9 to 5 is Sure to be a Hit at Lyric Arts in Anoka

* Disclaimer: On March 28th I suffered a rupture in my right bicep muscle, which has left me without the use of my right arm. I will endeavor to continue seeing and reviewing shows however the reality is that the reviews will need to be significantly shorter. For now I will attempt to provide you, faithful readers, with a few sentences that will make clear whether a show is worth your time and money. My apologies to all of the artists in front of the curtain as well as behind whose work I may not be able to comment on. Hopefully this will be a short-term accommodation, I will do everything in my power to get back to writing full reviews as soon as is humanly possible.

Opening night of 9 to 5 at Lyric Arts in Anoka looked to be a sold out house, perhaps it’s a popularity of Dolly Parton, perhaps it’s that the average age of theater audiences grew up with the 1980 film that starred Lily Tomlin Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton. Whatever the reason for opening nights business what will likely result in a near, if not complete, sell out run is the work of Director Shanan Custer in the phenomenal cast. The musical features a book by Patricia Resnick with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton. I enjoyed all of the new songs, they seem to fit well with the original hit “9 to 5“. And they sound great under the musical direction of Bradley Beahen and if I’m counting correctly, his 12 musicians strong band. Before moving on to the cast, praise must be given to Custer as director, she’s a favorite of this writer long before The Stages of MN and it’s not hard to see her comedic touches throughout the production. It’s a rare example of a show where you can genuinely sense the directors personality stamped on every element of the production to the productions benefit.

On to the cast and where to start in these days of the injury where reviews are necessarily briefer, it’s hard to know who to single out but for the moment, set aside the three leads and focus on a couple of the supporting roles. Emily Jabas plays Margaret, one of the women who work in the office who happens to drink on the job. It’s a small role but Jabas makes the most of every moment with just the right touch of comic relief but it’s the tiny part that everyone was talking about on the car ride home. True, it’s the kind of part that’s written funny and most actors would get laughs but Jabas does more than get laughs, she makes a lasting impression. Ben Thietje plays the chauvinist pig boss Franklin Hart Jr., like Dabney Coleman in the film version it’s hard to imagine anyone you’d love to hate more. Thietje perfectly threads the needle making him horrible but in a very very funny way.

First off the trio playing the three leads Violet, Judy, and Doralee jockeyed throughout the show for favorite performance crossing the finish line in a three-way tie. The wonderful thing is they all do something different but they all do the exact right thing for this production. Audrey Johnson plays Doralee, the Dolly Parton role, and she plays it like Dolly Parton but that’s exactly what you have to do. That character is Dolly Parton and she is iconic, going another direction isn’t a place that the audience wants you to go. Johnson doesn’t do a caricature, she doesn’t do an imitation, she just goes to the same places that Parton did in the original film, her singing voice is very close which is exactly what needed to happen. The other two roles can be their own thing and that’s what the actors do. Emily A. Grodzik plays Violet the Lily Tomelin role as the competent but overlooked supervisor. She makes her a strong independent woman whom we can easily believe could lead any company to much greater success than Franklin Heart Jr.. Nora Sonneborn plays Judy the Jane Fonda role but she takes the character in a different direction than Fonda did, she makes her meaker more of a Wallflower which adds greater effect when she comes out of her shell. When the three leads sing together it’s magical and they all have wonderful voices that sound great together. But if there’s one standout moment vocally, it’s Sonneborn’s solo “Get Out and Stay Out“, it’s probably a little hyperbolic to say this but for me in this show, in that moment it had the power of “Defying Gravity” in Wicked. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the applause for that song was the longest and loudest of the evening. Of the three leads Sonneborn was the revelation as I had only seen her in supporting roles and after this performance I have to ask why?

9 to 5 runs through May 12th at Lyric Arts in Anoka for more information, like a plot synopsis, and purchase tickets go to https://www.lyricarts.org/9-to-5

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Die Winterreise at The Hive Collaborative

Die Winterreise is the latest in The Hive Collaboratives conceptual beginning series. It takes the classical song cycle Franz Schubert’s Winterreise set to 24 poems by German poet Wilhelm Mueller. What The Hive’s website says about the piece is it uses the everlasting story of lost love to explore the human need for connection and acceptance but I’m going to have to take their word for that. The show is sung by baritone Justin Spenner completely in German while being accompanied on the piano by Carson Rose Schneider. A QR code is provided at the theater which will bring you to a side-by-side translation of the poems in German and English. I tried to follow along and realized at the end that the best approach, assuming you don’t already speak German, is to set the translation aside sit back and let the music and performance wash over you. The mind is a wonderful thing but sometimes it can get in our way, it’ll try and impose a narrative in such a way that closes you off to what the artist is giving you. First off, if sitting and listening to someone sing in German for 80 minutes sounds like torture to you this isn’t the show for you and that’s okay. But if listening to a fantastic singer wonderfully accompanied for 80 minutes in a very intimate space is something you would enjoy, then there’s a lot to get out of this experience. I’ve seen Justin spenner perform in Opera and that’s very much what Winterreise sounds like, he’s a fantastic vocalist and to hear him in whatever language is always something special.

Winterreise will have one more performance April 13th at 5:00 p.m. At The Hive collaborative in St Paul for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.thehivecollaborativemn.com/events/winterreise-a-winters-journey

God of Carnage is Wickedly Funny at Theatre in the Round

Mia Josimovic, Kendra Mueller, Michael Postle, and D’aniel Stock Photo by Aaron Mark Photo Film

God of Carnage the Laurence Olivier and Tony award-winning play by Yasmina Reza has the simplest of setups, two couples the Raleigh’s and the Novak’s who have gotten together to discuss an incident between their sons that resulted in one losing a couple of teeth. What begins as a civilized discussion slowly spirals out of control over the 85 minute run time of the play. The content warning for the play which states strong language including derogatory insults with some racist and homophobic terms, simulated vomit will give you some idea of what is in store. This is a very black comedy that I’ve heard criticized as entitled people Behaving Badly. I think that is far too simplistic, the play exaggerates for comedic effect but underneath the reactions, the characters have whatever they’re entitlements may be ring true to those observant of human nature. Ultimately it’s about illustrating the differences between the persona we show other people and how we really feel. It’s about our hidden natures, our hidden resentments, and our hidden entitlements how all of these can emerge when the right buttons are pushed. It reminds us that no matter how old we are or how civilized we think ourselves to be, there is still within us all, a child. Someone once said grown ups are just children who owe money which is the simplified theme of this play. All of the action takes place in the living room of the Novak’s a set designed by Michael Haas that perfectly exploits the theater in the round forum.

If the play sounds familiar you may have seen the Roman Polanski film from 2011 entitled Carnage which sported the to-die-for cast of Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, and John C. Reilly. It’s a play whose brilliant script sinks or swims on the shoulders of the cast, Director Alissa Blaeser’s ensemble looks to have trained for the Olympics. They are Mia Josimovic, Kendra Mueller, Michael Postle, and D’aniel Stock. The play is a true ensemble piece where every part is equally important and the cast, while playing characters who seem to be in constant competition with each other, never seem to be trying to steal the spotlight from each other. The roles require each actor to modulate their characters loss of control showing provocation to momentary outbursts then regaining composure again. There’s a delicate and subtle give and take that in lesser hands would not feel authentic, the strength of this cast is that while the responses are certainly heightened they maintain a sense of realism.

God of Carnage is a dark comedy that invites us to take pleasure in watching not great people having one of the worst days of their lives. Blaeser finds the perfect tone to enable us to get to that mental place to enjoy their misfortune. It’s at times shocking how far the characters allow themselves to regress but there’s also a delicious sense of Schadenfreude in watching it happen. God of carnage runs through April 28th at Theatre in the Round Players in Minneapolis. For more information and purchase tickets go to https://www.theatreintheround.org/home/season-placeholder/72nd-season/carnage/

Apples in Winter Erases Theater and Creates a Reality at Gremlin Theatre

Angela Timberman Photo by Alyssa Kristine Photography.

A one handed play requires the very best performer to hold an audience’s attention for 90 minutes on their own. Gremlin Theatre is apparently aware of this and thus cast Angela Timberman who not only keeps our attention but keeps us utterly and completely enthralled. Apples in Winter by Jennifer Fawcett tells the story of Miriam who spends her time upon the stage making an apple pie. While preparing and baking the pie in full view of the audience she slowly reveals why she is making the pie. A slice of her apple pie is what her son has requested for his last meal before he is executed for a crime he committed 20 years ago. He was a drug addict, that isn’t an excuse for his actions, this story isn’t about him, it’s about Miriam. He has been incarcerated for 20 years for a crime he committed, what the play shows us is that his mother was essentially serving this sentence with him. It’s one of a parent’s worst nightmares, what do you do when your child has done something that many find unforgivable. We know how to grieve for the families of the victims, but how do we treat the family of the one who has killed someone else’s children? Fawcett’s play builds slowly and steadily from Miriam speaking to us about making pies to slowly revealing the details of where she is and why. It has been twenty years of routines and isolation and as her son approaches the end of his time, she is faced with losing her routines, and the toll his crimes have taken upon her.

Back to Angela Timberman, her performance as Miriam is like a masterclass in acting. Emotionally and technically flawless. There is a moment towards the end when Timberman feels sick and needs to sit down, but there are no chairs and so she finds herself on the floor. Let me be clear, I have seen Timberman perform multiple times, I know her on sight, and I know her to be an accomplished actor. In that moment when she sinks to the floor, I had to actually restrain myself from going to her and putting my arms around her. I wasn’t seeing Angela Timberman anymore, I was seeing Miriam. She is going through all the stages of someone who has loved someone with addiction issues goes through. She was trying to be the caregiver, she was blaming herself, and ultimately she was angry about the lies and deceit and pain she had been put through. And in that moment I wanted to go to her and tell her it wasn’t her fault and hold her for a moment, so she had a minute when she didn’t feel like she had to hold up the world on her own. The kicker is that on top of giving such a convincing and emotional performance, she made a pie, without a recipe! I can’t make a dish I’ve made dozens of times without referring to the recipe a couple of times, let alone monologue a script and give a performance so good that you make an experienced theatergoer forget they are in a theater watching a performance.

The production is well directed by Brian Balcom whose staging allows us to slowly get absorbed into the action, which is small and contained drawing us in. Later moments of explosive emotion are all the more powerful because we were initially drawn into the quiet matter of fact manner of the pie making. The set and lighting design by Carl Schoenborn looks like an institutional kitchen and it is lit that way which really help to remove any sense of theatricality and achieve a sense of realism, that causes reviewers to momentarily forget they are part of an audience. As do the costume and props designed by Sarah Bauer, who choses Timberman’s costume such that we immediately feel we know her type, she is every middle aged mother or young grandmother. Which is a reminder that these horrible things can happen to anyone, anyones child can become an addict. It also helps us to put ourselves in her place and empathize with the impossibility of her position. I also want to mention the sound design by Montana Johnson, which is minimal, but plays a very important role when it comes to Miriam’s recounting of the night her son committed the crime for which he has been condemned. It’s handled extremely effectively signifying the way the sound of rain plays a particularly vivid role in Miriam’s memory of the night, almost the way a smell will sometimes bring back a certain memory.

Apples in Winter runs through April 7th at the Gremlin Theater in St. Paul. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://gremlintheatre.org/apples-in-winter/

The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington Announces a Spectacular Return to Form For Mixed Blood

I don’t even know where to begin. The last show I saw produced by Mixed Blood was Interstate: The Musical, which closed early due to the pandemic but, not before I saw it three times. It’s one of my favorite musicals of all time so I have been anxious to see what they did next. The answer for the last two years has been very little in the way of theater. This isn’t their first full production they did Mariology in the fall but that was really an outside theatre company they brought in. The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington is the first homegrown production and it’s a shining example of what Minnesota’s artistic community is capable of. This is a show I expect to see making my TCTB Awards Nomination list next January, it’s that good. What’s so good? That’s what I was talking about when I said I don’t know where to start. First off, the production design and every technical department that created the visual and aural landscape of this show are endlessly creative. I felt like I was at Open Eye Theatre who are known for their impeccable production designs. Matt Lefebvre scenic design work is impressive on first view as you walk into the theater, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The surprises that lay in store feel like magic when they happen, and far be it of me to give away the magicians secrets. And it isn’t just the set design it’s also Karin Olson’s Lighting, Theo Langason’s Sound design along with the props designed by Kris Schmidt. Don’t even get me started on the costumes, makeup, and wig work of Zamora Simmons. It’s a seven person cast and I’m guessing there are around 30 costumes. That might be an exaggeration, but it also wouldn’t shock me to learn that it’s pretty close to the actual number.

The show opens on Martha Washington the first First Lady of America. George is dead and she’s very sick in bed. She is being cared for by the slaves whom according to George’s will are to be set free upon her death. We see them, their names are Sucky Boy, Priscilla, Doll, Davy, and Ann they pray to God for Martha. From that moment on, hold onto your hat, the program describes what follows as a fever dream which tracks, except Martha dreams about the future, the past, finds herself on a gameshow and ultimately on trial, as promised in the title. The script by James Ijames is a satirical look at the past through the lense of the present day. It demolishes the defense of that’s just how it was in those days, particularly effective is the reveal of what happened between Ann and Martha’s son. If you can still maintain that argument after that scene, then I guess the argument is, that’s just how things were back then and white people had no moral compass. It’s tackling some very real and heavy issues but it never stops entertaining the audience, it’s only after it’s whirlwind 90 minute run time that you have time to stop and process. This is a wildly entertaining play and should be enjoyed and appreciated on those levels, but it’s also important to look at what we are laughing about and why this story is being told in this way.

Pirronne Yousefzadeh directs the play steering the fever dream from scene to scene changing styles and tone on a dime. I haven’t seen this as effectively done since the last time I watched Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels. The cast is a testament to the talent we have in the Twin Cities acting community, we have some of the best actors in the country and if you don’t believe me, go see The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington at Mixed Blood and you will. Aside from Karen Wiese-Thompson who only plays Martha, which she does brilliantly, the other actors play multiple roles throughout the show. Valencia Proctor who was fantastic in last years Passage at Pillsbury House shows a gift for comedy, I loved her take on the out of touch real housewife of 1802. Tolu Ekisola take on the court bailiff got a laugh every time she swore someone in, her line reading choice is just right. Now these are just moments in a show where they each portray multiple characters, some funny, others a little more on the realistic side, but all pitch perfect in a show where the tone is constantly shifting. The same is true of Darius Dotch and Mikell Sapp who short of act as a comic team in certain scenes. Dotch’s standout is as Lawyer Man, a Defense Attorney for Martha from and in the future. Sapp, is comic gold as George Washington who deflects all blame for slave owning off on Martha, whom he calls a pimp. Monica E. Scott plays Ann, who is Martha’s main caregiver, half-sister, and of course property. She has what is probably the role with the most serious tone throughout, she gets to play along in the fun occasionally but her most memorable moments are when in the fever dream of Martha’s she is still playing Ann but deviant. The cast is rounded out by Domino D’Lorion whose first appearance as William makes an impression. He plays multiple roles but as William, that’s where he really impresses pulling off that nearly impossible task of being a grown person playing a young kid. He really has the body language and uncertainty down, when embodying the character in a version of reality but then a completely impish quality when in full fever dream mode, it feels like Bat-mite has magically appeared in Martha’s bedroom. Neither version comes anywhere close to annoying, which is saying a lot because Bat-mite is always annoying. He plays both versions of William brilliantly.

The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington runs through March 31st at Mixed Blood in Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://mixedblood.com/the-most-spectacularly-lamentable-trial-of-miz-martha-washington/ . I’ve talked a lot about the importance of creating new theater audiences. The first trick is to get people into theater seats that don’t ordinarily go to the theater. Mixed Blood has a solution for that they over a program called Radical Hospitality, Tickets are available by donation, if you cannot afford theater tickets you can get them at no cost. If you can afford to spend $30 or $60 on a ticket do so, donations are what make it possible for those without resources to attend theater. The second step in creating a new theater audience is staging something that gives them a feeling that they want to experience again, Mixed Blood has that covered with this show as well. The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington is the kind of show overflowing with creativity that will open a new theatergoer to the possibilities of what theater can be.

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I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. We also produce the podcast Twin Cities Theater Chat!! which you can access through this link or wherever you enjoy podcasts https://twincitiestheaterchat.buzzsprout.com/ . We post biweekly longer form episodes that will focus on interviews and discussions around theater topics. There is also shorter episodes in which we Bloggers tell you what we think you should get out and see as well as what we have on our schedules that we are most looking forward too.

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is “Some Kind of Wonderful” at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres

Shad Hanley and Monet Sabel Photo by Dan Norman

This isn’t my first production of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, I saw the touring production that came through Minneapolis about five or six years ago, but it is undoubtedly the best. The production has an intimacy and organic flow to the narrative that alluded the national touring Company. Certainly it’s filled with the same great music and I’m sure that previous cast was good, but it’s hard to imagine a better Carole King than Monet Sabel. I remember feeling as if the previous production was simply hitting bullet points on a plot outline. The Co-Directors, father and daughter team of Michael and Cat Brindisi, have wiped away all the disjointed story telling I sensed before and have staged a production that lives and breathes. The smooth and thoughtful handling of transitions and the passages of time create a sense of life moving fluidly forward and of a story unfolding like the images on a tapestry rather than simply taking us from A to B on a road map. The show hits right in my pop music sweet spot, while my friends were moshing to Pearl Jam in high school I was listening to my Buddy Holly, The Beatles, and Billboard Top Rock’n’Roll Hits for the years 1957-1961 CD’s. This music is part of my DNA so I was bound to love that aspect of the show particularly knowing the musical side of things would be handled by Chanhassen’s wonderful orchestra under the musical direction of Andy Kust. They sound suburb as always.

But the show is better than the music, it sidesteps the typical criticisms one levels at the Jukebox musical, it tells a story that features music rather than a story that has a million popular songs awkwardly shoehorned in. Sabel’s performance mirrors that sentiment, it is a natural lived in performance that incorporates singing in it’s exploration of the character. The songs work so well because King wrote about her life in her songs, even the early teen targeted songs, spoke to her life, whether she was always conscious of it or not. “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” speaks to all of us in a way but it is a specific reflection of her own insecurities, particularly in her relationship with her husband Gerry Goffin, played here by an excellent Shad Hanley. Hanley’s speaking voice sounded a little overtaxed, but thankfully his singing didn’t and his character work was solid. Other standouts in the cast were Shinah Hey and Alan Bach as Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, fellow songwriters and Carole and Gerry’s best friends. They provided perfect little moments of humor without becoming the comic relief, they had their own arc and their relationships with each other and Carole and Gerry felt substantial. The cast members who collectively played The Drifters and The Shirelles were absolutely fantastic and really showed off some nice choreography by Tamara Kangas Erickson. The leads of both groups, John Jamison II for The Drifters and Quinn Lorez for The Shirelles, are hair on the back of the neck raisingly good.

Part of why the show flows so well is how the Directors handle the transitions. There are a lot of scene changes and in many productions it means deadstage time as set pieces are moved on and off. What the Brindisi’s do for many changes is have the lighting change the character move out of one area of the set continuing on with their scene as the set changes behind them. Eliminating the grind to a halt, blacked out stage, with nothing happening while changes are made that can suck the energy from a shows momentum. Other times the set change is as simple and swift as rotating a piano to a different angle, all of these techniques keep the show moving quickly, sweeping us along rather than leaving us waiting in the dark. One of the key things a Director, or two, needs to do to ensure their production feels fluid is to get the scene changes and transitions right and this is one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of doing just that. Part of that success surely goes to Nayna Ramey whose scenic design helped to make those transitions and changes work. I also admired the lighting design by Sue Ellen Berger, which played a role in scene transitions but also contained some fun cues like the starlights that came on over the audience during the song “Up on the Roof”, it was a magical little touch. I also absolutely adored the period costumes from Barbara Portinga including a superfast and crowd pleasing costume change done by Katemarie Andrews as Little Eva as she begins to sing “Locomotion”.

Whether you think you are a Carole King fan or not, I promise you that you are. You will not want to miss catching this show, you’ll be surprised how many songs you know from Goffin and King and their friends Mann & Weil. One of the things that makes Chanhassen unique is the “Dinner” part of the Theatre. It’s not just the famous Chanhassen Chicken, there are many wonderful options and a great selection of beverages including ice cream drinks and delicious desserts. Sometimes dinner theater means a mediocre meal, that is not the case at Chanhassen, the food is as good as the shows, which are terrific. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical runs through September 28th at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres in Chanhassen MN. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://chanhassendt.com/beautiful/ and don’t forget they also have two other stages The Fireside theatre which hosts their concert series and Stevie Ray’s Comedy Cabaret.

On Beckett, Bill Irwin’s One Man Exploration at Guthrie Theater, Fascinating & Funny in Equal Parts

Bill Irwin in the Irish Repertory Theatre production of “On Beckett.” Photo by Craig Schwartz.

On Beckett conceived and performed by Tony Award-winning actor Bill Irwin is a one man touring production playing at the Guthrie of An Irish Repertory Theatre Production by Octopus Theatricals. I love how these little connections happen in life, just yesterday in the mail I received an imported blu-ray of The Saphead which was silent comedian Buster Keaton’s first starring role in a feature film as an actor. Now it isn’t one of Buster’s own films he was simply cast in an adaptation of a hit Broadway play. How is this a connection? Well, what doesn’t get a mention in the show was that Beckett has 13 film and TV directing credits. His first was a short film titled Film which starred Buster Keaton and was released in the US on January 8th 1966, Keaton died on February 1st 1966. It’s also hard not to see an influence in Bill Irwin’s clowning of the great silent comedians like Keaton and Chaplin. While slapstick in nature, Keaton’s humor always had a more philosophical edge as opposed to Chaplins sentimental and political shadings. Which is all just by way of reminding you, faithful readers, that I love silent comedians. Also, that if you share my love, you should be aware that this show had a delightful amount of physical clowning that scratches that itch nicely. But also to show that there is a link between Keatons work and Becketts and that Bill Irwin, is the perfect man to illustrate that connection.

Irwin’s show is a series of readings from Beckett’s work followed by his thoughts and observations on them. What’s interesting is that he reveals as much about the art and craft of acting in his observations as he does about Beckett and his work. Based on tonight’s performance the conclusion is that Beckett is not entirely knowable, the meaning is in the eye of the interpreter. Which is exactly what Irwin explores in his discussion of the pieces he performs and recollections of stagings he’s been a part of. The performances are funny and challenging in the best possible way. The writing is very very dense, strangely I have had little exposure to Beckett’s work. To my knowledge since I began blogging no one has produced one of his plays in town, or if they did it flew under my radar. I’ve read more about Beckett than I’ve read Beckett. It seems from the sample I got tonight, that he is a writer worth having a lifetime relationship with as one does with Shakespeare. A writer that you can find new meaning is with each performance and at different ages. I’m very glad to have had this primer on Beckett from Irwin, he has piqued my curiosity. In addition watching Irwin’s clowning routines was its own some kind of wonderful. What a wonderful evening though much to short at only 80 to 85 minutes, but as the old saying goes leave them wanting more. Well, I for one want more and intend to look for it in the work of Beckett and if I ever get a chance to see Bill Irwin clowning around again, I’ll be front row center, he is a truly gifted physical artist.

The show seems to be very simply presented a black stage and not a lot in the way of set pieces or costumes aside from a podium and a few pairs of baggy pants and some bowler hats. It’s a testament to the skill of everyone involved that it appears so simple because truth be told everything, especially the Lighting design by Michael Gottlieb, is very specific and much more complex than it appears.On Beckett runs through March 24th at the Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis for more information and to purchase tickets go https://www.guthrietheater.org/shows-and-tickets/2023-2024-season/on-beckett/