John Munger

There is a woman sitting on the floor in the space. She is totally focused on her laptop, her smartphone, and apparently, or possibly, some other gizmos. There is a lot of wiring. The Fringe house manager delivers the usual speech, and the show begins.

Two couples try to communicate with each other. Both have more than one significant duet.

They call the organization “10 Foot Five.”  They call the show “Buckets and Tap Shoes”.  It’s at Rarig on the Proscenium stage. I first saw them on a Walker Choreographers’ Evening ten or more years ago (sorry Ausland Brothers, I’m putting age data out there on all of us). There were five of them and they had, of course, ten feet.

Near the end of World War Two Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters recorded a hit tune entitled, "There'll Be A Hot Time In The Town Of Berlin When The Yanks Go Marching In." No further explanation for this snippet of historical pop culture is needed. The title and the context say it all. The idea is to suggest that when the righteous good guys show up, some ass is going to get kicked. It was a triumphalist, self-righteous anthem.

The Minnesota Opera has just wrapped a two-weekend run of "The Pearl Fishers," a 19th century grand opera by Georges Bizet. My wife and I spent the equivalent of 2.5 weeks of grocery budget to get two pleasantly surprising seats in the mid price range. Take note, grand opera is GRANDE, in the French sense of the word, meaning big, expensive, multi-disciplinary, long, and what you might call "spectacle-oriented."