THE FENCE by Johnson, Johnston and Wilde. Randolph Theatre. July 1 at 9:15 pm, July 2 at 6:15 pm, July 4 at 6 pm, July 6 at noon, July 8 at 4 pm, July 9 at 9:45 pm. Buy tickets. Rating: NNN
Last year’s Summerland was the largest and most ambitious show in the history of the Fringe. Now its creators, director and some of its ensemble scale down with a project whose cast of just 34 (!) makes the new work seem positively intimate by comparison. And whereas their previous hit was a conventional book musical, The Fence is more of a song cycle or, as the poster puts it, a “live concept album” tracing the lives of loosely defined characters in the decade following high school graduation.
The show very much rises and falls on its individual numbers, and the rough edges that were endearing in Summerland – such as uneven voices and overstated choreography – are rather less so here. When everything clicks, however, the group vocal arrangements are so gorgeous that you want to build a home inside of them and live there forever.
The highlight, though, is a solo number, a brilliant song performed by Carter Hayden about an aspiring actor reflecting on his dashed dreams. For fans of sung monologues, The Fence is worth seeing for that one alone.
