At the Chortle Fast Fringe showcase

July 2008

Original Review:

Barbershop, it’s fair to say, has never been the most fashionable of musical genres but this talented young quartet make it melodiously appealing and very funny too.  

Abandoned by their tenor ahead of the national finals, Al Legro (Mark Hole), Frank Sonata (Rob Castell) and Hugh B. Doo (Tom Green) despair, until they encounter opera diva on the dole Toni Soprano (Lara Stubbs). A Rocky theme montage – supplemented by Bohemian Rhapsody, Chariots of Fire and Jerusalem – scores her training to join the group; a scene which might be unoriginally presented, but is deftly executed.

Our quartet then enter the Eurovision Barbershop Contest, where they must overcome reigning champions The Tax Havens, a ‘formidable synthesis of Swiss’ to triumph. But their greatest obstacle may prove the burgeoning relationship between Toni and Hugh, prompting the bassist to routinely fluff his lines and Al and Frank to consider striking out as a duo.

Can they reconcile their differences in time for the contest? Will they evade the clutches of their atypically aggressive Swiss rivals? And will Toni deign to ride a mechanical cow as the spirit of Europa? It’s all good, knockabout fun and to the cast’s enormous credit, the energy of the production never once drops despite the almost complete reliance on sung lines.

The harmonies are never less than harmonious or intentionally, humorously clunking. Stubbs has an exceptional pair of lungs and Green and Castell’s songs achieve the tricky balance of portraying barbershop in its best light, while thoroughly messing around with its conventions, a beautifully rendered line instantly followed by an unexpectedly bawdy one. Bravo!

Reviewed by: Jay Richardson