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Culture Theatre

Fringe review: UNRAVELLED A New Musical

UNRAVELLED A NEW MUSICAL by Andrew Seok (Chaos & Light/Fringe). At Grace Toronto Church (383 Jarvis). July 6 at 6pm, July 8, 11, 12 at 7 pm, July 13 at 6pm. See listing. Rating: NNN

Composer, lyricist and director Andrew Seoks semi-staged musical Unravelled aims to combine three great love stories into one, but in the process deprives each story of its uniqueness.

From myth we have Orpheus (Seok) and his wife Eurydice (Victoria Houser). Shakepeares Romeo (Keenan Smits) is re-imagined as Eurydices brother and Juliet (Michaela Mar) as Orpheus’s sister. Then there are James and Della Young (Jeff Lillico and Lauren Larson), the couple from O. Henrys story The Gift Of The Magi. Della becomes Juliets Nurse and James the apothecary who sells Juliet a sleeping potion and Romeo poison.

The problem with Seoks book is that Orpheus does not travel to the Underworld to win back Eurydice Romeo and Juliet do not die and James does not sell his watch nor Della her hair to buy each other Christmas presents. Robbed of the plots that make each story so iconic, all three couples become simply three couples in love.

Seok has a gift for melody in the grand style of Les Miserables. He fashions nearly every song or duet as a towering emotional showstopper, with the unintended consequence that there’s little variety in the music.

Still, the singing from all six principals and from the seven-member chorus is powerful and precise. If only Seoks devoted his gorgeous music to a faithful retelling of one of his three stories, the result might be more dramatically involving.

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