Inspiration for fringe-Storytelling/comedy style?

Hey everyone I wanted to post on here and tell you guys about a show I saw last week. It gave me some ideas comedy and storytelling wise for fringe. Although we may not go down the comedy or even storytelling route I still wanted to share. Also bare with me as I don’t know where this is going as it’s not really a whole idea just an idea that could add to the already existing ideas we have.

So I saw a musical called Urine town which despite the name was brilliant (although it was a musical which I understand we are not going to even consider doing obviously as we are actors) however it is more the acting and the way they acted the show that I thought was brilliant and could help us in ideas for the fringe whatever we decide to do. I know we don’t have a final idea about fringe yet but if we are going to go down the comedy or storytelling route I would urge everyone to check this musical out or even YouTube it. 

It was in a way a bit like Beowulf in that it told a story through narrator and had a hidden meaning to tell. The idea of the narrator was my favourite part as it really took the mic out of the show itself and brought a sarcastic element to it as did the acting style and made it ‘light hearted’ though it was very deep and meaningful really. For example there were two characters a policeman who would explain what was happening (obviously the point of a narrator) BUT make it funny for example there was a point where he would say (always aimed at his buddy narrator if you will who wasn’t really a narrator)“This isn’t a happy musical” where she would ask questions to bring out the true meaning of the show. The best parts where when she would fight him for example a part where she said “why can’t it be a happy musical? why are we telling this story at all if it isn’t happy?” where he would reply with comedy.

I hope this is making sense? This is a clip from it which I hope explains what I’m trying to say. It features the characters I am talking about and the exact cast I saw so I hope you get a feel for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9egNUVybxA

I think we could pull something like this off very well although obviously not copying the idea I just thought the idea of the show was brilliant and a good starting point. I think what I’m basically trying to say is that I love the idea of storytelling and I loved how in this show they used comedy to make it a little different. Check it out guys!!.

It also featured one of the ideas that came up from our discussion for fringe the adult playing a child idea. The character Little Sally was an adult playing a child who was the character you see in the YouTube clip who doubled up as a sort of buddy to the narrator. Back to the point this character worked so well playing a child but I do think a whole cast playing children would be a bit over the top and may not be taken seriously as I certainly wasn’t sure on the character until getting used to it and watching for at least a little while.

Also on a side note I have decided I am going to use this musical as an example in my essay as it in a way goes against my argument and is different to other musicals I have seen before and different from what I expect a musical to be ie happy ending (if that makes sense). I am going to compare this to other musicals such as Wicked and look at how modern musicals like this are changing and why and what the effect is.