I have thoroughly enjoyed Top Bunk productions in the past and assumed that this production would at least come close to past levels of fun, humour, and quality, but I was left only somewhat amused and largely confused.

Technical elements and venue sightlines brought this down significantly. You would assume that because this is Top Bunk's third time at a venue with famously difficult sightlines that they would have learned to prioritize staging most moments downstage, but alas. As a result, I missed almost the entirety of Carly Petitt as the Judge, which was unfortunate because she sounded fantastic and hilarious. Furthermore, the microphones frequently cut in and out, were live backstage, or were selectively extremely loud. This, combined with the fact that for some reason the majority of the songs were group ensemble numbers, meant that a cast that I know are all strong individual singers sounded amateur.

In fact, the score did no one any favours; even the occasional solo musical moments seemed to sit far above or below the performer's comfortable vocal ranges making it extremely difficult to understand the lyrics. The (very loose) plot also came to a crashing halt every time a musical number came along, as no part of the action or lyrics contributed anything to the story. I have, admittedly, had the catchy refrain of "get your lawsuit on" running through my head since the show, possibly because it was seemingly the only lyric in the song. The most musically interesting moment was a sort of duet between the titular characters, but even this only served to establish that their friendship had ended. Why, exactly, has it ended? This is never explained fully, neither in the song nor in the show as a whole.

Furthermore, the writing of their female characters has fallen even farther since their previous shows. Historically, female characters in Top Bunk shows have been either completely insignificant to the plot, extremely over-sexualized, or animals, and apparently their idea of adding depth is to combine those three qualities into a femme-presenting sexy dog character (in a one-off attempt to make a hot dog joke that does not land). Even the lead female character, who has a lot of potential for her own storyline as a reporter covering the so-called "trial of the century", is only relevant to the plot in a cliche storyline where she is frustrated that her boyfriend, one of the male leads, works too much. Groundbreaking.

I really wanted this show to be good. This script has potential. This music has potential. The costumes are very fun and flattering for all the performers, which is rare for a fringe show. The choreography is fun. There are some extremely talented, fantastic, and smart performers doing their absolute best to make you laugh and have a good time in this show, and they do succeed. If you want to go to a show just to have fun and see something silly then this show will do just fine. But I know this show could easily have been a lot better, and I left kind of sad that it was not.