The first show that I saw on the real first day of Fringe was DaPoPo Theatre’s brand new musical revue So… What Else About Love, written and performed by GaRRy Williams, Amy Reitsma, and Kristi Anderson. If Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s musical Edges was updated to today and mixed with Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, that is the vibe I was getting from this musical. We are introduced to old friends Kelin, Carrie, and Phil who are reconnecting with one another, and we see a series of usually musical (but not always) vignettes about their relationships with each other, the contexts of their lives outside the friendship, and at least one flashback to their lives together when they were in their twenties. The songs and situations are, I feel, at least sometimes, quasi autobiographical, as anyone who is familiar with DaPoPo’s canon of work will likely know that the relationship between these three characters is very similar to the long-lasting friendship between Anderson, Reitsma, and Williams.

It’s Williams’ character Phil who really reminds me of that kind of drive to create that Franklin Shepard has in Merrily We Roll Along, although he seems to also have an inner Charley who keeps him from becoming self sabotaging like Frank. Carrie, on the other hand, logistically, needs to put her creative pursuits on the back burner much of the time because she is juggling the realities of parenting three dramatic and precocious children- one of whom, Olive, has the confidence of a God but refuses to be potty trained, and figuring out how to encourage her to meet certain imperative milestones without breaking her spirit is a full time job. Kelin is struggling after having been abandoned for a second time by her birth mother, and her and her partner are also having trouble conceiving a child of their own. Her feelings of grief over maybe never having a baby, or having anyone in her family who shares her genetics, is exacerbated in her friendship with Carrie, who doesn’t have a lot to share that isn’t about the day to day reality of raising children. Kristi Anderson gives a really heartbreaking monologue in the show that is really a show stopping moment. It’s a rarity in a musical for a monologue to be the show stopper, but Anderson’s performance in this piece was a real gut punch. Read more at the link!