Mark Anderson in The Toxic Avenger at Pleasance Courtyard. Picture: Ian Vincent
The Toxic Avenger continues at the Pleasance Courtyard until 28 August, then transfers to London’s Arts Theatre for a 10-week season from 28 September.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
Sitting in amongst the usual Fringe scale shows, The Toxic Avenger stands out before it even begins in the scale and practicality of its set.
Two levels, connected by stairs with a pair of interconnecting doors upstage centre, this elaborate staging is probably a contributory factor to the delayed start – please expect this if you’re planning a late night Pleasance treat.
Because treat this is! Rooted in the comedy horror genre such as Little Shop of Horrors, the romantic leads, Melvin and Sarah (Mark Anderson and Emma Salvo) are a cagoule-wearing nerd and a ditzier blonde than most – a blind librarian (her librarian skills are hilarious!).
Melvin persuades Sarah to help him find records for Tromaville’s inordinate levels of pollution: “Even though you have a handicap, you so want to help everyone.”
Following a tussle with the Mayor’s minions, Melvin falls into a toxic silo and emerges as The Toxic Avenger (‘Toxie’ for short).
The plot thereafter follows our now muscled, well-endowed, yet falling apart hero as he strives to rid Tromaville of the desperately vile waste disposal and win Sarah’s heart.
The greatest strength of this show is Joe DiPietro and David Bryan’s score – pounding rock with the occasional power ballad – the music matched by stunning vocal performances from every member of the cast.
This must be one of the hardest-working casts on the Fringe as a boggling scale of characters are played by only three performers.
Having already delivered a pre-theatre warm up for the queuing patrons, Che Frances and Oscar Conlon-Morrey are charmingly versatile and masters of the quick-change routines needed to portray the dozens of characters in the supporting cast.
Natalie Hope is also playing multiple roles: a nun, the wicked mayor and Melvin’s mother. The latter owes more than a passing nod to Maureen Lipman’s BT adverts.
A duet between the mayor and the mother is perhaps pushing the ‘double casting’ gag a bit too hard, but once again the score comes to the rescue with each voice having a different key to sing in as the half-and-half duet soars into a massive ovation.
The tributes to other musicals come thick and fast: Hairspray, Mary Poppins, Lion King, Avenue Q, West Side Story and, of course, Rocky Horror are all there – Brad and Janet even make a guest appearance.
The only fly in the ointment is the objectifying of women that crops up on several occasions.
That both the nun and the lady mayor flash scarlet suspenders and bras, for example, brings an unnecessary degree of sleaze to the stage, along with implications that women do not necessarily achieve higher status without exercising some form of sexual guile.
The talent and skill on display here is surely capable of better than that.
Fiona Orr
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