[FRINGE] don't tell anyone about the set

One of my favourite songs from the show was Keeper of Secrets (naturally), which is what I believe Sammy J and Heath MacGregor would probably prefer the audience to do about their new show Sammy J and Randy in Bin Night. Now for those who don't know, Sammy J is a musical comedian who has a good line in snappy songs. Randy, on the other hand (literally in this case) is a purple puppet operated by Heath MacGregor. While both have had their own shows, Randy has on occasion appeared at Sammy's shows (inspiring the duo song Rickett's Lane from Sammy J's Sticky Digits CD/show), and last year they appeared together in the show Rickett's Lane, about their adventures living together in a share house at 37 Rickett's Lane. This show was a continuation of this idea, if not the plot from the previous show, in that Sammy and Randy are back at 37 Rickett's Lane and on the look out for the person that is putting rubbish in their bin on bin night. It featured a couple of good songs, and some smart patter, but it really wasn't as good as it could have been. After at least 4 years performing the same shtick, together or separately (the character of Sammy J is as artificial as the character of Randy in this regard), it is simply getting old and rather tired. Randy is dropping the f-bomb a lot more, which is not a good sign, especially in a puppet expressive enough to be able to forge a deep personal attachment with the audience (as evinced in his solo show, Postcards From Randy). There was the same misguided love between the starring characters as last time, but this time there was no real evolution in their character or story. It was just a single, albeit extended, vignette. The chemistry wasn't there. Of course, it may have be the result of the large number of technical failures during the show, and the resulting loss of the performer's morale thereby. There were glitches with both of their microphones which needed a bit of time to sort out, although it did inspire a lovely impromptu musical number. And the backdrop for their lovely robust set didn't turn out to be quite so robust after all, collapsing over Sammy and Heath a number of times during the show.* While this may have seriously affected their performance (it's hard to act when you are waiting for the scenery to fall on your head again), I actually found the improv bits and asides to be funnier than the show. Much fresher, anyway. And this was, to a great degree, echoed by most of the audience. Still, as said, there was some good songs, and some excellent patter between the two of them, but it wasn't really up to the standards of their previous shows and I found that rather disappointing. Perhaps someone who has never seen them before might have a different opinion of the show. * Which did result in the snappy punch-line of the show, which had been aimed squarely and rather critically at the audience, being almost totally lost. I'm curious as to how many people in the audience would have realised that the last joke was on them in the normal run of the show.