Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ROBOCOP: The Musical
Stage 11, Varscona Theatre, 10329 83 Ave.
The folks at Cousins-In-Law Theatre have done it yet again with arguably the show of the 2026 Edmonton Fringe Festival
And unfortunately, for you, as of this writing, the rest of the run is entirely sold out and you can only hope to see it in holdovers. Should such circumstances allow.
This company first came to my attention two years ago with their darkly funny Silence of the Lambs, Jr. (think of Hannibal Lecter as a safety play in an elementary school), And then last year they upped their game with their take on the movie Speed as a 1940s radio drama.
This year tops them both, at least in scope if not in execution with Rogers and Hammerstein’s ROBOCOP: The Musical.
If you haven’t guessed by now, the general idea of what they do is they take two seemingly disparate things, a piece of pop culture and a genre of play, and mash them together in a way that seemingly shouldn’t work and yet as they’ve proven three times now works perfectly when done correctly.
They succeed because they are true to the details of the genre while also giving viewers accurate representations of the IP their performing. They know what works about both sides of the coin.
In the case of ROBOCOP, there are some things that are stretched a little bit. In a nod to The Sound of Music, the Detroit police force is a bunch of nuns. The chief is Mother Superior, and the Board of Omni Consumer Products looks torn straight out of Oklahoma.
And the songs are note-perfect parodies of the classics, including my favourite, Oh What A Great Detroit Mornin’.
There are nods to other Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals scattered throughout, but you don’t have to be an expert in their work to enjoy this well crafted combination of singing, choreography and a helluva lotta laughs.
The whole cast shines, but Andrew Boyd (who also co-wrote) is a standout Murphy/RoboCop with both a pretty spot on RoboCop voice, but also undeniable singing chops. Jason Hardwick also shows off incredible vocal range and dance ability as Chief Mother Superior.
So, let’s all hope this gets a holdover run, or even, say, a standalone run from some enterprising theatre company.
I’d buy that for a dollar.
