Statistics at the 2022 Toronto Fringe (Ladyville Productions)

Photo by Elijah Goldstein

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.

Most musicals sound the same. But most musicals aren’t written by Shreya Jha.

Beyond being an Adams Prize winning composer, Jha is also a medical student, so we get the sense that her musical Statistics, about fictional undergrad Rose Anderson (Maddie Sekulin)’s Rosalind Franklin-imbued med school entrance essay writing process, is semi-autobiographical.

The show alternates between two timelines, Rosalind’s 1950s and Rose’s present day. Rosalind deals with lots of direct misogyny from male scientists, and Rose considers the ways that her and Rosalind’s struggles intersect and divert.

Jha’s style is Lin Manuel-Miranda-inspired — though I wouldn’t call much of it rap, really, the score patters along at breakneck speed, and in climactic moments, motifs duke it out in meaty counterpoint. Refreshingly, the chord progressions aren’t littered with the colourless sus chords that Dave Malloy infamously accused of infecting musical theatre. Instead, the colourful chords that accompany the vocal parts do more than just support the melody — they genuinely help cultivate the show’s emotional landscape (and the lush orchestrations only further this cultivation).

I have many buds working on this, and it was a pleasure to watch them break down the pressures and pleasures of “Life Sci Culture”. You should too.

The Toronto Fringe Festival runs from July 6-July 17. Statistics is playing at Ada Slaight Hall; click here for tickets. Click here to return to my Fringe Masterpost.