With a fall chill in the air, I embraced the spooky spirit of the season with “Frankenstein Bemshi!” at Writers & Books. Perfectly timed for the tale’s 200th anniversary, the show offers a loose retelling of the Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein story through a blend of avant-garde film, music, spoken word poetry, and performance art. The […]
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Daniel reviews Gold Koa and The Velvet Noose
Gold Koa performed its first-ever concert on the Gibbs Street Stage on Friday, and the band’s existence seemed especially natural, logical — even inevitable. Frontwoman Cammy Enaharo — best known to Rochester audiences as a solo, indie folk artist — sounded as if she were born to front an R&B-pop outfit. Her voice was brimming […]
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Leah reviews ‘Poetry in Motion’
In addition to performing three company shows at School of the Arts (the last show happens Saturday at 7 p.m.), several members of PUSH Physical Theatre produced solo works for Fringe. Jonathan Lowery, a longstanding member of Fringe who also performs in community theater productions around town, tapped further into his multidisciplinary roots with “Poetry […]
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Kathy Reviews Eddie Izzard and ‘Good Joke/Bad Joke Bingo’
I’ll admit, my knowledge of Eddie Izzard’s comedy before he came to the Rochester Fringe Festival was limited. I had seen him in a few cameo roles in movies like “Ocean’s 12” and “Ocean’s 13,” and “Across the Universe,” as well as a few late-night shows on which he was a guest. I knew he […]
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Daniel reviews Garth Fagan Dance
In case anyone had forgotten, Thursday’s performance by Garth Fagan Dance at the company’s downtown studio was a poignant reminder of Fagan’s brilliance as a choreographer. The program began with “Prelude: ‘Discipline is Freedom.’ ” A leisurely piano riff initiated a subtle jazz groove, and the moderate tempo made plenty of room for the dancers’ […]
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Daniel reviews ‘A Jazz Musician Walks Into a Comics Shop’
On Wednesday, musician and graphic novelist Dave Chisholm presented the most fully realized version of his highly ambitious multimedia project, “Instrumental.” The work has always existed as both a graphic novel and its jazz soundtrack simultaneously. But the Fringe Festival audience at the Lyric Theatre was the first to hear the soundtrack performed live in […]
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Adam reviews ‘The Spyglass Seven’ and ‘Truly Divine’
Poet Edgar Allan Poe makes for a characteristically gloomy romantic hero in “The Spyglass Seven,” a gothic drama written and directed by Michael Seebold. The play imagines that the ghost of the writer (played by Dillon Herbig) has been resurrected by the spirit of Beauty to return from the grave for one night. It seems […]
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Frank reviews ‘2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick: A Dirk Darrow Investigation’
Say, I’ll be honest: They had me with the fedora. Even when old school detective imagery and language moves toward pastiche, I still love it. And of course if the hat didn’t get me, the title most definitely did. Australian comedian, storyteller, and mentalist Dick Darrow (Tim Motley) was a side-splitter, rip snorter, a rapid […]
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Leah reviews ‘The Girl in the Band’ and ‘Home is a Four-Letter Word’
When Megan Loomis walks out on stage for her one-woman show, “The Girl in the Band,” she doesn’t appear to be, well, a girl. Dressed in coveralls and a flat brim cap and affecting a “boy voice,” Loomis begins the show by quoting many of the misogynistic things her bandmates have said to her over […]
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Kathy reviews ‘Lost in the Shuffle,’ ‘Fairy Tale Ending,’ PUSH Physical Theatre & ‘Elemental Guardians’
One of the most respected hoofers in the Rochester area, Cheryl Johnson, is putting her entire tapping career on display at the Lyric Theatre at this year’s Fringe Festival with her show “Lost in the Shuffle.” And the styles are as varied as they are incredible to watch. Johnson shuffles and shim sham shimmies across […]
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Amanda reviews ‘BirthWrite’
There’s something about a hot day at the end of summer that really makes melanin pop. This first Saturday of Fringe was, for me, a celebration of Black Magic, with spoken word group We All Write presenting “BirthWrite” at Geva Theatre Center. The stage for Birth Write was set like a makeshift living room, with […]
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Adam reviews ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’
My night covering the Fringe involved heading over to the Lyric Theatre’s Cabaret Hall for a sold-out performance of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” from OFC Creations. The rock musical splits the difference between a cabaret-style musical and stand-up comedy routine, as performed by genderbending East German singer, Hedwig, and the show’s a smart choice […]
