Review by anonymous
June 14, 2013My overall impression
Not all of it is my thing but rock musicals aren’t really my thing anyway. You don’t get a lot of the story because this is more of a musical revue that uses The Time Machine characters and broad plot points as a springboard to take the audience on a musical trip through time, hitting lots of musical genres and styles from decades past – lots of 60s, some touching on disco, 80s power ballad, and even hip hop. Imagine: rapping Morlocks. It’s a weird, trippy moment that ended up being one of my favorites.
A lot of these songs really stick with you afterwards which I think is a testament not only to the talent of the composer but also to the ensemble that performed them. A lot of their solo sung lines get a bit swallowed, or drowned out by the live band or the (too) loud backing track, but as a chorus, they are tremendous. I liked best the upbeat numbers – “Don’t Say a Word,” “Figured It Out” – but the epic “Time In the Universe” (the theme song, I guess, for the Eloi uprising) keeps running through my head.
Some of this show is a bit musical theatery and has a bit of soft-shoe and cute choreography that provides some levity and comic relief to the otherwise somewhat heavy story (the time traveler is an alcoholic, there’s a heartbreak/breakup, the future people are being eaten for breakfast by underground monsters, etc.), but overall it’s a bit more like “The Time Machine: In Concert.” Which is OK, because it’s the Fringe, and hey, why not?
