It's a giggle vehicle powered by two stories. One designed to showcase the pain, the other to parade the laughter.

The first involves the break up between record store slacker Rob Gordon (David Light) and his departed love interest Laura (Jamie Arfin). The second unfolds in a vinyl emporium featuring misfit cash register jockies Dick (Carl Swanson) and Barry (Brian Russel).  Add in a handful of store dwelling eccentrics and you have a bona fide song enslaved subculture whose lifestyles have a soundtrack for every breathe they take.

David Lindsay-Abaire's book uses the precise movie framework to deliver the goods but resorts to dialogue tweaking to set it apart.  Tom Kitt and Amanda Green come up with an assortment of dazzling songs to establish musical street credit and succeed in maintaining the true spirit of the piece.

One of director Mark Selby's finest accomplishments is a rewind scene when pseudo-spiritual wanker, Ian (Jason Zinger), pops by the record store to convey a message to Rob about his unacceptable behaviour.   It's a bold visual rarely played out in the theatre once, but Selby and his ambitious cast nail the moment three times.

Life isn't always about Top 5 lists but a smart Generation X musical of this flavour helps illustrate that when male stupidity knocks, sometimes the door does swings wide open.  A story about confusion, remorse, self examination, and moving on, Hart House Theatre's staging of High Fidelity weighs in as a 2010 must see.