Thursday Adventures - Fringe 2024 - Mass Debating and Weird Al Karaoke!

Mass Debating - brought to the Fringe by 100% More Girls (the unification of Whizgiggling and Guys in Disguise) this was a really cute and funny musical about a junior high debate competition between an all girls school and an all boys school. Set in past (1970s?) there are many moments highlighting the expectations for girls vs. boys in the competition and in the world as a whole. In this production, the women play the boys, and the men play the girls.  It was very smart to choose junior high as there is perhaps the biggest gap in maturity between grade 7s, 8s and 9s than in high school grades and the show uses those differences to show us the internal and external relationships of the competitors with themselves. It's got the flavour and feel of Putnam County Spelling Bee and I think it could actually be something like that with a little expansion on the script! Also, there's an amazing tap number!! I had so much fun and I highly recommend - however, it might be hard to get tickets at this point! Written and directed by Trevor Schmidt with music by Mason Snelgrove. 

Weird Al Karaoke - I have been interested in this local company for a few year now and finally got myself to one of their shows. They perform throughout the year every third Thursday night at Grindstone. This show is a Greatest Hits of numbers from the past season. I had a lot of fun. The premise is that the comedian/performers select a song to which they create their own parody song. Favourites from the show included an homage to the movie Dune 2 (sung to the tune of Petula Clark's Downtown); a song about the slow build of the LRT Valley Line to Millwoods (sung to the tune of Midnight Train to Georgia); a veritable dictionary of Gen-Z slang in a song titled You're a Mid One, Mr. Cringe (for which I need to get the lyrics so I can understand what my students are saying!). A Very funny show and I hope to catch it in the regular season (and maybe even try it out myself?!). 

Tickets for all shows here. 

FINAL Word of Mouth - Find Your Fringe! Fringe 2024

Word of Mouth
Thursday/Friday - August 23/24

It's the last one I'll be doing for this Fringe - but there are a lot of great titles and many of them are in holdovers (well, 12 are, and I think almost all the holdovers made the Word of Mouth List at least one time!). Some of these shows are finished for the Fringe, but perhaps they will be back OR maybe they are going on to another Fringe adventure? 

Here goes...

Weird Al Karaoke
I Lost on Jeopardy
Ladies of Jazz
Too Funny for Words
Larry
God is A Scottish Drag Queen
Cabaret of Legends
The Kid Was a Spy
1nce Upon a Lie: Paul Strickland
Ha Ha DaVinci
Chase Padgett: Grab Bag Cabaret
Martin Dockery: Truth
Inescapable
Suitcase Circus (kids)
Mass Debating
Microwave Coven
God the Daughter
How Not To Kill A Plant
Think of Me
Happy Go Lucky
Accidental Beach
Sword in the Stone
The Funny Thing About Men
Erika the Red
Murder She Improvised
Gordon’s Big Bald Head
All the Kings Men

Tickets

Day Two - Fringe Full of Stars is off to a Great Start!

Carole of the Belles

This is a super fun show with all the quality that you would expect from this company. They presented the delightful and funny Mass Debating at last year's Fringe. When the Leader of the Silver Belles (Handbell Choir) is in an accident just before the big Christmas concert, the dynamic between the women (Michelle Todd, Kristin Johnston, Trevor Schmidt, Jason Hardwick, Cheryl Jameson) is upset. Barbara, played acerbically on point by Hardwick, challenges the other women (nervous replacement leader Francine, second-wife Shelley, and tell-it-like-it-is Violet) for various reasons. Schmidt as Mother Fowler is hysterical without saying a thing. A replacement bell-ringer, Carol (Jake Tkaczyk), joins the group and gently guides them to reconciliation and harmony. It’s very funny as they explore the various conflicts in the group, but also heartwarming and it asks the question "Who should be the first to start being kind?" It was fun to sing along to the Christmas carols before and after the show and like I said with Krampus a few years ago, I think this would make a nice Christmas tradition theatre experience not written by Dickins! 

How To Pack A Revolution In Your Suitcase

This show is for you if you absolutely love the music of Kurt Weill and the other composers of 1920s-30s Berlin. For me, it was a nice call-back to when I did the Three Penny Opera as several of the songs from the show were featured. Bremner Fletcher has a great voice for this style of singing, and he endeavours to connect the rise of the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s with current world events. It's easy to see the connections in history. I did wish more a little more of the history as I am a lover of obscure facts. It was his first time doing this show in front of an audience, and I think as he does it more, it will become more refined in the telling, and hopefully he can layer in more true stories to support the songs. But as I said, if you really like the music of Kurt Weill you will absolutely love this show.

Dead in the Water

This show was brilliantly performed by Ruth Alexander. I cannot imagine many who would be able to pull the story off as it requires you to be a consummate pianist, singer and actor, and Alexander is all three. I love the fact that it was not just someone talking and playing, but it was an actual play. This was a character, telling her story, and she just happened to be a pianist. Music was embedded within that story. In fact it was key. Alexander was adept at playing multiple characters, switching effortlessly with various accents and physicality, but never becoming gimmicky. You felt that she was Amanda Bridge telling us her life story.  It was a little sad at the ending, but that just shows I was invested. I was hoping for that major chord after the minor.

WORD OF MOUTH - Fringe 2024 - Tuesday, August 20th!

This is actually the last two days of collected Word of Mouth Recommendations! Once again, I have not see all these shows but rather people have recommended them to me as shows that they think were great shows that people should see!

Rob and Chris (Bobby +Tina)
Ingie's Fingies
Bright Lights
Portrait of Elisa Graham
OWEaDEBT
Centre of the Universe
What the Hell Was That?
The Bells
Local Diva: The Danielle Smith Diaries
Silence of the Lambs Jr. Edition
Chase Padgett: Grab Bag Cabaret
The Kid Was a Spy
1nce Upon a Lie: Paul Strickland
Martin Dockery: Truth
Keith Brown - 100% Wizard
Everything In New Orleans Is A Good Idea
Cabaret of Legends
Rat Academy
Microwave Coven
Mass Debating
The Show Must Go On
El Diablo of the Cards
Batman, Bob and Bill
The S.P.O.T.T.
Binding

Whatever you go see, I hope you enjoy your Fringe!

Fringe tickets: https://tickets.fringetheatre.ca/