REVIEW: Crux: The Musical @ Ottawa Fringe 2012

In Kathleen Frost’s Crux: The Musical, Grace undergoes an interview and initiation for a secret society that operates near the underpass at Rideau and Sussex.

Writer/director, Kathleen Frost tells us why you should see Crux: The Musical. Plus, singing.

Trouble with the video? Watch directly on Youtube insstead.

Crux: The “Not So” Musical is a mess. There’s not much more I really need to say about this play. Nonsensical from beginning to end, it follows Grace, a young woman trying to find the meaning of life by entering a cult? I think… or some sort of secret society which meets under the underpass at Rideau & Sussex in Ottawa. But before she can join she must pass an initiation and interview by some sort of mysterious leader who has a fetish for rutabagas. And… everyone loves to randomly kiss. Along the way Grace is visited by ghosts of her past, fake (or possibly real) memories, and encounters a monotone singing hockey team.

Really – this play is nonsense. And not in a good way. It calls itself a musical but there’s 22 minutes between the opening song an the one that follows. Yes, I clocked it. The play itself has a small handful of songs – but only 2 of the solos have any semblance of musical talent in them. The moment the entire cast starts singing it sounds like people are just speaking to a rhythm, without any enthusiasm. Hopefully this is the only one of the fest, and I really struggled with the decision, but Crux: The Musical is a 1.

What did you think? Did you agree with our rating? What did you love, or not, about this play? And what rating would you have given it. Tell us in the comments below.

Allan’s Followup:

My tweview (twitter review) for Crux: The Musical said that for a play that didn’t make a lot of sense, this didn’t make a lot of sense. And that’s an apt description. Grace’s friend introduces her (on her request, apparently) to a club/cult/secret society for which she’s going to be interviewed, but she’s then taken through a serious of random, magical (or drug-induced), and increasingly bizarre scenes until, she’s out again with a quest. Something about finding a tuba. From a narrative point of view, I just really didn’t know what was going on - although, I guess if that was the point, kudos?

The big highlight of Crux: The Musical was Gabrielle Lazarovitz. That girl can sing and I really enjoyed her solo. I heard her singing at Chats with Cat another night and liked her even more. Thanks to her, I’m sitting on a low 2 on this one.

- by Allan Mackey

 

Matthew Champ

About Matthew Champ

Matthew Champ is the lead reviewer for Production Ottawa's review team, Should You See It, making sure that whether it's local theatre or the latest Hollywood blockbuster to hit theatres, you know whether or not it's worth spending your time or money on.

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  1. [...] Breaking Rank! — Review by Kurt (pending), followup by Allan (pending) + VIDEO (pending) Crux: The Musical Review by Matthew, followup by Allan + VIDEO Danti-Dan Review by Kurt, followup by Allan Dead Wrong [...]

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