Abuelita From Prime Productions Needs More Time To Tell its Characters Stories.

The cast of Abuelita Photo by Dan Norman

Prime Productions closes out its 8th season with the world premiere of ABUELITA, a new play by Nathan Yungerberg. There is a lot of good stuff here, but there also seem to be many threads that don’t really lead anywhere. What this material feels ideally suited for is a TV series. There are seven great characters, and four of them get about one scene in which to shine, when they are clearly interesting enough to hold our interest for dozens. In its present form, it feels like there are three characters too many, or perhaps three who are given stage time that should have gone to others, so that more of them could fully realize their roles in the story.

The play opens with Davia, a 72-year-old white grandmother from Iowa who has moved to Spanish Harlem in the summer of 1993 with her fifteen-year-old mixed-race grandson, Jesús, to expose him to his father’s Puerto Rican culture. They meet the other residents of their apartment building on the stoop when they arrive. Davia and Yvette quickly bond over being grandmothers raising grandchildren who have lost their mothers, getting drunk on some sort of alcohol Yvette smuggled back from her last trip to Puerto Rico. Yvette’s granddaughter, Sonya, and Jesús become friends, and she introduces him to her group, some of whom are gay, as we learn Jesús is as well. Davia, in turn, begins to find companionship with Yvette, her sister Indigo, and Wilfredo, a bongo-playing singer who lives next door.

It’s hard to escape the feeling that many of these interactions play like the first of what should be many scenes, or like the third scene, with the previous two missing. Davia is a great character, but almost every moment with her feels like it needed more room to breathe and develop. I also don’t think the character was helped by Mary Gant’s performance; there were simply too many missed or flubbed lines. There is real potential here, but Gant doesn’t quite convey the nuance the role requires. Or perhaps the issue lies more in the script, which rushes toward “aha!” moments that would land more effectively if the relationships had time to grow and unfold.

There are, however, several very enjoyable performances. Skyler Seiler as Sonya is sassy and fun. King Jackson as Jesús starts out somewhat awkwardly, but that seems to be a deliberate choice that tracks with the character; as he becomes more comfortable in his new environment and freer to be himself, the performance comes alive. Pedro R. Bayon is very good as Wilfredo, though he’s another character who gets one strong scene and little else to do, despite feeling like someone you’d want to follow further. Gabi Del Moral as Yvette is also very good, though her relaxed, fluid performance only highlights Gant’s relative stiffness, and their instant friendship doesn’t quite feel earned. Adlyn Carreras as Indigo has a few line flubs as well, but her swagger and attitude carry her through them more successfully. Like others, Indigo feels like a character with much more story to tell. And since I’ve mentioned everyone else, I should note Elsa Vega Pérez as Niego, who is apparently related to Yvette and Indigo, though it’s not entirely clear how. She has only a few lines in Spanish before disappearing for a stretch and then briefly reappearing. She’s good, but likely the first character to cut if tightening the piece.

Ultimately, I’d happily watch these characters for 10 or 12 hours a year. If this play were the first season of a TV series, the ending we see here would probably land around episode six. It’s not that the play is bad, it’s one of those cases where you can clearly see its potential to be something more, and it’s hard not to focus on that. Most plays are easy to take as they are: good, bad, or somewhere in between. But every once in a while, you encounter something that so clearly should be, not different, just more. These characters don’t need better writing; they simply deserve more of it.

ABUELITA runs through March 29th at the Capri Theater in Minneapolis. For More information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.primeprods.org/abuelita

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Sweet Clone of Mine is Something to Buzz About at the Hive

I feel, in a way, like I’m experiencing déjà vu. I keep running into Neil Diamond. First it was A Beautiful Noise, the touring production of the Broadway show about the man in the sparkly blouses. Then Song Sung Blue, the film about a tribute band that I watched in the run-up to the Oscars. And now Sweet Clone of Mine (ba ba ba!), a sci-fi cautionary tale about the dangers of AI, all within the span of six months.

Not that I’m complaining. I love Neil Diamond. I grew up in a household where Mr. Sparkles was on heavy rotation on the turntable in the living room. From a young age, I was immersed in his music, and I liked it. I still do. So for me, these shows are a chance to revisit one of the soundtracks of my childhood. Diamond wrote so many great songs, not just for himself but for other performers as well.

Sweet Clone of Mine opens with Neil Diamond performing his final set of the evening at The Bitter End, a venue he frequently played early in his career. We’re treated to four or five songs, all stunningly performed in the Hive’s intimate space. Then Neil heads to his dressing room, where he’s held at gunpoint by a woman named Leslie, who has something important to tell him. Throughout their time together, we get snippets of a few more songs, and Leslie performs “Forever in Blue Jeans.” The show closes with Neil returning to the stage for two final numbers.

What’s just OK about the show? The plot in the middle. It’s interesting, but the musical performances are so strong that you can’t help wishing they’d stop talking and get back to the music. That said, the final threads of the storyline, which lead into the closing performance, make it worthwhile. The narrative and the song dovetail nicely, lending an emotional resonance that was rather unexpected. The show is apparently based on an episode of the podcast Space Croutons, which like this show is created and written by Jeff, Della, Jerry, and John Goodson, which I intend to check out.

So what’s superb? The music, the performances, and the quality of the audio at The Hive Collaborative. Jeff Goodson plays Neil, and from certain angles, he could pass for Diamond today. He doesn’t sound exactly like him, but he sounds great, and that’s just the beginning. The rest of the performers are equally impressive. Janessa Iverson (bass, piano, vocals) nails everything she touches. Kyle Simons Baker shines on lead guitar, with Goodson accompanying on guitar as well. And Abbi Fern, as Leslie, comes into moving focus in the home stretch.

The only thing that truly sucks about this show is that it’s too short. At about 80 minutes with no intermission, there’s easily room for three or four more songs as an encore and still plenty of breathing room in the runtime.

What’s the most tragic thing about this production? Its run is way, way, way too short. I’m booked elsewhere for the remaining performances, which only run through March 22, 2026, or I’d absolutely be back for more of this live music. This group should be booked at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres for their Fireside Concert series. I would gladly pay top dollar for an evening of these musicians performing as many Neil Diamond songs as they can cram in.

If you have any affinity for Neil Diamond’s music, you’ll want to catch this, but act quickly. Sweet Clone of Mine runs through March 22 at The Hive Collaborative in St. Paul. For more information and tickets, visit their website https://www.thehivecollaborativemn.com/events/sweet-clone-of-mine-a-neil-diamond-experiment

STRANGE HEART: The Dream Songs of John Berryman is… Different. So a Perfect Fit for Open Eye Theatre

Bradley Greenwald & Anna Hashizume Photo by Bruce Silcox

Strange Heart: The Dream Songs of John Berryman is different. Not bad different, but very much its own thing. It centers on Pulitzer Prize winning poet John Berryman, who died by suicide in 1972, the year I was born, which may explain why I wasn’t very familiar with him going in.

Billed as a jazz-infused operetta, the show primarily focuses on one of Berryman’s hospitalizations for alcohol abuse. There, we meet a puppet named Henry, representing his subconscious and giving him someone to interact with beyond his nurse and his wife. Through reminiscences, we get backstory about his mother, his father, and his wife, Kate.

Much of the show unfolds in a fluid, stream-of-consciousness style. The subject matter is dark, but the tone is decidedly humorous. Bradley Greenwald plays Berryman with an almost impish sense of humor, as if everything is a joke and most people, aside from him and Henry, aren’t in on it. There’s a song about whiskey that he performs with Sam Albright, who puppeteers and voices Henry, and it’s genuinely delightful, or at least as delightful as an alcoholic singing about whiskey with a puppet can be. If that sentence makes you wonder what the hell this show is, that’s exactly the point. It’s different, with a capital DIFF.

There are also sweet moments, such as the first date between Berryman and Kate, played by the always fabulous Anna Hashizume, and another where they reminisce about those early days. The duet they share looking back, along with the whiskey song, are the musical highlights.

This world premiere, written and composed by Greg Brosofske, runs about 90 minutes with no intermission, which feels like the perfect length. There are only five or six songs total, fewer than I expected. It’s definitely not a play, but it also feels a bit light on songs to be a full musical. “Operetta” is probably the closest label, though even that doesn’t quite capture it. Again, it’s its own thing. And if you find it’s not your kind of thing, well, I refer you back to the 90 minutes, no intermission.

Directed and designed by Joel Sass, the production has that Open Eye Theatre aesthetic I love. Sass has a knack for offbeat material and feels like a perfect match here. Music direction is by Wesley Frye, and his quartet provides exactly the right sound for the venue. As an added bonus, they entertain the audience with 15–20 minutes of preshow music. Remember when Theater Latté Da used to do that for shows like Once and Hedwig?

Strange Heart: The Dream Songs of John Berryman runs through March 22 at Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. For more information and tickets go to https://www.openeyetheatre.org/strange-heart

The Importance of Being Earnest Reminds of the Importance of a Little Silliness at Lakeshore Players

Oscar Wilde was perhaps the greatest wit of the 19th century, and The Importance of Being Earnest is the perfect showcase of his genius. Unlike the comedies of William Shakespeare, Wilde’s play makes no claim to profound insights into human nature. It pokes fun at pomposity and the upper class’s detachment from reality, to be sure, but its greatest achievement is much simpler: it is hilariously entertaining. That, and Wilde’s innate mastery of the English language. It truly is a marvelous script: very smart, very funny, and very, very silly.

It is also one of those rare plays from the 1800s that needs no modernization to make it accessible. There’s no need for conceptual updates, explanatory framing, or footnotes aimed at the audience. Wilde’s language and comic structure still land perfectly well on their own. As an avowed anglophile and connoisseur of British humor, his work has always hit the sweet spot for me, and Earnest remains one of the purest examples of how well that style of comedy can work.

The play, which premiered in 1895, centers on two members of the idle upper class: Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, both of whom make use of aliases in order to get out of obligations and do whatever they please. Jack has created a younger brother named Earnest, which he uses as an excuse to leave his home in the country, where he lives with his ward, the 18-year-old Cecily, and go to London to live a carefree and pleasure centered life as his imaginary brother. Algernon has invented an invalid friend named Bunbury, whom he uses to escape dinners with his aunt, Lady Bracknell, under the excuse of being called to Bunbury’s sickbed.

Jack has fallen in love with Lady Bracknell’s daughter Gwendolen, and she with him. But Lady Bracknell will not allow the engagement due to Jack’s not knowing where he came from, having been discovered in a handbag as an infant in Victoria Station. Algernon, thinking Jack will be in London through the weekend and having discovered his country address, and the existence of the young ward Cecily, arrives at Jack’s country home pretending to be his younger brother Earnest. Cecily and Algernon immediately fall in love.

When Jack returns early to inform his household of the death of his brother Earnest, he’s surprised to find that Earnest has apparently moved into the bedroom next to his. The final ingredient comes when both men, who have wooed under the name Earnest, discover that the women they love insist they could only ever love a man named Earnest, which neither of them actually is. Hilarity ensues, and one can’t help suspecting that this play must have served as a template for half the books P. G. Wodehouse would later write.

Director Craig Johnson’s production at Lakeshore Players Theatre in White Bear Lake features a cast as nimble of foot as they are of tobgue. They bring a physicality to their roles that heightens the already deliciously ludicrous tone.

Cody Carlson plays Jack, the straight man, at least compared to Lewis Youngren’s Algernon. Both play their roles superbly. They have a wonderful scene where they argue while each tries to claim the muffin tray for himself. Skye Stuempert plays Gwendolen and Aerin O’Malley plays Cecily, who verbally spar over their mistaken belief that they are both engaged to Earnest. They play the cattiness of romantic rivals perfectly. Mary Cutler is a delight as the formidable Lady Bracknell, deliciously selling the leaps of logic and nonsensical rationale behind her firmly held beliefs, which conveniently change depending on her immediate goal.

Michael Garry plays both Algernon’s manservant in town and Jack’s servant in the country. The former feels like a template for Wodehouse’s Jeeves, and Garry captures that unflappable, dry delivery perfectly.

This is a great opportunity to see one of the great comedic plays brought to the stage by a cast that clearly knows how to make the laughs land. I always tell folks that when a classic like this comes around, make sure you see it. Plays are meant to be experienced live, and some of these classics don’t come around nearly as often as they should.

The Importance of Being Earnest runs through March 22nd at Lakeshore Players in White Bear Lake. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.lakeshoreplayers.org/earnest-season-73

Sleuth Will Keep You on Your Toes and on the Edge of Your Seat as This Classic Thriller Hits The Guthrie Stage

John Tufts (Milo Tindle) and Ramiz Monsef (Andrew Wyke) Photo Credit: Dan Norman

I’m fairly familiar with Sleuth, though I’d never seen it performed. I have seen the two film versions, which have their own interesting backstory. The play, written by Anthony Shaffer, premiered in 1970 and won the Tony Award for Best Play. It was adapted by Shaffer into a film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine.

The play was adapted again in 2007 with a screenplay by Harold Pinter, who had never seen the earlier film or the play before. That film, directed by Kenneth Branagh, starred Michael Caine again, this time in the older role, with Jude Law taking over the part Caine played in the original film. Few plays have such an interesting lineage, where one generation of actors quite literally inherits the roles from the previous one.

Which made it a particular pleasure to finally see the original version as it was intended: on stage.

The two-act play is a cat-and-mouse game between Andrew Wyke, a writer of mystery novels, and Milo Tindle, who owns a travel agency and happens to want to marry Andrew’s wife. Andrew says he has no objections; he just wants to make sure that Milo can afford her and won’t find her back on his doorstep. Andrew has a plan to have Milo pretend to burglarize his house and make off with a fortune in jewels, which Milo can sell for cash while Andrew collects on the insurance money. But is it as straightforward as that? Is that even straightforward? The twists and turns are what make the show such an enjoyable entertainment, so discussing the plot any further feels like robbing it of its bread and butter.

John Tufts as Milo and Ramiz Monsef as Andrew both do solid work. Tufts in particular is very good, and while Sleuth isn’t exactly a comedic thriller, the performers find quite a bit of black comedy to play with.

That said, I was a little disappointed in the Guthrie for bringing in a cast of out-of-towners rather than utilizing the deep bench of talent we have here in the Twin Cities. Monsef also strikes me as a little young for Andrew. I couldn’t help imagining what someone like David Andrew Macdonald might have done with that role, with Peter Christian Hansen as Milo.

Rounding out the supporting cast is a particularly droll performance by Stanley Rushton as Inspector Doppler, with smaller roles for Liam McNulty and Robin Mayfield as fellow policemen.

I always say that a play that uses black wooden boxes to stand in for every piece of set can be just as thrilling as a set that costs the budget of some theater companies’ entire seasons. And I believe that to be true. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love a well-dressed and elaborate set. Todd Rosenthal has created a playroom of a set, which you can see in the accompanying photo, and it’s a thing of beauty.

If you enjoy a twisty-turny mystery, Sleuth will be right up your alley. It’s a well-mounted production and the cast is really quite good, even if they aren’t local. Sleuth runs through May 10. I read in a program recently that Agatha Christie was single handedly keeping theater doors open. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but this is along those lines and should fill seats and entertain theatergoers.

For more information and to purchase tickets, go to:
https://www.guthrietheater.org/shows-and-tickets/2025-2026-season/sleuth/

Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope Uplifts the Audience While Refracting a Spotlight Through the Prism of Black America

The Cast of Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope (March 2026 Penumbra Theatre) Photo Credit Caroline Yang

Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope is a historic piece of musical theater, the first Broadway show with music and lyrics by a Black woman and also the first Broadway show directed by a Black woman. That was back in 1972, the year I was born. The similarities end there.

Micki Grant’s musical revue doesn’t have a traditional narrative. There are no discernible continuing characters moving throughout the show, and no dialogue to speak of. And yet it feels as though each new number is a short story, complete with characters, a theme, and its own unique tone. Each of these short stories looks at the lives of Black Americans through a different social, political, or cultural lens.

Unlike other works that strive to examine the Black experience, this one feels like it’s looking at it from the inside rather than presenting it for an outside perspective. That allows the show to be, above all else, a celebration. This isn’t a laundry list of injustices or righteous grievances. It’s the world through a perspective shared by many in the audience and, for others like myself, perhaps a clearer sense of how that world looks.

What the show gets incredibly right is that no one is the sum of the bad things that happen to them. If that were true, all of us living under Trump would be defined either by our ignorance or by our outrage. I am more than my outrage, because outrage alone is no way to live a life. As with this show, many of the songs deal with social issues, and there are moments when the show allows that outrage to breathe. But it always reminds us that people living with outrage day in and day out still find ways to let joy in.

I want to convey as strongly as I can that this is not a work about anger and injustice. It’s a beautiful, engaging, uplifting, and ultimately joyous experience. It acknowledges reality and shows how people deal with that reality, by not letting it win, by fighting when they can, and by finding laughter, love, and yes, joy wherever they can. By refusing to be defined by what others have done to them.

The songs move through styles including gospel, jazz, funk, soul, and rock, though my personal favorite was the calypso flavor that kept popping up. One of the best songs early in the show, “Goin’ to Town This Morning,” immediately made me think of my favorite Donna Summer song, “Unconditional Love.” That number features one of my favorites, Austene Van, on lead vocals, reminding me yet again how amazing she is.

But here’s the thing: the entire cast is amazing. I could easily sit here and list every performer and tell you my favorite moment for each of them. But then I wouldn’t get to bed, and you’d probably stop reading a quarter of the way through. Suffice it to say they are all terrific, including Twin Cities Theater Blogger Favorite Emerging Artist of 2025 Antonisia Collins. This is her first role since winning the award, and it reassures us that we got that one absolutely right.

And Mrs. The Stages of MN would kill me if I didn’t also mention Aimee K. Bryant, who gave her goosebumps every time she sang. Did I know Bryant could sing? She can’t possibly be that good and I never noticed, so I must have known and simply forgotten.

Before wrapping up, I do want to acknowledge a few of the backstage artists. First, Patdro Harris, who directs the show so that each song has a distinct and clearly told story. Harris is also getting my nomination for Best Choreographer, one of the elements that makes this production truly unforgettable. Sanford Moore’s music direction, and the sound he gets from his band, is so thrilling that there wasn’t a moment in the entire runtime when I wasn’t bobbing along or clapping to the beat. The energy of some of these numbers is absolutely infectious.

I also want to mention projection designer Miko Simmons, whose work is exceptional. The projections add texture and weight where needed without overwhelming the show’s overwhelmingly positive “Good Vibrations“.

Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope runs through April 5 at Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit:
https://penumbratheatre.org/event/dont-bother-me-i-cant-cope/#4

Water For Elephants All the Fun of a Trip to the Circus But With the Added Bonus of Great Music, and No Smells.

The cast of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

Water for Elephants is based on the novel by Sara Gruen, which I haven’t read, that was adapted into a film, which I haven’t seen. Really, all I knew going in was that Mrs. The Stages of MN and I saw the poster when we were in NYC in 2024 and wished we’d had time to see it.

The story is told by an old man to two circus employees after a performance, so it is a memory play. The older Jacob tells of his days in the circus as a young man who missed taking his veterinary exams when his parents were killed in a car accident. With their house taken over by the bank, he hops a train looking for… what, he doesn’t know. What he finds is a circus in need of a veterinarian who can’t afford a real one. He reluctantly agrees to stay on, and when the circus acquires Rosie, the elephant of the title, he helps train her along with the circus owner and ringmaster August’s wife, Marlena. Marlena and Jacob bond over training Rosie, whose addition to the circus reverses its fortunes, endearing Jacob to the rest of the workers and performers. Everything could be wonderful, but, August is not a good man…

The story is compelling enough, and I enjoyed the score and songs enough that I may give the cast recording a listen or two. Sorry, current audiobook, I’ll get back to you in a day or two. But what really makes this show stand out is the choreography by Jesse Robb and Shana Carroll, assuming that’s what you call the spectacular and seemingly peril-filled circus aerial acts. There are some genuinely jaw-dropping moments that you’re amazed they pull off once, let alone eight times a week. As much as I enjoyed everything else about the show, it was those circus acts, and the clowning by Walter, played by Tyler West, that delighted me most. The clowning is so funny and wonderfully slapstick. I loved it, and West was probably my favorite performer in the entire show.

This must be an exceptionally hard show to cast, and to be honest, I think they cast for the ability to do the stunts first and singing voice second. Very few in the cast are outstanding vocally, but none are terrible. Based on what I was most delighted by, I’d say that was probably the right call. The best singers were Zakeyia Lacey, who was in as the understudy for Marlena, and Javier Garcia, who plays Camel, the elderly circus worker who first befriends Jacob. The real stars, though, as I’ve said, are the people floating gracefully through the sky and free-falling headfirst down ropes, stopping themselves inches from the floor. It’s breathtaking.

Visually, in every respect, the show is a winner, from the scenic design by Takeshi Kata, which works seamlessly with Bradley King’s lighting design and David Bengali’s restrained, mood-enhancing projections to create the look of a simpler time. The animals are created via puppets by Ray Wetmore, Jr Goodman, and Camille LaBarre, and while not on the level of Life of Pi or The Lion King, they’re still effective.

Water for Elephants runs through March 8th at Hennepin Arts Orpheum Theatre through March 8th. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://hennepinarts.org/events/water-for-elephants