Edinburgh Fringe 2009
Low Down
Credited by The Scotsman as boasting one of the ten silliest titles on this year’s Fringe, the show revolves around a global pandemic of human-flesh-eating and the soldiers and medical team charged with bringing a halt to it. As zombie spoofs go, it pretty much met my expectations.
Review
The 25-strong cast of Chomp: A Zombie Musical created a lively presence on The Royal Mile with their smudgy faces, wild hair and glazed eyes. They were only doing two performances in
Perhaps unusually for a musical, especially a youth one, the acting was definitely stronger than the singing, with all roles being played with conviction. The choreography was simple but effective. The singing, however, left something to be desired. From where I was seated at the back of the auditorium, the music slightly overpowered the voices in most of the solos and duets so it was difficult to make out all the words. The exception was the ex queen Zombie’s song “Once I was Daddy’s little Princess” which came across loud and clear and rather more tunefully than most of the other musical numbers. The Zombie King also had good stage presence and a strong loud (but not so tuneful) voice.
Otherwise, the standard of the show was generally fairly even throughout. There were no real low points but, by the same token, there were no real high points either. There was nothing notably bad, it was just all much of a muchness. To make a good show great, it needed more light and shade and more of a contrast between quieter more intimate moments and big production numbers.
It was clear that a lot of work had gone into this show and it benefited from clean clear direction. They had wisely toured it prior to their two night Edinburgh run so, while other companies were still bedding in and not yet ready to open their doors to reviewers, these kids had been here, done it, got the t-shirt (and the review) and were already heading home.
