Jesus. Fringing is a marathon.

Hi friends. I’ve spent the last few days popping from show to show at the Toronto Fringe Festival, and I have to say…I’ve been having an absolute blast! I’ve been meeting really nice, interesting people, and seeing lots of theatre. I managed to see 10 (!!) shows, but there are many more I want to see, including a one-man juggling show.

Re: show quality – it’s a range. Which is to be expected from a festival with no merit requirements to get in. Almost all of the shows are produced in a bare-bones type of way – simple sets, limited props and costumes – and many of them may not be in their most polished form. It’s not fair to hold these shows to the same standard that I would a professionally produced production, so my general approach is one of a generosity of spirit. For $15 shows, I can’t complain.

While quality may range, the passion each artist has put into their work is immense, and for that, I cannot ding them.

Alright, and with that…let’s get into the reviews, listed in the order in which I saw the shows. Scroll to the bottom to see what’s on my “hit-list” for this upcoming week.

1. A Little Bit Pregnant

This is a one-hour drama about a 20-something in a less-than-ideal situation finding out she’s pregnant. I thought the dialogue sounded natural and contemporary, and was fairly relatable. To me, the standout performers were the actors playing Maya and Tasha – Casey Marie Ecker and Julia Pye, respectively. Casey – she had a lot of difficult, nuanced material in a short period of time, and I thought she handled it really well. Julia – the weight of the play is on her shoulders, and I thought she did a nice job. The show ended a bit abruptly and left me wanting to know more! I guess that means I was emotionally invested in the characters’ journeys.

2. The Man With the Golden Heart

This musical was recommended to me by a Broadway producer friend of mine (flex, I know..I’m very cool). The Man with the Golden Heart is one of the more professional shows in the festival – well-established cast, known composer, full production team. The quality is simply on another level, which in some ways means I’m harder on the show, because I expect more from it. I thought the score was very pretty, with a few standout songs. The show follows three couples’ journeys through life (all taking place in different eras), connected by the Man with the Golden Heart, who can heal people through touch. Apparently he can do other things, too, like give people psychic powers…that wasn’t too clear to me. Maybe I was distracted since the venue wasn’t air conditioned and the Toronto heat turned me into a glistening puddle of sweat, but I got a little lost somewhere. Overall – high talent level across the board. Standouts to me were Tess Benger (amazing stage presence) and lead Bruce Dow (what a voice!). See this one so I can chat about it with people…but maybe on a cooler night.

3. Ms. Titaverse

I was surprised by this one. I quite liked it. Ms. Titaverse is an hour-long musical sketch-comedy show about growing up Filipina (primarily in the greater Toronto area). Admittedly, I didn’t get all the jokes, but the ones I did get were pretty damn funny. There were a number of Toronto-specific millennial jokes that I loved, including an “in memoriam” song and a diary-reading scene. This show gave me Crazy Ex Girlfriend vibes and I’m here for it.

4. Blake & Clay’s Gay Agenda

This was a one-hour show by duo Curtis Campbell and Daniel Krolik, an award-winning comedy team. Apparently their show last year was a faux-seminar teaching straight actors how to act gay. This year, they poke fun at the range of opinions and politics within the gay community. Again, a lot of jokes were over my head, but a lot of them weren’t. I, too, feel personally victimized by jukebox musicals. I also loved the skit about focus groups censoring material. If this type of content speaks to you, this show is worth seeing.

5. The Family Crow

One-man puppet murder mystery starring crows. Silly ridiculous. Not exactly my sense of humour, but I appreciated it nonetheless. Adam Francis Proulx (the sole performer) is very charismatic and has a great on-stage persona. He can also do many accents, which is impressive. My one qualm was that I wanted more puppets! Or maybe a puppet costume change or something. Either way, if you like puppets, crows, or wordplay about crows, check out this show.

6. Family Road Trip

This is a sketch comedy show performed by Second City Training centre grads. The show is very Second-City-esque in terms of its structure and timing. It was a fun time, a good hour well-spent. My standout performer was Chrissy Sharma, but they were all solid. Fave sketches for me: the road trip interstitials, the Kate Spade bag one and the checkout counter scene. Also, one performer looked like Ned Fulmer from the Try Guys, so that was neat.

7. Amor de Cosmos: A Delusional Musical

This one was not on my radar at all, but the star of the show, Anton Gillis-Adelman, was handing out flyers at one of the other venues, and he’s so sweet, so I had to see it. Anton is a university student, and what a cutie. Very talented, fantastic acting, nice singing voice. I could see him having a successful career. The music was quite pretty. I especially liked the song about being unforgettable..though I’ve forgotten its name. I’m not going to lie, a one-man musical about a historical figure (that’s not Hamilton) written entirely in iambic pentameter is a hard sell to the general public. I wish more people had been in the audience, because Anton deserves it.

8. Paz

This was my favourite drama I’ve seen to-date. Paz is about a Filipina nanny named Paz, a lost child, and the child’s mother (who thinks Paz has her daughter). It was paced well, and the show had a complete emotional arc within the one-hour slot. There were different high points and low points..it was smartly constructed. I liked it quite a bit.

9. Absolute Magic with Keith Brown

What fun! Who doesn’t love magic, right? I was told by a theatre friend of mine that if I want to see a magic show at Fringe, that this is the show to see. Keith is wonderful – super animated, very personable. His show had magic and heart, and zero slimeball magician vibes that you sometimes get. It was an entertaining hour.

10. Our Little Secret: The 23andMe Musical

This is my friends’ show (the one I saw a rehearsal of and gave notes for). I was so impressed with the growth from the rehearsal to the final show. Noam Tomaschoff (the sole performer) was on FIRE. He dynamically moved across the stage. He committed to the silly comic bits. He wore his heart on his sleeve during the tender moments. A+, my friend. One thing I’d like to say to Noam, though: I came in about 5 minutes before showtime, and my only seat choices were front row or back row, and I’m nearsighted. So, sorry for sitting directly in front of where you sat to sing some emotional songs. My b. I tried not to make any distracting facial expressions. It was epic, though.

Hopefully those mini-blurbs were helpful. Apart from Our Little Secret (which sold out), you should be able to grab tickets to all the other ones. Now, on to what I’m going to try to see next week:

• Dancer (it’s sold out…I’m going later today. This one has been hyped up pretty hard, so we’ll see).
• Maggie Chun’s First Love and Last Wedding
• The Bad Mitzvah
• The Woman Who Ate Falafel (they reached out to me to see this show..I’m really sorry I haven’t gotten to it yet! Schedules haven’t worked out).
• Are you Catching what I’m Throwing? Gotta throw my new friend Alex a…baton? (Is that what you juggle with? What do they call the bowling pin looking things?)

For tickets, check out fringetoronto.com. You can also visit one of the in-person ticket booths (I’m around the Bloor/Brunswick one sometimes, come say hi). The festival ends on July 16.

Photo credit for feature image: Fringetoronto.com