At the end of this, their latest camp adventure, Linus Karp and Joseph Martin announced that they would be getting married August 16th on stage at one of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s larger venues, Pleasance Grand, which they believe “will be the first legal wedding with a paying audience in the festival’s 78-year history, as well as the first LGBTQ+ wedding to be staged as part of the official programme” (to quote what they also told UK newspapers.)
Well, I thought, at least that show will be novel.
There are several deeply hilarious moments in “The Fit Prince,” and some fun staging (much of it involving audience participation), but unlike the subject of their previous Fringe hits, “Gwyneth Goes Skiing” and “Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story,” their subject this time around – the royal rom-com – is a largely unproductive target. As hard as they try to make “The Fit Prince” zany, the story that frames the show is ultimately just as tame and predictable as the familiar plots on Netflix and Prime Video.
Karp portrays the prince of the mythical land of Swedonia (which bears an unmistakable likeness, complete with an eventual sauna scene, to his native Sweden.) His father the king has just died, and in order to keep the kingdom in the family, the prince must find true love and marriage within the next two weeks. We see one video after another of would-be suitors. Meanwhile a New York baker named Aaron (Martin), not an intentional suitor at all, travels to Swedonia on a cake commission (yes, that’s how they get him there.) The prince and the baker accidentally bump into each other; they initially dislike one another, but grow to… well, you know the drill. There is a threat of a coup by the prince’s official doppelganger, but all ends happily with a prolonged French kiss (they’re getting married after all.)
Karp and Martin’s apparent effort to dress the show up as daring and different can feel strained, most notably in the title, which is in full: “The Fit Prince (who gets switched on the square in the frosty castle the night before (insert holiday here).” But the extensive use of audience members as cast members, while perforce uneven, is meticulous and often inspired. Some get weighty roles, reading their lines from a screen facing the stage. In one scene, they’re treated like the ensemble at Les Miz, given sack cloths to wear as residents of an orphanage presided over by a huge ghastly puppet witch (operated/worn by Martin) named Gerta McMurder. When the prince and the baker go horseback riding, two unsuspecting theatergoers are given horse masks to wear, while they kneel down in front of the couple, who are sitting on saddles, making it look as if the horses have been mounted. I don’t know how the horses reacted, but I somehow found it one of funniest scenes so far at the Fringe.
There is one scene in “The Fit Prince” that is even funnier: Their spoof of ABBA is masterful, with Karp and Martin in long-haired wigs and sparkly minidresses as BAAB, singing “Dunkirk”
You’re the movement king
You’re middle aged
You’re 53
Still on stage
Take us back in your time machine
This was not just spot-on, it’s newly relevant, given that the Broadway revival of Mamma Mia began performances this past weekend (although the cast doesn’t sing “Waterloo”) The lyrics are not as barbed as they could be – the members of ABBA, after all, are actually in their late 70s and 80s — but to me the song came with a particular edge. Everything about it (even the wigs) reminded me of what I enjoyed about “Gwyneth Goes Skiing” (which I saw earlier this year at Soho Playhouse in New York, to which it is returning in October.) As I wrote in my review, Karp had a kind of poise as Gwyneth that somehow felt genuine, even as we knew it was an act for comic effect.
One could argue, I suppose, that it is unfair to call “The Fit Prince” derivative and predictable: It’s a classic fairy tale, merely queered up and camped up for a fringe audience – and, besides, it’s fun. That might have been enough for me, had I not seen what Karp and Martin have done before.
It also has the disadvantage, though, of bad timing. I recently saw another play about a gay royal prince (with an even more problematic title), which happened to end its Off-Broadway run over the weekend (but is moving to Studio Seaview for six weeks starting September 11.) It is also campy and sometimes funny, but has something honest to say about LGBTQ+ life and love, which “The Fit Prince” doesn’t even attempt.
***The Fit Prince (etc.) is performing through August 25 at Beyond at Pleasance Courtyard as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
