On the face of it, a musical about ’NSync from the point of view of Chris Kirkpatrick rather than Justin Timberlake sounds like niche 90s nostalgia for what remains of the US boyband’s fandom. But it is just this weird, retro marginalia that gives Valen Shore and Alison Zatta’s satirical musical its brilliant bathos.
It is Christmas Eve in 2009 and Kirkpatrick (Shore) is in a Hollywood Starbucks queue, now barely recognised. “It’s true I used to be on MTV,” he sings, and waits for former bandmate Timberlake (Nicole Wyland) to ring him for their long-awaited reunion. From here, the plot mashes up It’s a Wonderful Life with A Christmas Carol and the life and times of the band. Fitzpatrick is transported back in time to revisit how he enlisted 14-year-old Timberlake and the rest of the team – Lance (Riley Rose Critchlow), Joey (Elizabeth Ho) and JC (Mia-Carina Mollicone) – before Timberlake streaked off for his stellar solo career.
It is all fantastically silly, tremendously enjoyable, with reflections on the adrenalised rise to fame for young celebrities and the wistful hankering in its decline that gives it a universality for those who have never heard of ’NSync.
Then there are the songs. From the first number, it is clear they are top quality. Under the music direction of Taylor J Williams, the score switches from manufactured pop to a cappella with numbers including I Believe (“23 is way too old to not be famous”). They are choreographed with neatly generic boyband moves by Lili Fuller and excellently sung by a charismatic cast, who play these bros with stick-on stubble, baseball caps on backwards and just the right amount of archness.
Timberlake is a cocky, angelic boy superstar and Wyland masters the wide-eyed freshness of his post-Mickey Mouse Club years and the cool shoulder shrugs of his later, sexier incarnation. Shore’s Kirkpatrick is accompanied by the ghost of Mark Wahlberg’s past hip-hop alter ego, Marky Mark (Zatta), who brings his own entertaining riffs on post-fame life.
A self-consciously lo-fi production, it seems to aim for a high school production aesthetic, with characters who look emphatically dressed-up, such as the group’s manager, Lou (Emily Lambert), who resembles a gangster from Bugsy Malone.
There are shows that wow you with cleverness, spectacle or complexity of ideas. Then there are those that make you smile and smile. So goofy and yet so good.
At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 28 August
