My overall impression
Jim Blanchette and Jacob Smith write a fabulous script. They bring to the stage the lunacy behind any theater festival, and do it without apology, and without a filter. With any festival comes its own set of commonalities, even common eccentricities, and The Best of Albuquerque Fringe 2025 joyfully thrashes every aspect of the Indie theater festival experience. It’s not an Oscar-nod adaptation of a Fringe Festival…it’s a FARCE of a Fringe Festival. In other words, it’s She’s The Man, NOT Ten Things I Hate About You.
There are a LOT of laughs in this show. The cast throw themselves into every character (of which there are dozens) and every joke (of which there are hundreds). It’s an ambitious parody, cutting down equally all sorts of Fringe culture: one-man shows, international shows, the awards show itself, traditional Shakespearean drama, musical renditions of popular trend books & movies, you name it. The writing and direction is FAST and if you blink you may miss a dozen or so laughs, so pay attention!
All in all, I’m a fan of parody as art. I’m even more of a fan of meta stuff. This is a parody of theatre in the form of meta. I gotta say I’m a fan.
