Cody Porter in Amor de Cosmos: A Delusional Musical, Joe Clark Productions, Edmonton Fringe 2023. Photo supplied

Amor de Cosmos: A Delusional Musical (Stage 8, Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre)

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

Start with this, and hold the thought: there is a new musical in the theatre repertoire about a Canadian provincial premier.   

That would be William Alexander Smith, an earnest loon of a 19th century guy who (to radically foreshorten his resumé), re-christened himself Amor de Cosmos, became the second premier of B.C., became an MP, became appallingly right-wing, and went insane. You know, the usual.

And, a century and a half after his salad days, he has been lured out of the mists of historical obscurity by attracting the attention of writer Richard Kemick (evidently a diligent and inspired researcher) and singer-songwriter Lindsey Walker, who is the quintessence of musical versatility.

Amor de Cosmos: A Delusional Musical is crowded with incident. And politicos. And characters (assorted friends and relatives and employers). And elections, and editorials from the newspaper he started, and lawsuits…. In 60 minutes. What heightens a wildly scrambling caper of a true-life story to near frenzy is that the cast size is one: the game, crazily busy Cody Porter armed with two hats that enable him to do dialogues, with assistance from composer Walker at the keyboard.

Cody Porter in Amor de Cosmos: a delusional musical, Joe Clark Productions, Edmonton Fringe. Photo supplied.

I have to admit that I had  trouble following what is undoubtedly a fascinating story, with cautionary reverb in these parlous right-sliding times. Partly this was because of the condensation of its narrative intricacies from the 90-minute original. Partly it’s because the text, written entirely in iambic pentameter, tended, like Walker’s lyrics, to fade into the iffy acoustics of Stage 8. Alas, a mic, a mic, his kingdom for a mic.

A shame since Porter is a fine comic actor, and his essentially light singing voice could use a boost. I did hear enough to know that Kemick’s book is witty, smart, with epigrammatic turns of phrase and lots of puns (“Rielpolitik”).  And his insights about a well-meaning reformer who turned into a crackpot and went into politics make for an arc that is undoubtedly worth the hearing. “A good job is a bad thing” or “I’ve seen the writing on the wallpaper.” How many musicals have you seen lately that open with a thought about “the art of any filibuster …”?

This is an eccentric musical about an eccentric character from Canadian history, and it definitely has a future. Like Amor de Cosmos himself it’s a real original, which is what the Fringe is for. It’s just that it cries out for most hospitable technical circumstances for its cleverness. After all, Walker’s hook song, “you must be unforgettable” has found a forgotten figure who’s potentially just that — on the plus and on the negative side.

“Every day’s a struggle with the world. Not to own it. Just to know it,” says our hero in his pre-anti-hero days. Which is also true of musicals.