Perfect Harmony Reviews

Perfect Harmony is sharp as a blade. The performances are magnificently hilarious. The harmonies — typically absurd versions of pop songs — range from lovely to ridiculous to riotous. They help to make Perfect Harmony as close to perfect as any Fringe show can be.

August 24, 2006, Leonard Jacobs, Backstage

Pitch perfect! A hysterical look inside the high-pressure world of high school a cappella singing, Perfect Harmony reminds us of why we have the prolific Fringe Festival: to find the plays that deserve bigger stages and, if possible, a longer applause.

-August 23 2006, Rachel Wynn, Show Business Weekl

What do you get when you cross Altar Boyz with The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee? I saw Perfect Harmony, and the cheerful answer was staring me in the face: a musical about two a cappella singing groups vying to win an annual high school championship.

When they harmonize -- the two groups together or separately -- it's well-nigh perfection, as the title promises. Since there's no band required and no call for elaborate sets, the enterprise is a potential bargain for future producers.

August 22, 2006 David Finkle, TheatreMania

Here's a case for all things cute, cheesy, and cheery. Perfect Harmony is a show of eccentric characters with more eccentric problems, united in the quest for one shining moment of perfection (the a capella high-school National title). Ridiculous as that sounds, it's more ridiculous in performance, which makes this the most delightfully low-budget (semi-)musical since 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

This is not a perfect play (much as that'd help my tagline) but it's close: a PG-rated, feel-good, semi-musical blast. A rundown of all the terrific jokes would take far too long. That would be an injustice to the show, a zippy in-and-out affair that doesn't squander a second. Director Andrew Grosso (who created the show with The Essentials) knows enough about a capella to keep it moving

- September 25th, 2006, Aaron Riccio, New Theater Corps

Perfect Harmony is a charming mockumentary. Terrific. It was a joy to watch such sensational performers!

- September 4th, 2006, David Hurst, Next Magazine

Ha molti personaggi il musical “Perfect Harmony” di Andrew Grosso (concezione e regia). Conflitto Musicale tra due gruppi di giovani che gareggiano per un premio. Due gruppi che cantano, improvvisano a cappella. Un gruppo di studenti che litigano e s’insultano. Sono indicati come gli “acafellas” e Simon (David Barlow). Sembra ingenuo e confuso. Diverte. Fra le donne la piu aggressiva e convincente e Meghan (Maria Elena Ramirez). Molta improvvisazione che lascia libero un futuro regista di creare e ricreare. Molti aplausi.

- September 26, 2006, Mario Fratti, Oggi

Spectacular a cappella work, Perfect Harmony, turns the spotlight directly on the a cappella experience itself, specifically the high school experience. Through a series of silly scenes, silly monologues and so-dead-serious-they’re-funny songs, we are welcomed to the “high stakes” world of private prep school a cappella.

The school’s psychologist Dr. Larry Mergh sets the mood early: “A cappella is a cult of pressure and perfection. A hungry beast, and now it’s claiming its victims.” The school’s two groups, the “Acafellas” and the “Ladies in Red” know it all too well as they grapple with these questions:

Lassiter A. Jayson III: “You have 200 people who you are singing to and, you have to ask yourself, what do you want them to take away from the experience?”

Melody: “If God didn’t want us to dance then why did God put [the a cappella] Nationals on MTV2, the very network that started The Grind?” “

Goran Dhiardeaubovic “You can have many instrument easy- for why you no use them, stupid?”

Meghan: “How are you ever gonna let the audience at Nationals watch you if you can’t have Christ watch you?”

Philip: “Be totally honest: who likes the songs better when we sing them normally, without the bullwhip and trash can and cantaloupe”

If questions like these don’t hook you into the show, try the allure of zany foreigners, the meaning of art, Jesus’ helpful suggestions on winning the big competition, when to take drugs or join a boyband, how to accommodate family feuds and lockjaw into competitive a cappella – questions I think we all need answered.

One more quote sums up why a cappella makes for such compelling subject matter:

Simon: “Music is how we express the love we have inside when just words or hugs or backrubs won’t cut the mustard”

Ain’t that the truth?

September 21, 2006, Jonathan Minkoff , CASA.org

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posted by The Essentials @ Perfect Harmony Reviews