For Mother and May

April 28, 1999.By Kathy Graves, Southwest Journal.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, Theater Latté Da is reviving its hit show, “Oh Shit, I’m Turning Into My Mother,” which played to sold-out houses last year at the Loring Playhouse. Despite its title, Peter Rothstein, artistic director of the company, says, “The show really is endearing. It’s outrageous, yes, but it’s an affectionate reflection on motherhood.”

A year ago, Rothstein was searching for a theme to unify the eclectic ideas and songs roaming around in his head when he happened upon his inspiration: a refrigerator magnet. Needing no further cue, he created a shoe with original material by Tod Petersen, Bridget Carpenter and Rob Hartmann, and with music ranging from Reba McEntire to Mama Cass to favorite lullabies. Rothstein says the lead performer, Tod Petersen, uses a Lily Tomlin technique, moving freely between characters in his reflections on maternal themes.

In March, Rothstein took the show to New York to the Duplex Cabaret Theater, the place where “Nunsense” got its start. A rave review in “Time Out Magazine” led to two extensions, but Rothstein said he was committed to bringing the show back to Minneapolis for an opening close to Mother’s Day. This time around, he will stage the show at the Acadia Café, at the corner of Franklin and Nicollet.

“The show originally previewed in a living room so I wanted a venue like that. This space works beautifully.”

Rothstein says one fun aspect of “Oh Shit, I’m Turning Into My Mother” is that is draws non-traditional audiences for his troupe. “Usually we have a pretty urban, Uptown kind of audience. But we found with this show we had groups of moms from the suburbs coming.”

And did they like it? “Oh yeah,” says Rothstein. “My own mother has seen it six times and she’s 75. She loves it. She just says ‘I wish you would change the title!’”

Tickets to the show, running April 30 through May a23 are available by calling 337-6MOM.