By Aiden Sims*
Cincinnati Fringe 2025 is a bright spot that shines through a rainy Friday. I was fortunate to catch a few returning acts and two newcomers to our summer theatre party, amid prepping my own show, Yes anD&D!
It truly is the most wonderful time of the year! Here are my first 4 reviews of 4 great shows–in no particular order.
1 Gay Wedding and Absolutely No Funerals
From Ben & Justin Present, the production team that brought us the Gay Spelling Bee and Waiting for Laura in 2024, this staged sitcom is a hilarious ensemble piece. For those who remember this now dated reference or its revival in the 2010s, 1 Gay Wedding… feels like the theatrical sister of Will & Grace complete with fuzzy décor and endearing, but awful people making questionable choices to uproarious effect.
Charlie and Ryan spend the eve of their nuptials together and awake to find their Maid of Honor dead on the bathroom floor. Time to summon the authorities, right? Wrong, she’s “doing this for attention!” says Ryan before the couple concoct an elaborate plan to “discover” her dead AFTER their big day and proceed to fumble that plan in the most farcical way. With impeccable timing, especially from leads Ben Miller-Jones (Charlie) and Justin King (Ryan), and plenty of delightfully gay quips (some notably delivered by Tashauna Ajoi Jenkins as Kate the Wedding Planner) this show will have you crying with laughter while casting a bit of side-eye.
OVERALL: Not your momma’s gallows humor
Tea TIME
“This might seem silly to you, but it matters to me” Erika MacDonald declares as she engages in a truly powerful and mesmerizing tea-making ritual in this story-telling piece. She captivates as she steeps metaphors about living with mental illness into each sweet-smelling cup of tea brewed, and offers the audience reflections on her life that are as comforting and bold as the tea she makes.
A Fringe veteran with her most recent appearance in 2022’s The Barn Identity, Erika deftly blends story craft and audience participation while inviting us to explore the meaning of time, presence, silence, nothingness, and feeling; giving voice to emotions as hard to contain and define as steam itself. She even challenges the saying “a watched pot never boils“ as you find yourself the willing substitute whistle for her steaming pot. Albeit silly in the most unapologetically human and relatable way, Tea TIME will matter to you, too!
OVERALL: A tea party for your soul
A Cabaret of Legends
No projector, no problem for the diva, Tymisha Harris, mostly one-womaning this star-studded musical review. Independent of projector assistance, but well-supported by collaborator Michael Marinaccio (and venue tech Morgan Abercrombie), Tymisha is the embodiment of poise and stage-presence with a voice and ease that rivals the legends whose stories she shares.
From Ella Fitzgerald to Beyonce, A Cabaret of Legends is a holistic celebration of the black women who have helped shape American culture that refuses to gloss over the hindrances and traumas they encountered on the rise to stardom. Featuring some of the most technically and emotionally challenging songs in the canon of music, Tymisha shifts from Strange Fruit by Lady Day to Dolly Parton’s version of I Will Always Love You infused with Whitney Houston’s inflections, in costumes that will leave you spell-bound. This show is definitely a must-see!
OVERALL: A musical showcase of black resilience
Eleanor’s Story: Life After War
Ingrid Garner returns with the next chapter of her grandmother, Eleanor’s, story about coming of age during the turmoil of World War II in Berlin. This time she’s coming home to America, but it is far from the end of her ordeal. Picking up right after Eleanor’s Story: An American Girl In Hitler’s Germany (Cincy Fringe 2024), a letter arrives from the American Consulate granting her family leave to return to home, but without her mother who is of German heritage. Eleanor must now reconcile with leaving her mother and two youngest siblings in Berlin, as well as the life she’s known for the past seven years, and acclimate as a teenager to an America mostly spared the horrors of the second World War.
Ingrid portrays each person in her grandmother’s story with an artful specificity, and the light shifts between the “glow of America” and dark uncertainty of war-torn Germany help contrast her experience. “How accustomed I’ve become to the presence of death” reverberates throughout time and seems to serve as a warning.
OVERALL: A well-told, relevant war-story
Tickets to Cincinnati Fringe
You can get tickets to the Cincinnati Fringe HERE. You can buy individual tickets, a 5-show Flex Pass or an All Access Pass. Some shows have sold out–so it is best to reserve in advance!
*LCT welcomes Aiden to our team of Fringe Reviewers! Aiden is a graduate of the School for Creative and Performing Arts with a background in visual arts and theatre. She was a recipient of the Corbett-Mayerson Award for Drama and the Billy Shukas Award for Technical Theatre. Acting/Stage Managing in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area is how she spends her free time. She has a degree in Computer Network Engineering, and is also proud to have been a Girl Scout.
Fringe Reviews
Find all of the LCT Fringe Reviews from Alan, Aiden, Ella, Kat, Liz and Shawn in this EASY TO READ GRID.
