This show is not so much a performance as an interactive workshop. Mathews plays killer piano, and she did a (dare I say it?) miraculous job of turning a dozen or so hardy souls into a gospel choir. At one point, she instructed the three men in the group to “Give it an Usher-Michael Bublé sound,” and to my stark amazement, they did. Drummer Ricky Fishley, too, was always on hand for a wonderful solo or a rim shot when Mathews made a particularly silly joke.

Last night, 23 Fringe groups converged on a makeshift stage in the backroom of RFD’s for the fourth annual Fringe Previews. (Video, methinks, forthcoming.) The beer was abundant, the crowd somewhat rowdier and less attentive than last year’s, and the performances less…well, performative than declarative. That is to say: it was a lot more tell [...]