Tag: Fringe Central

Categories
Fringe Shows Hollywood Fringe Festival Reviews See it or Skip it

HFF19 day 1 – see it or skip it

HFF19 is officially underway – previews are over, Fringe Central is open, and the Hollywood Fringe Festival has taken over Theatre Row.

We took in three shows, visited Fringe Central twice, and managed to collect five of the seven Matt the Gathering cards, leaving just two more to secure.  What a fun opening day.  Here are our reviews.

TITLE OF SHOW:  Shiva for Anne Frank

VENUE:  The Complex (Flight Theatre)

REVIEW:  Like many of you, I read The Diary of Anne Frank in school, and never knew there was so much more to the story.   Comedian Rachel McKay Steele delivers a moving and emotional tribute to the legacy of Anne Frank, and teaches us Goy a thing or two about the Jewish faith.  This show will make you laugh (a lot), but it will also break your heart, and (hopefully) leave you with a desire to do a better job at being less judgmental.  She also taught us the importance of noshing.  Come early and enjoy the treats.

RECOMMENDATION:  If history is your thing, or if you like to laugh and snack, then definite check out this show.  Remaining performances are June 20 at 8:30 p.m., June 22 at 10:30 p.m. and June 30 at 4 p.m.  Tickets are available on her Fringe project page.

TITLE OF SHOW:  Straight White Men #trying to woke

VENUE:  The Blank (Second Stage)

REVIEW:  Chris Valente has been a part of the Fringe for many years but I have never been able to make any of his previous shows.  Luckily, I was able to squeeze this one in, and very glad I did.  He has written five five hilarious vignettes that are presented by an amazing cast that included Brian Lally, Steve Brewster, and Victoria Ippolito on “Fandom,” William Gabriel Grier and Valenti on “Polite Racism,” Jim Nieb, Ian Gray and Anna Luiza on “Suicide Pact,” Jeff Elam, Ippolito and Christine Ditillio on “Brittle Trombone,” and Gray, Valenti, Nieb, Brewster, Lally, Luiza and Grier on “Fantasy Football.”  It was a humorous way to address these serious issues, and was well received.  Come on out and laugh at these white man “mistakes.”

RECOMMENDATION:  Definitely worth checking out this show.  Remaining performances are June 14 at 10 p.m., June 15 at noon, June 16 at 3 p.m., June 19 at 8 p.m. and June 21 at 8 p.m.  Tickets are available on her Fringe project page.

TITLE OF SHOW:  Squeeze my Cabaret

VENUE:  The Lounge Theatres

REVIEW:  Back in 2017, Cathy Schenkelberg created the incredibly popular Fringe show Squeeze my Cans.  She’s back with a musical version that is naughty, funny and so much fun, and once again pokes fun at the cult to which she gave 20 years of her life and nearly $1 million.  This lady has an incredible voice, and a wicked sense of humor, and it all comes out during this show.  If you aren’t worried about retribution, go and enjoy this “take no prisoners” musical cabaret.

RECOMMENDATION:  If you enjoy laughter and great musical performances, then don’t miss this show.  Remaining performances are June 16 at 10 p.m., June 21 at 11:55 p.m. and June 23 at 10 p.m.  Tickets are available on her Fringe project page.

 

 

Categories
Fringe Shows Hollywood Fringe Festival Reviews See it or Skip it

HFF17 – see it or skip it (day 1)

TITLE OF SHOW:  Robot Monster the Musical

VENUE:  Main stage of Sacred Fools Theatre

REVIEW:  This was a workshop performance of a new musical based on what is often considered one of the best “bad” movies from the 50’s.  This production, directed by Derek Long (who also provides the voice of Ro-Man XJ2, could use a little pruning, as it is too long for the story.  The show does have its moments, such as every scene involving little Johnny (Dana DeRuyck), but could use a little more structure, especially for those of us not familiar with the movie.

Although he doesn’t speak, hats off to Rich Silverman, the actor in the gorilla suit, who sweated up a great performance as Ro-Man.  It was his first time ever on stage.  Cheers also to Jamie Miller, who did a good job as big sister Alice and Stephanie Thomas as little sister Carla, as well as Don Margolin, who played the professor to perfection.  Andrew Villarreal and Val Peterson, Roy and Martha, respectively, were a little too much over the top, even for a campy B-movie.  Their overacting was a little distracting, taking away from an otherwise good performance.

RECOMMENDATION:  Unless you are a huge fan of campy, bad films and their musical adaptations, you should probably just Skip it.

We were going to see a couple more shows, but the journey caught up with us, and we decided to head down to Fringe Central to grab a drink and look for old friends.  We were joined by the lovely Laura Wiley, creator and producer of Buffy Killed Edward, and Esther Mira, who plays Lady Bashful in Loves Adventures.   Lucky for us, it was also Fringe Cabaret night, so we got to see portions of seven shows as we mingled with Laura and Elissa.  Among the shows previewed were The Joe and Joshua Show, Easy Targets, Psychosical, Incantesimo, 13th Grade, Lights Camera Lyla The Second Act and Missmatch.

TITLE OF SHOW:  Hey Hollywood, my Hustle has ADHD

VENUE:  Lounge Theatre 2

REVIEW:  We closed out our first day of Fringe with this delightful solo comedic romp, and it was the perfect choice.  I must admit that we chose this show because it was directed and developed by Deana Barone, who we fell in love with at last year’s Fringe.  Rasika Mathur was simply amazing in her writing and her performance.  She took what could have been a boring personal drama, and made it into a delightful immersive experience that kept the audience in stitches.  As you can imagine from a show about ADHD, it was delightfully disjointed, changing topics rapidly while telling an interesting story about an artist discovering the cause of her “affliction.”  Barone and Mathur brought a myriad of colorful characters to life, and the hour just seemed to fly by.  This was a Fringe show delivered with perfection, and we are so happy that we were able to see it.

RECOMMENDATION:  By all means, See it.  There is only one remaining show, and we strongly recommend that you make plans to see it on June 24 at 10 p.m.