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Thursday, June 21, 2012

Review: Zombie Apocalypse: A Love Song (Fringe)


by Sarah Deshaies

I am so over zombies.

And so is one of the characters in Zombie Apocalypse: A Love Song, who laments: “They’re so passé.” Perhaps this, and the fact that there are a gazillion zombie plays at this Fringe, is an indication that this genre may have run its course. Either way, the slovenly undead are here, and you can’t do anything but let them eat your brain in a darkened room.Sometimes I felt this was happening to me at Zombie Apocalypse, a musical take on four friends watching the zombie end-of-time unfold around them from a rooftop. Dane Stewart and Holly Brace-Lavoie are dating, and Matt Lacas and Shannon McNally are unrequited lovers, surrounded by a cast of enthusiastic zombie extras who serve as a nice footnote. Our four ill-fated lovers attempt to resolve their issues as the world goes to pieces. The tunes are sweet little numbers with lines like, “You’re walking slowly, but your heart is still beating.” (As I can recall it.) But the combination of rock songs on one side of the stage and tired banter on the other is jarring; sometimes, you can barely hear the actors over the Brainiacs, the zombie house band. Lacas, McNally and Stewart performed in another musical piece at an off venue last year, EDGES: A Song Cycle. This time, like last, the show comes across as amateurish. But this is what the Fringe is for: young artists, onstage and off, cutting their teeth and finding out what works. Hopefully, next year, they’ll be back with something more polished.

Rating: 

4 comments:

  1. your review is bad and you should feel bad.

    hopefully, next time, you'll come back with a review that is a little more polished.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This review is awful, and not because it doesn't like the play.I am also not part of this show, but turn to the reviews when trying to choose what I should see. This review gives absolutely no insight as to WHY the reviewer didn't like the play. The broad "amateurish" shouldn't cut it. What was amateurish? Was the script off? Was the pacing poor? We're the actors off? There is no point to this review which leads me to question what the credentials of this reviewer are. The Charlebois post has chance to be something very cool and insightful, but instead we have a quick synopsis and a vague cutting remark which gives us no reason to see, or not to see a show. And yes I realize it's the fringe, but this kind of review happens a lot on this site. Be better than this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hahahaha ohhhh my god.

    Sometimes I think the Fringe needs to include a section on how to respond to negative reviews in its artist info pack because as shown by the two cast members of Zombie Apocalypse above me (seriously guys? seriously? come on, it's obvious you're involved with the production) some of them have NO CLUE what to do or how it makes them come across.

    (Part 1: Don't respond to negative reviews in print or in front of an audience. Part 2: reviews are intended for the AUDIENCE, they're not constructive criticism. You want constructive criticism, you have your play workshopped, that's not the reviewer's job.)

    (... Sorry to hijack your review, Sarah, but I've had this building inside me since the Fringe-for-All.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. My name is James, I am the author of the "fed up" post. And while I am not an artist, nor have access to your "artist info pack", I have been going to the fringe for the past 11 years, and it is some of the only theater I see during the year. I use reviews to make my selections each year, this one wasn't helpful, and I thought it was weak. You're right Erin the reviews are intended for the AUDIENCE, so for ME. I'm guessing Erin that you are a theater artist, and shame on you. Shame on you for calling out a young theater company publicly on a FALSE assumption. We get it, you're smart, us laypeople have "NO CLUE" what is going on. No wonder your medium is dying.

    ReplyDelete

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