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God Save the Sodomites (A)

The funniest thing I’ve seen all Fringe, Aliyah Bourgeault and Emmet Logue’s whip smart comedy is about two angels who convince God to let them try to find enough good people in Sodom to prove it’s worth saving. Bourgeault and Logue are sharp and detailed performers who work quickly on their feet as the play combines scripted scenes with a very fun improv device using information from previous audiences (you’ll also get a chance to leave your mark for future Sodomites). A fabulous re-contextualization of the story of Lot and his wife.

 

110% Wizard (A)

I’ve seen Keith Brown at a whole lot of Fringes. I pretty much always put him on my schedule because his floor is really high. At his absolute worst, he’s charming and fun and does non-annoying magic that doesn’t rely too much on fancy gadgets and straight up lying (I once had a mentalist tell the audience my index card said something other than what it said and I’ve never gotten over it). This is my favourite show I’ve seen from Brown. Working regularly on cruise ships has upped his game a bit, adding smoothness, assertiveness, and pace to his work (he’ll let you opt out of participating but he’s not going to wait for volunteers, a pro move). But, back in a Fringe environment, he’s put the storytelling back into his performance (he tells us he had to take most of it out to match the cruise ship style). It’s the blend of polish and accessibility that makes Keith Brown Keith Brown so this show feels like the best of both versions of him. 110% Wizard has some impressive magic in it but it’s as much a storytelling show as a magic show, maybe even more so. His stories are well structured, memorable, at times even emotional, and tie together an overall narrative as Brown’s career evolves. He’s a whole new performer, but at the Fringe he’s come back home to himself.

 

Unsung: The Accidental Villains of History (B+)

This solid new musical features a great ensemble with great voices. Careful not to tread into any tragedies big or recent enough to cut into the fun, creator Mackenzie Langdon walks a careful line inventing fictional bad guys behind famous events. The character-based numbers that make up the majority of the show are mostly pretty strong (though the Niagara Falls scene doesn’t quite fit with the others) so the finale song’s recap doesn’t feel necessary with just an hour’s runtime. Pretty strictly goofy in tone, the show doesn’t seem interested in the themes of who is remembered or how our mistakes shape our lives. There’s lots of room for expansion here but not without straying into slightly heavier territory.

 

Songs For Moby Dick (B-)

An original opera composed by and performed with beautiful technique and gravitas by Peter Thompson, Songs for Moby Dick is a very grown up Fringe piece. Very simply staged by director Adam Paolozza with fast-moving lyrics the details of which are a little challenging to grasp on first pass, audiences may be lulled into a bit of daze. A tad more visual interest could help keep the audience engaged with Melville’s complex story.

 

Every Fringe Show You’ve Ever Seen All At Once (B-)

I really like the concept of this sketch show but the actual performance doesn’t really follow the premise. There are a bunch of mentions of the Fringe and the occasional nod at the kind of work you tend to find here but anyone who Fringes hard could give you a long list of tropes and very few of them are sent up with real precision. There are a few standout sketches and the callback structure really works (actually, the Everything Everywhere All At Once reference in the title probably comes through more clearly than the Fringe stuff) but I wanted more Fringe in a show about the Fringe.

 

Short King (C+)

This kids play that’s for some reason not part of KidsFest (and is therefore apparently attracting far fewer kids than the performer was hoping for) opens with one of the most moving sequences I’ve seen all festival. Telling the allegorical story of the loss of his beloved dog, Gordon Neill beautifully crafts a shadow puppet sequence that hit me like the first ten minutes of Up. A similarly affecting sequence happens again near the end. And, in between, we visit a fart bog, make audience participation horse sounds, and listen to a Hamilton sendup called “Alexander Fart”. I suppose if the target audience really is just little boys, maybe the fartiness is a feature not a bug but, oof, is it hard to sit through as an adult woman. The audience at the performance I attended was particularly… let’s go with “engaged”, so the show went off the rails really fast when their interference messed with Neill’s flow. It’s a weird show that’s a heartfelt rumination on grief and also a whole bunch of dumb distraction that doesn’t tie in as clearly as I’m sure was hoped into the idea that grief and silliness can coexist.