A Perfect Bowl of Pho by Nam Nguyen

Playwrights Canada Press


Regular price $13.99
A Perfect Bowl of Pho by Nam Nguyen

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Nam, a procrastination-prone Vietnamese Canadian university student, sets out with the vague ambition to write a musical about his diaspora as embodied by food, particularly the world-famous noodle soup pho. What follows is pure meta musical, genre-bending through thousands of years of history, featuring rapping ancient kings, communist spies, dancing sharks and refugees, and awkward first dates in suburbia. However, Nam eventually finds himself caught between his different characters as each argues what pho (the food and the show) truly represents, and he struggles to find an answer that will satisfy everyone—in the end, isn’t this just a bunch of silly soup songs?

Run time: 80 minutes
Cast size: 12 characters

“Hilariously and exhaustingly meta-theatrical… Nguyen’s is a name to watch.”
- Karen Fricker, Toronto Star


“A fresh new musical that pulses with life, anarchic energy and invention.”
- Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine