Friends and Neighbors

With so many movies or other properties being adapted to the stage these days, it’s tough to be surprised by a new stage production. But when I saw my Alma Mater the University of Minnesota Morris was staging a musical adaptation of The Terminator, my interest was piqued, especially because the production wasn’t a fair use ripoff, but an officially licensed adaptation of the property.

This is unmistakably a college production, but I don’t necessarily consider that a reason to hold it to different standards. You can find excellent theatre in colleges and Universities all of the time… for instance, the University of Minnesota Duluth’s 2024 production of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 was one of the most impactful theatre experiences I’ve had from the last few years. The Terminator: the Musical doesn’t have nearly that same level of ambition, and even on its own level the execution has definite issues, but there’s enough talent on display here that the average audience member will almost certainly have a good time.

The show, written by Brianna Beitz with music by Beitz and Mars Wright, is a lighthearted comedy based on the first two films in the franchise. It follows the story pretty closely, with the T-800 (Olivia Emmrich) and Kyle Reese (Emily Frost) both arriving in 1984 from the future to find Sarah Connor (Nona Harrison). Emmrich and Frost make the strongest impressions early on, but right away we also encounter some issues – the actors’ voices don’t carry very well. The show (produced in the Midwest for the first time after a number of productions in Beitz’s native Texas) was directed by Lucas Granholm in a Black Box setting, so maybe the thought was that an intimate staging would mitigate the need for projection and/or microphones, but that is not the case. The actors are certainly game for the show’s comedy (Olivia Emmrich especially), but musically I often had to strain to catch all of the lyrics. The songs themselves are amusing from the start – a favorite from the first act was a doo-wop number from the murdered Sarah Connors – but it wasn’t until we get a duet between Frost’s Kyle Reese and Harrson’s Sarah Connor that they really allow the audience to engage with the characters. Like the first movie, the connection between Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor is the heart of the story, and the actors share good chemistry that shows through the show’s sillier elements, such as their love duet’s chorus being “Let’s do it!”.
The whole show is very self-consciously silly, a tone that a lot of musical parodies carry and one that I think directors can’t always manage properly. There seems to be a sense that the inherent silliness on display will bring laughs on its own, but even a show as broad as this requires a steady directorial hand to keep the energy up. Granholm handles the technical elements well – Mikayli Marciulionis and Carter Voorde’s contributions as lighting designer and technical director are first-rate – but he’s not always able to get the energy needed from his cast.
Not in the first act, anyway. The second act is a significant improvement (the second movie was better than the first, so maybe it comes with the material) thanks in large part to the performance from Parker Stach as the T-1000. He brings great  energy, physical comedy, and most significantly, consistently vocal projection to the role. The show gets a jolt of electricity whenever he’s on stage. Ayden Hilleren as John Connor is also giving an appealing performance, and they make an appealing duo with Emmrich, especially in their “A Boy and his Robot” duet. Nona Harrison also comes into her own in her performance as Sarah Connor in the second act. She brings an enhanced self-assuredness that shows through in her scenes with John and the T-800, and when she puts on sunglasses and sings a solo about her hatred of Skynet, she really looks and feels like Linda Hamilton.
The actors, even when they don’t have the best vocal projection, still carry the material well, even when the script itself is lacking. Olivia Emmrich shows great comic instincts whenever she’s onstage and as the psychiatrist Al Lighthizer makes the most of all his scenes, even though his character saddled with a recurring fart joke that flat-out does not work. The best parts of these performances are the earnest ones, and future productions of this show would do well to remember that. Simply having goofy and fun material and impressive lighting and propse aren’t enough. Thankfully, Lucas Granholm’s cast is able to bring the heart necessary to make this musical about killer robots come to life.

TERMINATOR: THE MUSICAL runs at the George C. Forgave Black Box theatre at the University of Minnesota Morris through November 8