My overall impression
The first show I caught at the Fringe this year, and it’s set the bar so high, it’s hard to see how it’s going to be topped. Randy Noojin’s recreation of a Woody Guthrie singing, joking and storytelling to a mine worker’s union meeting is a first-class achievement in character acting and folk musicianship. It’s easy to see that the performer has spent years touring and perfecting this act, which of course fits the material of the hard-traveling man of the people bringing his message to what we’d call the “99%” today. Noojin’s Guthrie is polished, but in the best way. He comes across authentic, textured and alive, and the performer/musician’s hard, strong voice and skilled, rich guitar accompaniment put the songs across—the standards I knew and the many I was hearing for the first time—like somebody putting their hand on your shoulder and giving you a friendly but firm shake.
