Ive just seen possibly the greatest thing I have ever seen in my life. Even greater then when I saw an old guy face plant on the cement in South Florida; so you know I am not joking when I talk about the relative goodness of what I have just witnessed.

Im actually surprised by the amount of South Park fans I know who have never heard of the little gem known as Cannibal! The Musical which was truth be told their first movie. For those that dont know its based on the true story of Alfred Packer who was the only person in U.S. History convicted of cannibalism, and its a musical. This is a cant lose hit my friends! The only thing better than cannibalism is singing about cannibalism. I highly recommend you all go add it to your Netflix lists now.

But dear readers if you happen to live within in a 50 mile radius of Minneapolis/St. Paul I would urge you instead to go see the Mechanical Divisions stage production of this flesh chewing classic.

I will go out on a limb here and just say it its better than the movie. God love Matt and Trey for their collective comic genius, but they're not trained singers and their budget didnt alot for very good actors at times either. The Mechanical Division on the other hand had some great acting everything was perfectly cast and each and every one of them could really belt it out there.

Alfred Packer was perfectly portrayed as just an innocent big sweetie. No wonder Polly couldnt resist his sweet charm.

Each of the miners was hilarious and their timing was spot on. They each had their characters down pat. The tap solo of Swan in the Lets Build a Snowman number was gut-bustingly funny.

Of course the great show stealers were the trappers. This Frenchy blew the movie Frenchy out of the water. The slightly swishy trapper and the dumb trapper took them to a level that was missing in the movie. In fact everything about the play really pushed the envelope of the jokes in the movie. The actors obviously threw themselves into their roles, into the singing, the dancing everything.

The grand finale of Hang the Bastard was everything you would hope for. Complete with the whole cast in Rockette formation and jazz hands abounded. You couldnt help but want to leap up and yell Hang the bastard too!

I think the theater critic for the Pioneer Press said it best, If you didnt like Cannibal! The Musical youre wrong.

Thursday is Costume Night if you dress like any Trey Parker character from a movie you get two dollars off admission (which is stupid cheap anyway).

Theres also Gluttonous Sundays. If the show sells out, the entire audience gets FREE CONCESSIONS!

Thursday through Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 7. GO! GO! GO NOW! Well ok, not now cuz its Monday but GO! Its quality stuff and we all need to support local theater. Go!

If I could I would buy you all DVD copies of this production its THAT GOOD! As it is I am just dragging everyone I know to the Friday night show. Who wants in?


All shows at 4th Street Theater
in St. Paul