Fringe 2nd Sat - Aug13 2011

[dreamshark]

A good day, with just one glitch. In desperate need of a little exercise, I biked to the West Bank and rendezvoused w R at Mixed Blood. On the way over the front brake suddenly started dragging so hard that it was skimming metal off the rim. Couldn't figure out what was wrong, so finally just disabled the front brake so I could ride. Arrived at the theater just in time to get seated before lights out. Fortunately it was not quite sold out, despite being the most successful show at Mixed Blood this year, so it worked fine.

We saw 2 in a row at MB: Disney Dethroned: Snowcahontas and the Tangled FrogBeast and Uptown: The Musical . both were very good but not great - I'd give them both 4 kitties if there were any reason to post a Fringe review at this point. Tom Reed's performance was as bravura as ever - he sings, he clowns, he does rapidfire hilarious accents, he takes off his shirt and does pushups with hand claps between them - but the writing was a little weak. I was afraid that I wasn't hip enough to get the in-jokes in "Uptown," but I needn't have worried: it wasn't that sophisticated. The story was simple and that the music was not especially inspired, but it was redeemed by the sheer energy level of the cast.

Richard would have been happy to do 5 shows in a row , but I needed a break so we paused for dinner at the Red Sea, one of those restaurants that features the African flat bread that resembles a giant Ace bandage. I love that stuff.

Finished up with two worthy shows at Playwright's Center: Michael Merriam's Darkly Through the Light Waters: Twin Cities Tales and Baba. Considering the extremely short time he had to prepare, Michael did a very creditable job of reading/performing 3 of his urban fantasy stories. This show deserved a bigger audience. I think he has one more show today so it's not too late to catch it.

"Baba" is a tour de force performance, although the story is a little murky. Very much worth seeing. One inexplicable misstep is a huge spoiler in the show description. Usually those online blurbs don't tell you enough; this one shares way too much.

Seeing two in a row at each venue made for a much less frenetic day. Unsurprisingly, there were familiar faces at Michael's show, which made waiting in the lobby a lot more fun. And after the last show, I could toss my ailing bike in the van to deal with the next day. Which would be right now, come to think of it.

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