From a sarcastic Frenchman turning your worst day worse to Broadway songs that got the axe before making it to the stage, the ESL Rochester Fringe Festival had plenty to offer over the last couple of days across its 45 venues. Rochester Overture writers caught several shows, some of which you can still see later today.
When French comedian Marcel Lucont snaps his fingers and your gripe appears on the screen during his show Whine List, which repeats today at 5 p.m., you can’t predict what’s coming. That’s because Lucont, who stands barefoot on stage with a glass of wine in his hand, has a special talent for peeling back the layers of your experience to reveal the absurdities and irrationalities of human nature for the audience’s pleasure.
Take the woman on Friday night’s show who wrote that her worst day at work was—verbatim from her survey sheet—“today.” Lucont had questions. Assuming she wouldn’t be chosen, she timidly explained into the microphone that she had nothing much to share. By the end of his interrogation, we learned she was doing the work of five coworkers on leave, leaving her sufficiently more depressed than when the questioning began. Worst day, indeed.
He finished her off with the jab, “Nice earrings.” It referenced a prior ‘worst day’ story: a woman in the audience shared that she once cried because her supervisor complimented her earrings (apparently that’s not good in medical resident land). Double laughs for the reference.
There was the guy who had to wax a Big Boy (ripe material for Lucont), the woman who couldn’t find the gigantic pointy structure visible across a large circumference of Paris, the Eiffel Tower (too easy for the Frenchman). There was the guy who complained that an ex wouldn’t banish her pup from the bedroom during you-know-what: “You didn’t want to give the dog a bone,” he summarized. Then, an Australian shared an amorous story gone wrong about a bikini and poop that should stay in the Spiegeltent (it was the audience favorite).
And then there was me: Lucont pulled up my story about getting wasted in Galway on Saint Patrick’s Day, all because I was feeling pissed at some colleagues. He pulled out the expected American tourism jokes, incredulous that getting drunk in Ireland on Saint Patrick’s Day could be a bad travel experience. And then, he found out it was an arts journalism trip to study Irish theater. “Like Beckett?” he asked. Yeah, like Beckett.
Instead of asking the obvious “why were you pissed” question, he went with what could’ve been the million-dollar question: “Are you still doing this?” I didn’t seize the moment. I simply said yes. Running out of ways to make my experience funny, he moved on quickly to his next victim.
But the joke’s on you, Lucont. I was the critic at the show.
At Saturday’s Les Enfants Terribles––A Gameshow For Awful Children, Lucont recycled some jokes from the prior night but vowed to dissolve all the dignity, ethics, and morality we teach our children to “reveal the true nature of the child underneath.” First, children had to supply wrong answers to his random knowledge quiz. “King of the jungle?” One kid responded termite. Good try, but unfortunately, there’s some truth to that. Better luck next time. Another kid tried to game the game by answering “potato” to every question. Lucont set some ground rules after that. There was the bad art round, the farting sounds round, and the running-with-scissors round.
But it all came down to a final round where the children got to turn it all around on their adults. They’d point at their caregivers, yell “j’accuse” while the lights spotlighted red with incriminating music, and then share an embarrassing story. Although flatulence was a theme—parental farts never cease to be funny to children, take it from a parent—it was all over when a child gleefully shared about their mom pooping her pants. Touché. They won the show. (I should be grateful my daughter, in attendance, declined to play.)
Marcel Lucont’s Whine List repeats for a final show on Sunday, September 20 at 5 p.m. in the Spiegeltent.
—Anna Reguero
Getting an Encore: The B-Sides of Broadway
What happens when a toxicologist with a Ph.D. takes the stage to offer up songs cut from musicals? Magic.
Baritenor Connor McGuire, along with pianist Dane Noble-Rosema, gave us an afternoon of tunes, many of which were eliminated before the Broadway premieres, with a little added background on the songs and why they had to go.
It was a Sondheim sandwich, beginning with “Love is in the Air,” famously dropped as the opening number for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum when it failed to prepare the audience for the intent of the show, and replaced with “Comedy Tonight,” which saved the show from flopping.
Some real gems followed because, as McGuire noted, while the songs were tossed, they are still great songs. Some even got a second life: “Love is in the Air” appeared in the movie The Bird Cage. Another song, “World Take Me Back,” was written for Ethel Merman to sing in Hello Dolly. But Merman passed on the play, Carol Channing took the lead, and it was removed. Of course, years later, when Merman finally did play Dolly, she demanded that they put the show song back, and they did… of course.
Lovely ballads from Cabaret, Anastasia, and Little Shop of Horrors all made appearances, beautifully sung, and all framed fabulously by McGuire, who proved to be a charming raconteur. Props also go to soprano Brittany Quinzi, who stepped in for two wonderful duets.
But the best was saved for last: “Happily Ever After,” the song meant to be the closing number for Company, a show that infamously had several endings before settling on “Being Alive.” The song turns “Being Alive” on its head, using many of the same phrases to create a cynical, bitter view of love—perhaps not the taste one wants to be left with at the end of a comedy. Sondheim was smart to replace it; McGuire was wise to bring down the curtain with it.
The B-Sides of Broadway repeats Wednesday, September 23 @ 7:30 p.m. in the Hallock Lounge at the Downtown United Presbyterian Church.
—Julia Figueras
It’s a story of sport, war, love, and the good old days of immigrant families charting a path in America. It’s also the story of local mezzo-soprano Jessica Ann Best’s grandparents, which she reworked into a short musical, weaving in favorites from the American songbook between spoken vignettes about their lives. Her grandfather was Paul Wargo, the one-time Red Wings pitcher who met his wife, singer and secretary Jane, shortly after serving in WWII. Despite Paul’s PTSD from the war, they had what seemed like a storied relationship, in Best’s telling. Bass-baritone Jonathan Kimple portrayed Paul with youthful, wholesome charm, a convincing bat swing, and a burnished voice. Best portrayed her bright-eyed grandmother, Jane, and already looked the part of a mid-century American wife with her Marilyn Monroe-style platinum-blonde curly locks. Accompanied by pianist and music director Alan Jones, who provided keyboard backing, both singers brought sophisticated musicality and full-bodied vocal chops to ballads like Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine,” and Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow.” It was a feel-good hour.
Pitch! was a single-performance show on Saturday, September 19 at 4 p.m. at the Little Theatre.
—Anna Reguero
Jazz at Fringe
On Saturday, the Hochstein School hosted yet another Miles Davis centennial concert, after hosting bassist Ron Carter, an original Second Great Quintet member, in June. This one, Miles Davis Animated, part of Rochester Fringe, featured Eastman School of Music alumnus Dave Chisholm, a jazz trumpet player who lives a double life as a comic book illustrator. Davis’s family hired Chisholm to create a fascinating comic book about the famed trumpet player’s life: Miles Davis and the Search for Sound. To mark the centennial of Davis’s birth, Chisholm played Davis standards while projecting his colorful, fantastical comics, reviving a show he put on at the year’s start at Hochstein. But that’s not all: a couple of tap dancers emphasized the bebop pioneer’s rhythm with their feet: Cheryl Johnson and Laurie Coles. With Chisholm on the trumpet, the musicians—including pianist Greg Woodsbie, saxophonist Colin Gordon, bassist David Arenius, drummer/percussionist Aaron Staebell—gave confident renditions of tunes like “So What?” “My Funny Valentine,” “All Blues,” “Straight No Chaser,” and others. Chisholm has a warm but cool trumpet sound that seems well-suited to channel Davis. The tappers, while entertaining, weren’t always in sync and didn’t quite sit in the music’s pocket. They were downstage, which pushed the musicians into the back alcove, underneath the screen. They felt impossibly far away from the contained audience. I would’ve preferred the musicians up front, with the tappers as side entertainment. A third, nameless tapper joined at the end, whose more relaxed, fluid movements seemed to suit the music better. The concert would’ve been a good opportunity to sell the books, but alas, the first print is nearly out. But good news: Chisholm shared that a second print is on the way, with a fresh cover.
Miles Davis Animated repeats on Sunday, September 20 at 2 p.m. at the Hochstein Performance Hall.
A doubleheader evening, Saturday also offered a chance to catch Uncle Shoehorn’s Big Easy at Rochester’s newest jazz and live-music spot, and a new addition to the Fringe venues, the Biltmore Bar and Lounge. We arrived between sets, and the dive venue felt a little sleepy. But the horn-forward, eight-piece band (materials say nine, but I only counted eight) led by the entertaining guitarist and vocalist Tony Vee picked the whole place up, getting everyone in the room grooving to funky sounds inspired by the Big Easy. While there’s seating up front, people were up dancing in the bar area near the back. The band is sure to energize the late crowd for its next and final show here on Sunday night.
Uncle Shoehorn’s Big Easy repeats on Sunday, September 20 at 11 p.m. at the Biltmore Bar & Lounge.
—Anna Reguero
Featured photo: Uncle Shoehorn’s Big Easy. Photo by Anna Reguero.
Rochester Overture will be covering the Rochester Fringe Festival throughout its 12-day run, with reviews, photography, and more. Follow all of our Fringe coverage at rochesteroverture.com/fringe. Follow our socials on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
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