Julie Bunny Must Die!
Julie Bunny Must Die!
By Ned Wilkinson
Directed by Chris Leavy
Mental Multitrack Productions
Pink Venue, 2010 Orlando International Fringe Festival</strong>
In this light hearted musical, Adam Chase (Bert Rodriguez) is a starving cartoonist with a day job as a graphic designer. He’s been sketching “Julie Bunny: International Spy” since he was eight, and she’s the center of his life. True, he has a clingy girlfriend Lindsay (Stefanie Clouse) and a not-to evil day job boss (Michael Colavolpe) but neither knows his art has made him a minor deity in the fur fetish world. He’s stuck on the story line of his next episode, and when his boss offers him a huge opportunity to design an ad campaign for a failing Auto Giant, his life is disrupted. Even his on-line furry friend Laserwolf (Ryan Connolly) is upset; they won’t get to meet at Furriconium. The line between real life and the internal world o f Julie Bunny is already slippery, and when he tells his cartoons “you’re not in charge here, I am” he learns a truth about writing – when this are working right, those pesky people you brought to life ARE driving the bus. His job is to type things out, and draw the lines neatly.
“Julie Bunny” hip-hops along with a lovable story line and some spiffy music. Julie Bunny is the sweet Laura Hodos in coveralls and flop ears. She has one drop dead joke that takes almost 40 minutes to set up, but it’s worth the wait and plenty of smaller jokes ease the trip. Along the way we slip into the odd world of fur fetishism and meet the pretty darn evil Chef Albertson (Colavolpe) as well as alter egos of Lindsey and Laserwolf. Musically, there are no stand alone hits but the ensemble of music unites the story with opener “Julie Bunny” a great showcase for Rodriguez’s vocal cords. “This Commission” is Laserwolf’s twisted love song, and J.B.’s retort comes in “Hold Back The Elements”. The big number belongs to Chef Albertson’s “Julie Bunny Must Die!” – it’s moustache twirly evil, and Covalope can belt it out. Some pretty cool animations add texture to the show including a very fluid pencil test of Julie Bunny from Miguel Rivero and Cesar Del Soldato. It’s in the fluid style of early Disney, while a more modern Anime influence comes from the Laserwolf images by Mary Minch.
There’s even a moral of some sort in here – Adam has been fixated on Julie for most of his teen and adult life, and now the chance to take on an adult job with real potential to make a living lurks but he’s afraid to cut the cords with Julie. At least he doesn’t have to admit to his sister he gets turned on by Sports mascots.
This event is part of the 2010 Orlando International Fringe Festival. For schedule and ticket information, please visit http://OrlandoFringe.org
