The ABCs of Love with Adult Baby Cupid (Still Your Friend Productions) 2018 Toronto Fringe Review

Photo of Adam Bailey in The ABCs of Love with Adult Baby Cupid at the 2018 Toronto Fringe

The ABCs of Love with Adult Baby Cupid (Still Your Friend Productions) isn’t in the 2018 Toronto Fringe printed program because they were asked to fill in for a show that dropped out at the last minute. It’s a shame because this is a very funny show and more people should know about it and see it.

Admit it, you’ve always wanted to see a show where one of the characters is a grown man with a slightly “less-than-perfect” body whose costume is a pair of wings, a blonde wig, and an adult diaper.

The show was written by Kristin Mueller-Heaslip, who plays herself, and Adam Bailey, who plays Adult Baby Cupid.

While I was waiting for the show to start Mueller-Heaslip, a soprano with a background in opera,  played a keyboard and sang. There were a few points in the song where she sang “Clap your hands…” and I would have but I couldn’t find the beat. It was that kind of slow, smooth song that you hear at a recital. She looked very prim and serious. It seemed like a strange thing to have before a show giving love and sex advice.

Then she started to play and sing an old rock and roll song to call Cupid to the stage. She played and sang the same way as before and the audience cracked up. And kept cracking up for the rest of the show.

The thing that made this a wonderful show for me was that it could easily have just gone for the cheap laughs – which was kind of what I was expecting. It didn’t. Well, sometimes it did, but it managed to stay funny and do a little gentle teaching/reinforcing at the same time.

There was a very funny skit about enthusiastic consent performed by two people picked from the audience, assisted by Cupid and Kristen. Not what I expected, but I loved it.

I also loved that they gave terrific answers to the questions ‘from the audience’ and acknowledged that things have changed in a post #metoo world…And kept it funny.

Bailey’s Adult Baby Cupid spoke with a kind of baby talk lisp; replacing R and L with W – “wun widdow baby”. He sustained it for the whole show, I have no idea how. (In my notes I wrote W for L&R. When I got home and looked at it I had no idea what it meant until I wrote this.)

I loved the way that Bailey and Mueller-Heaslip worked together. In the show they were supposed to have worked together for years and it really seemed as if they had. They had some great back story early in the show about places where demonstrators  had attacked them and where they had been put in jail or hadn’t been able to finish the show. At the end of the show they were over the moon with joy because they had actually finished a show.

I plan to tell everyone I know to go and see it. It’s fun and funny, a great way to spend and hour. You should go.

Details

  • THE ABCS OF LOVE WITH ADULT BABY CUPID plays at the Tarragon Theatre Solo Room. (30 Bridgman Ave.)
  • Tickets are $13, including a $2 service charge. The festival also offers a range of money-saving passes and discounts for serious Fringers.
  • Tickets can be purchased online, by telephone (416-966-1062), from the Festival Box Office at Scadding Court (707 Dundas St. W.), and — if any remain — from the venue’s box office starting one hour before curtain.
  • Content Warning: Not recommended for people under 14, sexual content, audience participation, nudity, mature language.
  • This venue is wheelchair-accessible through a secondary route. Check in at the venue box office at least 15 minutes before showtime, and a staff member will escort you to the venue. Accessible seating is in the front row.
  • Be aware that Fringe performances always start exactly on time, and that latecomers are never admitted.

Performances

  • Thursday July 5th, 7:45 pm
  • Sunday July 8th, 4:30 pm
  • Monday July 9th, 9:15 pm
  • Thursday July 12th, 6:15 pm
  • Saturday July 14th, 2:45 pm
  • Sunday July 15th, 2:15 pm

Photo of Adam Bailey by Paul Fee Gunn