Mood Swings At The Hive Collaborative Explores Two of Sinatra’s “Concept” Albums

The newly opened The Hive Collaborative is doing a lot of interesting things, if you haven’t stopped over to check them out yet I highly recommend it. So far I’ve been to 16 bar Bingo, which they host the final Monday of every month and now Mood Swings. The Hive Collaborative is located in what used to be Dreamland Arts, it was recently purchased by local theater professionals Laura Rudolph Morris and Eric Morris, you can learn more about their dreams for the space on a recent episode of Twin Cities Theater Chat here. To find out what’s on their schedule and to purchase tickets to upcoming events you can go to https://www.thehivecollaborativemn.com/ Mood Swings in running through Monday February 19th, so there’s still a chance to see it, but don’t think about it too long.

Billed as an Exploration of the Concept Albums of Frank Sinatra. The show is conceived and performed by Eric Morris along with Music Director Luke Aaron Davidson who accompanies him on piano and adds vocals in a couple of instances. Morris has taken two Sinatra albums In the Wee Small Hours and Songs For Swinging Lovers! It’s not an impersonation of Sinatra, it’s not a run through of the albums in order, there isn’t really any dialogue but there is story. The albums themselves were considered as the first “Concept” Albums, In the Wee Small Hours was melancholy with the mood of failed love, lost love, and other more introspective aspects of romance. Songs For Swinging Lovers! was the upbeat jazzier album focused on celebrating love. What Morris has done is mixed the songs together contrasting the downbeat and the upbeat. The unspoken setup is of a man on a psychiatrist’s couch who may be bipolar. Thus the mood swings, and the title of the show. When I say there is a story, it’s really what we the audience decide to imprint on it. You can see each song as it’s only little narrative or choose, as I did, to see it as one man’s attempt to recount and work through his relationship issues. Either way, you’ll be swept along by Morris’s rich vocalization the clever bit of humor devised by Morris and show Director Joey Miller. For a show that runs about an hour in length and set in one location, a lot of thought has gone into the lighting design by Tracy V. Joe and the costumes by Sarah Christenson.

I really like this idea of taking the work of a popular entertainer and then exploring it further and look forward to other upcoming events along these lines. I highly recommend getting on The Hive Collaboratives mailing list so you’ll get the latest on what they are up to. Looking ahead the schedule is eclectic and unique, making it a great addition to the Twin Cities Theater scene.

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Crazy For You’s Got Rhythm and it Certainly Has Music at Artistry in Bloomington.

Kyle Weiler (Center) and the cast of Crazy For You Photo by Sam Levine

Crazy For You features the music and Lyrics of George and Ira Gershwin and a book by Ken Ludwig, this accounts for the fantastic songs and the generous portions of humor. With such great source material, it was likely to be a good show, but Artistry in Bloomington, who is producing this production didn’t take any chances. They got Anita Ruth back as Music Director conducting a nearly unheard of for a local production, 20-piece Orchestra. With Choreography by it’s leading man Kyle Weiler and Elly Stahlke that will knock your socks off and a cast full of fabulous voices, I went crazy for this show. The story of Bobby Child who dreams of being a dancer, but his fiance Irene and his Mother Lottie have other plans for him. Sent by his mother to Deadrock Nevada to foreclose on a disused theater, Bobby falls in love with Polly whose father owns the Theater. When Polly finds out who he is and why he’s there she will have nothing to do with him, so he disguises himself as Bela Zangler the Theatrical Producer and together they plan to put on a show to raise the money to save the theater. The problem is that the theater is in a ghost town in the middle of a desert and an hours walk from the train station. Things get even more complicated when the real Bela Zangler shows up.

First off, most shows do not have an orchestra this size and the benefits are apparent in the richness of the music. There is more room for nuances and subtleties within the songs even to my untrained ear. For that alone should any fan of the Gershwins popular songs like “Someone to Watch Over Me“, “Embraceable You“, “I Got Rhythm“, “They Can’t Take That Away From Me“, and “But Not For Me” rush out an buy a ticket. Anita Ruth masterfully conducts the Orchestra which is placed in center stage throughout the show. What they spent on 20 musicians they saved on set design, it’s staged in a way I’ve never really seen a musical done before. The actors are sitting in chairs in front of the orchestra until they needed to perform in a scene, then they step out and are in character, singing and dancing and acting. It appears like it’s going to be a concert with dancing but then the actors do actually perform the roles. It’s a strange hybrid, that puts the spotlight on the musicians and dancers by keeping everything that might distract from them to a minimum. It’s a bold choice by director Ben Bakken, that I think is largely successful because of the talent in the orchestra and of the actors.

The cast is filled with talent, the leads Kyle Weiler as Bobby and Annika Isbell as Polly are truly exceptional. Weiler’s dancing is just a joy and when there are a group of seven or so of the cast up there all synchronized, it’s awesome to behold. Isbell has a wonderful voice, I was really impressed by rendition of “Someone To Watch Over Me“. There’s a lot of fun character work to from a local favorite Carl Swanson as Lank Hawkins whose trying to Polly’s father to sell him the Theater and is constantly trying to get them to stop putting on a show! France Roberts has his work cut out for him playing Polly’s father Everett and as Eugene Fodor who comes to Deadrock to write about it for his Travel Books. If I’m not mistaken he plays both men in one scene and pulls it off admirably, he’s also got a nice singing voice that he gets to show off in a fun number “Stiff Upper Lip“.

Crazy For You runs through February 11th at Artistry Theater in Bloomington for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://artistrymn.org/crazyforyou

IRONBOUND a Engrossing new Production From Frank Theatre at Gremlin Theatre in St. Paul

Carl Schoenborn, Benjamin Dutcher, Jack Bonko, and Brittany D. Parker Photo by Tony Nelson

I believe this was my second experience with Frank Theatre, the first was in the nascent day of The Stages of MN with a powerful drama called Convert about British colonialism in South Africa. Here IRONBOUND is another excellent example of thought provoking theater that asks us to witness and gain understanding of the “other”. In this case, a Polish immigrant named Darja whose story we witness over the course of about 20 years. Told as a non-chronological narrative we open and end with her in 2014 in between we make stops at in the mid 1990’s and 2000’s. Through these time jumps we witness what life has dealt Darja and it informs her actions and decisions in the 2014 segments. Darja’s life has taught her to be practical about things because at first we get the impression that life is a transaction to her. As the story plays out, we see the dreams she has slip away and the reality of living in a country with all of the advantages when you are not the one who can take advantage of them. Survival depends on being practical, is something she learned at 20 when a reality came and she made the decision to stop dreaming for what she wanted but instead for what she needed. Now in her early 40’s a relationship has devolved into a transaction rather than love. Something I think that happens to some extent to all of us, the idealism of our youth does give way to an understanding as we get older that we adjust our thinking and our planning to not only include our feelings but also our needs. Needs for comfort, security, companionship, hopefully most of us have the means at that point in our lives so that Darja’s approach seems a little heartbreaking. If it sounds like a downer it isn’t, it’s certainly a little bittersweet, but the script by Martyna Majok is also darkly funny.

Brittany D. Parker plays Darja, I hadn’t expected to see someone “new” to me so early in 2024 that blew my socks off through my shoes and up over the audience so that I had to spend 10 minutes after the performance looking around the auditorium for them. If I’ve seen her before and have just forgotten, I apologize. If she just hasn’t been performing much I’d like to know why the hell not? Accent, perfect. Timing, perfect. Emotional openness, I’ll say. There isn’t a moment in the play that Parker doesn’t make what feels like the only possible performance choice and it’s mesmerizing. Never have I seen a performer bring to life a character so strong and in control that you know she can take care of herself, and it makes you want to take care of her. Before I move onto the rest of the cast I just want to welcome Brittany D. Parker onto the list of performers that I will try and see everything they do going forward. I know we just announced the winners of the TCTB Awards last week, but the competition just kicked into high gear for 2024’s best performance and Parker’s is going to be a tough one to top. I don’t mean to short change the rest of the cast who is also very good. Carl Schoenborn, who according to the program spends most of his time backstage instead of in front of the audience, is Darja’s current boyfriend Tommy, who has a problem with fidelity. Schoenborn is wonderfully weak and weasley and brings a rough sloppy charm to a character that could be one note, is anything but. He comes off as utterly flawed, unsure, and completely real. In a black and white world he sucks, but Schoenborn brings all the crayon colors so he’s not the worst thing that could happen to Darja in the real world where we are all doing the best we can. I hope to see Schoenborn getting out from behind the curtains more often, he’s very welcome. Benjamin Dutcher, whom is what my wife refers to as one of her All is Calm boys, takes on his first play. We’ve known him from operas and musicals for years, and I was surprised to learn this is his first straight play, which I assume is a comment on it being non music based not a comment on it’s sexual orientation. He’s wonderful as Darja’s first husband Maks, the give and take between Dutcher and Parker sells the loving relationship and adds to the bittersweet nature of the its fate. Finally, Jack Bonko plays a highschool kid that Darja encounters on a dark night in 2006. The encounter hints at the fact that whomever we are, we have problems, but also highlights the disparity between the 34 year old immigrant who was preparing to sleep on the street and a high school junior who has the means to offer her food and money for a hotel room. Bonko plays the teen with a streetsmart style, he’s funny and tragic, but also offers a glimpse of human kindness that Darja is sorely in need of being reminded exists.

The play is directed by Frank Theatre Founder and Artistic Director Wendy Knox who has made IRONBOUND the first must see production of 2024. I often find myself at a loss after a production to recall much of the lighting and sound design of a production, that is not the case here. Tony Stoeri’s lighting is creative and adds both realism and a dreamlike quality depending on the scene. There are several scenes where headlights come into play and Stoeri’s solution sells the effect completely. Likewise while most of the time jumps happen as a blackout and fade up after some costume changes, there is a moment towards the end when we get a flashback that is actually more like a memory which the lighting is our signal that this one is different, and it’s perfectly clear to us in that moment what is happening thanks to Stoeri’s work. The soundscape created by Dan Dukich envelopes us into the city streets of New Jersey throughout, but there is also fine detail audio work such as car locks and bus sounds. Along with Set Designer Joes Stanley the technical crew has created a world we recognize as our own and which feels authentic and the perfect atmosphere for the story being told.

IRONBOUND runs through February 11th at the Gremlin theatre in St. Paul. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://franktheatre.org/events/ironbound/