Same As In Town

Early Saturday evening, I dropped by nightclub/lounge Bite on College St. for an off-site Fringe show called Love Is a Poverty You Can Sell 2 (Soup Can Theatre). On the heels of last year's success, this sequel is a cabaret with a 1920s Berlin feel.

As such, the performers wore suits or tight shirts and pants. The women were decked as flapper girls, wide-eyed ingenue, and androgynous Marlene Dietrichs. The 90 minute show was emceed by "Hans" and "Jodel": a cynical and jaded bon-vivant and his excitable and childish side-kick. The format had various singers take to the stage for classic numbers including Don't Forget Me, Tango Ballad, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Mein Herr. They often returned to dance and acted during each other's numbers.

This is a huge production for a Fringe show, with close to 40 people involved. So it's good they are having sold-out performances. I was impressed by the live 10-piece orchestra and the singers (also 10). It's always a pleasure to hear unamplified performance. But given the large space and background noise (streetcar rumbling by, whirring ventilator), I don't know if anyone further than 6-7 rows back can hear the lyrics. And they were wonderful words from timeless songs except for a few head-scratching modern additions. There are new songs that are equally fine but Coin Operated Boy (Amanda Palmer) is not one of them.

Most singers were great though one or two were flat. The stand-out was Natasha Negovanlis whose classical soprano reached to the back of the room on a beautiful rendition of Youkali. Outside of the lovely songs, I was dissatisfied with the pastiche. Ostensibly 1920s Germany in tone (both emcees spoke "German-accented" english), the songs actually spanned numerous decades. It was a bit superficial the trappings of period costume and manners. Having recently seen a "casual cabaret" where each song meant something personal to the singer, this show lacked the emotional depth that elevates a performance to powerful authenticity.