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Culture Theatre

Fringe review: Great Lakes 5

GREAT LAKES 5 by the company (Low Fidelity Productions/Fringe). At St. Vladimir Institute. Jul 6 at 4:30 pm, Jul 8 at 8:15 pm, Jul 9 at 6:45 pm, Jul 12 at 6:15 pm, Jul 13 at 12:45 pm, Jul 14 at 6:45 pm. See listing. Rating: NN

I’ve seen enough improv to know that even the most talented performers have off nights.

That’s clearly the case with Great Lakes 5, an Ocean’s 11-style heist parody by the same company that got big laughs with last year’s James Bond-in-Niagara Falls improv show Fallsview To A Kill.

This time around, Andrew Haggith plays Danny Lake, who, after a decade in prison, joins up with his number two man (Scott Goldman) to select a crack team of experts and pull off a job. The team’s skills (all audience suggestions) include mixology, typing and playing checkers. And the precious heist item, housed in a Ferrari dealership, is a toothpick replica of the Statue Of Liberty.

Unlike Fallsview, there’s little care taken in establishing the setting or character histories. And Haggith’s Danny seems too smug and self-satisfied to worry about anything going on around him, so the stakes seem incredibly low.

Directed by Devon Hyland, the cast never gels, although Goldman periodically tries to get things on track and Bridget Cann, as a spunky five-year-old orphan, has a go-for-broke attitude that belongs in a funnier show.

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