2019 Fringe Festival Review: MEAT the Musical

In my mind, I imagine that the MEAT the Musical origin story began in a basement in Garneau or Belgravia. It’s 12:16 a.m. at a smallish house party. Folks are nursing cans of AGD, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and bottles of Alley Kat Aprikat in the basement to the sound of Mac DeMarco. The topic of conversation is that there ought to be a musical that is based in Edmonton at the Fringe because, well, the Edmonton art scene is drastically underrated. There are tons of cool things to do and see in the seven-eight-oh. 

“Yeah, like MEAT! That place slaps. I’d eat there every day if I could.” 

Someone laughs, slightly tipsy, and the joke begins with these three words: “MEAT the Musical.” 

Enter MEAT the Musical, my new obsession. The musical is a slice-of-life look at a single shift of the ever-busy servers at MEAT restaurant. Sarah Adam and Shaney Borden’s cast of zany (but all-too-familiar!) characters — the “Brisket Club” — are the perfect portrayal of a microcosm of Edmonton’s iconic Whyte avenue. It’s like peering into a viewfinder to see a story that was written for a University of Alberta student working a part-time job. 

Particularly striking was Sage Jepsen’s vocals as the Snapchat-obsessed, party-hardy but lowkey complex and insecure Ty in Stuck. I was completely unready for the hilarity of Conor Meadows as Jon, spitting bars in the hip-hop classic-nouveau Get Saucy. Servers Are People Too implores folks to, well, remember the humanity of servers. Borden’s catchy compositions are complemented by Adam’s thoughtful and fun choreography. MEAT’s largest strength is absolutely the wonderful cast of weirdos – including, but not limited to a momager (mom-manager) and a server who lives with her boyfriend and her twin (along with their dog) in a studio apartment. 

If I have one criticism, it would just be that certain characters were quite well developed and others were not — I couldn’t help but want to learn more about Cydney (Morgan Harrison), the biker girl who loves the rules. My second ‘critique’ is that the main characters and resident lovebugs, Rose and Elijah (Shaney Borden and Ben Kuchera), were so adorable and embarrassing that I and the older couple sitting next to me audibly groaned when it was too cheesy. Solidarity.

I left the Varscona post-musical with three thoughts: that the musical was frankly incredible, the realization that I dress like I abide by the MEAT dress code daily, and that some brisket with cherry sauce sounded just about perfect. 

Rating: 5/5