½
JOB: The HipHop Musical
(written and directed by Eli Batalion and Jerome Saibil)

Oh, the talent of the two energetic stars of JOB -- the Hip Hop Musical.  

In this take, Job is a record company executive felled and later redeemed. 

But who cares what the story is about? Watching Montreal's writer/director/stars Eli Batalion and Jerome Saibil constantly shift between playing nine different characters -- including the crusty honcho Hoover and Job's professor wife, signalled by a white towel laid over their heads -- I wondered if the tracksuit wearing duo might pass out from overexertion and extensive rhyming.

The best parts of the show, which features riffs on Mary J. Blige's Family Affair and the Beatles' Let it Be, among others, happened when the rapping rhymers really stretched it. 

"Oh Job, Adobe Photoshobe ... eat your French toast," they cried, to the hoots of the audience. 

My favourite moments were when the rhymes hit these absurd levels -- like Batalion's "wishy, washy potato knishe" -- and an expletive-laden, bleepfest of a rant by Saibil.

— Ann Marie McQueen