BFFS - TORONTO FRINGE 2019 REVIEW

BFFS - TORONTO FRINGE 2019 REVIEW

In many ways BFFs feels like I watched a millennial take on a Seinfeld musical episode. 

It’s funny, smart and entertaining and geared towards a very specific audience. It’s clever without getting in the way of itself and shows a talented cast being talented. The songs are good. The staging is well done. But at the end of the day, it feels like nothing really happened. 

The plot of the piece revolves somewhere between a box of wine and a wish. And that’s really it. Two old friends catch up by trying to go back to what they were in their heyday. 

The performers are great and their energy throughout the piece is exemplary. They’re good archetypes for our generation today presenting two very different sides of the success coin. My issue with piece as a whole is the lack of script finesse. I have no problem with a story that goes nowhere, but it just felt like the creator simply ran out of either time or ideas on how to make it work. It feels like as soon as the conflict entered the picture, the entire production gave up and just ended. They even poke fun of this idea in the final musical number, which again is a fine number, but it just leaves the audience wanting- and not in a good way. 

Maybe it’s my personal bias, but the play sets up a very clear destination of where they want to go, and then stops itself from achieving its own happy ending. There’s nothing technically wrong with the choice of the ending. You can end a piece however you want to and that is a completely viable and interesting choice. But I just think it wasn’t the strongest choice for this particular show. 

Everything about this show is fine. I just wanted it to be magical which I guess might actually be the point. 

 

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