Almost Ever After: songs about love
11 Jul 2025 - Photos by Andrew Seok

Unfortunately an unfortunate combination of personal and professional commitments severely limited my ability to attend the Fringe this year. However I could not miss a new musical by Andrew Seok (The Man with the Golden Heart, Unravelled). And I'm not the only one, unfortunately for many, the entire run has sold out. Almost Ever After is a combination of a musical and a staged reading. The program notes state that it is an adaptation of an upcoming musical film. In a meta move, the plot is reminiscent of many films of the intertwining storylines rom-com variety. And many, many films are referenced. All of the characters are searching for love or struggling to hang onto love. All of them are self-consciously witty and love to sing, very well in most cases, in generalities. In a brazen move, Seok, who also directs, has cast himself as the character who is the connecting thread for most of the stories as well as an almost cuckold to two idealized lesbians. He carries it off well with a wry delivery of lines and a sadly brief smoky vocal performance.

The music is firmly of the pop variety which is in conflict with the more dramatic segments and feels less organic than a more traditional musical. It also doesn't allow the performers to shine to their full potential, there are some big voices in the cast. Fortunately they don't embellish with melisma, they compensate with emotional delivery. Emotions that the lyrics don't always support. Julia Pulo (The Wizard of Oz) rips into a chorus of "Love is a lie and then you die" that adds a little metal to the otherwise pop proceedings, and James Daly (La Cage aux Folles) and Julia Holiff (Uncovered: The Music of Dolly Parton) duet sweetly and with delicious irony as a couple confronting possible parenthood. Rhoslynne Bugay has some gorgeous gutsy moments in the most melodramatic storyline and has figured out a way to counteract the acoustics that thin the higher registers. Davis Okey-Azunnah drifts spectrally on the edges of the 10 person chorus before seizing the spotlight, sadly one song only, as a lost love, becoming the missing clue to a particular puzzle.

Seok himself at one point adds drama to the very capable band with a modulation under an acapella passage that explodes off the stage. When pop rock meets classic musical, sparks fly. Without the benefit of editing and wipes, or even lighting beyond romantic strings of stage light bulbs, the performers have to work hard to denote the passage of time or locale. But their passion, crucial in a musical all about love, carries it through and I suspect that most of the audience will be eager to experience the film when it is complete. And on the sidewalk outside after the performance, I was not the only one still singing along with the catchy finale.