Annie Returns to Chanhasen Dinner Theaters in Fantastic New Production With Rising Star Eve Scharback as Annie

Annie acts as sort of a stealth missile of a musical. Everyone knows it, either from the movie or having seen it previously on stage. Just about every theater company has mounted a production, particularly community theaters. So when it comes up, there is an instinct to dismiss it or, when choosing between two shows, go with the less familiar. What we forget is just how good a production of Annie can be. Case in point: Chanhassen Dinner Theatres’ new production is the best I’ve ever seen! The cast is phenomenal, with a special emphasis on the juvenile performers who make this classic musical feel fresh and new!

As with all long-running professional productions featuring school-age performers, the children’s roles are double-cast. The performance I saw featured Eve Scharback as Annie. Scharback had already impressed me in multiple productions at Theatre Latté Da as Small Alison in Fun Home and Young Alice in their Next Festival reading of Alice in Neverland. It’s unclear if she is trying to corner the market on roles that begin with the letter “A,” but if that is her goal, I’ve no doubt she will achieve it. My prediction is that we are seeing the start of a career actor, one destined to be one of the Twin Cities’ go-to performers. Want to see a star born? Get out to CDT’s production of Annie. Eve Scharback is already shining with a brilliance akin to the North Star. I’d love to go back and see the show with the other cast as well, if they are as good as this, I’d say CDT has locked in the best young performers in the area.

Scharback is surrounded by six or seven other young actors, any of whom would outshine most performances in any community theater production. Special mention has to be given as well to Lucy Anderson, who played Molly this night. Director Tamara Kangas Erickson has guided Anderson straight into the hearts of the audience with her perfectly timed moments of comic relief. The audience was eating out of her hand as she was wheeled offstage in her bed while changing into different poses.

The adult cast is stellar as well. The role of Miss Hannigan, played to perfection by Carol Burnett in the film version, must be a daunting role, knowing that much of the audience will subconsciously be measuring your performance against hers. Serena Brook easily overcomes any resistance to her performance, and it is the standout of the adult cast. Also very impressive, as always, is Anna Hashizume as Grace Farrell, whose voice stands out due to her complete control of every note and the fullness of her sound. In the role of Daddy Warbucks was Dante Jamar Lamonte Murray, whom I’m unfamiliar with, but he’s a welcome surprise, with a nice, rich voice and an easy chemistry with Scharback’s Annie.

If you don’t know the story of Annie, all you really need to know is that it’s a show perfect for the whole family. Kids will love it, adults will love it, even the family dog will love it, though they probably aren’t allowed in. Annie’s dog Sandy is played by Addison, a professional “Sandy” who has performed the role all over the country. The role is small, but when Addison is on stage, she always hits her mark.

Annie runs through February at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres in Chanhassen. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to https://bit.ly/ANNIECDT. The wonderful thing about CDT is that not only do you get a great show, but a delicious meal as well. And don’t forget to add a dessert. I can personally vouch for the tiramisu and the salted caramel cheesecake, both are to die for.

I want to alert you faithful readers to a new Website that has just started up in the Twin Cities. It’s called 79 Seconds on Stage and it is a free and full guide to local theatre in the Twin Cities.

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Indecent a Fascinating Story of a Play From the Early 20th Century That Has Lots to Teach Us Now at Theater Latté Da

Courtesy of Theater Latté Da – Photo by Dan Norman

Indecent tells the story of the play The God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch. The play premiered in 1907 in Berlin. It was eventually translated into English and performed on Broadway in 1923, where it was shut down and the cast arrested on obscenity charges. The play contains the first lesbian kiss on Broadway.

I’ve never seen the original play, but we are shown bits of it here and told about much of it. The beauty of the play was that it treated the relationship between two women as something beautiful. One character compares the big scene where the two women are caught in the rain to the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.

A survey of Berlin pre-Hitler reveals a town very different from what it would become with the rise of Fascism. Many of the earliest films about homosexuality were German silent films, such as Different From Others (1919), Michael (1924), and Sex in Chains (1928). Berlin was very open and progressive in many ways. Much as it felt our country was becoming about 15 years ago. Now, as we see the rise of fascism again, we see the attempts by those in power to squash anything progressive or enlightened.

There is a lot of historical knowledge one needs to bring to a play like this in order to fully understand the world in which it takes place. If there is a flaw with this powerful play, it is that it does not provide that historical background. Whether it’s knowledge of Germany’s more tolerant social scene at the beginning of the 20th century, the rise of antisemitism, or even McCarthyism, the more knowledge you come in with, the more you are able to appreciate the play.

But I’m always thinking about that elusive new audience made up of people 20 to 35 years of age. How informed is that person of the canvas on which this play by Paula Vogel is performed? Of course, if the text provides too much historical information, it can kill the narrative drive. I didn’t feel like there was much I missed, but I’m aware that my knowledge of these things might be a little deeper than most, based on the fact I see a lot of theater, watch a lot of movies and have always been fascinated by the classhes between art, politics and social progress. I think a little more context would help in making it accessible to those without the background knowledge. There is some info in the program that I think is useful, but that fact only goes to illustrate the downside of these damn digital programs, which are impossible to view easily on your phone. But we are getting off track here.

The design of the play is steeped in old-world atmosphere. In the opening scenes, it feels as though the action is taking place in a time before electric lighting was widely available, which it is. There is a warmth combined with shadows and smoke that carries the nostalgia of the gas-and-candle age.

The lighting by Søren Olsen is tightly controlled, creating a beautifully atmospheric space. Sarah Bahr’s scenic design and costumes blend elegantly into the light and shadows created by Olsen. Pirronne Yousefzadeh’s direction is filled with well-thought-out choices: the ashes that fall from the characters’ hands at several points, the use of the ghost light at the opening and ending of the play, the contrast between the prudish and the profane, and the realization at the end of the women in the rain scene. It was just the perfect way to end the show.

The cast includes three musicians who pull double duty. This isn’t really a musical, but a play with music in it, and they all do a nice job. I appreciated the music that was there, and am always a fan of seeing it performed live on stage.

A favorite for me in the cast was August Forman as Lemml, the stage manager. He is the uncorrupted narrator of the piece, bringing humor, idealism, and integrity to the story.

Robert Dorfman plays the famous actor who plays the father and brothel owner in The God of Vengeance. He is good in that role, but his best moment is when he plays the elderly Sholem Asch at the end of the play.

I also thought the two actors playing various actresses who play the lesbians of the play, Aila Peck and Ani Tonoyan, were especially good, giving all the variations on characters they played a uniqueness that came across.

Indecent runs through October 18th at Theater Latté Da. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to https://www.latteda.org/indecent

Bull In a China Shop a Free Play From Fortune’s Fool Theatre at the Hive is Worth Every Penny and Then Some

Victoria Pyan as Mary Woolley Photos by Ariel Lopez

Bull in a China Shop by Bryna Turner is a wonderful historical play about Mary Woolley, who was the president of Mount Holyoke College from 1900 to 1937. The play focuses heavily on her relationship with Jeannette Marks, a former student who was her partner until the end of her life.

An amazingly accomplished woman, Woolley was the first female student to attend Brown University. The play, however, confines itself to the timeframe from her decision to accept the position at Holyoke through her retirement. The play is a forum in which women’s rights can be highlighted within the historical context of the time. The verbal debates between Woolley and Marks showcase the women’s intelligence and their strategies. Marks’ idealism doesn’t outshine Woolley’s, but Woolley’s is tempered by a maturity that comes from being 12 years older and holding the position of president of the college. Turner’s play uses the relationship between Woolley and Marks and their discussions to engage us emotionally, as well as to teach us about their goals for women.

We have two very strong performances. Ariel Pinkerton, who along with her dad, Dan, is the co-producing Artistic Director of Fortune’s Fool Theatre, she plays Marks. Marks is idealistic and uncompromising. She says what she believes and suffers no fools. I think this casting was a no-brainer; this character fits Pinkerton like a glove in temperament. There are also moments, such as when she is contemplating a relationship with a student, where Pinkerton expertly shows us the uncertainty and inner struggle the character is facing.

The real surprise is Victoria Pyan as Woolley. I’ve sat and chatted with Pyan at Fringe shows and seen her work with the Improv Movement Project, and possibly some smaller roles here and there, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen her carry a play. She doesn’t just carry it, she throws it over her shoulder and marches away with it.

Pyan plays Woolley as an intellectual, always calmly leading conversations logically, guiding others toward the logical conclusions as she sees them. There are two moments when Pyan allows Woolley to show unrestrained emotion, and those moments, one explosive and another subtle, are powerfully played. They highlight Pyan as a truly talented performer who we should be seeing onstage more.

The show is directed by one of my favorite theatermakers. Whether she is performing with The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society or Unlabeled Theater, or directing as she is here, Shanan Custer always brings out the best in the material and her cast. This is no exception. The show flies by, but where we are and what is happening is never in doubt. The direction is clear, and the moments where ideas are shared do not seem preachy, but logical, conversational, and inevitable.

Fortune’s Fool Theatre offers this production to everyone FREE of charge so that anyone can attend. I joke in the headline that it is worth every penny. The truth is, if they were charging $45 a ticket, it would still be worth every penny.

You can support Fortune’s Fool Theatre in producing more works like this by donating at https://bit.ly/DonateFFT

Bull in a China Shop runs through September 27th at the Hive Collaborative in St. Paul. For more information and to reserve tickets go to Bull at Hive

Waiting For Godot Is Very Funny. Who Knew? At the Guthrie Theater

Jimmy Kieffer, Jim Lichtscheidl, Will Sturdivant and David Strathairn Photo by Dan Norman

I’ve been waiting for Waiting for Godot for decades. I started my college career as a Theater Arts major before transferring to film studies. And you can bet that my first class in that department was History of Theater, in which I read about Samuel Beckett’s influential play. All I knew was that two men wait for a man named Godot, who never comes. It sounds bleak and important and impenetrable, doesn’t it? I knew it was an important piece of theater, and so I’ve always been on the lookout for it, knowing that I must see it at some point if I was ever to earn my wings.

I went into tonight with conflicted feelings, mostly excited to finally see this landmark play, but also with apprehension. What if I don’t get it? How will I write about it? What if it never ends? Seriously, what if the show never ends and three weeks from now we are still trapped in our seats watching two men sitting on stage waiting for someone? How would we be fed? Where would we sleep?

Well, I’m home, and that didn’t happen. And just like that time I ran into a pair of pale green pants with nobody inside them, I now wonder what I was scared of.

ONE OF THE GREATEST PLAYS OF THE 20TH CENTURY!!! is daunting. Seeing Waiting for Godot, however, was a joy. Writing about Waiting for Godot could be daunting, or it could be fun. I choose fun.

The plot: two men, Didi and Gogo, meet up, as they always do, to wait for a man named Godot. They talk of this and that, despair, suicide, and try to find ways to pass the time. Along the road comes a man named Pozzo, who is accompanied by his servant Lucky, whom he keeps tethered to a rope and occasionally uses a whip to incentivize. They all interact, then Pozzo and Lucky leave. A boy comes and tells Didi and Gogo that Godot cannot come today, but he will come tomorrow. The men decide to leave. They do not. End of Act One. Act Two: a variation on Act One.

The play isn’t about the actions of these men; it is about their inaction. What makes the play so enjoyable is what they are saying to each other and how they are saying it. Of course, there is a meaning in all of this, commentary on life and what it all means, or doesn’t mean. But you know what? I just saw it an hour ago. This will take some processing, and it’s also the sort of play where different people are going to come to different conclusions about it.

I want you to see it with your own eyes and let it find its meaning in how you see it. The one thing I can do to help you is to let you know that it is two hours and twenty minutes spent in the company of performers who never let you lose interest for a moment. The show is funny, at times absurd, but also oddly sweet.

Jimmy Kieffer and David Strathairn play Gogo and Didi, and it’s hard not to see the influence of comedic geniuses of the silver screen such as Laurel and Hardy or Chaplin. And before you say I’m projecting my love of cinema onto the play, remember that Beckett’s sole screenplay is for the short film Film, starring Buster Keaton.

It’s fun to have an Academy Award nominee like Strathairn at the Guthrie, but it is anything but stunt casting. He is absolutely perfect for the role, making nonsense sound organic, adding touches of melancholy strategically, and bringing a sense of genuine love for his old friend Gogo. Kieffer, who replaced John Carroll Lynch shortly after rehearsals began, for undisclosed reasons, brings the perfect balance to the pairing. His character is more unsteady; he swings from moody and complaining to smiles and sunshine mid-sentence. It’s great comic timing.

Will Sturdivant gives what is probably my favorite performance of his I’ve ever seen, and faithful readers know that I’m a fan of his work, so that is saying something. He makes Pozzo’s extreme demands both grossly demeaning and hysterically funny. Wait until you see him engage Gogo in helping him sit down.

As his nearly completely silent servant Lucky, can you ask for anyone better in that type of role than Jim Lichtscheidl? Twin Cities theatergoers have had many opportunities to see what he is capable of doing with a stage and no dialogue. I only wish there was more for him to do in this show.

Everything is top-notch, from the bleak set design by Marion Williams to the muted color schemes and worn-down look of the costumes by Trevor Bowen, which fit perfectly with the landscape. Part of the wonder of the play is how funny it is despite the gloominess of the environment. This world is bleak, the lives of these characters are bleak, so why is it so damn funny?

I had an idea as I left the theater for a Minnesota Fringe show, and I encourage anyone to take the idea and run with it: a version of the play with SpongeBob SquarePants as Didi and Patrick Star as Gogo, Mr. Krabs as Pozzo, and Squidward as Lucky. You just do a shortened version of the play with those characters in the roles, minimal changes, a few changes to keep the themes in line but use the SpongeBob universe’s tropes.

I’m so glad I finally got to see Waiting for Godot. I was surprised by how accessible it was, how funny, and just plain entertaining. I also know that there is more under the surface than I’ve covered here, partly because I need to process it but also because I want you to go in without preconceived ideas and see what meaning you take from it. One thing is for sure: you will be entertained.

Waiting for Godot runs through October 11th at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to https://www.guthrietheater.org/whats-on/waiting-for-godot/

Ball: A Musical Tribute to My Lost Testicle Will Only Be Bouncing Around Artistry’s Black Box Theater Thru 9/20

Ball: A Musical Tribute to My Lost Testicle celebrates its 10th anniversary with a short run at Artistry in Bloomington. Max Wojtanowicz, who wrote and performs the show, began performing it in 2016. The show is about Max’s battle with testicular cancer. Wojtanowicz is a favorite of, well, probably everyone who has ever seen him perform or worked with him. He’s a walking encyclopedia of musical theater, a gifted actor and vocalist, and if anyone could make a show about testicular cancer shine, it’s him. But it does more than shine. It encourages the audience to internalize it and, in a way, allows it to become a cathartic outlet for their own story.

The show deals with the specifics, which allow it to become universal. One detail here and another detail there will ring true to different audience members. By the end of the show, we have all found something to relate to.

Originally a show at the 2016 Minnesota Fringe Festival, Wojtanowicz gives us a few winks and a couple of saucy signals, but keeps it at a PG-13 level. Which is good, because it means you don’t need to feel any hesitation about bringing your teenage sons to the show. Because the point is to help others either discover they need treatment or show them how you can get through it, you just have to make a start.

And Wojtanowicz knows exactly how to make that message land. He’ll make you laugh, think, feel, then laugh again. It’s ultimately a genuinely uplifting experience, but not in the sweet and sugary way. It gets there through humor and honesty. And song, one of it’s biggest selling points is surely not just the chance to listen to Max sing, but to sing about his testicles.

This is a very special show with a very short run. Only five performances remain, so don’t miss this remount of Ball: A Musical Tribute to My Lost Testicle. It’s a show about cancer, loss, survival, and finding your way forward, and somehow, it’s also a hell of a good time.

Ball: A Musical Tribute to My Lost Testicle runs through September 20th at Artistry in Bloomington. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to https://artistrymn.org/ball

Pinocchio is Great Fun for the Whole Family, Ignore the 5 to 10 Year Olds suggestion, It’s for Everyone at Children’s Theatre Company

Antonisia (Nisi) Collins, Reed Sigmund, and Dean Holt Photographed by Glen Stubbe

The Children’s Theatre Company’s production of Pinocchio, according to the website, is geared toward ages 5 to 10. I hope that won’t dissuade people from bringing their older children as well, because it worked for me, so I’m sure it will work for them as well. This production is adapted and directed by Greg Banks, whose scripts for Robin Hood and The Hobbit we’ve seen produced over the last two years at Zephyr Theatre and Theatre in the Round. I’m getting a sense of Banks’ style at this point: he takes a classic story and retells it in a non-traditional way. Banks likes to acknowledge that we are sharing a story and shares openly the importance of the audience’s role in bringing their imagination into the theater.

Pinocchio opens not in Italy but in a theater. Company member Dean Holt comes on stage in his painter clothes, ready to get to work painting the set for the upcoming production of Pinocchio. He’s surprised to see us all there and tells us we’ll have to leave. When he discovers we all have tickets for Pinocchio, he convinces the other four members of the painting crew that they should tell us the story since we are there.

They then proceed to perform a seemingly makeshift telling of Pinocchio, using the ladders and scaffolding, paint cans and drop cloths, and even the head of a mop to take the place of props and costumes. This open communication with the audience allows the cast to engage directly at times with the audience, helping to keep the little ones engaged throughout. There was also a nice peppering of clowning throughout. There is nothing like a little good clowning to get an audience laughing together.

The cast is filled with the theater’s core company: Holt, Autumn Ness, Reed Sigmund, and the newest member and 2025 Twin Cities Theater Bloggers Favorite New Artist Award winner Antonisia Collins as Pinocchio. Also joining in, mostly providing instrumental accompaniment, is Victor Zupanc.

Zupanc, as with the style of telling this story, provides young audience members a chance to think about where the sounds they hear in entertainment come from. To see how creatively certain instruments can be used to conjure more than just music.

Holt and Sigmund playing schoolhouse bullies was brilliantly realized, the timing and the facial expressions priceless. Ness gets to pull at our heartstrings, first because the only role they’ll give her is the neighbor, who’s sleeping, later as she tries to deviate from the story to help Pinocchio.

And Nisi Collins… man, did we pick that one right. Pinocchio has a lot in common with the role she played last year in Once on This Island. There is a naivete and a trusting nature to both roles, but there is zero overlap in her performances. She plays the same traits but in a completely new way. I cannot wait to see what she does next.

Pinocchio is perfect for 5- to 10-year-olds, so bring them. But trust me, don’t leave the tweens or teens, or Grandma and Grandpa, at home. This is a very fun show. What I love most about it is the way in which it engages with the audience, not only telling them a story but sharing how we tell a story in theater. It’s the kind of show that could get some young mind thinking about more than just acting, but directing as well.

Pinocchio runs through October 18 at Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to https://childrenstheatre.org/whats-on/pinocchio/

MN Fringe Festival Day 1! Castrati: A Tale of Two, Stage Presents, Watership Down (The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award Winner!), and Socks & Shoes & Coats.

The Minnesota Fringe Festival is the most wonderful time of the year. This is the time of year where theater lovers get to live, eat, sleep, and pray theater. 104 shows, each performed 5 times over the 11 days. It is possible to see 55 shows if you see something in every slot. This year I’ll max out at 47 due to two Minnesota United home games, come on you Loons, make it worth missing 8 shows and win! To check out all the shows, go to the Minnesota Fringe website here: https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026. As I do every year, I’ll be posting short reviews of every show I see as fast as I can, including my daily naming of The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner. But I can’t see everything, and that isn’t a knock on my manhood, no one can, it’s impossible. So I encourage you to also follow my colleagues at http://www.cherryandspoon.com/ and https://letteredintheatre.wordpress.com/. You can also access all of the shows on the fabulous new theater website of the Twin Cities, 79 Seconds on Stage, at https://79seconds.org/.

Proudly supporting local theatre — 79 Seconds on Stage

This was a bit of a surprise. The title is very Fringy, as is the concept, which is a musical following a man who is castrated, shaming his father, but ultimately becoming a celebrated singer. One goes in expecting something very silly and probably lowbrow, and to some extent those things are true, but the surprise is how elevated the songwriting by Cali Garzon, Julia Maskin, and Eli Maskin is, how gifted the large cast is vocally and performance-wise, and how tight the seven-piece band sounds. It’s a Melancholics Anonymous show crossed with Skylark Opera Company. The cast is terrific, the tone is odd, but in a good way. It will be fun to see if anyone can top this one musically. It’s funny but sometimes in a way you’re not quite sure why you are laughing, is it the work=d they sang or the way they sung it? This is sure to be among the best of the festival. https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/castrati-a-tale-of-two

If you’ve seen one of Wells Farnham’s previous two Fringe shows, you know the tone and delivery you are in for. I’m not sure he’ll still have a voice left come the end of the run. That said, like his previous shows, I found this one very funny. While it definitely feels a little more pieced together than the earlier shows, each story arc is satisfying. The end features a moment meant to scare Wells himself, and watching him go at it full speed, and without a doubt succeeding, is as satisfying for us as it must be for him. https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/stage-presents

We’ve come to expect a certain dark, camp tone from Melancholics Anonymous. They seem to be the poster theater company for what Fringe can be. So what do they do? Reinvent themselves with this faithful adaptation of the classic novel Watership Down by Richard Adams. True to the source, at least as far as I can remember from a traumatizing screening in the theater of the animated film adaptation on its original release in 1978, when I was six years old. It’s also a musical, with exceptional original songs by company member Bee Davis that have a folk inspiration, feel very polished, and integrate beautifully into the narrative. This is so unlike anything else M.A. has done, and yet it is filled with the kind of creative inventiveness, that have earned them their reputation as one of the most creative theater companies in the Twin Cities. It’s a brilliant move on their part and a reminder to us that they are not a vibe, a tone, or a genre, they are theater makers and artists. And they have won the dubious honor of being awarded this year’s first The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award! Congratulations, that and $1.50 will get you a McChicken sandwich (for a limited time only). https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/watership-down

The final show of the night, stuck in the dreaded 10:00 PM Thursday night slot, was Socks & Shoes & Coats. It’s a musical telling the story of a couple from the moment they find out they are pregnant through the diagnosis and episodes of their son’s “condition.” It is told unchronologically, and I’m not entirely certain if the son dies or is just in the hospital at one point. The cast is fine, the songs are fine, the story is a downer, but not in as moving a way as you might hope. The show isn’t actively bad, it’s just OK, and with so many shows to choose from, just OK probably should equate to a skip on your list. I’m not sad I saw it, but I wish I’d fit in something else on my “must” list that I couldn’t fit into my schedule. https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/socks-shoes-coats

That’s it for day one. I’ll be at the Loons game Friday, so check back Sunday morning for my reviews of the shows I see Saturday. And hey, if you see me at the Fringe, stop and say hi—tell me what your favorite show is so far.