Show: 7
Title: Fruit Fly: The Musical
By: The Jansonowicz Players
Created by: Sheena Janson, Max Wojtanowicz, Michael Gruber, and Nikki Swoboda
Location: Rarig Arena
Summary: An original and auto-biographical musical about the lifelong friendship between a gay man and a straight woman. The show starts out in the present ("it's the opening night of our musical!"), and Max and Sheena reminisce about meeting as children and flashback to several important moments in their friendship. Through it all, they're always together, singing.
Highlights: My favorite Fringe show of my second day attending the festival is this adorable little musical (my favorite from Day One also featured Max Wojtanowicz, coincidence?). I've seen Max and Sheena separately in several shows over the last year or so (Sheena had just done her last show as the Baker's Wife in Into the Woods that very afternoon), and I very much enjoy both of them. So I was delighted to find out that they're friends in real life who have written a musical together about their friendship. And now I love them even more! Their performances are very natural and heart-felt; their love and respect for (and sometimes annoyance with) each other really shines through. It's a beautiful thing to tell the story of your life so openly and truly, and in song is even better! And the songs are really quite good, very catchy and fun with some great harmonies (music and additional lyrics by Michael Gruber). This is totally my kind of show, and if you also like sweet, funny, touching, and heart-warming musicals, this is one show you have to see.
Read more of my fringe fest reflections...