Bubble Babz: Songs from the Tub at the 2022 Toronto Fringe (Edge of the Sky)

NOTE: This is not a review. I’m in a Fringe show (The Boy Who Cried), so I don’t feel super comfortable doing critical evaluations of people’s work. Instead, my 2022 Fringe writing is more in the vein of “creative reflection”. The goal is to get conversations going about people’s shows, not deem them good or bad.

Barbara Johnston has a new character: Bubble Babz. Bubble Babz likes baths — baths for relaxing, baths for shaving, and baths for crying.

In Bubble Babz: Songs from the Tub, Bubble Babz sings to us from her inflatable tub. A rubber ducky (Mateo Chavez Lewis) plays piano, and her Q-list actor roommate (Carter Hayden) occasionally disturbs her.

The show’s format most closely resembles cabaret, so it has an old-school showbiz vibe; the elegance of which mixes with the gaudy bathroom setting to create a surprisingly alluring atmosphere.

The songs — originals, by Johnston, Anika Johnson, and Suzy Wilde — are smooth, and feel very 80s, matching up nicely with Babz’s stories about growing up in that decade.

But I’m mostly just taken by how easy the whole thing felt. I barely even noticed when Babz began to sing — it just feels like a natural extension of the story she’s telling. Maybe it’s because the bathtub as a dramatic frame already makes everything Babz says feel very personal, even confessional. So when music sweeps in with some extra emotion, we’re already ready to receive it.

I hope to see this character again. But for now, you can check her out at the Fringe.

The Toronto Fringe Festival runs from July 6-July 17. Bubble Babz: Songs from the Tub is playing at Crow’s Theatre; click here for tickets. Click here to return to my Fringe Masterpost.