Puppeteers For Fears presents Cthulhu the Musical! at Turf Club, St Paul (13 Jun 2024)
Cthulhu the Musical! Setlist
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Tour Dates
- June 15: Madison, WI…The Bur Oak
- June 16: Milwaukee, WI…Shank Hall
- June 18: Chicago, IL…City Winery
- June 19: Indianapolis, IN…Irving Theater
- June 20: Westland, MI…The Token Lounge
- June 23: Pittsburgh, PA…Crafthouse
- June 24: Buffalo, NY…Buffalo Iron Works
- June 26: Concord, NH…Capitol Center for the Arts
- June 27: Providence, RI…Fete Music Hall
- June 28: Lowell, MA…Taffeta
- July 1: Brooklyn, NY…The Meadows
- July 2: Asbury Park, NJ…House of Independents
- July 3: Richmond, VA…Canal Club
- July 5: Raleigh, NC…King’s
- July 6: Greenville, SC…Radio Room
- July 7: Charleston, SC…Music Farm
- July 9: Atlanta, GA…Smith’s Olde Bar
- July 10: Nashville, TN…City Winery
- July 11: Louisville, KY…Zanzabar
- July 13: Knoxville, TN…Open Chord
- July 15: Kansas City, MO…Record Bar
- July 16: St. Louis, MO…City Winery
- July 18: Denver, CO…Meow Wolf
- July 20: Salt Lake City, UT…Urban Lounge
With the exception of the pre-recorded videos shown in the background (multimedia backgrounds from Production Designer, Aubry Hollingshead), the entire performance was acted and performed live by the puppeteers: Forest Gilpin (Detective LaGrasse), Alex Giorgi (Burt and Cthulhu), Hunter Prutch (Captain Collins/Henry Wilcox), Alyssa Mathews (Francine Thurston), and Owen Webb (Jenkins/George Angell). The live music was created live by a band (guitarist Josh Gross, bassist Jen Scaffidi, and drummer Anthony Combest) behind the screen on the Turf Club’s stage.
Before the two plus hour show (plus a 15 20-min intermission), Blunderbusst (the bassist from the live backing band), opened the show with a brief under 25-min set.
Normally Blunderbusst is a trio from Nevada, featuring Jen Scaffidi, Carolyn Gates, and Carson Cessna, but for this show, it’s just Jen, playing songs behind the Puppet Theater. Some songs on the set included title track from the new album Monarch of the Mountain, “Jim Croce Goes to Lilith Fair”, and “The Last of the Bakersfields.”
Before the show, the show creator and art director Josh Gross came on the stage to give a brief introduction. Although the show has fun puppets, this is not a kids show. He also mentioned that this was the troupe’s first show in Minnesota, so they had to make time to stop by “The Biggest Ball Of Twine in Minnesota”, to satisfied his inner Weird Al self.
It’s been a long time since I read H.P. Lovecraft (his entire work is public domain, so you can pick up a book for a song), and I can tell you that “Call of Cthulhu” story isn’t that exciting. However, it does introduce us to the sleeping elder god and have become a horror icon.
Burt, the multi-eyed demon, narrates the puppet show. He explains to the audience about Cthulhu and the cast of characters, starting off with Detective John LaGrasse trying to solve a murder by interviewing professor Francine Thurston.
From there, we get madness, we get flashbacks within flashbacks, and we’re introduced to Captain Collins and his shipmate (in the later part of the story), who takes them to an island… where they see “the door.”
Once the door was opened, the titular character appears to bring on the end of the world. After waiting two hours, we’re finally treated to the great Cthulhu and all his tentacles. It was well worth wait.
The end of the show had all the puppets singing “Happy Ending in Quotes”, a song that would later turn into a parody of Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville”. For example, their parody lyrics: “Wastin’ away again in Cthuluville, looking for my lost island of God. Some people say that the old ones are to blame… but I know it’s my own damn fault.”
Anyway, as the cast stands up to showcase their puppets, you can imagine that all the actors are crawling around under the theater screen (all while holding and operating an oversized puppet on one of their hands). I’m actually not entirely sure how they were able to hide all those actors behind the puppet table… especially because the Turf Club’s stage is not that big.
Although this was the troupe’s first Minnesota appearance, based on the sold-out event and strong feedback from the audience, I get the feeling that it won’t be long before we see the Puppeteers for Fears again.
