Vancouver Fringe Festival: Cannibal The Musical

It was a packed house tonight at the Firehall Arts Centre for the 3rd showing of Trey Parker's Cannibal: The Musical. Its popularity is just the tip of the iceberg as the hit Broadway musical Book of Mormon rolls into town next Spring. With Cannibal: The Musical, South Park co-creator Trey Parker cuts his teeth on writing a full length musical before graduating to the likes of Team America and Book of Mormon.

This based-on-true-events stage show is a breath of fresh air at the Fringe, clocking in at 90 minutes and featuring a cast of 12. With no actual stage script available, anyone who obtains the rights to the show will have to adapt it themselves. Director Corwin Ferguson manages to seamlessly translate the cult film into a stage production that is both raucous and rollicking.

With several nods and winks to some of Parker's other material, as well as several current references, the show is fun and slapstick and absurd in all the right places.

Cannibal: The Musical plays at the Firehall Arts Centre on Sept 9 (6:15pm), Sept 10 (6:45pm), Sept 11 (5pm), Sept 13 (1:30pm), and Sept 14 (3:15pm).