The BFF aka The Binge Fringe Festival of Free Theatre – the 11th annual Santa Monica Fringe Festival – features artists, companies, and performances by Santa Monica and Los Angeles-based artists. The BFF aims to celebrate the range and depth of the human condition and the idea that theatre arts experiences are vital, transformative, and must be available for all. On that note, all tickets and admissions to every single BFF event are free to the public.
Watching live-streamed performances from the UK, I will be reviewing as many of the shows as I can, starting with week 3’s Poster Child and week 4’s Titanical the Musical. The Binge Fringe Festival continues until 20 Nov 2026, and the live-streams can be found at Santa Monica Playhouse’s YouTube channel.
Poster Child: How Charlie’s Angels Kicked My Ass Out Of The Closet – created, written and performed by David Pavao, directed with and developed by Jessica Lynn Johnson, choreographer Pamela Najera-Michael
David is a child obsessed with Charlie’s Angels – but not necessarily for the reasons his dad imagines. Fifty years ago, a poster of Farrah Fawcett was intended to get him more interested in girls. The men’s underwear section of the Sears catalogue, however, was much more his thing.
David Pavao’s solo show, Poster Child, is a delightfully camp and warmly personal trip down memory lane. Even as a toddler, he recognised that he was “always fascinated by female characters on TV”, growing up surrounded by strong women in his own family.
The show’s clever conceit has Jill, Kelly and Sabrina effectively ‘reading’ his journal entries, which chronicle childhood experiences including being terrorised by mean girls who called him a “sissy”. Pavao’s language is expressive and evocative, balancing humour with moments of genuine vulnerability.
Collecting posters became a way of disguising his secret crushes on boys at school (and a few teachers). The more women adorning his bedroom walls, the better. There was even a special pleasure in the ritual of unwrapping and unrolling each new poster.
Against this backdrop are the familiar family dynamics: an overly masculine brother, a protective mother and a father who doesn’t quite ‘get’ his son. But there is a bigger question at the heart of the story: what exactly makes David a “normal boy”, physically or mentally?
Coming out publicly, navigating health challenges and reflecting on the female poster icons who seemed to watch over him through those formative years give Poster Child its emotional depth. The women of Charlie’s Angels may have been fictional, but their presence offered David comfort, companionship and a sense of belonging when he needed it most.
Ultimately, Poster Child is a touching celebration of identity, resilience and the unexpected heroes who help us become ourselves. A charming, funny and heartfelt theatrical memoir.
3.5*
Titanical the Musical: one man’s quest to write Hollywood’s most ambitious film – written and directed by Madeleine Lemay, performed by Dan Kerrigan, Sergei Stern, and Nick Borsellino
Titanical the Musical is a very short piece of theatre inspired by James Cameron’s film Titanic and the story of its creation nearly 30 years ago. Childishly drawn images are projected onto the screen, while a song recounts the ship’s infamous “watery grave” and explores the absurdities of making a Hollywood blockbuster.
There is material here for a sharp satire of the film industry: milking screen time, chasing publicity, following influencer advice and believing that ambition alone guarantees success. References to Hulu and Paramount bring us abruptly into the present day, although these contemporary nods feel more like passing jokes than fully developed observations.
The central challenge is what Jimmy can possibly achieve with a budget of just $3 million – apparently mere “pennies” in Hollywood terms. But the production itself seems to have been made on a similarly modest creative budget. The projected drawings are simplistic, the song does little to advance the story and isn’t enough to class this as a musical, and the humour too often relies on obvious gags rather than clever satire.
2*
There is a promising idea in sending up Hollywood excess and Cameron’s epic ambitions, but the material feels thin and repetitive. The silliness quickly wears off, and the show never quite finds the wit or musical inventiveness to sustain its premise. Ultimately, Titanical the Musical feels undercooked: more an extended comic sketch than a fully realised piece of musical theatre.