Soup to Nuts 08/10/2011 2:04pm

First a quick heads-up. Through August 15, all traffic lights in the West Bank area will be replaced by monkeys wearing different colored hats. Adjust your travel plans accordingly. It was a terrifying night of Fringe going. I saw Hamluke in the Arena. There were moments when the confluence of Mark Hamill, Clarence Wethern and Hamlet were just about perfect. And many excellent moments, often from Lindsay Marcy. And I'm very enthusiastic about any production that dresses children up in costumes that restrict their vision and then makes them toddle about. But there were other moments when the cobbling together of Star Wars and Hamlet got a little shaky. And the crowd! My God, the crowd! They roared with pleasure from beginning to end, but I felt as if they could turn at any moment. If, say, Polonius/Yoda had veered any farther from Yoda and more toward Polonius, the crowd might have swarmed the stage and feasted on Mike Rylander's flesh. The situation was reversed at Buckets and Tap Shoes. I enjoyed this show very much. Which is good, because I got the feeling that if I didn't enjoy it enough, the performers would find me slouching in my seat and beat me up in a dynamic, perhaps syncopated manner. I bet a full crowd on a Saturday afternoon would be a real party. But at ten o'clock on a Tuesday night, it was half a house, many of us elderly and I, at least, a little worn out. The guys on stage kept shouting at us to see if we were all right, "How ya doin', Minneapolis?" and after the fourth or fifth time, it got a little threatening. Still, this is a great show and if they had decided to beat me up I would have totally deserved it. FOOD FRINGE! I went to Moto-i for trivia night. I had to pay Joseph Scrimshaw five bucks to let me hang out with him. I should have picked someone smarter because we lost really hard. From what I could see, Fringers were happy with the accommodations and service and Moto-i was happy with the Fringers. So, that's good, right? All is forgiven? Here are some Star Wars cakes.