Dads The Musical

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – Dads The Musical

Playwright/s/Composer/s – Written by Robert More composed by Tom Doyal.

Production Company/Theatre space – Community, Misfit Theatre, Joyce Doolittle Theatre, Pumphouse Theatre.

Length – 2 Acts (2 hours 20 minutes, one intermission.)

Genre– Musical

Premise – Three fathers, laid off from their jobs, stay home to raise their babies.

Why this play? Why now? – This show hasn’t been done in Calgary for decades.

Curiosities – I wondered if expanding the play from a 45-minute show to a two-act play made it better. I also wondered what time period this was in, the music and short shorts were from the 1980s but the phones were from 2025.

Notable Moment – Baby puppets!

Notable writing – This show started out at Lunchbox Theatre and was called Dads in Bondage. In order to have a longer shelf life, all short form theatre at Lunchbox is re-released as a long form play to get royalites from summer theatre (and other) markets. Some plays are originally written long form and cut down, and some are short and padded. This is a one joke play that now takes over 2 hours. The play hasn’t aged well. The perspective of men as competent fathers was seen as an anomaly decades ago and is now somewhat toe curling. (One father can’t discern between his twin boys for months!)

Notable performances – The rule in theatre is never compete on stage with dogs or children and the same can be said about puppet babies. Puppeteers Chloe Payton and Madisson Vermeulen operate the twins. Usually the term “chewing up the scenery” is a negative referring to overacting. In this case the twins chew food, spoons, and a sports jacket -- it’s all adorable. The three dads are played by humans: Matt McPhail is the neurotic pill popping dad with a sexual fantasy fixation; Chris Willott (real-life father of three who was “cajoled by his wife to join the production”) looks like he’s having a good time; and Conor Maney who is adding acting, singing, and dancing to his resume of sword fighting, cello playing, and Kung Fu. There are five performers in the play and two are strong singers.

Notable design/Production – Joeseph Fernando took the late Tommy Doyle’s piano music and expressed it with guitars, accordion, bongo, xylophone, and keyboard adding a lovely, rich layer.

Notable direction – This is Krista Willott’s first ever time as Music Director and, as with parenting, it can be rocky at first. Director Nicola Payton has more experience (having won a CAT award for last year’s The Peacock Season) and births a bouncing baby show.

One reason to see this show – Misfit’s vision is to empower, educate, and entertain -- fortunately with Dads, they prioritized entertain!