Every February, the Faculty, Alumni, Staff, and Students Theatre Company (FASS) puts on an original musical comedy show, and this year the company turned their attention to the world of Musk and Bezos with their production of Good Company with varying success. Running from Feb. 8-10, the show took place in Uptown Waterloo at the Kitchener-Waterloo Little Theatre.
Described on their website as a show “about evil billionaires and their antics”, FASS’s 2024 production was composed of six scenes depicting everything from high-stakes business meetings, submersible launches, co-op searches, and… Wombatman? While the exact focus of these scenes may have varied greatly, each one made sure to touch on the impacts of capitalism or depict the endeavours of billionaires in some (humourous) way.
Though convoluted at times, Good Company never lost track of who its audience was — connections to Waterloo (or “Loowater”, according to the script) were scattered throughout the show. Jokes were made about the struggles of co-op cycles, lack of mental health services for students, and the Engineering 5 Bridge even served as the backdrop during one of the Wombatman scenes (after the bridge came crashing down in combat, one character dramatically exclaimed, “where will I take my LinkedIn pictures now?”).
The production also boasted a live band, which accompanied the actors as they sang several original parodies related to the scenes. The band sounded great, although even with microphones the actors were slightly drowned out by the music. I was left wishing that I had copies of the songs’ lyrics, because even though the words were hard to make out, I could tell that the writers had included some great lines, even managing to fit the lyric “L + ratio” into the first number of the show.
The musical ended with a crowd-pleasing scene entitled “SpaseX”, in which audiences watched as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos rocketed off into space. Before being hit by flying space debris, the two billionaires joined forces to sing “Way Too Many Girlfriends” (set to “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne). As they engaged in a passionate space duet, it seemed that the two characters were all but ready to join forces romantically. Now that they’re somewhere off in space, I suppose we’ll never know for sure.
To learn more about FASS or get involved in future productions, head to their Instagram page.
