Toronto Fringe - The Musical of Musicals: The Musical!

As much as I try not to judge a book by its cover, when I saw the Fringe listing for The Musical of Musicals: The Musical! I immediately wanted to see it. And more than that, as a huge fan of musicals, I had a need for it to be good. Really good.

Friends. I can assure you I was not disappointed.

The Musical of Musicals: The Musical is a musical (SHOCKING!) parody of musicals. Ugh. I'm going to say "musicals" a lot in this posting. Apologies.  The plot is simple: "You must pay the rent!" "I can't pay the rent!", but its brilliance lies in its execution. The plot is then played out in five different mini-musicals done in the style of five noted musical composers. The first musical segment is 'Corn!', done in the style of Rodgers & Hammerstein. The second is 'A Little Complex', done in the style of Stephen Sondheim. The third is 'Dear Abby!', done in the style of Jerry Herman. The fourth is 'Aspects of Junita', done in the style of Andrew Lloyd Webber. And finally, the fifth is 'Speakeasy', done in the style of Kander & Ebb.

If any of these names sound unfamiliar to you, your enjoyment level might suffer slightly but TMOM:TM does a very good job of ensuring that everyone is in on the joke, despite having a somewhat esoteric premise. The laughs are so rapid fire that even musical superfans are bound to miss a few, which levels out the audience response. Each musical segment had a very distinct style and paid homage to its source material very effectively. The music for each segment was very cleverly written and contained some of the most groan-worthy puns I've heard in a long time (meant as a compliment). The production was very stripped down and didn't rely on sets or costumes to tell the joke; instead the emphasis was placed on delivery and choreography.

It would be very difficult to go into more detail without spoiling some of TMOM:TM's best jokes but I still wanted to make mention of two personal highlights. The first was the performance of Paula Wolfson as Abby, the older, advice-dispensing character in each musical segment. The role invariably provided Wolfson with five different opportunities to deliver a show-stopping number, which she did with ferocity. A second highlight for me was how during 'Aspects of Junita' segment (parodying Andrew Lloyd Webber) there were as many jokes making fun of the audience of Webber's musicals than there was of Webber's work itself. Despite the presence of many Webber fans (myself included), the audience still loved laughing at things like stage directions instructing "the audience applauds at the use of a smoke machine".