A Fairly Odd Musical

Remember those cartoons you binged after school? They're back, with jazz hands. A Fairly Odd Musical crash-lands at the Jerry Orbach Theater, serving up a heaping helping of early 2000s nostalgia with a side of audience participation.

Picture this: Timmy Turner, complete with pink hat and buck teeth, wishes for a fancy new streaming service. Plot twist – it's packed with reboots so terrible, they'd make your childhood self cry. Cue a wild romp through TV land to save entertainment as we know it. Oh, and there's singing. Lots of singing.

The show's secret weapon? You. That's right, the audience gets to play puppet master, voting on which reboot disasters Timmy visits next. It's like Choose Your Own Adventure, but with more autotune.

Now, let's talk villains. Mr. Crocker from A Fairly Odd Musical and Dr. Doofenshmirtz from "Phineas and Ferb" show up to chew scenery and take names. Their banter's so sharp it could cut glass, whether you know these baddies or not. Props to Clay Webb as Crocker – dude handled a rebellious audience volunteer like a comedy ninja.

Music-wise, it's catchier than it has any right to be. Callahan Gillispie as Timmy's got pipes that could wake the dead (in a good way). The rest of the cast holds their own, belting out tunes that'll stick in your head for days.

But here's the rub – when the show strays from its main plot, things get weird. And not always the good kind of weird. We're talking "Shaggy as a cult leader" levels of bizarre. Some bits land like a perfect high-five, others fall flatter than a pancake in a cartoon anvil factory.

Fair warning: if you're not fluent in 2000s cartoon lore, you might feel like you're watching in a foreign language. The show throws around obscure references like confetti, leaving some of us scratching our heads. (Did you know Mr. Crocker's first name is Denzel? Me neither.)

Despite its quirks, A Fairly Odd Musical mostly sticks the landing. It's a bit like a sugar rush – fun while it lasts, but you might crash halfway through Act Two. With some trimming, this could be a lean, mean, nostalgia machine.

Bottom line: If you can quote Fairly OddParents in your sleep, you'll be grinning like the Cheshire Cat. For the rest of us, it's a wacky window into Gen Z's cartoon obsessions. Just don't blame me if you leave humming about fairy godparents.