What I liked
Valerie (Natalie Swanner), Luke (Loic Suberville), and Eric (Jason Pollak)- this show’s golden trio (if you can forgive the nerdy reference). All three delivered believable emotionally grounded performances (not a guarantee in a musical) and excellent singing to boot.
Karen (un-credited on the page, and I seem to have misplaced by my program) the game store owner is a snarky blast, and could be a show unto herself that would be totally worth seeing, yet somehow fits perfectly in this one.
The dedicated ensemble – a show like this cannot run on the leads alone and the 10ish folks who make up the balance of the piece are working hard to fill out the experience for the audience.
And the music! It was fun poignant and effective. I left humming, which is pretty much what you want an audience to do. If only I could download the soundtrack….
What I didn't like
Basically you have 70% of three or four really good shows contained in this script. And I would hate to lose any of them. But the show is long as it is and I’m not sure any of the arcs are fully satisfying in the current iteration (though some are close). One option would be to cut out one or two threads and take half that time for the remaining plots, giving you a slimmer more focused show. On the other hand, I could see things working quite well as a filmed miniseries, where the stories can breathe a little more over the course of ten or so episodes running two to three times the total length without being constrained by the live run-time.
A better balance of music to voice (in places). The ensemble numbers were fine across the board. Even trios and things carried well. But a number of solos, particularly when the actor was further upstage, turned partially upstage, or for some other reason, were swamped by the music. I spent chunks of the show concentrating really hard to make out what was being sung, and at one point laughed very loudly at a punchline I think only I heard.
My overall impression
Fun show, some really nice performances, and a perfect piece to workshop here at Fringe!
