awards on the latest episode of The Stages of MN YouTube Show!! https://bit.ly/TSOMNEp25YouTube

Something Rotten Has Sold Out It’s Entire Run

The Cast of Unlabeled Theatre Company’s Production of Something Rotten

What did I think of Unlabeled Theatre Company’s production of Something Rotten!?
In a practical sense, it doesn’t matter, because as of opening night, the entire run is completely sold out. That’s a wonderful problem for any theater company to have. But Unlabeled Theatre Company isn’t just any theater company.

The company exists to create opportunities for adults with disabilities to participate in theater. Every role is performed by an actor who has a cognitive and/or physical disability or is neurodivergent, paired with a neurotypical Shadow Partner. Together, the two performers share the role, performing it in unison.

Right now, those of us who love theater are thinking a lot about the importance of art and its power to change the world. Sometimes those sentiments can feel grand, idealistic, or even a little naïve, especially when the world feels as bleak as it does right now. In moments like these, when we need art the most, our convictions can start to feel implausible.

Then you see a show like this.

It reminds you that change doesn’t always look big. Sometimes it’s small and precious, like changing one person’s understanding of what they are capable of. What they can do. What they can become. That’s what Unlabeled Theatre Company does: it creates possibility and hope.

On this night, the performance showed everyone in the room, but especially those on stage, what they could do. That may sound small, but for those who shared that moment, it was enormous. And the thing about small changes is that they ripple outward. It’s not just the people on stage whose worlds expand; it’s the person in the audience who recognizes themselves in someone performing. Who sees, through that person, that maybe they, too, can do something they were once made to believe they couldn’t.

At the beginning, I said it doesn’t matter what I thought of this show, but of course it does. You don’t need my review to convince you to see a show you can’t buy a ticket for. What I can do is this: I can tell you how beautiful this evening was. How it reminded me that there is still humanity among us. That there are people and organizations in a world that often feels flooded with cruelty who are choosing instead to lift others up.

Will this review sell another ticket? No, not this time. But maybe it sends you to their website. Maybe you subscribe to their newsletter so the next time they produce a show, you don’t miss it. Maybe it reminds you that there are forces in this world that aren’t trying to exclude or diminish, but to expand, to affirm, and to celebrate. To remind us that every person has value, and every person has something to share.

Everyone was great, and the standing ovation at the end wasn’t a “look what you did” moment. It was deeply felt and completely earned. We were genuinely entertained and moved by the music, the laughter, and the joy that radiated from the stage.

While you can’t see this production, I strongly encourage you to visit Unlabeled Theatre Company’s website and join their mailing list to stay connected to their work https://unlabeledtheatre.org/. I Hope you get to experience the magic of one of these performances, you will be amazed at the talent on stage.

If you’re able, consider making a donation to help them continue this vital mission.

Watch the 2025 TCTB Awards on the latest episode of The Stages of MN YouTube Show!! https://bit.ly/TSOMNEp25YouTube

Plano Is a Fast Paced Darkly Humorous Journey Into Another Plane of Reality at Mixed Blood

Plano, the play by Will Arbery, falls under the heading of experimental theater, a phrase that can trigger flashbacks to previous traumas in much the same way the term performance art often does. This production marks the first full-length show from the new company Third Space Theater, which had a breakout hit with Breach at last year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival. Thankfully, the group of up-and-coming theater makers behind Third Space Theater weaponizes experimental theater as a way to engage and entertain the audience rather than alienate them.

Plano is a strange play that moves at breakneck speed, condensing time, sometimes within the space of a single sentence. Co-directors Alex Church and Em Adam Rosenberg guide the cast with a perfectly calibrated tone: not quite grounded in reality, but not completely detached from it either. That balance allows the increasingly unmoored narrative to unfold in a way that feels deliberate rather than chaotic.

The story focuses on three sisters, played by The Stages of MN newly minted “Must See” performer Stephanie Kahle, and what I suspect are future members of that club, Hannah Leatherbarrow and Mariabella Sorini. The sisters seem cursed in distinctly unsettling ways: one is married to a man who is clearly gay while her house is infested with slugs; another’s husband is abusive, and he multiplies; the third suffers from mysterious ailments. Their memories become their nightmares, and they move through them, interacting with and attempting to normalize the bizarre circumstances surrounding their lives.

The cast is impressive in how they mine humor from the dialogue purely through delivery. They never play a joke; instead, the laughter emerges naturally from their complete acceptance of the absurd. Beyond the three sisters, the cast includes Jennifer D’Lynn, Ben Qualley, Samuel Osborne-Huerta, and Michel Hundevad as a faceless ghost. Everyone is fully aligned tonally, contributing to the dreamlike, or perhaps nightmarishly unreal, quality of the piece.

Plano is a thinker. It’s the kind of show that will take days to fully process. And yet, it’s also immediately entertaining, I was able to write about how much I enjoyed it barely an hour after leaving the theater. At a brisk 85 minutes with no intermission, it flies by.

I highly recommend this production, and if you can, try to attend one of the performances that includes a preshow concert by co-director and choreographer Em Adam Rosenberg. It’s well worth arriving an extra half hour early. Those dates are January 9, 10, 12, 17, and 18.

Plano runs through January 18 at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis.
For more information and tickets, visit:
https://tix.gobo.show/events/event/r5FkUiiCpqF7daXpAl2N

Watch for the 2025 TCTB Awards to be announced on the next episode of The Stages of MN YouTube Show!!

The Stages of MN: Looking Back at the Year That Was 2025!

2025 has been a very eventful year for The Stages of MN. I want to thank you, faithful readers and now viewers, for being here. Knowing you’re out there reading and watching is what keeps me doing this. I especially want to thank those of you who come up to me at shows, introduce yourselves, and share your thoughts on what I’m putting out there. I love getting those photos together too, let’s try to ramp that up even more in 2026.

Of course, the biggest thing that happened in the world in 2025 was the launch of The Stages of MN YouTube Show and Podcast. On June 18, the first episode premiered, featuring an interview with Austene Van, Artistic Director of Yellow Tree Theatre. Since launching, I’ve released 24 full episodes as well as four mini-episodes covering the Minnesota Fringe Festival.

When I launched the show, I was unemployed and able to devote a lot of time to its creation. Even so, with the addition of the YouTube show, adjustments had to be made to accommodate the increased workload. After my application for more hours in the day was rejected, I determined that two things needed to happen: first, I needed to cut back on the number of shows I saw, and second, I needed to tighten things up. That became even more true once I acquired full-time employment. Easier said than done.

In 2024, I posted 147 blog entries, compared to 168 in 2025, though some of those were tied to episodes. The average word count per post in 2024 was 1,001 words, while 2025 saw a decrease to an average of 903, progress! Blog views grew from 72,200 in 2024 to 74,500 in 2025. Episodes of the YouTube show received 4,364 views in 2025, and the channel currently has 140 subscribers. The blog has 375 subscribers, up 160 from 2024.

Subscribers are wonderful, and we love them, but the vast majority of views come from social media. The site continues to grow steadily, which means more people are seeing the reviews, and hopefully more people are getting out to see live theater. Readers can help the site grow by following The Stages of MN on Facebook and Instagram. Like, share, and, why not subscribe? When you see a review you like, like it. When you see one you love, share it. Encourage friends to follow as well. The more visibility we have, the further the reach, and the more likely it is that someone who isn’t a regular theatergoer will stumble across a post and be inspired to check out a show.

Creating new audiences for live theater needs to be the objective of anyone in theater or anyone who loves theater. The second objective is to create or promote great theater, which hopefully leads to goal three: turning occasional theatergoers into regular theatergoers. I’m trying to do my part. I saw over 190 shows in 2025 and wrote reviews of 189 separate productions.

Now comes the moment where I share my Top Fives for 2025 in three categories: Touring Productions, Locally Produced Plays, and Locally Produced Musicals. These lists are not ranked; they are listed alphabetically.

The Stages of MN Top 5 Touring Productions:

& Juliet
Kimberly Akimbo
Life of Pi
Phantom of the Opera
The Wiz

The Stages of MN Top 5 Locally Produced Plays:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Guthrie)
Pride & Prejudice (Theatre in the Round)
Primary Trust (Guthrie)
Somewhere (Guthrie)
Three Sisters / No Sisters (Theatre Pro Rata)

The Stages of MN Top 5 Locally Produced Musicals:

Endometriosis: The Musical (Theatre in the Round)
Lizzie: The Rock Musical (Open Eye Theatre)
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Elision Playhouse)
Once on This Island (Artistry)
Whoa, Nellie! The Outlaw King of the Wild Middle West (History Theatre)

Every year I add a few performers to my personal “Must-See” list, actors, dancers, and singers who stood out over the course of the year. Sometimes they’re artists I’ve never seen before; other times they’ve moved from “I really like what they’re doing” to “I need to see everything they do.” A few of the names that already adorn that list: Tyler Michaels King, Max Wojtanowicz, Joy Dolo, Shanan Custer, Daniel Petzold, Em Adam Rosenberg, Jeffrey Nolan, Allison Vincent, Brendan Nelson Finn, Grace Hillmyer, and Noah Hynick, to name just a few.

Here are the additions to The Stages of MN Must-See List for 2025:

Tara Borman (Endometriosis: The Musical at Theatre in the Round; Rollicking! A Winter Carnival Musical at History Theatre)
Dustin Bronson (A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Guthrie; Love and Baseball at Artistry; Misery at Yellow Tree Theatre)
Antonisia Collins (Robin Hood at Zephyr Theatre; Once on This Island at Artistry)
Anna Hashizume (Grease at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres; My Fair Lady at Theater Latté Da)
Stephanie Kahle (The Crucible at Night Fire Theatre; Breach at MN Fringe; Pride & Prejudice at Theatre in the Round)
Nubia Monks (Paradise Blue at Penumbra Theatre; The Nacirema Society at the Guthrie; Primary Trust at the Guthrie)
Hawken Paul (Legacy of Light at Theatre in the Round; Bart and Arnie from Melancholics Anonymous; Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 at Elision Playhouse; multiple MN Fringe shows)

It was another great year for theater, and I’m very much looking forward to 2026. I hope you are as well. I write about theater and love it, but I’m not an extrovert. That said, I genuinely enjoy meeting readers and artists, so if you see me at a show, please stop over and say hi. Ask for a picture, and I’ll put you in the “At a Show With…” montage in future YouTube episodes.

The Stages of MN is always open to partnering with theaters to participate in or help facilitate pre- and post-show discussions or events. If that’s of interest, reach out. We’re also always looking for sponsors for the YouTube show. If you’re interested in sponsoring an episode, email me at robdunkelberger@thestagesofmn.com. You don’t have to be theater related, if you’re a reader or viewer with a business to promote, reach out and we’ll figure something out.

This year I also launched The Stages of MN +1 Club. I usually get two tickets to shows, but when a plus-one cancels or everyone’s busy, I text the +1 Club. Want in? Send me your name and phone number. When I have an extra ticket, I’ll text the group, and the first person to reply directly gets to come see a show with me for free. No group-text chaos allowed.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support, faithful readers and viewers. And now, in the immortal words of Carol Jackson:

“Go see a show!”