REVIEW: The Last Timbit is a surprisingly charming commercial gem

iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.

Reviews

/By Andrea Perez / Jul 12, 2024

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The Last Timbit, a show of snow and sweets, had a limited run at the Elgin Theatre in June and is getting a streaming release on Crave on August 12. I, for one, am more than curious to see how a wider audience will react. 

Personally, I’m not a big fan of Timbits — I’m more of a double-double gal myself — but no matter their order, most Canadians would pull over their car for some Tims. 

This musical, produced by Tim Hortons to celebrate their 60th anniversary, feels like a blend of Come from Away and The Office. I didn’t have super high artistic hopes for this production. But with a book by Casey and Diana’s Nick Green and music and lyrics by Anika Johnson and Britta Johnson, this show is surprisingly a good time. It’s packed with catchy songs, a solid emotional core, and Canadian jokes galore. 

In the middle of a snowstorm, a rag-tag group of Canadians are stranded in a Tim Hortons. After gorging themselves on sweets and coffee, they realize there is only one Timbit left… and of course, to determine who gets the last Timbit, they employ a series of silly games, much like The Office’s own Office Olympics. 

There’s a pair of wannabe influencers (Kimberly-Ann Truong and Andrew Broderick), a wacky park ranger (Jake Epstein), and many other oddballs who make up this competition of Olympic proportions (DeAnn Degruijter, Sara Farb, Barbara Fulton, Sterling Jarvis, Peter Millard, and Danté Prince). The story mostly centres on a mother-daughter duo (Chilina Kennedy and Kaya Kanashiro) who are engaged in an argument as icy as the conditions on the road. 

What unfolds between the characters is very after-school special, but it’s also a tender tribute to Canadian togetherness, with strangers being empathetic to one another even amongst the worst weather conditions. 

Director Brian Hill leans into the camp of this enterprise. The piece doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it successfully brings out the comedic bits and bolts of this script. It’s grand, it’s cheesy, it’s feel-good. The choreography by Genny Sermonia energizes the stage, and the whole production is sharp and well-rehearsed.

The set, costume, and prop design by Kelly Wolf is pretty much what you’d expect from this musical: a mega-sized replication of a real-life Tim Hortons onstage that hosts this tale of Canadian camaraderie. A huge red glowing logo always looms above the action, and the screens above the counter show the regular Tims menu… until they become part of the show as well, with images flashing across the screens during different musical numbers (video design by Cameron Davis).

Every member of this ensemble beams with Canadian optimism and charm. Nineteen-year-old Kanashiro is a sweetheart onstage as Olivia, the latter half of the mother-daughter combo. Her number “The Second Clarinetist” is full of teenage awkwardness in the best way. Millard as Anton, the older Tims regular, brings a grounded emotional core to the piece. I’d be surprised if there was a dry eye in the theatre as he sang “Anton’s Song,” a tribute to the character’s late wife. 

At times when the whole ensemble sang in unison, there was a bit of a sound leveling issue and voices were drowned out, making it difficult to understand the lyrics. I was curious if this was just where I was sitting close to the front row, but as I exited the theatre I overheard a couple of people saying the same thing. While the band, led by Jonathan Corkal-Astorga, is certainly worthy of a little extra attention, ultimately this sound issue was distracting enough for several audience members to notice.

Is The Last Timbit just a giant Tim Hortons commercial? Yes, but we all knew that going in. Is this some revolutionary piece of theatre? No, but again, we all knew that already. The fact alone that a Tim Hortons musical even exists is plenty amusing in itself. The Last Timbit isn’t anything theatre hasn’t seen before, but it’s a feel-good laugh that you can both hate and love for its cheesiness. 

And hey, you gotta give the Tim Hortons marketing team some bonus points for creativity.

You can learn more about the streaming release of The Last Timbit here.

Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.

WRITTEN BY

Andrea Perez

Andrea Perez is an interdisciplinary theatre artist who enjoys acting, writing, directing, and producing. She is an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto studying Drama, Classical Civilizations, and Creative Writing, exploring storytelling and people in their many facets. She is a member of the 2023 cohort of the IBPOC Critics Lab, supported by Intermission Magazine and the Stratford Festival.

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