Sub-Total
2023 Audience Reviews
Member Reviews
The following reviews were submitted by Fringe Member: Will Schroeder
Company: Boldly Go Productions
Show: Star Trek: The Next Improvisation - Presented by HUGE Theater
Venue: Rarig Center Thrust
Live Long and Y'know
This is one of my favorite improv shows in town - despite having 11 people or so on stage, the cast is great about checking in with each other, giving everyone some significance in the story, and staging combat and action sequences. This show's form involves the whole cast intricately constructing characters, backstories, relationships to each other, and their environment in the ship they live and work in. You can see the careful forethought and intimacy these performers share, and watching these "episodes" reminds me of being a kid and watching random episodes of The Next Generation - you could tell these characters felt deeply for each other, that there was history there even if you didn't know it all, and even if the characters were new to me, I cared about them because they cared about each other. This cast has built such a cool sandbox to play in! Go and check it out!
Company: Clevername Theatre
Show: Mother Courage Bear and Her Children
Venue: Southern Theater
Bear-tolt Brecht (ha ha)
I remember reading Mother Courage in theater school, but I've never seen it staged until now, and this is probably the best way to be introduced to it. Connor McEvoy as The Director is great - just punishing the audience for paying to see the show, but also playing "Brecht" sincerely, as someone who is profoundly disappointed by the world and desperately wants to shake the audience awake. The whole show is played this way - yes, making them Care Bears is extremely dumb and silly and fun, but the show is played straight as the demoralizing tragedy it is. It never felt like it was making fun of the play it's based on. Especially because they've found new relevance in showing Mother Courage's wares as performative care, something we're all like swimming in. I thought the show's depictions of death and viscera were pretty upsetting in their implications, even while couched in something cutesy and silly. This is a very weird show tonally and I really liked it
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Company: Special When Lit and The Winding Sheet Outfit
Show: Stabby Stab Stab
Venue: Crane Theater
True Horror Tragedy
I saw this show at Horror Fest last year, and watching it again was fascinated to see how the girls egg each other on, in different ways. These are two vulnerable kids, who are isolated or wounded in different ways, and what starts as a potentially redemptive friendship instead veers into a deeply sad nightmare. Nissa and Kayla both portray what's lovable, or even just human, about these two weird kids, and their connection is really endearing. I appreciated the dignity they gave to these two real people, without excusing their behavior. As a fellow weird kid who read lots of creepypasta as a little guy, I even related to the characters at times. Both times I saw this show, I wanted the best for them, or I wanted someone to intervene. But there's no one to stop the distortions they nurture together from blossoming into something terrible - which is reinforced by the absence of any other characters than these two. Slenderman doesn't have to be real for this story to be haunting
Company: SECRET CULT
Show: OPERA PUNKS
Venue: Rarig Center Xperimental
Opera is for Punks Too
OPERA PUNKS has my favorite improv quality, which is that it feels like running down a hill really, really fast. Like, it feels dangerous. Like you're going too fast to stop because you'll trip and fall, but also you've never run so fast and it's so much fun. These performers just catapult onto the stage and some of the most bizarre, fever dream improv scenes come out of it. Whether they're being weird little creatures with goop coming out of their holes, punk teens facing the end of the world, or singing in made up classical Italian, they're always full throttle and committed 110%. This is way too fun to miss, daddios!
Company: Jackdonkey Productions
Show: Dock Work
Venue: Rarig Center Thrust
You Don't Have to Be Nice to Your Boss
This show is frickin' cool - the dancers move in a sort of clockwork fashion, or like an assembly line, that's perfect for a show about workplaces and unionizing. The punk band in the back is really punchy. There's a great bit where they simulate one of those creepy corporate anti-unionizing videos. I was lucky enough to see a woman who's been working to help establish various unions for 20+ years approach one of the performers outside the theater and tell them how much this show meant to them. Just really cool stuff
Company: Destiny Davison
Show: DOLLY WHO?
Venue: Rarig Center Xperimental
Just a Real Hoot I'll Tell Ya
Destiny's a force of nature, but like, a nice one. Solo shows are big scary, but she handles herself, and the audience, with a ton of self-acceptance and self-assurance. The opening song is a real killer, and her dance to go with it is so silly the whole room was 100% on her side. Destiny's cartoon characters are a real great bunch of little guys who seem good to hang out with. My favorite was either the Cool Witch or the Ghost of Your 30s. This show reminded me of what makes me feel great about making art, which is a really nice thing to walk away feeling!
Company: Melancholics Anonymous
Show: A Girl Scout’s Guide to Exorcism
Venue: Rarig Center Arena
More Like A Girl Scout's Guide to Go See This Show
I was blown away by this show. On the surface, there's aces choreographed numbers, a fascinating profile of a truly ride-or-die historical conservationist, spooky spooks, a little gore, and the coolest hawk puppet I've ever seen (the puppeteer even cocks his head and stares unblinkingly at the cast, like the real animal). More than that, it's so grounded in a specific time, not just the early 2000s but what it feels like to be a preteen. The archetypes are all there - kids who don't know they're queer yet, kids with oppressively religious parents, kids who are trying to process growing into adolescence by writing fanfics - and most importantly, two friends whose deep connection is in jeopardy at the heart of the show. None of the production values would matter very much if the story wasn't so sincere, and often painful, and something fundamental all of us have been through. The conclusions this story draws about friendship ended the show on a great note. Thanks, scouts!
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Company: Lady Chamberlain Productions
Show: 4 Bisexuals and 2 Guys Named John Kill Dracula
Venue: Rarig Center Arena
Drac's Back - Wowzers
This show is so charmingly, affably dumb - Dracula feels like he came out of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, Lucy's trio of lovers are a pack of gentle-hearted himbos, and Van Helsing got hot. There's also some really cleverly planned choreography around imaginary props and scenery. Pretty much this show looks like it was really, really fun to create and perform. This is some serious high camp - the only thing that can vanquish the undead
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Company: Garrison Shea
Show: Allegro
Venue: Southern Theater
Alle-Go See this Show!
This is an A+ writer/producer debut, and a big risk as an artist. Garrison's character - which draws on his life but isn't quite meant to be him - can be uncharming, makes some selfish choices, and does One Really Bad Thing, and that's exactly what you want to see in a semi-autobiographical show. I forget who said this, but some theater person was talking about the importance of a Blushable Moment, where someone does something they regret, and this show is wonderfully unflinching about it. The main character goes through a very earned transition into maturity, and the rest of the cast is terrific and grounded as characters who go through transformations of their own in how they relate to the lead - they all feel very lived-in and sincere. Also, music good! Music good.