Pioneer Press called it a "Must See" and "Utterly charming"! 

http://www.twincities.com/mustsee/ci_21236434/fringe-festival-pop-up-musical

And an MPR blogger said we are "REALLY COOL" too! 

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/state-of-the-arts/archive/2012/08/the-reviews-are-in-for-the-minnesota-fringe---part-two.shtml

TC Daily Planet found us to be "light and fun", good for the whole family:

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/blog/wendy-gennaula/pop-musical-2012-minnesota-fringe-festival?

In the style of VH1's Pop-Up Video series (and perhaps even a bit of Mystery Science Theatre 3000), four vocalists will present an energetic variety show of Broadway musical hits, interspersed with informative "pop ups" throughout each number.  As the cast delivers the songs with dramatic and vocal power, the audience will read some facts, trivia, random commentary and general amusements as presented on charming, low-tech and low-budget posters!   This cast really knows how to sell a song, too, and they are all members of the Twin Cities Cabaret Artists Network.  Expect gems like: "Give my Regards to Broadway" (love and kisses to NYC), "Luck Be a Lady" (...classy), "Edelweiss" (everyone loves The Sound of Music), and "Seasons of Love" (ooh! that one from Rent!), to name a few. Fans of musical theatre will love the new twist on their old favorites, and even those who believe musicals are cheesy or (gasp!) irritating will be entertained through the quality music and lighthearted nature of the pop ups. 

We are thrilled with the great responses and almost completely sold out our run. Thank you, audience, and thank you, Minnesota Fringe Festival! 

Cast + crew

Jennifer Eckes
Role: Soloist/ Pop Up Girl
Jennifer has been singing and performing professionally in the Twin Cities area for nearly two decades. In the theatre/stage realm, she has sung with many companies including Ordway Center, Minneapolis Musical Theatre, Minnesota Opera, Skylark Opera, Theatre Latte Da, Troupe America, Bloomington Civic Theatre, and Ashland Productions.

Jennifer holds a B.A. in vocal performance from Luther College, and has twice been a fellow of the Cabaret Conference at Yale University.

Jen's favorite Pop Up is "Chex Mix".

Judi Gronseth
Role: Soloist/ Pop Up Girl
Judi appeared most recently in the popular Church Basement Ladies trilogy. She played Penelope Pennywise in the Twin Cities non-equity premier of Urinetown. Judi also appeared opposite Sally Struthers in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, in The Sound of Music with Matthew Ashford, and with Joel Higgins in The Music Man.

She has performed with many local and regional companies such as the Ordway Center, Northstar Opera, Troupe America, Ashland Productions and Bloomington Civic Theatre. Judi is a 2003 fellow of the Cabaret Conference at Yale University.

Judi's favorite Pop Up is "Timm is older".

Kevin Werner Hohlstein
Role: Soloist/ Pop Up Boy
Kevin is a native of Lodi, Wisconsin, but has called Minneapolis/St. Paul home since 1995. Before moving to the Twin Cities, he completed a BA in Music at the University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire and was seen at Fanny Hill Dinner Theatre, Stout Lodge Players and the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center. Since moving to the Twin Cities, he has worked with Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, Ashland Productions; Jarvis Mundi Productions, Season’s Players, Cardinal Theatricals and The Minnesota Opera.

Kevin's likes the Pop Up, "Commando".

Timm Holmly
Role: Soloist/ Pop Up Boy
Timm has been performing professionally for 30+ years as a singer & actor. He has recorded two solo CD's, national & regional commercial jingles, performed in numerous musical theatre productions & has written, produced & performed his own cabaret shows. Timm has sung on the Minnesota Zephyr, as well as jazz at clubs & restaurants in the Cities.

"Dame Edna" is Timm's favorite Pop Up.

Write a review

You will be able to write a review for this show during the festival.

User reviews

Wonderful!
by Mark Long
Rating 5 stars
Such a great concept for a Fringe show, done SO well. Great voices, fun and moving songs. Kudos.

Fun Stuff
by Eilene Wisniewski
Rating 4 stars
Great tunes, great singing and some interesting facts and humor to boot!

Perfect for the Fringe and the space.

Encore!

Eilene

Pop Up Musical
by Martin Swaden
Rating 5 stars
Great show. The singing was first rate (especially Jen) and the pop ups were very funny. Very cute premise and the audience loved it.

Four singers having fun with signs
by Fringivitis Vulgaris
Rating 3 stars
Catchy B'way tunes are sung by a group that clearly enjoys singing with one another. The pop-ups are paper signs with facts, factoids, silliness, and occasional snarky opinions. Good fun, and a splendid Fringe palate cleanser.

Staying power
by Cato Brutus
Rating 4 stars
The comedy sort of tapers off at the mid point, but the musical performances get stronger as time goes on. Enjoyable from start to finish.

My Regards
by Eric Wentling
Rating 5 stars
The best show we have seen in the last two days, I wouldn't miss this one! They are in the tiny Experimental Theater in the basement of Rarig, and have been selling out, so pre-order tickets if you want to see them. Four vigorous and happy people sing their hearts out doing various famous show-tunes with the other's periodically holding up signs with info about the songs and singers. The cast really went for it. Simple, but great fun.

Pop Up Musical is a true pop up
by Larry Berle
Rating 5 stars
If you love Bdway musicals-- you will love this-- these singers are wonderful and with each show from the review they "pop up comments" to go with each song that are hilarious.. It only plays one more time-- don't miss it

Great Show
by Brent Berheim
Rating 4 stars
A fun evening of great songs performed by some great vocalists. I can't imagine how some of the performers could keep a straight face while some of the pop ups and laughter were going on!

Loved the fact that the show ended and you wanted more! Refreshing change from shows that you can't wait to end.

For Broadway Music Lovers
by Bradley Johnson
Rating 4 stars
If you love a good Broadway show tune, then you will enjoy this show. The pop-up notes are sometimes informational and many times witty fun. Cute show!

Loved it!
by Peg Sutherland
Rating 5 stars
Very well done. Clever, funny, and well-sung!

Poppin' Fresh!
by Patrick Pfundstein
Rating 4 stars
Four really good singers perform a revue of show tunes with paper versions of the old VH1 show Pop-up Video. Each of the cast gets their moments to show off impressive vocal talents and a nice collective chemistry. The “pop-ups” generally add to the fun (though occasionally they get in the way of enjoying the song). Pop-up is well deserving of its two sell-outs so far, though. (And they probably even deserve a third on their final day if you are in the area; you won’t regret it!)

Delightful Paradox
by Patricia Fox
Rating 5 stars
I hate musicals. I have only seen one of musicals this show draws from. I went with a friend who loves musicals and had seen all but one of the musicals this show draws from. I have seen the one musical she hadn't seen and yes, I hated it. I won't say which one BUT I will say this show delights musically and comically. It's an homage to the genre but a tongue-in-cheek one that will please everyone, even the haters!!

If you love Broadway, you'll love this!
by Valerie Stachour
Rating 4 stars
A fun romp through some of the most famous Broadway tunes of the last 50 or so years. Keeping in the spirit of Pop-Up Video, the pop-ups are a great mix of humor and information. I enjoyed learning a bit about the performers as well as the songs through the pop-ups.

Minus one star for a few technical issues. There were several times when the singers were fairly far off the backing track, and a couple of times when the performer mixed up the lyrics. If you're going to sing Broadway standards, you have to know all the words, because you can be sure many in your audience do. Also, sometimes the sound was swallowed up as the performers moved around the space.

Overall, a fun show that any Broadway enthusiast will enjoy.

Pop Up Musical
by Andy Burg
Rating 5 stars
I loved this show. The singing was surpassed only by the humor of the cards. If you have to see only one show, see this one.

Great Broadway music!
by Kelly Rosenthal
Rating 5 stars
Songs and singing were terrific. The pop ups were a funny bonus.

If you lurve Broadway...
by Annie Johnson
Rating 2 stars
The cast has wonderful voices -- but the sound in the space swallowed them up! The pop-ups were uneven - most seemed to require either a deep knowledge of Broadway or were jokes about the performers.

Simple idea--fabulous execution
by Arnold Roos
Rating 3 stars
What a fun show! I could round it up to at least 3 1/2 stars, were that possible. The pop-ups were always interesting, sometimes funny, sometimes (in the case of the ones during "Bring Him Home") poignant. My only (small) issue was with the backing tracks--they were a bit too loud, sometimes. This impacted the ensemble singing--I imagine the singers can't hear each other all that well. These are minor caveats--you'll enjoy this a lot. Great song choices, too! Great job!

Arnie Roos

For the musical geek in all of us
by Lisa Landreman
Rating 5 stars
If you love old musicals you will enjoy this show. If you grew up with VH1 pop up videos you will love the combination of the two in this show. If you don't like either, you still may enjoy this show for the sheer talent of the performers. I thoroughly enjoyed this show!

A terrific show!!
by Dean Elwell
Rating 5 stars
This show is smart and funny. If you are a fan of musical theater you will recognize the music, which is performed terrifically. But even if your not the fun of this show is infectious. The four performers love this stuff and seem to really like working together. This has been my favorite show so far this Fringe. Go now and get tickets. You will not be disappointed.

Don't Miss This Show
by Christopher Stordalen
Rating 5 stars
As someone who enjoyed the VH1 Pop Up Video in the 90s, I found this show such a clever extension of that idea - bringing it into the genre of the Broadway Songbook - that I wish VH1 would bring it back in this form.
The "pop ups" are a well-blended mixture of interesting factoid, hilarious self-efacement, and quirky "I didn't expect that pop up".
The musical journey is interesting and varied - covering the breadth of the Broadway corpus from classic to contemporary without one repetition of composer. So much great music to chose from and this team has chosen wisely!
Rated a "Must See" by the Pioneer Press, the four seasoned performers bring the popups and songs together in a well-choreographed product that entertains giggle to guffaw.

How Sweet ...
by Mark Mikula
Rating 5 stars
So ... you might think the introduction of cue cards throughout the presentation of a Broadway revue would diminish from the performance, but I really enjoyed nearly every aspect of this show. I would have liked a little more in the way of off-the-wall, tangential pop-ups, but it was sweet to get details about the original performances and the singers' lives through this device. In an ideal world, you'd have even more pop-ups, I would think, but with such a small cast it was a feat of derring-do just to include as many as they did. And all of the singers were very solid. It was such a great way to end our Fringe weekend with such a polished and inventive approach to part of the Broadway songbook.

Straightforward
by Publius McGee
Rating 4 stars
They advertised it as a bunch of showtunes with pop ups, and it was a bunch of showtunes with pop ups. The singing was great, though the songs were not always in range and the actors really needed to have mics to make up for their differing vocal strengths. The pop ups were cute, though too few, too bland, and at times too tiresomely personalized (if you don't want Kevin to sing sustained notes, how about not assigning him those songs?). Still, it was a cute, Fringey concept that was largely pulled off - a nice way to end the weekend.

Self-indulge much?
by Rick Treece
Rating 5 stars
But I forgive them, because they really are talented, and the premise (in which they upstage themselves and each other with captions that are at turns interesting, familiar and funnily irrelevant—like the results of an internet search) makes this revue of Broadway standards fresh and engaging.

So what I'm really saying is, can I be in the cast next year? I (used to) have a good voice, and I have plenty of physical flaws and (real or imaginary) personality quirks to make fun of. OMG, I sound hideous! But if you could do "Quintet" with 4 voices, I bet 5 of us could take on the Act I finale of "Les Miz"!

BTW, Bohème has a grave accent, not acute.

Loved this!!!
by Debbie Scheriff
Rating 5 stars
Smart, funny show with very talented performers! 'Red squiggly lines' were the best! You'll want to see this show for sure!

Broadway songs + laughs = brilliant idea
by Florence Brammer
Rating 5 stars
We made a last-minute change in our schedule to catch the 10 p.m. performance of this show, and we were so glad we did. Such a cute concept; whoever thought this up was inspired. I loved the song selection, loved the performances, and loved the pop-ups. I have a soft spot for Broadway show tunes, and these artists picked a really nice selection. The pop-ups ranged from informative to poignant to cheeky. A great end to a long weekend of Fringing.

Energetic and fun.
by Eric Salo
Rating 4 stars
As a child of the 80's I well remember the original Pop Up Video show. I also remember the avalanche of lame copycats that tried and failed to reproduce their humor. Fortunately this group manages to mostly nail it. Couple that with some strong singing and you've got a very entertaining show that really deserves a larger venue than the tiny Xperimental.

About the only suggestion I would make for change would be to restrict the pop-ups to facts and/or artwork; asides to the audience or to fellow performers don't work nearly as well. Fortunately these were in the minority.

The "West Side Story" medley was particularly well done.

Fun facts for Broadway songs
by Katherine Dugarm
Rating 3 stars
My favorite song (with popups) was Aquarius. The show was heavy on the Sondheim. Then again, who else is such a prolific composer.

I had a hard time hearing Timm. The others had twice the volume or twice the projecting. Otherwise, an enjoyable hour of show tunes with personable singers.

Give My Regards......!
by Mary Keepers
Rating 5 stars
Delightful! Refreshing! Smart! Entertaining! If you love show tunes....you'll love this one. On second thought, even if you despise show tunes....you'll love this one! Kudos to the cast!!

The hour flew by
by Diane Carter
Rating 5 stars
We made a last minute decision to go to this show and were so glad we did. Clever, creative, and well-sung by a talented and engaging cast whom I'd love to see in other productions.

Pop-Up Fun!
by Laura Zabel
Rating 5 stars
I loved this show! A really fun concept that is executed wonderfully. Just the right balance of great singing and laughs. Also, fast moving and super kid appropriate (my 6 year old loved it!)
My favorite pop-up=Annie wig!

Broadway Babies
by Beezy Poof
Rating 3 stars
The kick-back to VH1's "Pop Up Video" days was delightful. Man, I miss that show.

I was expecting, however, to learn a good deal of little-known facts about a number of Broadway's favorites, plus some seemingly random facts that connect to the lyrics and ideas of each song. Some of this happened, but it seemed like at least 50% (and that maybe generous) of the pop ups were facts about the performers. I don't know these performers. So while the cast pop ups were were funny to some, I was left a feeling a little cold. As a result, I found myself checking my watch half way through. The great concept wasn't able to carry the audience all the way through 60 minutes.

Performances were very well done, though. Kudos on those voices!

Great music, great laughs
by Renee Soppe
Rating 5 stars
Super fun concept, well executed by a strong cast of singers.

Great revue
by Delano DuGarm
Rating 5 stars
This is a charming, fun show, in a tiny venue, so you're up close to the very personable singers. The flip charts and signs give a sort of low-tech, "let's put on a show" aspect to something that is actually quite carefully timed and choreographed.

I could quibble about song choice (what, no Cole Porter?), but this is the sort of off-beat production I most enjoy at the Fringe.

Since the room is so small, make reservations or get there early.

Look what popped up!
by re gurgitate
Rating 3 stars
The idea of a pop up show, while dated, is certainly fresh for a presentation of classic musical songs. The levels of performance and energy varied from player to player, with Jen a standout in her rendition of "Tomorrow" from Annie. Possibly other songs didn't fit the players, but nothing else was impressive here.

Seconds Please!
by Kevin Leines
Rating 5 stars
Ever have that feeling that you just had the most enjoyable four course meal and couldn't eat one more thing? Well, Pop Up Musical offers a scrumptious and decadent feast of music theatre history, glorious melodies, sweet and salty tidbits of comedy and just the right amount of self indulgence that leaves the hungry asking for more!
Pop Up wigs and banter keep the entire space connected with these four until the finale.
Another course please!

Musical Theater Heaven
by Marvin Joel Rubin
Rating 5 stars
This quartet brought new life to the classic show tunes, we heard before, and know all the words.

The performers love the music and the fun they had making signs, to recognize VH1's practice of factoid bubbles on the screen, during music videos.

There are 525,600 ways to say go see this show.

A Revue with Hyperlinks--on paper!
by Chris Gennaula
Rating 4 stars
Engaging revue of Broadway songs with commentary on cue cards.

Yep
by Levi Weinhagen
Rating 5 stars
Thanks to all involved for the lovely songs plus funny and interesting pop up bits.

Music and Laughs
by Chris Kemp
Rating 5 stars
The music is non-stop and well sung by this talented quartet. When the West Side Story number needed 7 voices they rose to the challenge. They kept the audience engaged the full time. The pop-ups are funny and flow smoothly throughout. I would highly recommend this show if you like music and you like to laugh.

Definitely recommend!
by Elizabeth Stauffer
Rating 5 stars
Very cute concept of a show. Some of the hits of Broadway with fun facts and comedy thrown in. The 4 performers are very talented and keep the energy going throughout the show. The 45 minutes went by so quickly - I almost didn't want it to end. I'd definitely recommend seeing this at some point during the festival!

Loved it!
by Jeff Mauk
Rating 5 stars
Really clever show. Go see it!

Fun and entertaining!
by Christina Leines
Rating 5 stars
Get a reservation for Pop Up Musical, because it is going to sell out! The opening performance was a packed house. 4 talented vocalists and a hilarious concept keep the audience laughing and having a great time. Highly recommend!!

Rich & Hillarious
by Richard Heise
Rating 4 stars
The pop-ups in combination with the beautiful Broadway music made it a truly enjoyable treat. Better gert reservations for this one, it sold out it's opening performance

The great American musical! Times 20.
by Mariellen Jacobson
Rating 5 stars
Name a song from your favorite musical, and it probably appears in this show, along with hilarious “pop up” placards containing fun facts and snarky remarks about that musical or these performers or the famous performers in that musical over the years. Gosh, more that 20 shows must have been represented – Sound of Music, Rent, Annie, Les Mis, Hair, Wicked, West Side Story – you name it! Well-delivered with fine singing for the most part (although I'm guessing that some of the performers were accustomed to being mic'd). Unfortunately, the orchestral soundtracks overpowered the singers in places. Get there early – Friday’s performance was sold out.

Super fun romp!
by Lesli Randall
Rating 4 stars
This was a last minute add to my schedule, and boy, am I ever glad I found it! If the thought of Fringe singers makes you cringe, fear not! These four friends obviously love their music, and it was clear they had a great time putting the show together.

The pop-up cue cards were fresh, clever and witty, and included personal comments about the performers without taking themselves too seriously. Song choices were great, and their singing voices... ahh! These folks are passionate, professional, and hit every note from the rollicking to the sublime.

I'll be recommending this one to friends--don't miss it!

So fun!
by Heather Doffing
Rating 5 stars
This show was so fun to hear and read! Very cleverly done and performed. The singing and the pop-ups were fantastic. I was always excited to see what the next pop-up would say. A great way to spend an hour - hearing great songs and laughing at the same time. Great work to the whole cast!

For Showtune lovers!
by Turo Phile
Rating 5 stars
If you like show tunes and some of the cheesy nod nod wink wink that goes along with many of them, you'll love this show. I did.

The performers sing a series of Broadway show tunes old and new while holding up placards that may reference the song, a word in the song, something random, or a snarky comment about one of the other performers. It's based on the old VH-1 Pop-up videos.

There's a moving rendition of Bring Him Home from Les Mis, but apart from the close of that song the performers didn't take themselves to seriously.

The singers performed with energy and charisma. My only complaint was that one needed to project louder. THere were also a few flat notes, but they were rare and who cares. It was fun.

Fun! Well done.
by Mary Hoelscher
Rating 4 stars
The concept and production of this musical review is fantastic! The cast is spirited and expressive. It's funny, too.

Jen blew me away!

Don't expect all the numbers to be perfect, no cast of four could possibly carry /all/ of those tunes flawlessly.

Sold out on Friday night.