Melissa Kaplan plays a small-town girl who experiences a lesbian awakening in Daggers MacKenzie. (Photo courtesy of Capital Fringe)

Reminds us of: If Water for Elephants and Deadwood (mostly because of the strong corset game) had a lesbian love child.

Flop, Fine or Fringe-tastic: Fine.

It’s not easy to pull off a one-person musical, but Melissa Kaplan as Daggers MacKenzie saunters, sings, and shimmies with real chutzpah — sometimes while impressively juggling long, mean-looking knives high into the air. The story is set in the Wild West, where we find a small-town girl raised on a mountain-ringed apple farm by a mother who doesn’t understand her sexuality. MacKenzie uses her fruit-juggling abilities to land a gig with a circus that’s passing through. The circus proprietor, a rather unscrupulous older woman named Miss Annie, takes her under her wing — and into her bed. There begins MacKenzie’s loss of innocence, which unwinds toward a dramatic climax.

The multi-talented Kaplan is the show’s composer, lyricist, and writer as well as the actor, and most of her songs are genuinely catchy. She’s an engaging and likable performer with a warm voice, although it occasionally strained and flattened; she was also plagued throughout the show with a slipping headset. Kaplan weaves an interesting story, but sometimes it’s a little hard to follow as she toggles between characters. Parts of the narrative would benefit from more development as well — I was a bit surprised near the end when MacKenzie abruptly fell in love with a newly introduced character I hadn’t found the time to care about yet. Nonetheless, Daggers MacKenzie is everything a Fringe show should be: unique, fun, and bolstered with a healthy dose of eccentricity.

Where to See It: Atlas Performing Arts Center on July 14 at 5:00 p.m., July 15 at 8:00 p.m., July 16 at 1:30 p.m. and July 22 at 10:30 p.m. Buy tickets here.

See here for all of DCist’s 2017 Capital Fringe coverage. All shows are $17, with a button ($7) required for entry.