Selected Plays And Musicals
(from left) Jared Mogen, Tom Reed. Photo: Nicole Neri.
LOCH MESS: The World’s Largest Freshwater Musical
Book, music and lyrics by Josef Evans. Directed by Joel Sass. Produced by Open Eye Theatre at the Bakken Museum, Minneapolis MN, June-July 2023
This high-spirited comedy mixes up Titanic, Show Boat, and sea monsters in a Midwestern musical stew that entertained audiences of all ages during its a four-week sold-out run. Loch Mess is the third and final episode in Josef’s “Northern Legends” anthology of outdoor musicals, commissioned by Open Eye as a response to COVID-era performance limitations. Full of ridiculous humor and catchy melodies, the loosely historical show centers on intrepid heroine Beatrix Barnes, as she embarks on a daunting quest across Lake Superior in pursuit of her lifelong dream - to be the first female ship captain on the Great Lakes.
Cast size: 6, with 2-3 additional “hands on deck” providing puppetry and choreographic support.
REVIEWS:
“A great summer theatrical experience that can be enjoyed by all!” -Broadway World
“The silliest and most delightful original musical… an absolute hoot.” -The Stages of MN
“Exuberant, musically slick, and wonderfully zany.” -Talkin’ Broadway
“This delightful and hopefully never-ending series of musicals is fun, silly, clever and heart-warming.” -Cherry and Spoon
“(Joel) Sass brings Evans’ clever script to full goofy glory in this pleasure of a summer musical.” -MinnPost
Star Tribune “Critic’s Pick”
Corey Walton, Maren Ward. Photo: Bruce Silcox.
A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION
Book, music and lyrics by Josef Evans. Additional music and lyrics by Brian Laidlaw. Directors (original tour): Eric Avery and Maren Ward. Produced by zAmya Theater and PlaceBase Productions (2019).
Commissioned by the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership in 2018, this spoof of the state’s most iconic radio program shines a light on the issue of rural homelessness. The play was developed via a yearlong series of community workshops throughout Southwestern Minnesota, and continues to tour in different regions of the state with newly adapted material. Originally co-presented by PlaceBase Productions and the zAmya Theater Project, it was adapted in 2021 by Josef and the company as a radio play and broadcast on radio stations across Minnesota.
To learn more about the project, including press coverage, production history, and a link to stream the radio play adaptation, click here.
Lux Mortenson, Tom Reed, Georgia Doolittle, France Roberts. Photo: Bruce Silcox.
HAIR BALL: A Bigfoot Musical Adventure
Book, music and lyrics by Josef Evans. Directed by Joel Sass. Produced by Open Eye Theatre at the Bakken Museum, June 2022.
The second in Josef’s “Northern Legends” outdoor musical series commissioned by Open Eye, this madcap romp is set on a remote resort island in the Canadian Pacific Northwest, where a no-longer-mythical hairy beast is wreaking all manner of havoc on its alarmed citizenry. A wild pursuit through the forest ensues, with a precocious young debutante-turned-detective leading the way, evoking the mystic natural charms of shows like “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Into the Woods.”
Cast size: 8, with 2 additional puppeteers.
REVIEWS:
“Unexpectedly, ‘Hair Ball’ is a romance, with a whiff of ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and a lovely ballad by Evans… a bright, fun Bigfoot-themed musical.” -Star Tribune
“80 minutes of joy, wonder, and delight for all ages.” -Cherry and Spoon
“Josef Evans… has created a wonderful piece of theater. It’s silly, but smart.” -The Stages of MN
“One of Josef Evans’ delightfully goofy mash-up musicals.” -Talkin’ Broadway
“A perfect Minnesota summer night out!” -Broadway World
For more information about the original production, click here.
Maren Ward, France Roberts, Suzie Juul, Lux Mortenson, Anna Hashizume, Tom Reed.
LOG JAM: A Paul Bunyan Musical Spectacular
Book, music and lyrics by Josef Evans. Directed by Joel Sass. Produced by Open Eye Theatre at the Bakken Museum, May/June 2021.
Commissioned as a first attempt at bringing theater back post-COVID, this hit show launched a series of outdoor summer musicals that have become an Open Eye Theatre tradition. The “postmodern twist on one of Minnesota’s best-known folklore icons (St Paul Pioneer Press)” playfully subverts the legend of this surprisingly complicated hero. Cut down to human size through magical circumstances and living it up in retirement on a Florida beach, Paul and his now-sentient companion Babe the Blue Ox are enlisted to help in a quest to save their former northwoods home of Oakpine Falls from the icy clutches of an evil Swedish lumber baron.
Cast size: 8, with 2 puppeteers.
REVIEWS:
“A tuneful, goofy swing at a Minnesota folklore icon.” -Pioneer Press
“A delight… allowing us to relish the profound joy of being back among a live audience and feeling the electric charge of collective laughter and applause.” -Talkin’ Broadway
“A reminder of what I love about theater - talented artists doing something unique, creative, imaginative, silly, heart-warming and entertaining.” -Cherry and Spoon
For additional information about the original production, click here.
Emily Zimmer. Photo: Mark Vancleave.
CONSTANCE IN THE DARKNESS: A Musical in Miniature
Co-conceived with Michael Sommers. Book, music, and lyrics by Josef Evans. Directed by Annie Enneking. Produced by Open Eye Theatre, Feb/March 2018.
This intimate musical fantasia enjoyed a capacity run and three extensions with its affecting tale of an accomplished young astronomer struggling to navigate a complicated relationship with her aging mother. A surreal journey through the world of childhood fictions and memory, the show struck an emotional chord with audiences as it moved from heightened comedy to themes of personal reckoning.
CAST SIZE: 4 (1 young adult), 2 puppeteers.
REVIEWS:
“An inventive ride that just makes you giddy to be alive and experiencing such great art.” -Massed Gadgets of Hercules
“A poignant tale, as well as an adventure story… the emotional ending might just might knock a little bit of the stuffing out of your inner teddy bear.”-Pioneer Press
“The show is appropriate for kids around age 8 or 9 and up… It will challenge them, though, both with the solvable puzzle of Constance’s quest and with the unsolvable mystery of why a darkness falls over some lives sooner than others. It’s in that darkness, this moving production reminds us, that the stars come out.” -City Pages
(at left) Liz Howls. Photo: Mark Vancleave.
NOTHING IS SOMETHING
Co-conceived by Liz Howls and Noah Sommers-Haas. Script by Josef Evans. Directed by Joel Sass. Produced by Open Eye Theatre, Feb/March 2015.
“Nothing is Something,” a collectively devised and unusual piece performed almost entirely without text, follows a malnourished, indigent man (and his surprising new companion) on a bewildering and visually impressive mission to reclaim a precious and ever-elusive missing object. The show was honored with an Ivey Award for “overall artistic excellence.”
REVIEWS:
“Indescribable, in a good way… it never fails to fascinate.” -The Tangential
“If David Lynch made a children’s play… (Joel) Sass and playwright Josef Evans have crafted a fascinating commentary on the limitations of a stage production.” - Minnesota Playlist
“A sweet and thought-provoking piece of art.” -Aisle Say Twin Cities
HOME STREET HOME: MINNEAPOLIS
Written by the zAmya Theater Troupe and Josef Evans. Directed by Maren Ward. Presented by the Guthrie Theater as part of their 2016-17 season.
“Home Street Home: Minneapolis” was commissioned by the Minneapolis Downtown Council and developed over the course of a year via interviews with central city residents, visitors and workers. It depicted a series of interconnected vignettes that captured the highlights of those conversations. The show, like all of zAmya’s work, included post-show discussions with audiences that aimed at finding to solutions to homelessness in the community, and toured the area for a run preceding its presentation at the Guthrie.
Photo: Mark Vancleave.
STRUMPLY PETER: A TOY OPERA
Book by Michael Sommers and Josef Evans. Lyrics by Michael Sommers, Eric Jensen and Josef Evans. Music by Eric Jensen. Directed by Michael Sommers. Produced by Open Eye Theatre, Feb. and Sept. 2014.
This whimsical adaptation of Heinrich Hoffman’s “Struwwelpeter,” a series of cautionary 19th century tales for children, entranced audiences and critics for 2 runs at Open Eye and a showcase performance at the 2014 Chicago International Puppet Festival. The show featured a mix of Michael Sommers’ signature figure theater work and humorously macabre music, navigating a dreamlike world in which its children meet all manner of unfortunate ends for their mischievous behavior.
REVIEWS:
“A marvelous array of misbehavior…a lot of fun for anyone with an appreciation for twisted humor.” -Twin Cities Daily Planet
“A small scale original gem… a thoroughly subversive experience ostensibly for children but truly enjoyable for anyone in need of an extended meditation on naughtiness, and the general necessity of it.” -Minnesota Monthly
“A signature midwinter joy that will have you wishing you could let go, just for a few moments, and be as wild as a kid again.” -City Pages
Annie Enneking.
TO THE MOON
Co-conceived by Michael Sommers and Josef Evans. Written by Josef Evans. Directed by Michael Sommers. Produced by Open Eye Theatre, Feb/March 2013.
This metatheatrical melding of the Honeymooners, Medea and Arthur Miller imagines an alternate universe populated by an all-female cast of 1950s sitcom characters struggling to deal with the effects of a recent emotional cataclysm. Blending slapstick comedy and high tragedy, the show deconstructs and reconsiders the ramifications of toxic masculinity and the comedically handled violence of the play’s source material. It was selected as one of City Pages’ top ten shows of 2013.
REVIEWS:
“Sommers, Evans, and lead performer Maren Ward forge something special here, from the ghostly pair of shoes that cross the stage at the beginning to the final moments of Ward, alone onstage, quietly realizing the depths the character has reached.” -City Pages
“Sommers and Evans have torn the old TV classic apart and found a Greek tragedy in the entrails.” -Star Tribune
Jon Cole, Maren Ward. Photo: Brad Dahlgaard.
THE TURDUCKEN (adapted from Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’)
Book, music and lyrics by Josef Evans. Directed by Samantha Johns. Produced by Bedlam Theatre, Dec 2007, Dec 2008. Revised and remounted as “Hot Corn: A Holiday Cabaret” at In the Heart of the Beast Theater, 2019.
Created out of an artistic director’s challenge to make “the worst Christmas show ever,” this “caustic, brutally funny (City Pages)” sendup re-imagines Chekhov’s work as a holiday-themed dinner theater musical. The show follows an inept troupe of aspiring Renaissance Festival performers as their lives collapse under a soundtrack of forced yuletide cheer, and was presented as actual dinner theater in its original production. An article about the play was published in the academic journal Comparative Literature and Culture (Purdue University Press) in 2012, and can be downloaded here.
REVIEWS:
“There are more than a few brilliant moments in Bedlam Theatre’s production of The Turducken, the scrappy troupe’s send-up of dinner theater, holiday-themed shows and Chekhov’s The Seagull.” -Minnpost.com
“Turducken’s playwright is Josef Evans, who wrote the frantic and often hilarious Love in a Time of Rinderpest… his bleakly comic, raggedly agitated sensibility here finds another solid home.” -City Pages
“As a ‘new version’ of The Seagull, The Turducken succeeds in creating a contemporary and relevant travesty, while simultaneously paying respect to and opening up a timeless classic.” -Comparative Literature and Culture
Kimberly Richardson, Jon Cole.
LOVE IN A TIME OF RINDERPEST
Written and directed by Josef Evans. Self-produced at the 2006 Minnesota Fringe Festival, and remounted in Feb 2007 by Bedlam Theatre at the Guthrie Theater.
This fast-paced and nonsensically funny tale of rival high school forensics teams, Bruce Springsteen impersonators and a sentient, lovelorn cardboard box was the top-selling show at its 2006 Minnesota Fringe Festival venue, and was selected for a remount as part of the “Fringe Encore” series at the Guthrie Theater in 2007.
REVIEWS:
“It carries the spirit of the Fringe… a must see.” -Pioneer Press
“Josef Evans’ script and direction pull it all together, and it’s great.” -Star Tribune