‘A Perfect Bowl of Pho’ at the Toronto Fringe is a delectable hit

A Perfect Bowl of Pho

Book, music and lyrics by Nam Nguyen. Directed by Steven Hao. Until July 17 at Ada Slaight Hall, 585 Dundas Street E. fringetoronto.com and 416-966-1062.

Nam Nguyen’s startlingly good musical about soup has all the fixings for a future well beyond the parameters of the Toronto Fringe Festival.

There’s no noodling about it: Nguyen’s songs are catchy, masterfully avoiding cliché, and his subversive playwriting is top-shelf. Brought to life by a glorious cast of young actors and superbly directed by Steven Hao, Nguyen’s soup show is earnest without being cloying, funny without being irritating. While the version of “Pho” playing at the Toronto Fringe is a scrappy one, it’s so full of heart and sheer talent that any lapses in stagecraft are fast forgiven.

Loose in plot yet tight in pacing, we follow Nam on a meta-theatrical journey as he writes a first draft of “Pho,” interfacing with pretentious Toronto playwrights and doubtful friends as he struggles to bring together a full play. The binding agent in “Pho” is Vietnamese food — as you might have guessed — but sombre vignettes about the Vietnamese diaspora, plus a gorgeous musical love letter to pho in the show’s final moments, negate any unearned sentimentality.

The cast is alarmingly and uniformly strong, but standout performances quickly emerge from Chris Vergara as Nam, Kryslyne-Mai Ancheta as Amy, and Joshua Kilimnik as Leo. A supertight pit band helmed by Kevin Vuong holds the fort against Nguyen’s demanding, high-energy songs — the orchestrations are great, too.

While “Pho” has earned itself a life past the “best by” date of the Toronto Fringe, this iteration is one to catch if you can — you’ll want the bragging rights for having seen it before it deservedly hits the bigger stages. It’s (forgive me) soup-er.

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