Sometimes, a gimmick is used as a crutch, to replace solid acting and a crackling pace.
Fortunately, Bite is not one of those times.
The gimmick is that it’s a choose-you-own-adventure experience. Guests entering the Yellow Venue are handed a “lollipaddle” with a black side and a red side. Occasionally throughout the show, the house lights go up and the main character, a mild-mannered dentist named Dr. Oliver Greenmeadow (Adam Brick) steps forward and offers a “choice moment.” The audience is given two choices for where the plot can go and then casts their votes by either holding up the red or the black side of their lollipaddles. Dr. Greenmeadow does a quick tally and then the show immediately surges down the democratically-chosen path.
It’s clever from a marketing perspective because it encourages audience members to return to the show and see a different plotline. It’s also clever from an entertainment perspective because it is just plain FUN.
It’s also filthy. It becomes challenging to discuss plot points when the reader may be seeing an entirely different show than the reviewer, but let’s just say my plot included a spanking in a dungeon, a gay blowjob and a janitor hired to clean very… specific fluids. No, I’m not telling you which of those got my votes.
Actress Anna Bridgforth plays three roles; actor Bob Brader covers two characters. If that sounds confusing, it isn’t, because clever use of music and lighting keep everything nice and compartmentalized. All three are great, but Brick especially shines as an un-ruffle-able nerd with a dark side and “the gentlest fingers in the business.”
I’m probably not going to go back again and again to see all the possible plotlines, but Bite is definitely worth a ride-through.
