Interregnum 2010-2011 - Blog of the Time Between - Reviews

The Twin Cities Daily Planet has given me my own little byline page, and has me reviewing shows outside the confines of the blog, too, these days. Like anyone in the Twin Cities, I still miss more theater than I end up seeing. But here's the write-ups on the things I managed to catch since last Fringe...

7/21/2011 - Peanut Butter Factory - Oh The Humanity - 4 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

7/21/2011 - Savage Umbrella - Ex-Gays - 4 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

7/15/2011 - Butter Cream and Scotch - 3 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

7/11/2011 - Theatre Pro Rata - Waiting For Godot - 4-1/2 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

7/11/2011 - Walking Shadow Theatre Company - Saboteur - 3 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

7/10/2011 - Girl Friday Productions - Street Scene - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

6/25/2011 - Workhouse Theatre - Torch Song Trilogy - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

6/25/2011 - Park Square Theatre - Panic - 3 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

6/12/2011 - 20% Theatre Company - That Face - 1 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

6/9/2011 - Eat Street Players - The Red Tureen - 2-1/2 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

6/3/2011 - Jeffrey Peterson Dance - Fe/Male - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
Single White Fringe Geek version

5/26/2011 - New Theatre Group - The Debate Over Courtney O'Connell of Columbus, Nebraska - 3 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

5/16/11 The Moving Company - Come Hell And High Water - 2-1/2 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

5/12/11 Ordway Center for the Performing Arts - Next To Normal (national tour) - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

5/8/11 Classical Actors Ensemble - All's Well That Ends Well - 3 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

5/2/11 Off-Leash Area - Now Eye See You, Now Eye Don't - 3 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

4/16/11 Jungle Theater - Next Fall - 4 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

4/5/11 Theater in the Round Players - Hamlet - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

3/30/11 Mixed Blood - Avenue Q - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

3/16/11 Live Action Set - The 7-Shot Symphony - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

2/8/11 Jungle Theater - Shirley Valentine - 4 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

1/24/11 Park Square Theatre - The Odyssey - 2-1/2 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

1/10/11 Box Wine Theater - Raucous Caucus - 4 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

11/9/10 Jungle Theater - Fully Committed - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

11/9/10 Classical Actors Ensemble - 'Tis Pity She's A Whore - 4-1/2 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

10/25/10 Theater Or - Broadway Bound - 4-1/2 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

10/23/10 Minnesota Jewish Theater - My Name Is Asher Lev - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

10/17/10 Red Eye Theater - Iris - 2 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

9/27/10 Theatre Novi Most - The Oldest Story In The World - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

9/19/10 Park Square Theatre - The Last Seder - 2-1/2 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

9/13/10 Theatre Pro Rata - The Taming of the Shrew - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

9/10/10 Savage Umbrella - Leaves - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

8/23/10 Illusion Theater - Always and Forever - 4-1/2 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Auditions for the tale of Medea and Jason, as a dark romantic comedy

The Flowershop Project is doing my Medea & Jason play, so I'm spreading the word about auditions where I can. If you're free for rehearsals starting at the end of August, for a production in October, send them an email as outlined below and sign yourself up for a slot.

Here's the notice...

The Flower Shop Project will be holding auditions for “Medea and Jason: Rubicon Waltz” by Matthew Everett and directed by Brenna Jones, on

June 13th and 14th, 7-9 pm

at Epworth Methodist Church (3207 37th Avenue South).

If necessary, callbacks will be held June 15th, same time and place.

To schedule an audition please email David Schlosser at

david@theflowershopproject.com

with your name, preferred audition time and phone number. You will get an email shortly confirming your audition time. There is a $100 stipend for each actor.

Readings will be from the script. Sides and the script are available at http://www.matthewaeverett.com/plays/scenes.php?playID=52, as well as http://www.theflowershopproject.com.

"Medea’s sons want her to tell them a story. So Medea tells the tale of an epic love story gone horribly wrong – the story of how the young adventurer Jason met the princess Medea, the story of how the boys’ mother met their father. Medea conjures the other players in the tale, unfolding the origin of the Golden Fleece, and the quest of Jason and the Argonauts. But truth is a slippery thing – depending on the person telling the story, and the reasons they’re telling it. The messier the story gets, the more variations appear. Throughout, the goddesses and gods of legend meddle in affairs of the human heart. Medea betrayed her father and her country in order to help Jason obtain the Golden Fleece. She helped murder her own brother to aid their escape. Before it was all over, a giant, two kings, and a princess, among others, were dead. And depending on which version you believe, Medea’s sons die as well. But who kills them, and why? Medea & Jason: Rubicon Waltz explores the stories and lies we tell others, and ourselves.”

(If you're unable to make the audition dates but would still like to audition, we're more than happy to make alternate arrangements! You can email David Schlosser at david@theflowershopproject.com or call Brenna at 612.280.2860.)

Rehearsals will begin at Epworth on August 29th and run through September; either Monday-Thursday (7-10pm) and Saturday afternoon, or Mon-Fri.There will be no rehearsal on the night of the Ivey’s.

Performances will be at the Bryant Lake Bowl, opening October 1st and running the rest of the Saturdays of the month.

“Medea and Jason: Rubicon Waltz” has 9 roles and is designed to be performed by an ensemble of actors both male and female. At some point, nearly all of them will play across gender lines. The only place where specific gender is vital is in the 2 central characters. Since this is in part a play about the inequity of gender roles in societies both ancient and not so ancient, it is important that Medea be played by a female actor, and that Jason be played by a male actor. The other 7 roles can be played by either gender.

Roles:

MEDEA - female, 20’s to 50’s

JASON - male, 20’s to 50’s

ACTOR 3 (male or female, 20s to 50s) - Oracle at Delphi, Apsyrtus #1, lead on Golden Fleece story, lead on Island of Dawn/Talus stories, Daughter #5

ACTOR 4 (male or female, 20s to 50s) - Cupid, Warrior #1, Apsyrtus #2, Daughter #4, lead on the Hera/Argo story, King Creon

ACTOR 5 (male or female, 20s to 50s) - Aphrodite, Apsyrtus #3, lead on the First Meet story, Daughter #3, Glauke

ACTOR 6 (male or female, 20s to 50s) - Hera, Warrior #3, Apsyrtus #4, lead on daughters story

ACTOR 7 (male or female, 20s to 50s) - King Pelias, Warrior #2, Alexander the Great

ACTOR 8 (male or female, 20s to 50s) - Fred, Talus, Daughter #2, lead on the Pelias story, lead on Apsyrtus story

ACTOR 9 (male or female, 20s to 50s) - King Aeetes, Daughter #1, King Aegeus

Review - Fe/Male - "I Have Never Wanted To Be A Wall So Much In My Life."

If two people are standing very close together, face to face, breathing hard, staring intently into one another's eyes, one of two things is probably going to happen - they'll kiss, or they'll hit each other. Doesn't seem to matter if the two people are both women, or both men - the tensions are the same. And when neither happens, that tension gets cranked up a notch. That's one of the many intriguing conceits involved in Fe/Male, the evening of dance at Intermedia Arts this weekend, choreographed by Jeffrey Peterson and Melissa Rolnick.

The concept of the evening is deceptively simple - three dances, two choreographed by Rolnick and one by Peterson, will each be performed twice, once by male dancers, once by female dancers, with an intermission between the repeated program. At first, my thoughts ran along the lines of, "It'll be interesting to see what difference the gender switch makes." But when we reached intermission, I was simply thinking, "Wow. I'm really glad I get to see those three dances again, right away. I almost don't care who does them."

Both halves of Fe/Male kick off with Rolnick's piece "Soaring" followed by her work "2x2," the combination of which would be a study in contrasts even without the gender flipping in the second half of the evening. "Soaring" is a solo set to the music of Mozart, while "2x2" has four dancers move to a piece of electronic percussive noise called "Battles." "Soaring" is all curves and sweeping movements. "2x2" traffics in a lot of sudden jolts and sharp angles.

The joy and openness involved in "Soaring" is clear (and strangely the same) whether it's Jeffrey Peterson dancing the solo at the start, or Heather Klopchin dancing it again just after intermission. The reluctance to permit even the briefest contact in "2x2" seems just as violent when first done by Katherine Arndt, Taylor Cook, Emily Hassenstab and Alyssa McGinty, as it does when the men (Bryan Gerber, Cade Holmseth, Jordan Klitzke, and Jeffrey Peterson) return to the same moves later in the night.

Peterson's Minnesota Fringe Festival collaboration with Rebecca Katz Harwood last summer, Thinkingaview/CorresponDance, was delightful because it played fast and lose with gender roles and stereotypes without being didactic. It simply tore down the physical walls people traditionally put up between each other, letting men and women mingle freely onstage in a variety of combinations. In Fe/Male, Rolnick and Peterson present the genders one at a time in isolation, repeating the same moves, proving that any human body with the proper strength, control and grace can blow your mind.

There comes a point in "Soaring" where the dancer spends time much lower to the ground than at the beginning. Though compressed in space, the dancer still creates the same sweeping moves as when they were freer, eventually opening up again and standing tall to conclude the piece. Whether it's Peterson or Klopchin executing the moves, the joy of that resilience is equally lovely. When the four dancers of "2x2," whether female or male, finally allow themselves the tentative possibility of a touch that might be lasting or tender, the moment is electric and moving, even as it carries with it the fear of rejection.

Peterson's work "Rouse" which closes both halves of the night is a compelling sequence of physical duets (even when there's only one, or up to three, people on stage). How is that possible, you ask? Well, "they're dancers," would be the short answer, but if you want specifics... Dancers 1 and 2 spend some time tumbling over and under each other, conflicted about how tangled up in each other's limbs they really wish to be. Moments of genuine tenderness are indulged, then quickly shut down. Once Dancer 2 finally makes up their mind to go for it, Dancer 1 decides they're not interested and walks off. Dancer 2, left alone and panting against a wall, decides to take out their frustrations, emotional and... uh... sexual, on the wall. (Hence the title of the review.) Bereft and spent on the floor, Dancer 2 is rejoined by Dancer 1, who has brought a friend, Dancer 3. The trio then spends the rest of their time coupling and uncoupling, with the odd person out always inserting themselves as a spoiler, until Dancers 1 and 2 find themselves up against the wall again, with a decidedly more positive, or at least hopeful, result. None of the preceding description does justice, of course, to the mind-boggling array of moves these two trios pull off - first the men (Gerber, Holmseth and Peterson), then later the ladies (Klopchin, Tamara Ober, and Leslie O'Neill). But let's face it, if you could put dance into words, it'd be a play. The contortions of the human body can often convey things in a way that makes words completely unnecessary.

I've discovered one of the things I like most about Peterson's work, and that of the other choreographers and dancers he works with, is the eye contact between the dancers. Yes, physical contact and the interaction of bodies in space is the main course here. But the looks between these people are all so loaded with intent, it takes the dance to another level. The dance that I have a hard time connecting with is the kind where everyone's face is blank and they go through their paces. Amazing though the moves may be, if they've got the dead stare of a runway model plastered on their face, I find it difficult to engage. It's like they're only performing from the neck down. Or worse yet they're like an actor who stands onstage only waiting for his next line, not listening to his acting partner or being present with them in the moment of the story being told between their characters.

The dancers in Rolnick and Peterson's works, even when alone, have faces you can actually read (or try to read - on some level, humans are always a mystery). It's just another form of connection, but I find it's a vital one. Also, I imagine it's a part of the puzzle that only snaps into place when the moves become second nature and the dancer no longer needs to obsess about them. Practice ingrains the motion in the body, so your eyes can leave your legs and arms to do their work, and you can throw some energy your partner's way. It sounds like a little thing, but the payoff is huge, and it's present in all of the best moments of Fe/Male (of which there are many).

The friend who accompanied me kept letting out little involuntary exclamations of "Wow!" under his breath watching the dancers in action. That about sums it up really. Wow.

See this thing. And quick. They only run this weekend (June 2nd through June 5th) at Intermedia Arts. Check out the calendar at intermediaarts.org for more information and reservations.

Jeffrey Peterson Dance will be back in the Fringe this year, as well as premiering a new piece at the Southern (both in August), but trust me, you want to see this one, too. Like all good performance, it exists in the moment between performer and audience, and then it's gone.

5 stars - Very Highly Recommended.

Off-season Fringey goodness this weekend

Just a heads up, since this is a "blink and you miss it" kind of thing. I'll be posting a review after, but I wanted to give an extra shout out because of the brief (this weekend only) run.

Jeffrey Peterson, who concocted one of my favorite Minnesota Fringe Festival shows last year (good lord, was it only last year?) Thinkingaview/CorresponDance has come up with a brand new dance piece (with co-director/choreographer Melissa Rolnick) to blend and bend genders for us, called Fe/Male for four performances only at Intermedia Arts. (I was not alone in loving the Fringe show - just check out their audience reviews.)

Thursday, June 2, 2011 - Sun, June 5, 2011
Tickets are $14 or $12 students and seniors ($2 off with Fringe Festival Button)

Thursday June 2nd, 8pm Preview (pay what you can)
Friday - Saturday June 3rd and 4th at 8pm
Sunday June 5th at 4pm

"Fe/Male choreographically hypothesizes on gendered power, intimacy, and joy. Repeating the same dances twice: once by an all-female cast and once by an all-male cast, Fe/Male seeks to uncover our preconceptions about the nature of gender. Choreography and direction by Jeffrey Peterson and Melissa Rolnick."

It's starting to fill up, so reservations in advance are recommended - email fe.maletickets@gmail.com

Also on tap this weekend, for a longer run, is the return of a Fringe musical from Fringe 2009, The Red Tureen, a cooperative production of Eat Street Players and Doolin & Dingle (which, seriously, for the names alone...)

Eat Street Players apparently also have a Fringe show coming up this summer called 19 Cows Leaving Beirut (which, again, for the title alone, aren't you curious?)

The Red Tureen runs
June 4th, 10th and 11th at 7:30
June 5th and 12th at 2:00

Ticket Prices:
Adults $15
Students/Seniors $10
Children Under 12 $5

Discounts
Get $2 off on any performance
or
2-1 for the performances on June 4th and 5th.
** Friends of the Irish Fair
** Fringe Button (any year)

For reservations visit eatstreetplayers.org

They perform on the Howard Conn Stage at Plymouth Congregational Church - 1900 Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis (corner of Nicollet and Franklin)

"Food is a Weapon and the Truth Starves in New Musical “THE RED TUREEN”

Returning to his boyhood home in western Ireland, young Father Padraig Bones is about to learn that in Famine Ireland, the truth is the first hungry casualty. “The Red Tureen”, a new musical to be presented by Eat Street Players at the Howard Conn Theater in Minneapolis, June 4-12, 2011, follows Padraig in his hungry struggle against British policies that turn food into a weapon. The fate of his beloved Kilkieran Valley lies in the balance.

According to composer Kevin Bowen, “The Red Tureen” is fiction, but based on real people who suffered in the Irish Famine and struggled to survive. “Their lives were simple, but remarkable, and we know only the bare outlines for certain. So now we attempt to fill the gaps.”

Bowen and librettist James Lundy, close friends since their days at Gustavus Adolphus College nearly thirty years ago, created “The Red Tureen” over the past five years. In abbreviated form at the 2009 Minnesota Fringe Festival, “The Red Tureen” was named a “Must See” production, and offered audiences “…history and mystery, but also the things singers love to sing about: romance, anguish, and humor” (Debra O’Connor, St. Paul Pioneer Press). The current production premieres the story and music in their entirety.

“The Red Tureen” is directed for the stage by Michael Sheeks, with musical direction by Andrew Kust, orchestration by Martha Davis, and dramaturgy by Jo Holcomb. “The Red Tureen” cast features Bill Marshall as Padraig Bones, Aly Westberg as Maeb McCullen, and Chris Deutsch as William Bones."

I'll be reviewing that one, too, but again, just a little wave to let you know it's out there.

Interregnum 2010-1011 - Blog of the Time Between - But Not for Love

So my play about gay marriage, "But Not For Love," gets an production out in Los Angeles, and shortly after that, the gay marriage issue blows up back home in Minnesota (sigh)...

5/16/11 Vote No - Where To Get The T-shirt
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

5/12/11 What Do I Tell My Goddaughter?
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

11/1/10 "Miss Me Yet?" (VOTE!)
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Fringe 2011 - Lottery Posts

Here's a handy list of links to any posts referring to the 2011 Minnesota Fringe Festival's Lottery and the aftermath...

2/13/11 - Apparently Size Does Matter
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

2/9/11 - Wait Listed
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

2/7/11 - The New Fringe Lottery
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Interregnum 2010-2011 - Blog of the Time Between - Leave

Urban Samurai Productions premiered a brand new expanded, full-length version of my play "Leave" in February 2011. When I wasn't busy with rewrites, here's what I managed to blog about the process and how it all turned out...

2/19/11 - The Audience Completes The Production
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

2/17/11 - The Unrelenting Power of a Mother's Love
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

2/13/11 - Happy Valentine's Day: I Hope You Like Guys In Their Underwear
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

2/12/11 - Things That Make It Real
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

2/12/11 - First Impressions
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

2/10/11 - Rented Lips and the Merits of Tongue
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

2/10/11 - All The Theater I'm Missing
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

2/8/11 - No, It's Not About Pedophilia
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

11/3/10 - Audition Jitters
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

8/19/10 - Bowling and Running and Writing (not necessarily in that order)
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Interregnum 2010-2011 - Blog of the Time Between - 24 Hour Plays

Once again I served as playwright wrangler for Theatre Unbound's 24 Hour Play Project. But first, of course, the general public had to vote on what went into the plays

1/2/11 Theatre Unbound's 24 Hour Play Project: You Choose The Ingredients
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Vote No - Where To Get The T-shirt

I've had some inquiries about the T-shirt associated with my Vote No essay (What Do I Tell My Goddaughter?) so, having just ordered a couple myself, I can walk you all through the process.

First, for those eagle-eyed proofreader friends of mine who noticed the first draft of the shirt misspelled "amendment" as "amendement" - the artist caught that and fixed it for the next test run. All shirts ordered will respect the laws of good spelling.

The shirts are by Fish Design, the brainchild of my friend James Fish, a recent graduate of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I own several other T-shirt designs he's created and count them among my favorites. So I can vouch for the guy and his business personally. (He also designed the covers for several of the published versions of my plays.)

The new photo of the T-shirt includes James' contact info (though the contact info doesn't actually appear on the shirt, fear not, just the Vote No art).

Send your order to

JamesWasFish@gmail.com

Indicate

T-shirt size
Cut - Male or Female
Type - Minnesota State version, or plain old Vote No version (I ordered one of each)
Shipping Address
Additional Contact Info like phone, if you want (just in case he needs to get in touch with you about the order - he'll already have your email, of course)

Locally (Twin Cities area) he might be able to arrange an in-person pickup, so inquire if that interests you, see if your schedules align. Me, my schedule's too nutty right now. Mailing is best. It's worth the extra five bucks to me.

T-shirts are $17.50 each for regular sizes (S, M, L, XL), $20.50 for XXL or XXXL

Shipping is $5.00

He'll be processing payments through PayPal, which means you need to factor in an additional 3 percent to zero out their fees.

A single shirt would be

17.50 - shirt
5.00 - shipping

22.50 subtotal, plus another $0.68 to negate the 3 percent PayPal fee

So that grand total would be $23.18

As for payment, you go to Paypal.com

Sign yourself in

Choose the Send Money option

Enter James' business email - JamesWasFish@gmail.com - in the To field

Enter the total cost of your purchase ($23.18 for a single T-shirt) in the Amount field

In the "This is a purchase of:" section, choose Goods

Click Continue

If you don't already have a credit card set up with them, the system will walk you through all that, plus the shipping address for your order, and there'll also be a place to put a message (I copied my order info there, just to be on the safe side. I'm anal that way.)

Then you finalize your order and you're on your way. You get an email confirmation, and James follows up as well.

All relatively painless as internet shopping goes.

James does quality work, and I consider that price a bargain to rally for a good cause, and also support a local artist starting up a business.

I was exchanging messages with James the other day and marveled that he'd designed a shirt in protest within hours of the state senate's vote and had it posted online. He replied...

"Yeah, I noticed the ruling and it just makes me mad because I have known people that are/were planning to get married out of state. You shouldn't have to leave your hometown to do what you want to because of your sexuality.

If there are any other social or political issues you feel NEED to be addressed, or like the idea with these shirts, please feel free to shoot me some input.

I'm not doing this for the money. This is something I truly believe in, and I'm sick of the way things are governed in our country. Mob rule someday? Who knows. But if it's an idea I can back I will use all the equipment and skills I have to help get it out there!"

Go, James! I know tons of great straight people. I don't know why it still (pleasantly) surprises me sometimes when they want to pitch in on behalf of a gay cause. I suppose they'd argue, "it's not a gay thing, it's a human thing." Guess I just figure somehow it's only "my fight." Nice to know so many people think it's their fight, too, regardless of where they fall on the Kinsey scale.

You'll see my proudly wearing my red T-shirts around town soon.

(Wouldn't it be nice if some legislative miracle happened and I didn't need them after all? We'll know soon enough.)

What Do I Tell My Goddaughter?

Because she's going to want an explanation.

What do I tell my goddaughter is the reason that in the state of Minnesota where her godfather lives, they are pushing an amendment to the constitution through the legislature to put it on the ballot for the November 2012 election? A popular vote to decide whether our constitution needs an amendment that would define marriage as being only between one man and one woman, and thus outlawing gay marriage?

Again.

Because we already have a law on the books to this effect, correct? Minnesota already took care of that.

So what do I tell my goddaughter?

Why is it necessary to also add it to the constitution?

Why is it necessary to put the rights of a group of citizens up for a vote?

Because that's what it is.

I heard a politician say that the good people of Minnesota are decent, caring, inclusive folks, and so they should be allowed to decide such a thing and not have the politicians or the courts decide it for them.

But this politician isn't putting this amendment on the ballot because he thinks these good folks will reject anti-gay bigotry. He's expecting them to embrace it, and enshrine the traditional, exclusive definition of marriage into the state constitution.

So what do I tell my goddaughter?

Is there a teeming hoard of gays and lesbians storming churches and the offices of justices of the peace demanding to be married and wreaking all kinds of havoc?

I think someone would have told me.

Does this amendment help solve any of our state's, or our country's, current challenges?

Does it feed one hungry person?

Does it educate one child?

Does it put a roof over the head of someone who is homeless?

Does it help shrink the budget and pay down the deficit?

Does it bring one soldier home from the war?

Does it help business to create jobs for the unemployed?

Does it heal the sick?

No?

OK, then what do I tell my goddaughter?

Because there has to be a good reason for it, right?

Because when I stood up for her parents and spoke at their wedding back in June of 2004, my goddaughter's future mother and father didn't want to have a political debate or make anybody uncomfortable. But when I asked them if there was anything they wanted in this prayer, the bride told me that she had many friends, myself included, who were not allowed to be married. She wanted them to be a part of this day, too, and she wanted people to remember that inequity still exists. We need to recognize it, we need to fight it. We need to not silently accept it as the way things are. We need to fight for the way things should be.

The wedding was in Taos, New Mexico, in the shadow of the Taos Mountain, a sacred Native American territory were non-Native Americans are not allowed to set foot.

So the wedding prayer began...

"God,
as we gather here in the sight
of the great Taos Mountain,
a sacred place we cannot go,
we celebrate the union
of Miriam and Jeremy,
and ask for your blessings
upon them -
that they may continue to find
in one another,
and in support from their
family and friends,
the things they have already been so fortunate to find -
laughter, acceptance,
forgiveness, safety,
patience, gratitude,
love and peace.
Hear us as we pray..."

and the wedding prayer continued, concluding with...

"Spirit,
as Miriam and Jeremy continue
the next chapter in their adventure together,
they are mindful of those who do not share the same rights and freedoms as they do,
including the ceremony we gather for today.
We pray for a world
in which there is no sacred space
where two people in love cannot go
to celebrate their union
with family and friends.
We ask that in this troubled world,
you offer hope for the sick,
the lonely, the outcast,
and comfort for the dying and their families.
We ask for peace in the world,
wisdom for our leaders,
and safety for those at war.
Finally, we ask individually
for the strength, understanding and love
we each will need
in order to leave this world,
and the people in it,
better than we found them.
All this we pray..."

This was the union into which my goddaughter was was born two years ago. These are her parents. These are their friends.

They asked me to be her godfather because they wanted me to be involved in her life, to be an influence in raising her.

So what do I tell my goddaughter about my adopted state? A state I moved to almost 20 years ago now to build a life. A state that has nurtured me and made me feel welcome and made me feel like the world was expanding and all things were possible.

A state that now seems to be telling me the opposite. That I am not welcome. That I am not the same, or as good or deserving, as everyone else who lives here. That the things which I am allowed and not allowed to do can be called up for a vote at any time. That my rights are not inalienable. That some pursuits of happiness are not to be tolerated.

What do I tell her when she asks me, "Why do you still live in Minnesota if they feel this way about you?"

Tell me, please, because right now I don't have an answer for her.

What do I tell my goddaughter?

(I am sending this to every member of the House Rules Committee in the Minnesota Legislature, the only body who can still stop this thing from coming to vote in the House that will most certainly put it on the ballot. I'm not feeling particularly hopeful, but I work with words, and I have to do something.)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 17

Full Cast (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 16

Full Cast (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 15

Asa Somers and Curt Hansen (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 14

Alice Ripley and Curt Hansen (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 13

Curt Hansen, Asa Somers and Alice Ripley (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 12

Curt Hansen and Alice Ripley (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 11

Jeremy Kushnier, Alice Ripley and Asa Somers (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 10

Alice Ripley and Curt Hansen (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 9

Emma Hunton and Alice Ripley (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 8

Emma Hunton, Curt Hansen, and Preston Sadleir (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 7

Full Cast (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 6

Preston Sadleir and Emma Hunton (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 5

Alice Ripley and Jeremy Kushnier (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 4

Emma Hunton (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 3

Curt Hansen (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 2

Asa Somers (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Next To Normal - National Tour Pictures - 1

Alice Ripley (photo by Craig Schwartz)

Review - Next To Normal - 5 stars

Curt Hansen, Alice Ripley and Asa Somers (photo by Craig Schwartz)


It takes a lot for a piece of theater to genuinely surprise me anymore. I've seen so much theater, and get involved in the nuts and bolts of storytelling and production myself with my own scripts. So when a theater production puts one over on me, and actually has me enjoy being pysched out, that's a rare and pretty neat trick. The national touring company of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical "Next To Normal" surprised me not once but repeatedly throughout the evening. But "Next To Normal" isn't simply a cleverly rigged puzzle box. There's a deep emotional connection going on between the play and its audience as well. Just like I'm not often surprised anymore, I'm also not often moved - to laughter, to tears, to sighing, to sitting on the edge of my seat in suspense. "Next To Normal" pulled all of that out of me, too - my heart and brain spinning at once. It's a gorgeous piece of theater. It richly deserves all the awards that have been thrown at it over the last few years.

So, what's "Next To Normal" about - and how do I tell you without giving the game away? Fear not, this shall be relatively spoiler-free. But first, some things I hardly ever do...

I hardly ever stand at the end of a play. When the cast came out to take their bows, the friend who accompanied me asked, "Are we standing?" We stood and applauded.

I hardly ever buy a musical cast album, or libretto. For "Next To Normal," I made a beeline for the merchandise booth - at intermission, before I even knew how the thing was going to end yet. I bought both.

The music is powerful and lovely and has a lot of intriguing variety to it. The lyrics and libretto are funny and smart. The performances just keep knocking you back on your heels. Every time you think you have these characters figured out, they throw you another curveball. It's incredibly addictive.

"Next To Normal" starts out as if it's going to be a rock musical spin on standard-issue suburban angst. There's Diana (Tony winner Alice Ripley), who seems like a slightly overwhelmed wife and mother. There's Dan (Asa Somers), who seems like a slightly clueless husband and father. There's Gabe (Curt Hansen), their strapping athletic teenage son. There's Natalie (Meghann Fahy during week one of the run here, Emma Hunton in week two), their socially awkward musical prodigy of a teenage daughter. The family's day starts normally enough, until Diana suddenly starts her own manic assembly line of sandwich making... on the kitchen floor. Diana is more than just a little overwhelmed. In fact, she has a series of doctors (the key ones all portrayed by Jeremy Kushnier) providing her with the necessary therapy and prescriptions to keep her on a relatively even keel.

Daughter Natalie has attracted the attention of a genial slacker classmate named Henry (Preston Sadleir). Try as she might to keep Henry from meeting her peculiar family, eventually Henry gets pulled into an impromptu family dinner. And that's when the real whopper of a surprise gets pulled out. It makes the audience reevaluate everything they've seen up to that point, and spins the rest of the play off into much different territory. Let's just say Diana's problems go a lot deeper than garden variety suburban ennui, or even the phrase bipolar disorder. The focus of the family on Diana's problems has the unintended side effect of making Natalie feel more and more isolated, at precisely the time she starts worrying about whether what her mother has is a family gift that keeps on giving.

Though classified as a rock musical, with a driving rhythm that keeps the story barrelling forward, the reason the Tony-winning score bewitched me so was because of its ability to incorporate other kinds of musical storytelling. Key moments of variety included a folk music lament by Diana ("I Miss The Mountains"), a melancholy music box waltz for mother and son ("I Dreamed A Dance"), and a love song by a husband for his wife ("A Light In The Dark") that was so beautiful it had me in tears, right as the play reached intermission. That last number isn't just beautiful because of the tune or the way it was sung, though both those assessments are true enough. It was another of those surprises I keep talking about. This is a love song where a man asks his wife to do something horrible in the hopes that it can save not just her, but their marriage, and the family. It's all the more lovely and horrible because the audience can feel him winning the argument, and none of us are entirely sure he should. Like so many pivotal moments in the story, it feels like both a victory and a mistake.

In fact, act one burned through so much story (without ever feeling rushed) that I found myself wondering, what can they possibly do in act two? I needn't have worried. The play not only explores what it means to be a family, but keeps peeling back the layers of complicated questions like:

How much emotion is too much emotion? How little is too little?
How long can you grieve without endangering the rest of your life, or your sanity?
If you can eliminate a painful memory, should you?
How do you build a new life from scratch?
Is it possible for something or someone which gives you comfort to ever be bad for you?
How do you know when to let go, or walk away, and when to stand and fight?

All these questions get teased out in the give and take between husband and wife, parent and child, lovers and friends - and the answers are intriguing, amusing, and constantly shifting, right up until the conclusion of the play. The vision of composer Tom Kitt and librettist/lyricist Brian Yorkey teeters so daringly (and often) at that place where the whole thing could go off the rails that my friend noticed me leaning all the way forward in my seat in the middle of act two. As if I were willing the play from where I sat, "Oh please don't screw up."

It never did.

My friend noticed not too long after that I had settled back in my seat again. Relaxed, knowing I was in very capable hands. Not just the hands of the authors, but the hands of all those great performers and musicians, and the Tony-nominated directing and design team. Michael Greif's nimble direction had that cast zipping up and down all over the wondrous three story set of shifting scaffolding designed by Mark Wendland, lit to dazzling effect by Kevin Adams. Spectacle was always in service of the story, never burying it or shoving it aside.

It's wonderful and exciting to see something so different, and yet still so recognizably human. You should really see it for yourself. You deserve a surprise this good in your theatergoing life. I'm exceedingly glad they paid us a visit.

Very Highly Recommended

The national touring company of "Next To Normal" performs at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts (345 Washington Street in St. Paul) through May 22, 2011. For tickets and more information, visit ordway.org or nexttonormal.com

Review - Next Fall - Jungle Theater - You Should See This Play Because It Really Pisses Me Off - 4 stars

[Adam (Garry Geiken) and Luke (Neal Skoy) - Photo by Michal Daniel]

I have to hand it to director Joel Sass, author Geoffrey Nauffts, and the entire cast and crew of the Jungle Theater’s production of “Next Fall” (especially actor Garry Geiken). Even though I see a lot of theater, it’s a rare thing indeed when a character onstage makes me so angry I want to scream and throw things at them. (I didn’t. But it took an awful lot of restraint.)

That’s not to say that “Next Fall” isn’t good. In fact, it’s extremely good. I’d venture to say it’s a far better production than this script dares hope for. The cast is crammed full of first rate actors. The set, also by Sass, is quite literally magical. Sound (C. Andrew Mayer), music (Greg Brosofske), lights (Barry Browning), costumes (Amelia Cheever), props (John Novak), you name it, all fantastic.

I have to give a quick tip of the hat to stage manager Elizabeth R. MacNally and her run crew because they made those transitions on Joel Sass’ set for “Next Fall” breathtaking. The gauzy curtain would pull closed and pause for what seemed like a fraction of a second and then immediately open again to reveal a transformed location. I knew there had to be a completely logical explanation for how they did it, but after the first couple of reveals I just stopped trying to figure it out and just embraced the magic. Each scene shift was a little helping of theater joy. (And if you read these reviews regularly, you know I never say that about scene shifts.)

And as much as the script drives me up a wall sometimes, there are a handful of moments in “Next Fall” that are damn near brilliant. That’s one of the many things that’s so frustrating (in a good way) about “Next Fall.” It could have been a great script, and it settled for good. I’m not entirely sure whether that’s through failure of nerve or simple laziness on the writer’s part but it made the evening equal parts thrilling and exasperating.

The thing I love about “Next Fall” is it required me to pay attention, to have my brain fully engaged, to care. I can count on one hand the number of theater experiences which asked that of me recently, the very thing I long to be asked for as an audience member. And I’ve unfortunately lost count of the number of productions that required nothing but passive spectating, and offered very little in return. This is the primary reason that even though it royally pisses me off in any number of ways, I’m telling everyone I know about “Next Fall” and that they should get their butts over to the Jungle and see it.

“Next Fall” is the story of the relationship of Luke (Neal Skoy) and Adam (Garry Geiken). Luke is a young aspiring actor and gay Christian who struggles with what his sexuality means in terms of sin and redemption. (Stop rolling your eyes. It’s so much better than in sounds in summary form.) Luke has mostly found a way to make peace with his divided existence, but falls in love with Adam, a would-be writer several years his senior, who never fails to push his buttons on the subject of religion. The script would have you believe Adam is an atheist, but I think he should look up the definition. At best, the guy is an agnostic and at worst he’s in tremendous denial regarding his feelings about a higher power, Christian or otherwise. Most of the stupid things Adam does appear to be because he’s terrified of dying and what that might mean. The couple must confront the specter of death in an unexpected way when Luke winds up in the hospital.

Luke’s hospital stay brings friends and family out of the woodwork - his eccentric mother Arlene (Maggie Bearmon Pistner), his stern father Butch (Stephen Yoakam), old law school friend Brandon (Sasha Andreev), and Adam’s female partner in crime Holly (Andrea Leap). What makes things tricky is that Luke’s parents still don’t know about his five year relationship with Adam. (Of course Luke’s parents aren’t as clueless as he’d like to think they are, nor as unforgiving as he fears they might be, but it’s always hardest to tell your parents, particularly when they make it clear they’d rather not know.) Adam thinks there’s no time like the present, in the midst of a medical crisis, to press the issue - one of his many mind-bogglingly awful ideas. Later, Adam wonders why Luke listed Brandon as his emergency contact. Well, Adam, probably because Brandon is capable of being sensitive to Luke’s family situation and doesn’t immediately want to make everything all about himself. Just a guess.

Adam also decides that now is a perfect time to assault the religious beliefs that are giving everyone comfort. He takes even the smallest mention of faith as provocation. This would almost be forgivable as a conceit if the conversations that resulted were at all balanced. One wonders if the playwright even knows any Christians, and if he does, did he bother to speak with them? Of course, if he’s like Adam, why would anyone engage in a conversation where they are sure to have their beliefs dismissed on the flimsiest of evidence? The problem is that it makes the arguments hopelessly one-sided.

For instance, one of the Christian characters doesn’t believe in evolution (of course). Because God and science are mutually exclusive. When are people going to get tired of this argument? Because it’s not an either/or proposition, any more than being gay and Christian is not an either/or scenario. Coming from a writer with an obvious intelligence and gift for dialogue, the script for “Next Fall” is often maddeningly devoid of any nuance of thought.

What “Next Fall” is very good at doing is prompting the discussions in the audience that the characters seem incapable of having onstage. My theatergoing companion and I spent the entire intermission in our seats debating the merits of all sorts of things that happened in Act One (to the point where I completely forgot to circle back around to the box office like I was supposed to and pick up my press packet). Once the play was finished, we were talking again until we realized the vast majority of the audience had up and left, and we probably should, too. Then I drove them home and even though we talked all the way there, we continued talking for a long while in the car after we’d arrived.

As I’ve said any number of times in the context of reviews dealing with productions tackling issues of faith, both my parents are ordained ministers. I grew up with this stuff. We can all quote chapter and verse. But we’re not blindly dogmatic “the Bible is the inerrant word of God” people either. Liberal Yankee northern Baptists, all of us. Having a gay playwright in the family has led to a fair amount of soul-searching over the years.

So someone or something sets off the Big Bang, which begins the universe. In all that unfolding and expanding matter, our solar system forms and on the third planet from the sun conditions exist where life as we know it can take root. Over millions of years, life adapts and shifts and changes and takes on many forms, ultimately leading to modern day human beings, with an amazingly complex structure. Part of that structure, the brain, is capable of wondering where we all came from, and starts to track that question back across the centuries to the beginning of time and the universe itself. Another part of that structure is the human heart, which wants what it wants.

I can understand some people being put out by the thought of being related to monkeys (even though I personally think monkeys are pretty cool). I can understand some people not liking the idea that maybe dinosaurs were here before Adam and Eve (still, if you read Genesis, the animals got here before we did anyway, so does it matter what kind of animals and for how long?) But honestly, isn’t anything that can set that whole spectacular set of dominoes falling over the course of billions of years and vast interstellar distances, and know the outcome, isn’t that the definition of a higher power, and intelligent design? God gave us brains and hearts (and yes, genitalia) for a reason, to use them.

Still, when the Christian character is trying to flout Adam’s argument for evolution, they say, “A monkey doesn’t have a soul. How do you morph from something without a soul to something with a soul?”

How?
God.
That’s how.
Dumbass.

But this character is intelligent, and comfortable in their faith, and would know that.

It’s like the writer isn’t even trying sometimes.

Yet so much of the rest of the time, the characters just sing. Luke’s parents, Arlene and Butch, in the sure and capable hands of Maggie Bearmon Pistner and Stephen Yoakam, are a joy to watch in action. Not just the actors, but the characters themselves, are capable of such subtlety and love and (in their own way) understanding, that I was scratching my head why they weren’t that way consistently throughout the play.

Sasha Andreev brings a quiet intensity to the role of Brandon, and you can sense, not just because of the actor but again partly because of the script, that there’s something big coming when he finally gets to speak. When the moment comes, however, the writer has hobbled the actors with a peculiar scene that turns Brandon into another variation of Luke. And the impetus for the scene is Adam being unable to speak to Luke about the subject (Luke prays after sex), which is a strange excuse.

This is the main trouble with Luke and Adam onstage. I don’t buy that they’ve been in a relationship for five years and haven’t already had some of the discussions that they’re having now, this late in the game. Their first discussion of faith and sin seems to take place over breakfast the morning after they first have sex. So if the religious issue bugs Adam as much as he claims it does, they would have worked through a lot of this, for good or ill, long ago. So why don’t we get to see those scenes, or some of the scenes that are reported to us secondhand rather than acted out in front of us? (Luke prays after sex, just for starters. Or Luke being there for Adam when Adam’s father died.) Why, other than the fact that it’s convenient for the author to try and tell the story this way? For every moment that lands with real force, and there are many, there are just as many missed opportunities that leave me befuddled.

Speaking of missed opportunities, the lovely and talented Andrea Leap is woefully underused in the script as Holly. Most of the time she appears to exist solely to keep Adam from making even more of a nuisance of himself than he already does (which I’ll admit, must be a full-time job in itself). I just kept wishing she had more of her own stakes in this game somehow.

Adam. Oh, Adam. As I mentioned right at the top, Garry Geiken deserves all kinds of praise for his work in the role of Adam. Geiken is fearless. Even though his character regularly does things that make us want to shake him, Geiken doesn’t hold back. It’s a “warts and all” portrayal of a relentlessly self-involved individual. It’s what the play requires, and Geiken gets the job done. I can remember one, only one, selfless thing which Adam does over the course of the entire evening. Other than that, including the last thing he does just before the lights go down on the end of the play, it’s all about Adam, Adam, Adam. And the weird thing is, I think the playwright means for me to bond with this guy as my protagonist, to side with him against Luke’s parents. Much as I sometimes even wanted to do so, I just couldn’t.

At one point, Adam actually says to Luke, “I wish you loved me more than you loved him [Jesus/God].”

Seriously. He says that. The man has no filter.

There is not enough space on the internet for me to expound on all the myriad ways that is a sick, wrong, narcissistic thing to say to another human being.

Let’s just say, faith and belief in a higher power does not preclude the love of other human beings. (Just like God does not rule out science, and gay does not rule out Christian.) In fact, the two things feed one another. They are mutually supporting, not mutually exclusive. And we’ll leave it at that.

(The man even insults the teaching profession at one point. There’s always another layer of “Oh shut up” with Adam.)

Hey Adam, you want evidence of the existence of God? You’re a forty-something wannabe writer who’s in a long-term committed relationship with a cute actor in his twenties who finds neurosis endearing. Also, said cute actor wants to spend not just this lifetime with you, but the afterlife as well. If that’s not proof there’s a God, I don’t know what is.

It’s like the old joke about the religious man and the flood. A policeman tells the man to evacuate because there’s a flood coming and the man replies, “Oh no, that’s all right. I’ve been praying to God and God will save me.” The water rises, and a boat comes by and offers to give the man a lift. “Oh no, that’s all right,” he replies. “I’ve been praying to God and God will save me.” The water continues to rise and the man must take refuge on the roof of his home. A helicopter flies in and offers to take the man to safety. “Oh no, that’s all right,” he replies. “I’ve been praying to God and God will save me.” The water rises still more, the man is swept away, and drowns. When he reaches the pearly gates of heaven, the man says to God, “I prayed to you, but the flood still killed me. Didn’t you hear my prayers? Why didn’t you save me?” God replies, “I sent a policeman, a boat and a helicopter. What more did you want?”

Evidence of a higher power is all around us, and takes many forms. Love between human beings is one of the most powerful (let’s not even get me started on sex).

As good as Neal Skoy is as Adam’s Christian boyfriend Luke (and he’s very, very good), here again the writer is not doing the character or actor any favors. Luke and Skoy don’t have a lot of material to work with in trying to counterbalance Adam’s arguments. But Luke was raised in the church. He’s carried that part of his identity into his adulthood, even as he’s left home, and made the decision to leave law school and pursue an acting career. He’s his own man, but part of that man is his relationship to his faith and his God. He should have more ammunition at his disposal in these religious debates. He’s lived with it, struggled with it, all his life. He’s young, but he’s not a teenager. He’s got this figured out. But we don’t get much in the way of detail as to how he’s integrated it into his life. Dumb actors don’t get the part of the Stage Manager in “Our Town” handed to them, not at Luke’s age. The guy’s got a deeper mind, and a bigger heart, than we get to see. A richer character for Luke would have made “Next Fall” so much more moving, and funny, and thought-provoking than it already is. I’m not even talking about fundamentally changing the play. That’s where the play is already going. It just never gets there.

And I know that shiny happy people don’t make for good, conflict-filled stories, but do all the homosexuals in this play have be self-loathing ones? Being gay is a problem, even a sin. True love is unattainable or undesirable. Is that really the take home message “Next Fall” wants to leave us with? After seeing “Bare” at Minneapolis Musical Theater and the amazing way it integrated faith and sexuality into the lives of intelligent, thinking people - who still struggled, and mightily, some of them failing - I know that such storytelling is possible. Is one well-adjusted homo too much to ask for in the mix? Because when that’s the full picture of the world the play presents, I start to worry about what the script is saying to both the gay and the straight members of the audience about the totality of gay life. Or Christianity. Or any hope of blending the two.

Somewhere, tucked away in a corner of my brain, I understand the reality that not every play can be “Angels In America” or “The Boys In The Band” or “Bare.” But I see gay people settling for so much less in their entertainment. As long as a cute guy or gal takes their shirt off, we’re happy. (For the record, no one takes their shirt off in “Next Fall” - though I have to admit Neal Skoy is quite fetching in a T-shirt and boxer briefs, Sasha Andreev knows how to work a suit and tie for all its worth, and damn, Stephen Yoakam is an impressive looking man.)

Why should gay people settle for our stories being any less rich and varied than the vast majority of straight-oriented entertainment? We’ve passed the era of “suicidal victimhood” for all gay characters. We’re nearly through with the “everyone dies of AIDS or is a wise-cracking next door neighbor” phase. Plays like “Bare” and “Next Fall” are part of that next wave, where (gasp) gay and straight people actually live side by side in the same world and have complex problems. Imagine that. If you hold out the promise for gay people that they might see their lives reflected back to them from the stage, they’ll show up. Their straight friends often show up, too. You’re offering them the chance to see something they don’t get to see every day, still, even in 2011. So do something with the opportunity. Say something. Every play can’t be “Angels In America.” But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying.

All that said, there’s a whole lot to love here. Seriously, holy crap (no pun intended), you should see “Next Fall.” You’re not gonna find a funnier, sweeter, more exasperating play in town right now.

4 stars - Highly Recommended

“Next Fall” plays at the Jungle Theater (2951 Lyndale Avenue South in Minneapolis) through May 22, 2011. For tickets and more information, visit jungletheater.com

Review - Avenue Q - Mixed Blood - 5 stars

(pictured - Kate Monster, Bonni Allen, Princeton, Tom Reed - photo courtesy of Mixed Blood Theatre)

"Avenue Q," currently running at Mixed Blood Theatre, is a filthy little puppet show. And I mean that as a compliment.

"Avenue Q" is also a fairly traditional (and good) piece of musical theater, in the romantic comedy vein - albeit with a lot of swearing. And I mean that as a compliment.

"Avenue Q" also has a pretty big streak of dark, fatalistic humor running through it for something with such a bouncy rhythm. But I also mean that as a compliment.

"Avenue Q" at first seems like a really weird pick for a theater like Mixed Blood, but the longer you watch it, the more it seems like a perfect fit. And boy, do they run with it. This is the kind of hit show you don't have to be embarrassed about liking, or producing.

Mixed Blood regularly produces theater with a healthy mix of different ethnicities. The only difference here is that in addition to Caucasians living alongside African Americans and Asian Americans, and heterosexuals alongside homosexuals, there are also furry monsters and adorable (but evil) teddy bears in the melting pot.

Recent (and thus unemployed) college graduate Princeton (Tom Reed), moves into the only neighborhood he can afford - Avenue Q (he worked his way down from Avenue A). His superintendent is washed-up former child star Gary Coleman (Brittany Bradford). His neighbors include: wannabe comedian Brian (Shawn Hamilton) engaged to Christmas Eve (Rose Le Tran), the world's worst therapist; schoolteacher Kate Monster (Bonni Allen); internet porn addict Trekkie Monster (Eric Mayson); and slacker Nicky (Brian Skellenger) and his best buddy/roommate Rod (Seth Tucker), a closeted homosexual Republican investment banker who isn't fooling anybody.

To clarify, Gary Coleman, Brian and Christmas Eve are the only human beings on Sesame Street... er, Avenue Q. Every other character, human or monster, is portrayed by a puppet. A big heap of praise has to go to the puppet designers Wayne Krefting and Marcia McNamara because these muppet-style puppets are brilliant - looking in the human cases very much like cartoon versions their actor-operators. Another pat on the back needs to go out to costume designer Renata Shaffer-Gottschalk, who had the daunting task of outfitting both the puppets and their human operators in exactly the same costumes (with multiple costume changes for each). It's a bit of visual mimicry that goes a long way to reinforcing the reality that the human is the accessory to the puppet on their arm, rather than the other way around. The puppets take the spotlight in these pairings. Of course you couldn't have one without the other, and it's a subtle perception shift, but it makes a world of difference.

The actors all also deserve high praise for making the puppets work so well. Whether the acting partner was human or felt and furry, everyone had clearly bonded. Little things snuck up on me, such as when two actors performing as puppets were speaking, the human actors would focus their attention, as well as that of their puppet, on the other puppet they were speaking to, not the human across from them, which runs counter to everyone's natural instinct. This helps the audience to focus on the puppets as real characters (vitally important when the puppets are your romantic leads in a musical). My favorite (I believe unintentional) moment of human/puppet symbiosis was in the final pose after a strenuous musical number. Tom Reed was just slightly out of breath, and his puppet's mouth was ever so subtly breathing a little harder right beside him. That's how bonded these actors are with their fuzzy doppelgangers onstage, which is a heck of a lot of fun to watch in action.

(Tom Reed has now accomplished the next step on his path to world domination. The man scares me but I can't look away. First all forms of improv comedy, then back-to-back one man musical parody hit Fringe shows, now musical theater and puppets. He's so funny, it's always a pleasant surprise when he opens his mouth to sing and you realize, it's not a joke. The guy's got a great set of pipes. [shhh, just don't make him angry, who knows what he'll do next] Go, Tom!)

Nearly all the cast also does double duty in the band at various points throughout the evening - Allen, Mayson and Skellenger all hit the keyboard; the regular keyboardist, musical director Jason Hansen, also gets his own puppet cameo; Mayson also plays bass; Skellenger, the trumpet; and Hamilton gives us some flute and saxophone. Big kudos to percussionist Andy Mark for keeping the tempo of the evening bopping along.

"Avenue Q" is not for the easily offended, or faint of heart. One of the catchiest numbers in the whole show is entitled "The Internet Is For Porn." There is an extended sequence of full-on "naked" puppet sex throughout the song "You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You're Makin' Love)." If you have a low threshold for non-PC humor, the song "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist" is probably going to make you fume. Rod's love poem to "My Girlfriend Who Lives In Canada" is his enormous overreaction to people trying to bring him out of the closet (and denial) way before he's ready. It is a stunningly dirty song that just keeps getting dirtier, right up to the big finish that leaves the rest of the cast with mouths agape in shock. I have to admit that, as a compulsive listener to the original cast album, all of these songs make me giggle and don't bother me in the slightest. But I understand that not everyone has a sense of humor that can embrace comedy that broad or naughty. If you can let yourself kick back and enjoy, you might feel a little guilty, but the show's crooked heart is always in the right place.

For a show that isn't afraid to shock, "Avenue Q" is also surprisingly sentimental (in a good, earned way, not a schlocky one). One of my favorite numbers is the ballad "There's A Fine, Fine Line" in which Kate Monster decides she has to move on from her stalled out relationship with Princeton and start looking out for herself. It's a testament to the world this production creates (and Allen's performance) that by the time this number rolls around, the audience is completely on the heroine's side and feels deeply for her - even though her head is a bulbous thing covered in purple fur with a single eye perched atop a long stalk that grows out of the top of her skull.

The wistful puppet trio of Nicky, Princeton and Kate, all belting out "I Wish I Could Go Back to College," when their lives were simpler, is a heart-tugger as well. But it also has a lot of laughs tucked inside it, just like the swoony love ballad "Fantasies Come True" where Rod and Kate sing of their respective crushes on the men in their lives. The songs tweak romantic and sentimental conventions for humor at the same time they're reinforcing their power over the human (or monster) heart. It's an entertaining balancing act the production pulls off again and again.

Speaking of balancing acts, Eric Mayson as Trekkie Monster warrants some hazard pay for fearlessness. Trekkie is a life-size pink monstrosity mounted on Mayson's back, operated by a series of levers attached to his legs and arms. Mayson's feet are also contained in the contraption, as if he were lumbering around on enormous platform shoes - except he's taking a step back everytime Trekkie steps forward. I'm reminded of the well-known praise for Ginger Rogers, "She did everything Fred Astaire did - backwards, in heels." Trekkie flails around so freely, bounding up and down stairs, and through doorways way too low for him, that you often forget how treacherous the things he's doing could be.

Tom Barrett's two-level set gobbles up every available inch of playing space in Mixed Blood. Sliding walls and doors and staircases move on and off at high speed thanks to the well-coordinated moves of the actors, and the multiple locations appear and disappear without a hitch, keeping the evening moving.

With such an episodic text and large ensemble, director Jack Reuler has his work cut out for him, keeping all those balls in the air and making it all seem like it's one multifaceted narrative moving toward a single satisfying ending. Reuler chose his people well, and guides them expertly. The addition of puppets to the mix doesn't seem to have phased anyone one bit. The production of "Avenue Q" makes it seem like they do this sort of thing all the time.

It's not perfect, of course. Some voices are stronger than others. The choreography by Lauren Chapman is more than a little cramped in that space. Plus, dancing with a puppet is a whole lot more challenging than just acting with one. Suddenly, you can end up with four left feet, even if your puppet doesn't have any feet. And God bless Rose Le Tran, she's such a well-trained actress that she can't seem to bring herself to butcher the English language quite as rigorously as Christmas Eve repeatedly does. While that means that we don't get quite as thick (and frankly, racist) an Asian American accent as originally intended, and thus she's much easier to understand, I have to admit I miss some of the goofy charm of the willfully mispronounced ballad "The More You Ruv Someone."

I also have to admit I'm not entirely on board with the show's smiley-faced nihilism. The show's big opening group number is "It Sucks To Be Me," and while it's funny, by the end of the show, it doesn't suck much less to be them. Which is why the closing number "For Now" posits that "well, life isn't great, but at least it's short - even the good parts." Yikes. (And let's not forget the toe-tapping ditty that pays homage to "Schadenfreude" - happiness at the misfortune of others.) But maybe that's the point. As my foot is tapping and my head is bouncing along, I have to stop and think, "Wait. What the heck am I so happy about? This song is depressing." Deliberate cognitive dissonance in a musical? Well played, Avenue Q, well played. Just like the audience gasping the first time a happy puppet sings "F--k," you either roll with it, or you don't. I'd encourage you to roll with it. Most musical these days are lucky if they have even one memorable song. "Avenue Q" has well over a dozen. "Avenue Q" is a heck of a good time.

5 stars - Very Highly Recommended

"Avenue Q" runs now through May 1, 2010 at Mixed Blood Theatre (1501 South 4th Street in Minneapolis). For tickets and more information, visit mixedblood.com