2026 Audience Reviews

Company: Melancholics Anonymous
Show: Watership Down
Venue: Rarig Stoll Thrust Theatre

Genuinely the best musical I’ve ever seen

I’m just gonna copy and paste my text messages here because I left the theater and had to immediately stream of consciousness text everyone about this show lol. Holy shit Everyone needs to see watership down I feel like I just watched the Mona Lisa get painted Every single element was perfectly executed The way they used the lighting !!!!! Giant puppet!!!! I literally said "oh my god" out loud a bunch of times during the show because of how striking the visuals were I also really liked the "half read" (???) format where actors would narrate their own actions/descriptions using text from the book, and then that was mixed with regular scenes in between (Someone asked if you have to have read the book to enjoy it, this is what I said) Read the book 3/4 way through No you don't need to have read the book at all The exposition is done super well, it hit all the major plot points and world building while still fitting the whole book into one hour. Which is wild cause that book is kind of detail rich?? I think the narration style really helped that. And the songs and the dance scenes!!!!! Holy moly Also I realized halfway through that I couldn't really see anyone's faces and then I put on my glasses. That’s how caught up I was in the story Fiver is my new dream role gosh!!!! I hope they keep performing that show I would love to see it again with a full set I think my friend emmi would LOVE it, she's a costumer. It's got this great frog and toad/tuck everlasting/ still life with iris style of costuming. Lots of waistcoats and half breeches and whatnot (Then I called my friend who was at work and left her a voicemail saying that this show is right up her alley and I needed to tell her about it ASAP) They had a (spoiler) puppet Ohhh my god it was insane The actors all carried these color changing light bars in their pockets and whipped them out to do sudden scene changes Like. At one point they’re arguing in the (spoiler) and then fiver starts having a vision and literally in a split second they all get the lights out and turn them to red to shine on fiver and the theater goes dark, immediate scene change. And I didn’t even notice them getting the lights out cause I was focused on fiver having his vision!!! It was like a magic trick where they direct your attention where they want it to be There’s so much more I could say in this review, but yeah!!! Amazing amazing amazing I loved it so much. I could probably talk for an hour about all the wonderful things they did in this show. PLEASEEEE do a full length production…. I am begging….

Company: Samuel Karie
Show: Pistachio's Playhouse
Venue: Barbara Barker Center for Dance

Awesome set and awesome costumes!!!

I saw this at preview and knew IMMEDIATELY that I had to see the full show!! Like my friend said, it’s really tough to be the final act at preview because the audience is tired and has already seen 30 previews but Ms. Pistachio knocked it out of the park with her singing and comedic timing (and the rats!!! I love the rats!!) the set was amazinggg and the puppets were so fun and cleverly done. The costume design was incredible, I love how the man upstairs had an ill fitting suit (you can’t trust a man if you can’t trust his suit) and the police man with the giant hat. The audience was super emotionally invested as the plot developed, very very immersive. It’s funny! It’s sad! It shows how evil the man upstairs can be!

Company: Dame Right!
Show: Good Vibrations
Venue: Theatre in the Round

Incredible dance numbers

Incredible dance numbers, incredible group scenes, and the Beatles never fail to make me laugh whenever they’re in a scene. Also I can’t believe the actor for Murray is only 22, he killed that role! I wish The Beach Boys had all been a little louder, I often couldn’t hear their singing over the band or chorus.

Company: Maxxeapolis
Show: Maxxeapolis Goes to Hell
Venue: Mixed Blood

Hilarious!

Well written sketches, talented comedians, and of course Satan was awesome! I really enjoyed the sketch at the burger restaurant, the guy with long hair (sorry I don’t know any names) is incredible at playing the confused “normal” person in any skit

Company: The World Crime League
Show: M
Venue: Barbara Barker Center for Dance

Very unsettling

Very atmospheric, I loved the shadow puppetry and how that was used to create sets. Skinner and the analyst made me laugh, and Timothy Snyder was absolutely terrifying with his whistling and use of body language to imply his mental state.

Company: Snikt! Bamf! Thwip!
Show: Casa Bde-Maka-Ska
Venue: Theatre in the Round

Amaze amaze amaze!!!

The show was hilarious, the timing was great and Merit played the 4 (5?) characters incredibly. The piano getting dragged around KILLED me. I definitely missed a lot of minneapolis references because I’m from Duluth, and missed some Casablanca references as well, but it was still funny start to finish. Some lines I couldn’t hear clearly. They really blended the source material and the modern setting well, I like that Rick and Ilsa both sound very “40s” compared to the rest of the cast, it made the modern references in their lines even better.