What I liked
For a Fringe show, the story is strong, and the music is entertaining (although a bit operatic, which isn’t a surprise given the performance and the background of the author). The staging is cleverly realized, and the performances strong.What I didn't like
But if the show is intended for a longer life, it needs to figure out what it wants to be — and needs some dramaturgy. Right now, the show is a little bit campy and a bit serious. A bit operetta and opera, as it were. But that doesn’t work. If it is to be a serious opera — which the music sometimes seems to want — it needs to embrace the operatic tropes. If the push is for the humor and the Gilbert and Sullivan style, it needs to embrace that. It needs to up the tempo and the playfulness. It needs to play to the camp, so to speak.
But the show also needs some dramaturgy. When looking at the main characters — Chance and Hope — a simple question is: do they change from the beginning of the play to the end? I didn’t see a strong change. Circumstances happened around them, but they never really changed or grew or transformed in any way. The people around them needs to serve as the catalyst — humorous or not — for that change. Were they? Yes, there was a revelation that subverted the fight and provided the backstory; however, that revelation was deus ex machina, defined by Wikipedia as “a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and seemingly unlikely occurrence, typically so much as to seem contrived.” Yes, that happens in Gilbert and Sullivan, but it is also typically foreshadowed (and it today’s modern musicals, is terribly old-fashioned).
There are some other characterizations, beyond the fact that the well-touted redhead is brunette. In the ensemble, Francine’s character keeps making asides about how essentially she doesn’t want to be there. But these asides come out of nowhere — and more importantly, they lead nowhere. The behavior of that character, which separates her from the other ensemble girls, is seemingly for no purpose.
My overall impression
Full writeup at https://cahighways.org/wordpress/?p=15387
It was a great Fringe show, and would have been a perfect headliner at the Tumbleweed Festival, a “wild-west” equivalent of the Renaissance Faire. However, the show was not ready for prime time — “prime time” being the traditional Opera or Operetta stage. For that, it needs some work and to decide what it wants to be when it grows up. But as a Fringe show, it was strong. this is Fringe. It is rare that a show is fully realized at Fring — especially a new show, as opposed to a Fringe presentation of an established play or musical. When looking at this as a Fringe show: it is executed well, has fun songs, loads of humor, and quite fun to watch. There’s lots of laughter. That’s really all you can ask for in a Fringe show: a safe and fun ride without a train wreck. This clearly meets that goal, which explains the sold-out run.
