Reviews

After having viewed Outside the Jukebox's previous production Merry Mixology, a set of comedy sketches and songs intertwined in a cabaret setting, I highly anticipated seeing their next production, this time a completely different concept: a selection of Broadway songs interspersed with a bingo game show, including minimal audience participation. Audience members are able to view bingo cards on their phones or with a flyer and mark off any specific traits they see in a performance shouting out Bingo! when they have a full house.

Two men sit across an office desk.  They could not be more different.  We think.  One is Keith (Kevin Hofbauer), a mortgage broker given to financial jargon and acronyms; he’s apparently confident, very definite, wears preppy clothes, has a neat beard.  The other man is Ryan (Darcy Kent): reticent, apologetic, scruffy hair, faded tartan shirt, scuffed Redwing boots.  Ryan wants a loan to buy some land – twelve acres his family owned long ago – for himself and his fifteen-month-old daughter Krista.  We want Ryan to get that land, but w

Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women was originally published in 1868. The coming-of-age story of the March sisters follows their transition from childhood to womanhood. Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, the musical adaptation follows our headstrong protagonist Jo March and her passion for storytelling, only rivalled by her love and devotion to her family.

I am so glad I had the chance see this production! Not just because it is feisty and funny; nor because its messages “hit us hardhard” like “Aunty Fale’ and her broomstick in the poem “My Dog”! But because I knew that before I could start writing about the performance itself, I had to find out more about Tusiata Avia and her work!

And that has been very moving … stirring … and disturbing … just like the production itself.