As we applaud the inclusion in the FringeNYC Festival of shows written by and featuring women as its protagonists, pieces like The Mad Scientist's Guide to Romance, Robots and Soul-Crushing Loneliness can’t help but leave a bitter aftertaste, because not only are they instantly forgettable, but they also rely on the very same superficial conventions that men use to objectify women in art. The show essentially riffs on 1980s cult classic Weird Science which saw two geeky men build themselves a sexy, mindless companion. In the show, neurotic scientist Emily (Megas Sass who also wrote the book) decides to give her boyfriend Chad (Darren Bluestone) a robotic upgrade that will not only satisfy her sexually, but will be her emotional slave. Little does she know that Chad 2.0 will end up becoming “human” and straying from her when things get too tough to handle.
While seeing a female character be fully aware of her sexual needs is always commendable, Emily is written like the needy heroine of a mediocre romantic comedy, and not necessarily because the show is trying to spoof the genre, which it somehow thinks it’s doing, but also because Emily sees self empowerment in this behavior. Sadly, for as much as the show pretends it’s being subversive, it never allows its characters to become more than stereotypes that often recur to offensive methods of self preservation. We see one of the characters become almost like an animal because they are unable to control themselves when they’re close to the object of their affection, another character is judged based on the color of their hair which is associated with stupidity, and for as much as the book criticizes Chad’s practices, he often comes unscathed and looking almost godlike.
The show is often aggressive when it should’ve been provocative, vulgar when it aims for sexy, and remarkably unfunny when it tries hard to deliver its punchlines. While it’s impossible to recommend the show, its flaws should open the dialogue and make us ask ourselves: is it fair to expect more than clichés about women just because the show was written by a woman? If this musical was trying to prove that a woman has the right to write something as terrible as a man would then it has accomplished its mission, perhaps it’s wishful thinking to hope it would’ve aimed for a nobler goal.
