Toronto Fringe Review: Back and Forth: The Musical

As a writer I feel I can both appreciate and accurately relate to the idea of a Procrastination Fairy - a tricky being who comes to tempt the hearts and minds of earnest writers who strive to merely complete their work by a given deadline, but is instead lured by the Fairy’s siren call to other such mundane things like laundry or Netflix. Damn you, Procrastination Fairy! Back and Forth: The Musical, playing at the 2022 Toronto Fringe Festival, explores the Fairy’s alluring presence and the writer’s fight to overcome.

Back and Forth: The Musical is written, directed and starring Dayjan Lesmond as Cass, the writer in question, as he battles the tricky and sly Procrastination (Dante Toccacelli) while being guilted by his agent Ace (Nikki Haggart), his best friend Ben (Mateo Chavez Lewis), and his therapist Dr Grace (Georgia Grant) to complete his work.  

And as a writer who has also struggled with creativity droughts, where the words just don’t seem to flow, I do relate to this performance. Often procrastination does feel like a conniving sprite over your shoulder whispering in your ear to draw you away from your work, and for that reason I quite enjoyed Toccacelli’s performance which was whimsical and delightfully kooky. Likely Lesmond’s writing for this show and performance as Cass was endearing and, of course, highly relatable.

The show as a whole is lighthearted and cute. The songs are sweet and fun although not entirely memorable, to be honest. They could use a few more run throughs to iron out the music.

And, there’s a dragon! It’s clear that a lot of time and effort went into the construction of this dragon which has paid off.  

Back and Forth: The Musical is on now until July 17 as part of the 2022 Toronto Fringe Festival.
Find show times and tickets here.