Anna Morris: It's Got To Be Perfect

A staged wedding rehearsal as the framing device for a character comedy piece is an interesting premise, as Fringe comedy goes. Ironically, though (given the show's use of a "practice run" setting), It's Got To Be Perfect suffers from flaws that no amount of rehearsal would prevent. It's not without its merits, but it becomes a victim of its own unique concept.

Anna Morris takes on the persona of Georgina, an elitist snob who's using the 22 dates of the Fringe as rehearsals for her life's obssession: her imminent wedding. Unfortunately it's the same rhetoric (posh woman says posh things and plans her posh wedding) repeated ad infinitum. There's one gimmick, one stylistic hook, and it's dragged out ceaselessly to no incremental avail. A cut-glass accent and a portrayal of upper-class women that Margo from The Good Life thinks is outdated is not a sufficient substitute for wit or material.

It's largely reliant on audience participation, with the viewing public playing the roles of important wedding guests. The problem is that the show then becomes structured around the responses of people for whom comedy is not a natural gift. Morris is a professional, but the people who perform half the dialogue aren't. The spontaneity creates volatility but not much substance. 

Aside from one searingly brilliant one-liner at the beginning, it's overly familiar schtick. Do we really need more depictions of women as materialistic airheads? Some updated satire and a purely monologue-based structure would have improved an otherwise antiquated show.