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music and lyrics by Nicky Phillips, book and lyrics by Steven Gallagher

Next Step, Toronto Fringe Festival, Tarragon Theatre Mainspace, Toronto

July 4-14, 2018

The Last Party so desperately wants to be a three-kleenex musical that it crams as many life-changing events as possible into 90 minutes. It forgets that we need to know the characters before we care. 

Dylan (Michael Lomenda) is dying of brain cancer. Before he dies he wants to marry his boyfriend Trevor (Jeremy Legat), as he had always promised, and he wants to plan his funeral, his “last party,” in the minutest detail.

Both tasks are made difficult for Dylan and for Trevor and Dylan’s sister Ruth (Jessica Sherman) because late-stage brain cancer causes memory loss and aggression. Thus the musical is filled with laments. Dylan, Trevor and Ruth lament Dylan’s dying and forgetting, while Trevor and Ruth chide themselves over their unwanted roles as caregivers.

Through flashbacks we see key moments in the characters’ past – Dylan’s coming out, Dylan’s meeting Trevor, Ruth’s water breaking before giving birth. With so much incident Steven Gallagher’s book doesn't give us enough insight into the characters’ personalities for us to become involved in their suffering.

Due to the doleful nature of the subject matter, Nicky Phillips’s songs all tend to sound the same. Thus, it falls to the superior singing and acting abilities of the cast to give their sketchy characters as much depth and individuality as they can.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review appeared in NOW Magazine on July 7, 2018.

Photo: Jeremy Legat, Michael Lomenda and Jessica Sherman. ©2018 Tor Sandberg.

For tickets, visit https://fringetoronto.com.