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It was another good year for the Minnesota Fringe Festival, a 10- day whirlwind of theater, dance, spoken word, visual art and storytelling that ended Sunday in Minneapolis. The festival, which began its second decade this year, reported Tuesday that 43,836 tickets were sold to 900 live performances and that attendance for all facets of the event totaled 47,061, an increase of 15.3 percent from last year.
Musicals, solo shows and dance helped drive the higher numbers, according to executive director Leah Cooper. Storyteller Kevin Kling's "Whoppers" was the No. 1 festival attraction, drawing 1,295 people to the spacious Woman's Club auditorium. "Seussical, the Musical," produced by Front Porch Theatre, was second with 966, also benefiting from a large venue - Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre.
Cooper noted a widening gap this year "between the rich and the poor." More performances than ever, 41, sold out, and seven shows reached at least 98 percent capacity, led by "Assassins by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman," which played to 104 percent capacity...