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

Connor Sullivan, Helen Krushinski, and Zachary Keller Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

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And Then There Were None Gets a Suspenseful and Atmospheric Production at Lyric Arts

Agatha Christie fans who are only familiar with the 1939 novel And Then There Were None should not avoid this under the assumption that they know how it ends. When Christie adapted her novel for the stage in 1943, she made a significant change to the outcome that most adaptations in other mediums have also utilized. I’ll just say it isn’t as bleak as the novel. Those who have seen previous productions, this is my third, should know that if you’re a fan, this is the best adaptation I’ve seen so far. I attribute that to a uniformly strong cast and excellent direction by Lee Hannah Conrads. Conrads and her cast find humor in the character banter and exploit our fear of the dark with well-designed sequences when the power goes out.

I read the novel in junior high for English class, but I was a Christie fan, and an And Then There Were None fan, long before that. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know who Christie was, and I must have been under ten when I first saw the 1945 film adaptation directed by René Clair. Somehow, a classic whodunnit always feels like it should be in black and white. All the best ones are: And Then There Were None, Green for Danger, The Thin Man. The great missed opportunity of British postwar cinema was that they didn’t make a series of Inspector Cockrill films with Alastair Sim in the 1940s after Green for Danger, one of the greatest mystery films of all time. If you haven’t seen it, seek it out. But I digress.

Christie’s plot will sound familiar to everyone, even those unfamiliar with the title. Ten strangers are brought together by an unknown host. Cut off from the rest of the world on an island, the “ten little soldiers,” as the rhyme goes, begin to find themselves murdered one by one. Each is accused of having murdered someone, and this is their host’s plan to even the scales. Is there a madman loose on the island, or is the killer one of them? It’s devilishly good fun, with a top-notch setup and payoff. Every single slasher movie ever made owes something to it, but don’t hold that against it.

The show does tip its hand a little in that there is a clear attraction between two of the ten, and you can pretty much guess they’ll make it to the final four. Beyond that, all bets are off. Nadya Dominique and Brendan Veerman play the would-be lovers Vera Claythorne and Philip Lombard. Dominique and Veerman perfectly capture the tone, sometimes serious, sometimes playful, of those classic movies I love so much. Bruce Abas gives an intelligent performance as the former judge Sir Lawrence Wargrave, methodical in his attempt to keep everyone safe and root out the true killer. David Denninger gives a very sympathetic performance, particularly in his character’s final scenes, as he seems to get lost in memories of his late wife. It’s disappointing to see Michael Quadrozzi in such a small role as Fred Narracott, who brings everyone to the island at the beginning of the play, and is never heard from again. But perhaps it makes sense, as he’s listed as an understudy, you want someone of his caliber when you need someone who can cover multiple roles. Also, a nod to understudy Sarah Furniss, who stepped in as Mrs. Rogers at the performance I attended and did a very nice job.

Justin Hooper’s set design is well constructed, with perhaps the exception of the glass doors to the patio, which looked to be made of loosely stretched cellophane. It may have been where I was sitting, off to the side of the stage, as the production photos don’t look chintzy, and they hint at a backdrop that adds interesting visuals I may have missed. What was on full display for all to see, or not, was the lighting design by Alyssa Kraft. It’s one of the more effective uses of candlelight I’ve seen in a show. Usually the designer or director is too timid to let the stage be lit solely by candles, but I’ll tell you, it is very effective. I applaud Kraft for going that route, and Conrads stages everything wonderfully, making full use of the darkness to ramp up the tension and play on our collective fear of it.

And Then There Were None at Lyric Arts is a top-notch mystery thriller for those of us who love a good whodunnit and a slap of suspense now and then. The production runs through March 22. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to https://www.lyricarts.org/then-there-were-none.

Men on Boats Is a Thrilling and Enlightening Journey Down River as Only Ten Thousand Things Can do it

Walken Schweigert, Karen Wiese-Thompson, Anya Naylor, Maureen Sherman-Mendez, George Keller, Ashawnti Sakina Ford, and Jay Owen Eisenberg Photo by Tom Wallace

Men on Boats is another brilliant example of what makes Ten Thousand Things (TTT) one of the best theater companies in the state of MN. This company is the epitome of creativity and performance-centered theater. They perform in the round with all the lights up, and they rely on the actors to create most of the world in which the shows take place, using minimal set pieces and props so that everything they need can fit in a U-Haul trailer. This allows them to travel with their shows, making theater available to all. They go everywhere from senior living homes to recovery centers and correctional facilities. As entertaining and creative as anything else you’ll see on any stage, their minimalist approach is never a shortcoming.

Men on Boats tells the story of an 1869 expedition by ten men down the Green and Colorado Rivers from Wyoming to Big Canyon (now known as the Grand Canyon). In a world that wants to whitewash our theaters, TTT offers up a diverse cast telling the story of white men naming things after themselves and claiming to discover places Indigenous people were already aware of and, in most cases, had already named. The cast of ten is made up entirely of female and non–cisgender male performers, which I believe is a stipulation of the script.

In one sense, this tells the adventurous story of intrepid explorers battling nature in a desperate attempt to survive… in order to name shit after themselves. There is commentary within the play, but it is this unique casting that really brings lines that could be played straight into sharper focus. The commentary on Manifest Destiny and the toxic masculinity that fueled it comes in part from the gender profile of the cast and their clear understanding of how to play up the characters’ unquestioning belief in their superiority and their unflinching stupidity in the face of reality. It speaks to how far we have regressed as a country, as much of it feels like commentary on our current leaders.

It takes creativity to transport an audience to four boats battling their way through the rocks and rapids of wild rivers in the late 1800s with only a few props, costumes, the actors themselves, and music composed and performed live by Walken Schweigert. The show is directed by Stages of MN favorite Joy Dolo. The cast is so strong that I cannot single anyone out as a favorite. That’s the thing with TTT, performance is so crucial that they invariably cast their shows with the best of the best. Even their understudies, Em Adam Rosenberg and Michelle De Joya, whom you would be lucky to see step in, are fantastic. Rather than attempt to detail how great they each are individually, I’m opting simply to list the cast. Trust me, there is no weakest link.

The cast: Jay Owen Eisenberg, Charli Fool Bear, Ashawnti Sakina Ford, Emjoy Gavino, George Keller, Elise Langer, Anya Naylor, Adelin Phelps, Maureen Sherman-Mendez, and Karen Wiese-Thompson.

Men on Boats runs through March 15. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to https://tenthousandthings.org/

Episode 27: The Stages of MN Finds a Couple of Honeys in the Hive!

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-hmaki-1a59fc0

Welcome to Episode 27 of The Stages of MN. A weekly show about the live theatrical experience.

On this episode: Theater Couples Part 2 We finish our chat with Eric Morris and Laura Rudolph Morris and get a tour the Hive! Be sure to check out the Hive Collaborative Website for all the upcoming events https://www.thehivecollaborativemn.com/ . Eric will be directing Once Upon a Mattress at Lakeshore Players from 4/24/26 – 5/17/26 https://www.lakeshoreplayers.org/matt... and appearing in Come From Away at the Guthrie Theater this summer from 6/6/26 – 8/9/26 https://www.guthrietheater.org/shows-... Laura will be stepping in as a Long-term vacation swing in April and May and again at the end of the run of Guys and Dolls at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres https://chanhassendt.com/guysanddolls/

MN Honest Review: The Cake at Theatre in the Round through March 15th https://www.theatreintheround.org/the… “At a Show With…” photos of who I saw out at the Theater.

Special thanks: Ryan Lee for the use of his music catalog which is available at https://ryanlee.bandcamp.com/

Alex Dunkelberger and Micky Dunkelberger for their production assistance.

You can read all my reviews at The Stages of MN https://thestagesofmn.com/ Follow me on Facebook / thestagesofmn and Instagram / thestagesofmn

The show also available on YouTube bit.ly/YouTubeTSOMN

Interested in sponsoring an episode, want to join The Stages of MN + 1 Club, or just have comments, questions, or suggestions for me? You can email me at robdunkelberger@thestagesofmn.com.

Cake is Bittersweet With Layers of Rich Emotions Sprinkled With a Dash of Grounding Realism. Yep I Cried at Theatre in the Round

Natavia Lewis, Via Logan, and Jenny Ramirez Photo by Aaron Mark Photo Film

The Cake isn’t your play-it-safe, fairy-tale-ending play about bringing social consciousness to “The South”. You know what I mean when I put “The South” in quotation marks. I’ve made enough comments in these reviews and on the YouTube show that you probably know which side of the bed I fall out of. If you’re reading this, I assume you either land on the same side or at least respect the differences in our sleeping arrangements.

This isn’t really a play about changing someone’s views. It’s about personal growth, and about learning to push back against the things that feel wrong, even when doing so is uncomfortable.

Della, a Southern baker with strong Christian values, is asked to bake a wedding cake for her late best friend’s daughter, Jen. The complication? Jen is marrying another woman, Macy. Della who has trouble supporting this, is supported by her husband Tim. Jen, meanwhile, tries to appease everyone in her life, including Macy, who does not quietly suffer fools. It’s safe to say the situation turns all of their worlds upside down.

What follows is a tender, funny, and complicated reckoning with faith, friendship, love, and tradition. You may think you know how it ends, but it isn’t as neat and tidy as we expect. The play repeatedly subverts expectations, taking turns I didn’t anticipate.

As Della begins to question her stance, she’s also forced to confront other aspects of her life, including her marriage. There’s a pivotal scene in which she confronts Tim, beginning with their sexual relationship and expanding into questions of power dynamics. Depending on your age and relationship experience, their marriage may feel either deeply wrong or deeply real. I don’t personally agree with their dynamic, but there’s a difference between someone imposing a patriarchal structure and a couple who have simply been raised to believe that’s how things should be. Playwright Bekah Brunstetter deserves credit for wading into these murkier waters and embracing nuance. It allows us to see Della and Tim as a real couple, not just a couple from “The South.” By the end, both show a willingness to try, even if neither transforms into a tree-hugging leftist exploring gluten-free veganism and queer theory.

Jenny Ramirez as Della and D’aniel Stock as Tim deliver what we used to euphemistically call “brave” performances. This is where I warn you that this show contains strong language, sexual situations, and partial nudity. Since I doubt I have many 13-year-old readers, I don’t feel like I’m driving exploitative ticket sales by saying so. Ramirez and Stock deserve real credit for their vulnerability, which is what those scenes are about. These scenes are not about titillation, pardon the pun, but about two people opening up to each other in ways they haven’t in years. That’s difficult and deeply human. Is it necessary? I think it’s not only effective but appropriate in this play. It grounds the play and gives the audience a way in. Like Endometriosis The Musical last summer, it creates space for conversations we should be having more openly.

The entire cast is strong, but Ramirez especially impressed me. She plays the character who we assume in most audiences minds has it wrong. She never completely changes, but she does grow, and her performance allows us to view the character sympathetically and to understand her, even if we don’t agree with her. Stock likewise keeps Tim recognizable and grounded, never slipping into caricature.

Natavia Lewis brings confidence and clarity to Macy. She isn’t militant; she’s persuasive, thoughtful, and firm in who she is. Via Logan gives a moving performance as Jen, caught painfully in the middle. She beautifully captures the difficulty of embracing an identity that challenges everything she was raised to believe, not just about her sexuality, but about how those in her orbit think about people from “The South.” It’s an emotionally raw performance that hit home. And yes, I cried. Big surprise.

I’ve avoided mentioning Kjer Whiting as George until now because he provides something entirely different: delightful bursts of comedic fantasy that act as perfect palate cleansers between heavier scenes. It’s impeccable casting. It’s hard to imagine anyone else frosting those lines with quite the same flair.

Director Jennie Ward and Intimacy Director H. Ashley deserve enormous credit for bringing this production to vivid life. Ashley handles the intimacy between Della and Tim with a clear understanding of how longtime partners differ from young lovers. In contrast, the physicality between Jen and Macy emphasizes passion and immediacy over familiarity. Ward makes a particularly effective choice in overlapping Jen and Macy’s love scene with Della lying awake in bed, trying not to think about them. It deepens the emotional resonance of a later moment and ties the themes together beautifully.

The Cake is thoughtful, funny, and deeply human. It doesn’t hand you easy answers, and that’s precisely its strength.

The Cake runs through March 15th at Theatre in the Round. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.theatreintheround.org/thecake/

Watch the 2025 TCTB Awards on the one of the latest episode of The Stages of MN YouTube Show!! https://bit.ly/TSOMNEp25YouTube

Oscar Wilde’s Salomé is Shiveringly Good at PAIKKA

Nathan Keepers Photo by Molly Jay Photography

The new production of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, playing at PAIKKA, isn’t just a play, it’s an experience.

To get the most out of it, when they show you the coat rack, do not avail yourself of it. Find a seat close to the action, but also as near as possible to the end of the room you entered from. A character exits and enters through an exterior door several times during the show, and depending on the weather, you’re going to want to protect yourself. If I have one criticism, it’s not the use of the door, it’s how long it’s left open. I’m not saying I believe they shouldn’t do it. I just know I wished I’d had my coat instead of sitting there in a short-sleeved T-shirt.

The discomfort is clearly intentional, and I understand the artistic reasoning. Still, a warning might have been nice. At times I found myself distracted, not only by my own chill but by concern for the actors, who occasionally had even less protection than I did. And that’s all I’ll say about that. Take the proper precautions and you’ll be free to immerse yourself in this riveting drama.

Wilde’s play tells the story of Jokanaan (John the Baptist), imprisoned in a cistern by King Herod. The production opens in a dining hall, where some audience members are seated (don’t worry, there’s no audience participation), as four servants tidy up and gossip. We quickly learn that one of them is infatuated with Princess Salomé, Herod’s stepdaughter.

When Salomé leaves the party and enters the dining hall, she hears Jokanaan’s prophetic ravings and becomes fascinated. She convinces a servant to bring him before her. She is captivated by him, and is determined to kiss his lips, but he refuses her advances and is returned to his prison. Soon Herod and his wife, Herodias, enter. It becomes disturbingly clear that Herod harbors an inappropriate fascination with his stepdaughter. He promises Salomé anything she desires if she will dance for him. She agrees, and when she names her price, he desperately attempts to dissuade her.

Director Grant Sorenson eschews traditional theatrical forms, creating something immediate, immersive, and visceral. From my seat at one of the tables, it felt like front row theater in the most literal sense, which as faithful readers know, is my preferred vantage point. The action unfolds between two long banquet tables, with audiences seated along the outside edges and in rows lining the walls. The performers use the entire space, moving from one end of the room to the other and even through both doors. At times, the actors are directly between the tables and the audience, eliminating any sense of distance.

The performances are uniformly strong. Ani Tonoyan, in a dazzling silver gown, makes Salomé both seductive and calculating. Emily Gunyou Halaas brings a grounded realism to Herodias, watchful and keenly aware of her husband’s wandering eye. Logan Lang’s Jokanaan is ferocious, a prophet teetering between divine inspiration and madness, with bursts of physical intensity that are genuinely startling.

But it is Nathan Keepers as Herod who steals the show. His performance is layered with pointed allusions to Trump, funny, unsettling, and chillingly recognizable. He prowls the dining hall, ranting and rambling, his obsession with his stepdaughter rendered both grotesque and darkly comic. Whether you see the parallels immediately or gradually, the effect is undeniable. It’s a bold and captivating performance.

The ensemble of servants is equally compelling, and the presence of Stages of MN Must-See Lister, Stephanie Kahle, alone is reason enough to attend.

Salomé runs just two weekends ending February 28th. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.salomempls.com/

Watch the 2025 TCTB Awards on the one of the latest episode of The Stages of MN YouTube Show!! https://bit.ly/TSOMNEp25YouTube