'Broomstick' takes us into the the season of witch

Photo by Bruce Silcox

I like spooky things. Ghost stories. Horror movies. Misfits records. It's a way to process and come to terms with the everyday horrors of living in the modern world, while getting that rush of safe fear that comes when you know it's "only a movie."

Broomstick, now playing at Open Eye, takes us deep into the spooky. John Biguenet's one-woman show centers on a nameless witch, who has welcomed us to her home on a creepy evening to talk about old times. 

The conceit allows Biguenet to bring out bits and pieces of witch lore, while slowly deepening the main character into something unique. We move from familiar children's stories, such as a riff on Hansel and Gretel, to darker topics, including dead lovers, cursed neighbors, and suspicious townfolk who barely tolerate this solitary woman.

These deeper moments, in turn, allow Broomstick to dig into the Witch's position in her community. As a single woman, she lacks traditional power, so instead uses whatever guile she can to stay ahead. She also isn't afraid of long-simmering vengeance, such as bringing blights on men (and women) who have wronged her, even to the point of using witchy powers to sink a boat after her lover is claimed by the sea.

Cheryl Willis uses all of this to create a vivid, memorable character. The Liverpudlian offers a master class in holding the audience in rapt attention, as she moves from story to story. Her accent places the action in the British Isles, though it really could take place anywhere where differences are mistrusted.

Lighting, sound, and Joel Sass' amazing set complete the spell. Odd sounds, brilliant cues, and a set that brings a witch's hovel to life all make for an enveloping experience.

Broomstick is a perfect piece of Halloween-season theater, full of scares and chills. It also is a terrific study of a character finding her way through the world in any way possible, and a showcase for a talented performer.

Broomstick runs through Oct. 31 at Open Eye Theatre.

Also, if you are interested in more scary theater, the annual Twin Cities Horror Festival is fast approaching. This curated festival, in its lucky 13th incarnation,  has presented some amazing (and often quite bloody) work in th3e past. This year's festival is again at Strike Theater, and runs Oct. 23 to Nov. 3.

"Lincoln's Children" offers intriguing premise, somewhat unsatisfying script

Even though it is not a complete success, Lincoln's Children shows great promise, and Fortune's Fool premiere is buoyed by a number of excellent performances.

Playwright Mike McGeever puts a lot on the table, as he explores both a contemporary historian's search to authenticate her family stories, and one of those stories -- were her ancestor is an indentured servant (essentially, a slave on loan) in Lincoln's Illinois household around 1850. 

The women, both named Chloe, negotiate these worlds as best they can. The contemporary Chloe joins with a white Lincoln scholar, Montgomery Mathers, who is looking to recharge his career after some weaker than expected sales.

Chloe thinks she has it. Her family story is that her ancestor served in Lincoln's household, and may have had an intimate relationship with the future president. However, Montgomery wants proof, and the typical sources aren't going to provide that. After all, Black people in America were still property in large parts of the United States, and even in a free state like Illinois, they didn't show up in a lot of the typical records.

In the 1850 side of the story, we see the growing relationship between Lincoln and Chloe, all under the watchful eye of Mary Lincoln. In both cases, Chloe needs to negotiate a world where her skin color causes people to make automatic assumptions about her abilities, intelligence, and motivations.

All of these ideas swirl around the play, but McGeever isn't able to focus them into a fully satisfying show. Plot strands start, but are not given a full exploration. Intriguing characters come and go, but some of the secondary ones lack depth.

Still, the company does an excellent job with the material, led by Kyra Richardson as the dual Chloes, While the characters come from different worlds, Richardson highlights their connections, especially a desire to make the best of a world ready to discount them at every step.

Nicholas Nelson makes for an upright, somewhat imposing Lincoln, while Jeremy Motz has an appropriate, exhausted air as slumping academic Mathers.

Lincoln's Children runs through Sept. 22 at the Crane Theatre.

"English" explores language and communication

Photo by Liz Lauren

My memories of studying a foreign language mainly come down to struggling with dour German novels and trying to describe seeing Motorhead, in French.

As a middle class American, a second language was more about ticking a box for college than a necessity. For the characters in English, Sanaz Toossi's Pulitzer-Prize-winning play, it means so much more. Learning English could open the door to becoming a doctor, getting a green card, or moving to Canada to be near their granddaughter. 

In this heartfelt and touching production, a co-production between the Guthrie and Chicago's Goodman Theatre, we only spend about 90 minutes with the quintet of characters, but they live in the memory long after the final curtain.

English takes place in Iran in 2009. Four students have gathered in an English-immersion classroom to prepare for a language proficiency test. To foster their emerging skills, instructor Marjan has a strict "English only" rule. The moments the characters swap between their second language and Farsi are represented by shifts in accent -- heavy for when they attempt English, straightforward when they use their native tongue.

As the months unfold, relationships are built and conflicts arise, especially between Marjan and strong-willed Elham, who sees learning English as a necessary evil to getting into an Australian university. Necessary evil may not be strong enough. Elham is in a war with the English language, upset that it has been foisted as a barrier to her plans, and reluctant to give up her own culture and tongue. 

English is at turns funny and insightful, with the cast -- who all have transferred from the Goodman run earlier this year -- showcasing considerable chemistry. Toossi's script also has plenty of subtle grace notes, which aids in making the characters fully realized. It also helps to survive a late-show twist that felt out of place within the rest of the action.

English runs through Aug. 18 at the Guthrie Theater.

Little Shop offers ghoulish fun at the Guthrie

Photo by Dan Norman

It's saying something (and I think that something is good) that the most disturbing parts for a modern audience when faced with 1980s darkly comic musical Little Shop of Horrors is that shop assistant Audrey is in a clearly abusive relationship, complete with jokes about bandages and trips to the hospital.

Mind you, her abuser meets a grisly end. Then again, so does everyone in the show, apart from sentient killer plant, Audrey II, and -- if the finale is to be believed -- all of Cleveland. 

I'm getting ahead of myself (and, um, spoiler warning?). Little Shop of Horrors, now running in a delightful production at the Guthrie, takes its cues from the 1960 Roger Corman film (a weekend well spent by all involved), and was developed into an Off Broadway musical by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken in the mid 1980s.

We follow sad sack florist Seymour, who works in a failing shop owned by Mr. Mushnik, in the heart of Skid Row. Seymour is obsessed with plants, and during a total eclipse he found an unusual plant that defies classification. The plant -- dubbed Audrey II in honor of the shop assistant he pines for -- is sickly, until Seymour discovers that it likes to feed on human blood.

As this is a horror story, Seymour doesn't run screaming. Instead, he continues to feed it. The plant's need for more food, and Seymour's desire to free Audrey from her evil dentist boyfriend, Orin, moves us up the food chain, eventually leading to... yes, you know, Cleveland.

The Guthrie production has multiple layers of nostalgia. There is that for the original 1960s film and setting, brought to life by scenic designer Lex Liang and costume designer Sully Ratke. That layer is also hardwired into the show, with the Menken's music evoking the rock n roll and soul of the early 1960s at every turn.

There is also a more subtle nostalgia for the Off Broadway musicals of this ilk. Produced at a time when Broadway shows were more known for gaudy excess than dark comedy, Little Shop of Horrors is part of a whole slew of shows with an edge you wouldn't have found in the bigger theaters. That has shifted over the years -- in part due to the success of shows like this, along with society's general embrace of irony -- to where that edge is pretty much smoothed over.

Not that it can't be entertaining, and this production -- solidly directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge -- certainly is. The company is excellent throughout, from Will Roland's lovesick Seymour to China Brickey's conflicted Audrey to Robert Dorfman's crusty Mr. Mushnik. 

Two performances stand out. As Orin, David Darrow channels James Dean by way of Dennis Hopper's character in Blue Velvet. Funny and scary at the same time, it will put the fear of the dentist back into your soul. (Darrow is also excellent in a variety of other roles, including an Andy-Warhol-like early visitor to see Audrey II).

Multiple performers bring Audrey II to life, with T. Mychael Rambo providing the booming, enticing voice of the killer plant, giving delightful weight to his proclamations of "feed me!" and "suppertime!"

Little Shop of Horrors runs through Aug. 18 at the Guthrie Theater. 

Guthrie brings humor and heartache in "Skeleton Crew"

 

Photo by Dan Norman

In a depressed Detroit, four auto workers try to keep a hold of whatever they can, even as the staff shrinks, pressure never stops, and there are persistent rumors that the plant is going to close.

Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew is exactly what you want from a contemporary drama, with complex, breathing characters inhabiting a very real space. At the Guthrie, the show gets a muscular, vital production that highlights the skills of the talented cast.

As often happens, our workers are a tight-knit group. Faye (Jennifer Fouche, making her Guthrie debut) is closing in on 30 years on the line. Not only does she know the ins and outs of the whole plant, but she is the local union rep, there to keep management honest and the remaining employees working as long as possible.

For Faye, the conflict comes when middle manager Reggie (Darius Dotch, who was in the 2020 production at Yellow Tree, which was cut short by the pandemic) tells her in confidence that the plant is going to close. As the union rep, she has an obligation to her co-workers, but Reggie is also family who has bootstrapped his way from the assembly line to a job with a collar and tie.

We get two representatives of the rank and file. Shanita (Stephanie Everett, another Guthrie debut) is pregnant and working every hour she can, loving the work and hoping to build something for her child. Dez (Mikell Sapp, also in the Yellow Tree production) sees the work as a stepping stone, and dreams of opening his own repair shop.

With the plant closing, a string of burglaries giving management fits, and general distrust, the situation is rife with tension. Yet, beneath the drama there are deep connections among these characters. No one is the "bad" guy; they are just flawed people trying to do what is best for themselves and their families. Morisseau's script is also very funny, which helps to not only release the tension, but add additional, real, dimensions to the characters.

The actors are up to the demands of the script, presenting fully fleshed out characters at every turn. Fouche is especially strong as Faye, who sits at the center of the whole piece. We not only get the character's deep warmth, but also her hurts, desires, and a sense of a secret shame that haunts her.

Opening night's performance was interrupted by a medical emergency, where the audience was asked to clear the theater. After a lengthy delay, the company was able to return to the stage and complete the final few minutes of the show to a well-earned ovation.

Skeleton Crew runs through June 9 at the Guthrie Theater. 

Rasputin

Jungle's "A Jumping-Off Point" looks hard at storytelling and appropriation

Photo by Lauren B. Photography

Who gets to tell stories? Issues of cultural appropriation have bubbled up to the mainstream in recent years, and A Jumping-Off Point gives us an intriguing, complex look at the issue. You will have to move quickly to see it, as it closes this weekend at the Jungle Theater. 

This tight, three-person play centers on Leslie Wallace, a successful playwright who has just gotten her big television break with a series order from HBO. However, a figure from her playwrighting past has come to haunt her in the guise of Andrew. The two studied in the same cohort in college, and white Andrew took a stab at a play about the Mississippi delta.

Leslie found it not just awful, but offensive, so she took it to make her own. Now, Andrew is looking for some credit. From there, the play spirals into the mad world of television production, with Andrew in tow as an unwanted producer. 

Inda Craig-Galvan's play is best when it works under your skin, examining uncomfortable topics, often centered on cultural appropriation and who gets to tell stories. The script hints at the madness of television production, especially around the above topics, but could have benefitted some additional characters to flesh those ideas out. We do get Leslie's best friend, Miriam, who finds herself stuck between the two other characters.

The cast is fantastic and director Sha Cage mines the humor and the menace (especially Gabriel Murphy's creepy Andrew) out of the material.

A Jumping-Off Point runs through May 19 at the Jungle Theater. 

Four Humors brings back Rasputin in all it's gory glory

You may know him from history, stories, or Boney M's disco anthem. Rasputin is a fascinating character with a particularly gory end. Perfect fodder for Four Humors, who have remounted their titular Twin Cites Horror Festival hit for a short run at Open Eye Theater.

The company-written production takes us to the end of December, 1916, in St. Petersburg. If you know your history, that's just before the most tumultuous year in Russian history, with the October Revolution just months away.

To the rich and powerful men gathered at Prince Felix Ysupov's palace, those concerns were far away. They had only one thing in mind -- end the life of the powerful priest who had bedazzled the royal family and turned upper crust Russian society upside down. By the end of the night, they will have poisoned, shot, suffocated, and finally drowned the man.

Joining the prince are Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Valdimir Purishkevich (noted, in the program and throughout the show, as a "far-right politician"), who have hatched a plot to end Rasputin. 

Or have they? The play is told Rashomon-style, with each conspirator recounting the evening. Not only does this allow for three different perspectives on the events, but allows the company to tell the story in three distinct ways.

The first, from the perspective of the Duke, is a ribald tale, full of dark humor -- Rasputin pulls out a gun and asks the dinner party of they have ever played "Us Roulette" -- and plenty of brutal jokes at the expense of the high-class company at the table. Vladimir's paints the Prince as a pratfalling fool who engages in the murder almost by accident.

And the Prince's tale? Well, there's a reason why this show premiered at the Twin Cities Horror Festival.

The quartet of creators -- Ryan Lear (Felix), Brant Miller (the Duke), Allison Vincent (Validimir), and Matt Spring (Rasputin -- are all gifted comic performers, but they also expertly hit the play's darker notes. That creates an evening that is not just funny, but one that cuts deep, especially as it delves into issues of class, control, and the presence of the devil on Earth.

Rasputin runs through May 18 at Open Eye Theater. Also, Four Humor's vicious take on Lolita (dubbed, a Three Man Show, with Lear, Miller, and Spring as the cast) will be presented Saturday, May 18. Tickets are going fast. Don't sleep on these shows.  

Also, if you think "Rasputin" is a cool tune, but want to hear it with a Celtic punk flair, check out this cover by local legends Boiled in Lead.

Ten Thousand Things offers special "Spitfire Grill"

Photo by Tom Wallace

 

The Spitfire Grill is special for me.

The heartfelt, heart-tugging musical has a place deep in my heart, and the current Ten Thousand Things production more than does the material justice. It's certainly the finest production of the material I've seen, as the company's stripped-down production style emphasizes 

The Fred Alley/James Valcq musical was in development at the turn of the century, when I was working in Door County. Alley was co-founder and a creative force with American Folklore Theatre (now Northern Sky Theater), and while Spitfire was in development outside of AFT, it was certainly in the air through 2000 and into 2001, as the creators prepared for a workshop at Playwrights Horizons, in anticipation of an Off-Broadway run. We chatted about his excitement and hopes for the show at his farmhouse in rural Fish Creek in mid-April, the landscape coming to life after a typical long winter. 

Alley died of a heart attack on May 1, 2001, before the workshop began. The work went forward, with composer Valcq taking the lead in preparing the show for its Off-Broadway run in September.

And yes, that September. The musical opened near the epicenter of a national tragedy. It earned solid notices (and even a few best-of-the-year mentions and award nods) but its life has really been away from the big city, where this small-scale musical can really spread its wings.

The Spitfire Grill centers on a small Wisconsin town haunted by the past. It takes a young woman, herself haunted, to be the catalyst for a change. Percy Talbot is fresh out of prison and decides, based only on an autumn landscape photo, to settle in Gilead.

The local sheriff is skeptical, as Gilead is a dying town with few prospects for employment -- or want of a stranger, one who is a convict no less.

Still, he helps Percy out by getting her a place to stay and work at the Spitfire Grill, owned by Hannah, a hard-nosed Gilead lifer. A trio of additional characters fill in for the rest of the town: friendly Shelby, her angry husband Caleb, and the town busybody Effy. 

The plot centers on two things: a raffle dreamt up by Percy and Shelby to raffle off the Grill, which Hannah has been trying to sell since her husband die; and a mysterious stranger who serves as a physical specter for this haunted town.

However, this musical is about the inner lives of the characters much more than the engine of the plot. All of them have flaws -- several are broken when it starts -- and most of them struggle to make themselves, and their town better.

This is brought out through Valcq's folk-infused score and Alley's dynamic lyrics. Merge these, and you have a musical that is a tough test for the actors, not due to any vocal pyrotechnics, but through the depths they need to travel to get the best out of the songs.

TTT is a perfect place for this, with its minimal staging and focus on clarity and depth of performance. Like all company shows, this is presented in the round with the house lights up. Like their characters, the actors can't hide, and they use that to generate terrific performances, led by Katherine Fried as the troubled Percy. That's aided by Michelle Barber as Hannah and Katie Bradley as Shelby. The balance of the cast -- George Keller, Tom Reed, and  Dominic Schiro -- fill in the emotional spaces as needed, and help to bring the whole town to life.

And while I've been talking about the heartache and tough journeys, The Spitfire Grill is also funny and charming, with light hearted songs about bad food at town diners and endless Wisconsin winters helping to keep the mood from getting too dark. (And if you have seen the movie: the musical takes a different path in the end.)

Bright staging helps to make it all work. The show evokes the beauty of a rural, Midwestern town, but has to do that with nary a tree or leaf in sight. Instead, with the aid of movement director Jim Lichtscheidl, the company members become those inanimate objects -- a bus in the opening scene, a hallway and stairs as Hannah walks through her empty house.

It's most impressive in Percy's act two standout, "Shine." Hurt and heart broke, Percy is taken a special autumnal vista. In this case, it's the rest of the cast, waving gently in the breeze, Here, the music (provided by Peter Vitale and Tyson Forbes), staging (co-directed by Marcela Lorca and Michelle O'Neil), and performance all come together for a few minutes of pure theatrical magic.

I'm always going to have a spot for The Spitfire Grill in my heart, but this production is a tremendous interpretation. It runs through June 9 at various venues. 

Guthrie creates unique theater magic with all-day History Plays

The company in Henry V (Photo by Dan Norman)

 After nearly 40 years of theater going, I experienced something new Saturday evening at the Guthrie Theater.

On Saturday, the Guthrie presented a trio of Shakespeare's History Plays (Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V). The marathon started at 10 a.m. and took us through the tumultuous years around the turn of the 14th century.

At the top of Henry V at 8:30 that evening, as the company took the stage for the prologue, and the audience would not let them continue. Instead, they gave the cast a standing ovation for the incredible work already done in the day's first two shows. 

Was it earned? Oh, hell yes. 

While not perfect, the History Plays offered a tremendous taste of what theater can do. Over the span of eight hours, we saw men and women, mighty and low, navigate through treachery, conflict, friendship, and love. It's the culmination of years of work by Guthrie Artistic Director Joe Haj to bring these massive works into a streamlined, thrilling experience. It's aided by a terrific backstage crew and a company of 22 hard working actors who have put in months of rehearsal to get the shows on their feet.

The production is drawn from four Shakespeare works (often called the Henriad). For the Guthrie's production, two of those works -- Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2, were compressed into a single show. We start amid the reign of Richard II, run through the arrival of the usurper Henry IV, see his troubled reign through various rebellions and the wayward youthful adventures of his son, Prince Henry, who then reigns as Henry V, and invades France to bring lands he believes are English under his thumb. 

That's a lot of story, and there are a lot of characters crossing Jan Chambers' clever set. Yet the course of the story is always clear, the conflicts are sharp, and the motivations --simple or complex -- are always earned.

The only bump in the road comes during the latter parts of Henry IV, made up of a truncated Part 2. The way they are joined means that the death of the traitor Hotspur at the hands of Prince Henry overshadows much of the remaining action. Some of that is due to John Cantron, whose floppy-haired Hotspur tops the Prince, King, and even Falstaff. 

Jimmy Kieffer's Falstaff is great, and there are strong performances throughout the company, including Erin Mackey's charming portrayal of Princess Katherine and Charity Jones' terrific moments as John of Gaunt, offering up the famous "this sceptered isle" speech with all the gnawing fear of what is to come of his England.

Still, this is all about the kings. Three actors bring wildly different energy to their wildly different monarchs. Taylor Michaels King commands the stage as the doomed Richard II, with the King's madness lying just below the surface. It's a magnetic, mesmerizing performance.

William Sturdivant expertly plays against that as the to-be-Henry IV, giving us a character with more straightforward motivations -- he's angry about being banished and having his property seized by the crown -- that evolves into a deeper more thoughtful person once the crown is on his head.

That evolution is also present in Daniel Jose Molina's performance, moving the wild, vagabond Prince Henry -- only interested in hanging out with his Falstaff and his lowlife friends -- to a stern and driven friend. Some of the most affecting moments of Henry IV and Henry V come as the now King comes face-to-face with his friends, and can show no mercy now that he is the monarch.

 If you can manage it, there is another marathon three-show day on May 10. All three shows can be seen over weekends in April and May. And for individual shows? Well, they all have their unique charms. King gives you probably the best single performance of the trio in Richard II, Henry IV gives you Cantron's Hotspur, the joy of Falstaff and the growth of Prince Harry. And Henry V has Shakespeare in full command of his skills, and provides thrilling, crowd-pleasing ride.

The History Plays run through May 25 at the Guthrie Theater.

Frank's 'Ironbound' illuminates an immigrant's journey

Photo by Tony Nelson

It really isn’t a surprise that a key moment in Martyna Majok’s New-Jersey-set Ironbound turns on a Bruce Springsteen song. Like the best of the Boss’ songs, these characters live on the margins as they suffer defeats, win victories, and struggle to keep moving on.

Ironbound, making its regional premiere from Frank Theatre, centers on Darya, a Polish immigrant who has been in the States for decades and is struggling to hold on. Her son has stolen her car and disappeared. The factory where she worked has long been closed and Darya makes ends meet by housecleaning. And her boyfriend, Tommy, has been unfaithful for some time.

That’s the plot, but the play really turns on Darya’s character. Complex and contradictory, Darya above all is trying to survive in a tough world. That has made her a hustler, playing every advantage she can find to stay a step ahead. That means tapping her boyfriend’s phone to find out he’s been unfaithful, and then holding onto that information where she hopes to trade it for the cash to get a car, and go chase after her son.

As the play unfolds, we discover more and more nuances of Darya’s character. Two long flashback scenes take us back to the early 1990s and the mid-2000s. In one, she is somewhat happy with husband Maks, a fellow Polish immigrant who dreams of moving from Newark to Chicago, and become a blues star. This dream is driving a wedge between them, as Darya doesn’t want to give up the relative stability they have forged. That she is sure that she is pregnant only intensifies that feeling.

In the 2000s, we find her at a low point, about to sleep rough on the grounds of the now-closed factory after her second husband has beat her to the point she needed to get out of the house. Here, she meets Vic, a teenager trying for a late-night hustle, who instantly becomes concerned with the battered woman at the bus stop.

All of this allows us to see Darya’s complexities, and that is the real power of the show. The production turns on a terrific performance by Brittany D. Parker in that role, as she brings all the different layers of Darya to life. While the three men we meet are supporting roles, each performance is also solid, especially Benjamin Dutcher as her musical, lost first love, Maks.

As with any Frank show, the entire production is rock solid, especially Joe Stanley’s grungy set, which brings this broken-down corner of Newark to life (well, minus the rats). Wendy Knox directs with her usual unflinching insight, helping to bring these intriguing characters to fully realized being.

After a long three-plus year layoff, Frank has come roaring back, first with Fetal last fall (that production is scheduled to return) and now Ironbound. Hopefully this energy continues, as a theater scene with Frank is a much better one.

Ironbound runs through Feb. 11 at Gremlin Theatre.