Here's a rundown of all the 5 Star and 4.5 Star shows I've seen so far in the Minnesota Fringe Festival this year, all come Very Highly Recommended:
5 StarsChris Davis Does Stuff
tweet review - #mnfringe show 11 - Chris Davis Does Stuff/Just Black Enough: skewering stereotypes and semantics, banning books improv-style, deconstructing which lives matter and the unfortunate naming of buildings, Davis' comedy may be laid back but it still hits all its targets - 5 stars
Full review here.
Climbing My Family Treetweet review - #mnfringe show 3: Climbing My Family Tree, so good to finally see this show live and not just online; Les' quest to find the forgotten branches of his family tree (and of course their wild stories) is even better in person; wouldn't be a proper Fringe without him - 5 stars
Full review here.
Everything Bagel
tweet review - #mnfringe show 9 - Everything Bagel: hearing spoken word this good from Michael Shaeffer again made the 15 year hiatus just blink away; the words and pop culture references and jokes just dance and bounce off the walls; deliriously fun; great stuff - 5 stars
Fire In My Veins: Blazing Through Life With Invisible Illness
tweet review - #mnfringe show 13 - Fire In My Veins: Blazing Through Life With Invisible Illness: Allison Broeren is a marvel; either 90 min. version (Thurs) or 60 min. version (M/W/F), you should see this; frank, funny, eye-opening, brilliant, best of the fest - 5 stars
Full review here.
5-Step Guide To Being Germantweet review - #mnfringe show 35 - 5-Step Guide To Being German: biggest audience I've seen at a Fringe show this year, and Paco Erhard really worked that crowd, skewering German and American culture, us, and himself; smart and hilarious - 5 stars
4 Bisexuals and 2 Guys Named John Kill Draculatweet review - #mnfringe show 24 - 4 Bisexuals and 2 Guys Named John Kill Dracula: among many other things, the horniest and most ridiculous use of garlic bread I have ever seen; joyful, sexy, hilarious, from the web of relationships down to the scene changes; great fun, no notes - 5 stars
Favorite #mnfringe quote of the night: staff member at Rarig Arena calling out to people approaching the box office, “Are you here to see 4 Bisexuals?”
tweet review - #mnfringe show 31 - Funny, Like An Abortion: (yikes, like I wasn't already mortally afraid for my goddaughter) sharp darkly funny script, well-acted, with current events updates to remind us that government control of women's bodies is quickly becoming our reality - 5 stars
Ha Ha Da Vincitweet review -#mnfringe show 23 - Ha Ha Da Vinci: if someone asked me what a great Fringe show in its purest form looked like, it'd be something a lot like this; music, magic, puppets, humor, whimsy, silliness, song, talented performer; Phina Pipia just nails it - 5 stars
Full review here.
H.G. Wells' The Invisible Mantweet review - #mnfringe show 28 - H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man: a madcap 4-person marathon, tongue firmly in cheek; homage to classic Hollywood monster movies full of fun stage tricks and physical comedy; I kind of can't wait to see what all these artists do next - 5 stars
Full review here.
Kill B: The Epiloguetweet review - #mnfringe show 36 - Kill B: The Epilogue - brilliant riff delivering on an open question from the Kill Bill movies of 20 years ago; lively fights; perfect balance of humor and drama, fun callbacks, with a queer twist to top it off; very nicely done - 5 stars
Lost In Bear County: Birth, God, Death...and the Bearenstain Bearstweet review - #mnfringe show 29 - Lost In Bear Country: Birth, God, Death...and the Bearenstain Bears; high-energy verbal whirlwind of a show, randomized by the spin of a wheel; topics this time: God, Sports, Race, sprinklings of autobiography; funny and serious at the same time - 5 stars
Monster Science's Greatest Hitstweet review - #mnfringe show 25 - is it a surprise that Monster Science's Greatest Hits is a good show? (not in the slightest); this peek into old Hollywood and the woman (uncredited for decades) who designed the Creature From The Black Lagoon was both fascinating and entertaining - 5 stars
Full review here.
My Only Hope For A Hero
tweet review - #mnfringe show 5 - My Only Hope For A Hero: Duck Washington is a stronger, braver and more articulate man than I; this solo show about finding heroes in popular culture, everyday life, and the home you grew up in is funny and moving in equal measure; great stuff - 5 stars
Full review here.
The Place I Return To
tweet review - #mnfringe show 15 - The Place I Return To: fascinating, detailed look at depression (and making it to the other side) from young artist who journaled and wrote poetry in the moment to capture the experience; well worth 45 min. of your time; very highly recommend - 5 stars
Full review here.
Reincarnation Soup
tweet review - #mnfringe show 1: Reincarnation Soup, beautifully rendered tapestry of the past lives of a human across Vietnamese history and culture as they wait in line for their next life to begin; first rate acting and writing, perfect way to start my Fringe - 5 stars
Full review here.
The Resilient Childtweet review - #mnfringe show 30 - The Resilient Child: well worth it for Denzel Belin and Katie Starks' storytelling alone, but there's so much more besides to recommend this show, including 3 very poised kids also taking the spotlight, songs and more - 5 stars (I'm not a monster :)
Too Many Notestweet review - #mnfringe show 8 - Too Many Notes: never too many words for me from phillip andrew bennett low; this time it was the hilarious, borderline sacrilegious Santa/Christ narrative, but every show is different; each a greatest hit well worth revisiting, and I shall - 5 stars
tweet review 2 - #mnfringe show 17 - Too Many Notes: (yes, again), this time The Concept of Anxiety, a trippy rollercoaster of words about (among other things) a guy trying to wrestle a multiverse of his life into a storyline he likes, and failing spectacularly; mind-blowing fun - 5 stars
tweet review 3 - #mnfringe show 27 - Too Many Notes (yes, again - the guy tells a good story): this time, The Gray And The Gold - a wanderer alone on a vast desert landscape, a talking coyote, a rescue mission that may or may not be too late, and some very chatty zombies - 5 stars
tweet review 4 - #mnfringe show 41 - Too Many Notes: this time, On The Concept of Irony (With No Reference To Socrates); nice to see this story trio live instead of just online, though we still got a lot of great video backgrounding the performance (including, yes, puppies) - 5 stars
The Very Model of a Modern Monster Scientist
tweet review - #mnfringe show 18 - Very Model of a Modern Monster Scientist - Rev. Matt Kessen and new assistant Elora Riley make this look easy but taking your singular, exhaustively researched obsession w/monsters and turning it into something entertaining/hilarious is hard; kudos! - 5 stars
Full review here.
We Can Wish: A Beatboxing and Music Variety Showtweet review - #mnfringe show 43 - We Can Wish: A Beatboxing and Music Variety Show; fully prepared for this not to work for me at all; Luke Skippy Harbur pushes past my cringe reflex, forming genuine connection to the audience by being so open about himself; that's quite a gift - 5 stars
The Windblown Cheeks of Lovers
tweet review - #mnfringe show 12 - The Windblown Cheeks of Lovers: inspired lunacy; a non-existent horny TV miniseries from the 1980s through several lenses: family TV time, documentary interviews, behind the scenes footage, and the series itself; just 3 people, live onstage; nuts! - 5 stars
Full review here.
4.5 Stars
Allegro
tweet review - #mnfringe show 2: Allegro, freakishly great integration of sound and performance; art about artists normally leaves me cold but this demonstrated the power of the music while still remaining human and funny and willing to admit that people are sometimes jerks - 4.5 stars
Full review here.
Baldwin's Last Fire
tweet review - #mnfringe show 4: Baldwin's Last Fire, delivers on premise of conjuring James Baldwin onstage then setting him on the case of kidnapped/murdered black children in a small French town; Baldwin might even be too big for a Fringe-sized tale but it's a lot of fun to watch - 4.5 stars
Full review here
Butts In Seats: How to Get People to Attend Your Shakespeare Production by Having Musical Settings for the Lyrics in His Plays. Numerous Examples Included.
tweet review - #mnfringe show 47 - Butts In Seats (long subtitle about music in Shakespeare plays): part concert, part discussion about creative process of setting Shakespeare lyrics and soliloquies to music, both parts intriguing and entertaining; lot of talent gathered here - 4.5 stars
Let Me Say This About That
tweet review - #mnfringe show 20 - Let Me Say This About That: watching good improvisors at work is so much fun; Raffi Jarvis, Heather Meyer and Danna Sheridan play so well off each other creating 3 different fake podcasts and ad breaks from list of audience suggestions - 4.5 stars
Open Mic at the Dream Shoptweet review - #mnfringe show 22 - Open Mic At The Dream Shop: just what the title says, a neighborhood open mic transplanted into the context of the Fringe; poets, hip hop and spoken word artists leave it all onstage using language and beats to process a lot of emotion - 4.5 stars
Full review here.
20,000 Leagues Under The Telltale Heart
tweet review - #mnfringe show 7 - 20,000 Leagues Under The Telltale Heart: delightful theme song/dance number; killer concept, well-executed; scene-stealing crow puppet narrator and foley artist; not sure how I feel about the queer-baiting but... solid improv, a lot of fun - 4.5 stars
Full review here.
When You Hear The Chimetweet review - #mnfringe show 42 - When You Hear The Chime: charming two-person storytelling exercise; adults pretending to be kids playing dress-up worked better than I thought; grief content needed a bit more room to breathe, or maybe stories that fed into/countered it better - 4.5 stars
Write Me Letterstweet review - #mnfringe show 46 - Write Me Letters: original musical from 1st time producer/composer/performer Noah Gundermann; great showcase for him and co-star Grace Czywczynski; grandma/grandson correspondence; wanted more character/details but great start - 4.5 stars
Here's some handy links to a rundown of
5 and 4.5 Star shows I've seen this year, also
the 4 and 3.5 Star shows, and
the rest, plus this year's
Top 10 list, and
Top 11-20 List, and
the full list of all returning favorites in the 2023 Fringe, plus a link to
all the 2023 Minnesota Fringe Festival coverage.
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