Sub-Total
2023 Audience Reviews
Member Reviews
The following reviews were submitted by Fringe Member: Andrew Christian
Company: ThickWater
Show: The Duet
Venue: Mixed Blood Theatre
Suitably Cute & Sappy
My wife and I really enjoyed the show. It had the cute. It had the sappy. It had the romantic drama. It was ultimately a love story with real issues. And we loved it. It was just the story this heart needed on a sweaty Saturday afternoon!
Company: Rogues Gallery Arts
Show: My Only Hope for a Hero
Venue: Southern Theater
Empowering, Encore!
This show was exactly what I needed. It got me right in the feels many times. It was empowering, enlightening, and satisfying all at once. Duck did such a wonderful job with this show. He deserved his standing ovation. Encore!
Company: Rebecca Wickert and Ella Eastman-Kiesow
Show: BRUTUS
Venue: Theatre in the Round
Huge Home Run Swing, Foul Ball
The effort was there. The intensity was there. This was a huge home run swing that just was a bit late (or early) and the ball flew foul. Sure, it flew to some deserving soul who never gets a foul ball, but this show did not quite hit its mark for me. The dancing scenes to reflect the chaos of Roman senatorial politics, combat, and ensemble numbers was visually interesting. But I didn't know who was playing who until about 3/4 of the way through the piece (except for Caesar). It felt jumbled, chaotic, and a bit of a mess. I do want to point out that, for me, the star of the show was the performer playing Cassius. She was absolutely intense, amazing, and delivered each line with gravitas and meaning. I felt something from her performance. That being said, Brutus deserved just as intense a performance, and the dynamic differences between the two, whether that was due to directorial choice or the actor not quite having the same intensity I don't know, pulled me a bit out of the show. The voice over stuff was suitably creepy and hit the mark for what they were going for. However, I did not really like Brutus lazily lip-synching to that audio. I understand due to likely a money factor, to get the creepy audio effect, they needed it to be a voice over, but if so, the lip-synching needed to really match the intensity, and it did not. This piece was really not for me. The parts I really liked, and the obvious work, effort, and time spent on this, did not overcome the parts I did not like.
Company: Phoenix Theater
Show: Phoenix Presents
Venue: Phoenix Theater
Some really GREAT stuff, and some stuff needs work
4-1/2 Kitties, "How to Kill a Horse" by Rob Ward. Rob man, what a showman. This show comes with a content warning at the start, and boy does it need it. But its dark, gritty, and extremely entertaining. So high energy. I really enjoyed this show. But some of the darkness was a little too dark, and for those who might be squeamish, this is NOT the show for you. 5 kitties, "Aging in the Age of Change". As a 52 year old cis het white dude, this is definitely a message that targets my demographic. And it is definitely a message my demographic needs to hear. But it wasn't a bully pulpit or a proselytizing, preaching speech. It was done with grace, empathy, and humor. The adage that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar is certainly true of this show. I hate preaching and sledgehammering points. But this show did not do that. I enjoyed this on a more fundamentally personal level than I expected for a Fringe show. 4 kitties, "Slices". This show is 4 separate fantastically raw horror monologues. I really enjoyed them. They were creepy, disturbing, and had the right amount of shock value that it left the audience gasping at some parts and laughing by the end as they realized what they'd just seen. There were two though, where the actors had their scripts with them on the stage and used them occasionally to remind them where they were in the story that seemed to take them a bit out of character, and took me a bit out of the visceralness of that particular monologue.