What I liked
The caliber of performers that Four Clowns seems to gather is always of the highest quality and this show is no exception. I loved how much the clowns towed the line of instability that comes, by nature, with audience interaction/participation, yet never gave us the sense that they couldn’t handle ANYTHING the audience gave them (particular kudos to the villainous Tommy Fleming and the naive Turner Frankosky). This also can be credited to DeSoto as a director. There is great benefit to casting talented performers and then letting them do what they do best. It’s also clear that Joe DeSoto understands funny particularly when it comes to overall story structure (I won’t give anything away but the choice made with the hero of this story is absolutely brilliant).
Things I liked Lightning speed round: The Stamps (my god the stamps), The aforementioned song, Western Melodrama tropes, Mama Benji, Live music, Sleeve Broomsticks, the old western gunslinging duel, and of course the omniscient Harim Sanchez.
What I didn't like
As I mentioned above, the performers were all excellent, and because of that I would’ve loved to see the ladies utilized more (Particularly Liz Morgan.)
My overall impression
Okay, I was hoping that the titular song would be out of my head by the time I wrote this review, but seeing as it’s been over a week since I’ve seen the show and I’m still humming along, looks like I’ll have to give up on that idea. (curse you clowns)
It is so nice to see that Four Clowns have made their return to Fringe, this time with the very funny Joe DeSoto at the helm. This show did not disappoint. I had a BLAST from beginning to end. The thing that Four Clowns does so well is create such a deep relationship and experience with and for their audience. This group of performers connected with their audience in the very first moment and kept with us til the end. To me this is what made this production, and Four Clowns, so successful. The audience was a player in this crazy western. This made the good jokes better, and the great jokes unstoppable.
y’all are a bunch of idiots and I’m here for it
