Fringe 2025 – Returning Favorites – Lady Z Productions (Maureen Bourgeois) - The 4 Ws and the H of Murder

The thing I appreciate most about the way Maureen Bourgeois engages with the Fringe Festival is that she uses it to workshop new material, whether that’s a new script like Daybreak Diner (which popped up on my pre-Fringe Top 10 list back in 2022) or a new long-form improv comedy experiment like 2023’s Choose Your Own Fringe Adventure.  Even when the results are mixed, I like watching an artist take a swing to see where they can go.
 
The 4 Ws and the H of Murder
Lady Z Productions
Written by Maureen L Bourgeois
Venue: Mixed Blood
 
Show Description:
What happened on the dark dusty patio of the 8th-and a half oldest gay bar in Minnesota that warm August night? Join the hosts of the local podcast “The 4 “W”s and the “H” of Murder” as they uncover the truth.
 
Genre & Content:
Comedy, Drama, LGBTQIA+ Content
Warnings:
Adult Language, Crude Humor, Sexual Content, Abuse/Physical Violence, Other Divisive Content
 
The press pitch on this one offers a bit more detail:
 
“The 4 “W”s and the “H” of Murder” is a comedy written by local artist Maureen L Bourgeois. This production is set in a podcast recording studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota hosted by Suss and Sparks who are dedicated to the truth of a murder in a local gay bar. Be a part of this dark comedy as the What, When, Where, Why and How of murder are uncovered with dark unexpected twists and turns.
 
Now I’ll be honest, normally “dead gay person” as an element of the plot is enough to put me off.  Murdered gay person even more so.  (If you can do a variation on the famous funeral speech from the movie Heathers – “I love my dead gay son!” – in describing the plot, then I’m probably not interested.)  Cold case shows on TV also leave me a bit sad because, well, even if they solve the case, the person’s still dead, the damage is still done.  However, I do trust Maureen as an artist, and if she’s doing this story, in this way, it’s for a reason.  So I’m still curious to see how it plays out.

Update 7/24/2025, their Fringe preview:

 

 

Here’s some handy links to my Fringe Top 10, Top 11 to 20 and Returning Favorites lists for this year, as well as all the coverage of this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.