Only child Noam Tomaschoff saw a 23andMe test on sale in 2023 and decided it was time to learn more about himself. That the results would eventually inspire a musical was perhaps the least surprising part of the story.
Writer and performer Tomaschoff teams up with his Toronto high school friends, composer Ryan Peters and producer Russell Citron (“Operation Mincemeat”), to share his family’s best-kept secret: That their theatre-loving son, who grew up an only child, was sperm donor-conceived.
The result is “Our Little Secret: A True New Musical,” a one-man show that debuted at the 2023 Toronto Fringe Festival and won the Best of Fringe and Patron’s Pick awards. The show has since travelled to Edinburgh and Montreal, before coming home to Toronto’s CAA Theatre as part of this year’s Off-Mirvish season. Broadway star Adam Pascal (“Rent” and “Aida”) directs this new production without an intermission, running until Nov. 22.
Only-child confidence and theatre-kid energy are both part of Tomaschoff’s DNA. His exuberant, occasionally self-involved personality makes him an entertaining guide through what becomes a surprisingly touching discovery about family and identity.
Chuckle-inducing rhymes and Tomaschoff’s infectious bounce are apparent from the beginning. However, the story drags its heels at the start, packed with too much exposition for a 90-minute runtime.
The bright opener “What’s Next?” at times feels too self-indulgent, the wide-eyed narrator spewing his anxieties about being his parent’s pride and joy, before they reveal how he was conceived. Then, the flashback title number is more awkward than funny when Tomaschoff imitates his parents as two feisty sock puppets at the fertility clinic.
The story and Tomaschoff’s vivacious range pick up when he receives his 23andMe results. In case a sperm donor origin wasn’t enough material for a show, he quickly learns that he has more than 35 siblings around the world.
Under orchestrator Steve Sidwell and music director Nick Burgess, the rock instrumentation swells with warmth as Tomaschoff joins a Facebook group and begins finding his relatives. Performing many roles, Tomaschoff is swaggering and cocky as his imagined biological father in interactive “Captain Jack,” then an effortlessly cheerful drinking companion in the standout number “Brothers,” as he connects with a sibling who shares his interests.
With masterful pizzazz, Tomaschoff lives every theatre kid’s dream.
He gets to slip between characters and saunter around his stage apartment filled with knick-knacks, illuminated under moody spotlights (Bruno-Pierre Houle’s set design glows with dozens of lantern-like keepsakes, and Stéphane Ménigot’s lighting sublimely navigates the narrator’s ups and downs). But he is also blessed with the challenge of playing his story from all sides of the conflict.
Tomaschoff makes clear that he holds neither parent responsible for the circumstances of his conception. He shares rosy childhood memories with ping-pong, motorcycle rides and supportive parents cheering him on at every performance.
Most of the show’s touching moments come when Tomaschoff deepens his voice and imitates his father, Gideon, disheartened by his son’s obsession with tracing back his ancestral tree. Tomaschoff’s Sylvie then provides the sobering relief and steady wisdom about what it means to be a family.
Those parents are arguably the most intriguing characters in the story, which is just as much theirs as it is their son’s.
It took this critic about two-thirds of the show to guess that the real-life parents in question were sitting less than an arm’s length away on opening night. Their particularly emotional reactions and smiling faces gave up their disguise. My suspicions were confirmed when Tomaschoff called on them to stand up and wave, Gideon in particular beaming with pride.
They have yet to miss one of their son’s big shows, the theatre kid proclaims from the stage.
Who’s to say whether Gideon and Sylvie will be in the audience every night until closing. After all, they are probably quite familiar with their family’s little secret by now.
Regardless, the musical’s version of the couple, thanks to Tomaschoff’s lively performance, will still be enough to keep us entertained.
