Front Row Centre reviews MACHOMER

Rick Miller starts the performance by asking who in the audience has watched THE SIMPSONS in the past week. Nearly everyone has. Then he asks who there has read MACBETH in the last month.  One or two people applaud. He brands them liars.

It's a good joke, but underscores a key point: Today more people can quote lines from THE SIMPSONS than from MACBETH or any of the great Shakespearean plays.

Millers solution is to combine the two: So his one-person multi-media show offers up the characters from TV's popular toon playing out a streamlined version of MACBETH.

It works about as well as Springfield production of STREETCAR: THE MUSICAL. That is to say it is uproariously funny, with enough gags to ensure everyone has a great time.

But nobody has a better time than Miller on stage for the full 75 minutes doing spot-on vocal impersonations of Homer (as MacBeth), Marge (as the power-mad Lady MacBeth), with all the others Springfieldians taking on roles large and small.  It's a wildly creative idea (or a creatively wild one …take your pick) but it works brilliantly.

Miller keeps to he basic outline of Shakespeare's play s even those who haven't read it can follow the basic plot.  Meanwhile he weaves in enough of the Simpsonisms to delight fans of the series.

The TV series packs a lot into a half-hour (22 minutes once you factor in commercials. The Show clocks in at an hour and 15 minutes, but just as it is starting to wear a bit thin, Miller wraps it up and offers up a unique encore: A performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody" done by the most annoying voices in the music industry. It too is great fun but has little in common with all that has preceded it, except that it offers the talented Miller a chance to show off his vocal impressions.

The show debuted in Toronto 10 years ago when THE SIMPSONS was first reaching the height of its popularity.  Since then, Miller has toured it extensively, now bringing it back for a limited run. Unless you prefer your Shakespeare straight up ad your SIMPSONS on the tube, go!

MACHOMER continues until September 30 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District. For performance schedule and tickets call 416.866.8666 or visit www.youngcentre.ca