{"data":{"id":"27ae91d4-ea67-48d7-84cb-2a5a8f76c5cf","originKind":"SYNDICATED","title":"Fringe Review: Pork & Beans: Attorneys at Law funny but lacking polish","summary":"Pork & Beans: Attorneys at Law\n\n3 out of 5\n\nStage 18, Luther Centre, 10014 81 Ave.\n\nJunior-high juvenile though also capturing the energy of snappy improv in a scripted musical, I was about to give up this one until a bit past halfway through it actually got super beautiful.\n\nIn serious need of a polish with way fewer bad-pun character names (Rod Caster and Telly Porter— really, haha?), this loose story of two legal besties set in 1979 Chicago and flashing back to 1971 Harvard finds a nine-strong cast of up-and-coming local actors throwing basically everything they can at the wall.\n\nReliably dumber than funny, a sample zinger as lawyer Pork hands a judge’s alligator-chewed off hand back to her: “Let me give you a hand.” Lord.\n\nAnd a joke about a lawsuit over someone misunderstanding what a hotdog is felt like it was run through the universal translator back and forth on repeat all night, spiced at dawn with more cliches than the worst derivate urges of Stranger Things.\n\nSurrounding this, an out-of-control, low-stakes plot about a baseball player’s murder trial with the story time-jumping to the titular Beans and Pork’s origin, the latter originally a Harvard janitor making chili in his mop bucket. Sure. Fine.\n\nIf this stuff was invented on the spot, actors breaking character a bit, more forgivable. But where the nine-headed crew did shine was in a kind of basic, likeable charm and energy, especially in the song-and-dance numbers in the second half.\n\nThen there’s this one, perfect cinematic moment with Beans and Telly on an early picnic date, offstage chorus singing wordlessly, that transcended all the goofball jokes and dusty satire, smartly called back to in the play’s final moments.\n\nThere’s something here, with hints of something greater. Oh yeah, plus one very funny line about a six-foot dwarf.","url":"https://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/edmonton-fringe-review-pork-beans-attorneys-at-law","imageUrl":"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pork-beans_304726479.jpg","publishedAt":"2026-08-17T05:05:21.000Z","sourceLabel":"Edmonton Journal Music","tags":["Entertainment","Festivals","Theatre"],"authorName":"Fish Griwkowsky","contentHtml":"<img alt=\"Pork &amp; Beans: Attorneys at Law, at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival.\" src=\"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pork-beans_304726479.jpg\" title=\"Pork &amp; Beans: Attorneys at Law, at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival.\" /><p> <strong>Pork &amp; Beans: Attorneys at Law</strong> </p><p> <strong>3 out of 5</strong> </p><p> <strong>Stage 18, Luther Centre, 10014 81 Ave.</strong> </p><p> Junior-high juvenile though also capturing the energy of snappy improv in a scripted musical, I was about to give up this one until a bit past halfway through it actually got super beautiful. </p><p> In serious need of a polish with way fewer bad-pun character names (Rod Caster and Telly Porter— really, haha?), this loose story of two legal besties set in 1979 Chicago and flashing back to 1971 Harvard finds a nine-strong cast of up-and-coming local actors throwing basically everything they can at the wall. </p><p> Reliably dumber than funny, a sample zinger as lawyer Pork hands a judge’s alligator-chewed off hand back to her: “Let me give you a hand.” Lord. </p><p> And a joke about a lawsuit over someone misunderstanding what a hotdog is felt like it was run through the universal translator back and forth on repeat all night, spiced at dawn with more cliches than the worst derivate urges of Stranger Things. </p><p> Surrounding this, an out-of-control, low-stakes plot about a baseball player’s murder trial with the story time-jumping to the titular Beans and Pork’s origin, the latter originally a Harvard janitor making chili in his mop bucket. Sure. Fine. </p><p> If this stuff was invented on the spot, actors breaking character a bit, more forgivable. But where the nine-headed crew did shine was in a kind of basic, likeable charm and energy, especially in the song-and-dance numbers in the second half. </p><p> Then there’s this one, perfect cinematic moment with Beans and Telly on an early picnic date, offstage chorus singing wordlessly, that transcended all the goofball jokes and dusty satire, smartly called back to in the play’s final moments. </p><p> There’s something here, with hints of something greater. Oh yeah, plus one very funny line about a six-foot dwarf. </p><p> </p>","slug":"fringe-review-pork-and-beans-attorneys-at-law-funny-but-lacking-polish","publicPath":"/news/2026-08-16-fringe-review-pork-and-beans-attorneys-at-law-funny-but-lacking-polish"}}