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Fringe Shows

HFF16 – The Journey Begins (part 2)

My first show for the day was Tell me on a Sunday at the Black Box portion of the new Sacred Fools Theater.  The location previously housed Theatre Asylum, as well as the Elephant and Lillian Theatres.

Tell Me

Tell me could not have been a better start to my HFF16 experience.  It was a one-woman musical told without any dialog.  The music was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Don Block, under the direction of Calvin Remsberg and the musical direction of Richard Berent.  But what truly set this musical apart was Shannon Nelson, the dynamo behind this musical gem.

Without the use of any spoken dialogue, Nelson told us a story of love and relationship, entirely in song and through her amazing acting chops.  Her performance left no doubt of the story line, or who was the true victor in this all too common story of love found and lost.

We highly recommend this show, with remaining performances on June 15 at 9 p.m., June 19 at 11 p.m., and June 20 at 10 p.m.

Next up was Tilt, one of the ten shows in my article Ten Shows I’m Looking Forward to at the 2016 Hollywood Fringe FestivalThe cast of Tilt contained two of my favorite Fringe actors, Ben Moroski and Michael Shaw Fisher, and was directed by Nick Massouh.

Tilt

Previous to this production, Moroski has been considered a brilliant storyteller with two award-winning solo shows, while Fisher was considered a musical theater genius of three award-winning musicals and one winner of a solo show.

Needless to say, the energy in this show was palpable, and never lets up from the opening to the closing scenes.  Fisher’s commanding stage presence, and the kinetic energy of Moroski combine to light up the stage.  The dialog is witty and the chemistry between these two giants of the Fringe is worth the price of admission alone.

This is definitely a show that must be experienced.  Remaining performances are scheduled for June 17 at 10 p.m., June 18 at 5:30 p.m., June 24 at 9:30 p.m. and June 15 at 5:30 p.m.  The performances are on the Second Stage portion of Sacred Fools.

My third show was The Rogues Gallery, performed in the Studio portion of Sacred Fools.  It is a fast-moving, campy and comedic one-woman show written and performed by New Orleans’ own original classy broad, Alison Logan.

Rogues

Logan puts four of her previous ex-boyfriends “on trial’ as she explains why they should all be convicted of roguish behavior, separated by song and dance numbers featuring the smoky and powerful pipes of Logan.  The show also includes great audience participation, including a hilarious version of the Village People’s classic anthem, YMCA.

This show is too much fun to miss, and only has one remaining performance at 10 p.m. on Sunday.  Don’t miss it.

At this point, I took a musical interlude to attend the amazing performance of my friends Shannon Hurley and Ben Eisen’s duo, Lovers & Poets, held at the newly opened Second Stage portion of the world-famous Hotel Café.  The show was further proof that Lovers & Poets are becoming a force in the LA indie music scene.  They did not disappoint and kept the small but mighty audience enthralled during the set.  Were Freddy and Francine not celebrating their CD release on the main stage, I’m sure the venue would have been packed.

After spending some time with fringeships David Haverty,  Meghan McCauley, Leigh Neeves, Jeffrey Wylie and others at Fringe Central, I headed over to my final show of the night, Charlotte’s Shorts, held at the Actor’s Company theater on Formosa.  The show features the short stories of the incredibly talented Charlotte Dean, daughter of my friend Tracy Newman, as read and performed by some of Hollywood’s rising talents, including Anastacia McPherson, Lisa Schurga, H. Michael Croner, Hannah Einbinder (daughter of Tracy’s sister, SNL alum Larraine Newman), Lynne Stewart, Navaris Darson and Jordan Black.

Charlotte

Unlike anything I have ever experienced at the Fringe, this show was fun, witty, and non-stop hilarious.  Not only did it showcase Dean’s talents as a writer, but it also showed Hollywood what type of talent is waiting in the wings for their big breaks.  This was indeed one of the best Fringe shows I have ever seen in my six years of covering the Festival.

Indie Voice Blog is proud to highly recommend this show.  Don’t miss one of their remaining performances scheduled for June 17 at 8:30 p.m., June 19 at 5:30 p.m. or June 26 at 3:30 p.m.  With a revolving pool of talent, every show will be different, so why not catch them all?

I closed out the night with a night cap at the Formosa Café with Dean, Newman and several members of the cast.  It was a wonderful ending to a perfect first day of Fringe.