Fringe 2026 Top 10 - #2 - Dame Right! - Good Vibrations

Good Vibrations 

Description:
June 28, 1966. A Beach Boys Circus... in the earthquake capital of the world. What could go wrong with this American Dream? Come for the music, stay for the drag, puppets, and camp-ified antics!
Venue – Theatre in the Round (TRP)
Content Warnings – Abuse/Physical Violence, Adult Language, Crude Humor, Drug Content, Loud Noises, Mental Illness, Sexual Content, Violence
Genre and Content - LGBTQIA+ Content, Comedy, Dance, Drama, Musical Theater, Puppetry, Political Content, Historical Content, Shakespearian Elements
Ages 16 and Up

The press packet materials offer this additional useful context:

“Camp-ified company Dame Right! is excited to present “Good Vibrations,” a satirical Beach Boys musical utilizing drag personas, puppets, strong movement sequences, and a writing process spiritually comparable to Brian Wilson’s. The show will transport you to a 1966 summer day at the fictional Beach Boys Circus, exploring the very real tensions of the album Pet Sounds’ commercial failure and Wilson’s complications with his then-upcoming “teenage pocket symphony to God.” Come one, come all to The Beach Boys Circus!”

This hearty recommendation comes as sort of a sideways and much belated review of Dame Right’s first outing back in November 2025 at the Bryant Lake Bowl, when they presented a re-imagining of the 1985 John Hughes film (and subsequent 1994-1998 TV series) “Weird Science” which in the hands of Dame Right now became extremely lesbian, extremely queer, extremely trans, relentlessly odd, unapologetically horny, and thus also extremely delightful.  Everyone on that production “understood the assignment,” as they say, and just went for it.  They filled the tiny Bryant Lake Bowl stage with all sorts of 80s memorabilia, outfitted everyone in the cast in the bizarre fashion of the times, and really went for broke in the way they staged it, right down to the sound design stingers from the theme song repeated for comic effect.  The plot synopsis posted online said:

“The 80s: The greatest decade alive… unless you’re a dorky teenage lesbian, then it pretty much totally sucks!  A campy sapphic comedy loosely based on the 1985 John Hughes classic, Weird Science. Featuring a Frankenstein-ed beautiful woman, pure gay-ighties antics, and all the charm two loser high school lesbians can muster. Who’s ready to rock?!”

Now nine members of the “Weird Sapphics” team have gotten the band back together in order to portray the story of a real band this time.  “Weird Sapphics” writer/director/production designer and cast member  Bella Maldonado has teamed up with Lucía Salazar-Davidson to co-write the script for the Fringe show “Good Vibrations” with Bella also in the director’s chair again and Lucia assistant directing.

Though they didn’t have a slot in the Fringe previews on Monday night, if you were there waiting in line for the house doors to open, you likely saw some of the “Good Vibrations” team as they were handing out postcards to folks in line with the aid of a large and friendly goat puppet.  The Theatre in the Round venue is perfect for their often manic energy.

These folks know how to have good, campy queer fun, so whatever they’re up to, I’m on board.

Interested in hearing about other artists I recommend based on past outings in the Fringe? Here's a link to a list of all the coverage of returning favorite artists from past pre-Fringe Top 20 lists of mine that are part of this year's Minnesota Fringe Festival. And here's links to the 2026 versions of my pre-Fringe Top 10 list and Top 11 through 20 for the 2026 festival as we ramp up toward the start of the Fringe on August 6th.