Monday, August 06, 2012

Fringe Review - The Love Show! - ORL Productions - 4 stars

Love Show - gorgeous harmonies, ruthlessly funny, hilariously foul, yet sweet; how can you not love these ladies? 4 stars #mnfringe

"Love is a poisonous selfish emotion that leads to baked goods."

If you're looking for a show with both beautiful singing and an off-kilter sense of humor, look no further than The Love Show! (the exclamation point is actually part of their title but I'll back up their punctuation-related excitement on this one)!

"This girl was practically peeing in my dirty laundry, she wanted to dominate so badly."

Samantha Harris, Courtney McLean, and Anna Weggel put on a hell of a fun show.  I'd say the show isn't for the easily offended, but it seems silly to call their music group The Dirty Curls potentially offensive.  Do they sing an upbeat ditty in praise of women's pubic hair (from whence they get their band name)?  Sure.  Is there a prolonged comedic story that involves boogers and body hair?  Yup.  Do they reprise the song "Love Explosion" they used in their Fringe-For-All preview, which recounts the tale of an ill-timed fart while cuddling (and includes the rhyming phrase, boner erosion)? Absolutely.  How about an ode to pet cat that just can't stop pooping on its owner?  Why, yes. 

"I can't tell if I want to be you, or do you."

So forewarned with all that, why should any of that PG-13 content put anyone off?  I can't think of a reason.  This show is just brimming over with love, just like the title says.  Love between performer and audience, love between performers, love between friends, love between mother and child, love between owner and pet or bedding, learning to love yourself of course, and yes, even a little romantic love, awkward and fraught with comedic peril though it may be.

"She can poop on me till the end of time and I will never leave her."

We get live banjo, ukelele and guitar music.  We get a hilarious rap song about a pregnant woman craving maple donuts.  We get a lot of really lovely three part harmony between the ladies.  It's hard to top how sublime that sound can get, whether or not the lyrics might be considered naughty or gross.  The pace never flags, but it's an easygoing pace to begin with.  The ladies don't really repeat themselves, so there's a lot of variety to keep an audience on their toes.  At the end it cycles back around to where it began, with a couple of funny reprises of opening bits to sum up the show before tying it all up in a bow.  So it has the advantage of seeming random and keeping the element of surprise, while also existing in a very comforting and familiar structure.  It's a nicely crafted, slightly off-color, laughter-filled musical evening.

"I bet she has more existential crises than I do."

The Love Show! was a perfect way to cap off our long Fringing day on Saturday.  It was like doing a lap to cool down after running a theater marathon.

4 stars - Highly Recommended

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