Theatre 2022: Fall Season Has Started / Singing in the Rain

Live theatre is a back with a vengeance in the fall of 2022, as there are so many interesting shows to watch from all the major theatres throughout Toronto!  My husband Rich and I have enthusiastically jumped back into the theatre scene with upcoming shows at Canstage (Bad Parent, My Ex-Boyfriend’s Yard Sale) and Soulpepper (Little Dickens) in addition to our Mirvish subscription series.  In addition, we plan to watch some plays at Crow Theatre in the new year and have our eyes out for the offerings at some of the smaller venues around the city.  We will also be looking at some regional theatre around Ontario, as we continue to take mini vacations a few hours away from our home.  We currently have a comedy lined up for Brighton, Ontario, during an upcoming 3-day vacation to the Cobourg/Port Hope area.

Our 2021/2022 Mirvish subscription season is winding down but already the shows from the 2022/2023 season are ramping up.  For the new season, my husband Rich and I have upgraded our seats so that we will be in the dress circle for the first time, after years of sitting in the back of the theatre. Hopefully I will finally be able to see the expressions on the actors’ faces without the use of my binoculars.

The last show of the 2021/22 Mirvish subscription season was Singing in The Rain, based on the 2012 musical adaptation of the iconic 1952 movie classic about silent screen stars in the 1920s dealing with the invention of sound on film.  The movie’s cast of Gene Kelly as movie heartthrob Don Lockwood, Donald O’Connor as his comedic sidekick Cosmo Brown, Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont, Lockwood’s leading lady with the face of an angel but the voice of a crow, and a very young Debbie Reynolds as the plucky ingénue and love interest Kathy Seldon is so ubiquitous that it is difficult to picture anyone else in any of the roles.

With that in mind, the Mirvish show was well cast for the most part with the actors playing Cosmo and Lina looking like doppelgangers of their movie counterparts, at least from where we sat, and had the comedic talents required for their roles. The actor playing Don Lockwood had long graceful legs and the singing/dancing chops to do justice to the Gene Kelly role, although he looked like a clone of Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm) of Mad Men.  The casting I had most trouble with was the actress who played Kathy Seldon. While Debbie Reynolds was brunette and petite in contrast with Jean Hagen’s statuesque, blond bombshell physique, giving their interactions a David vs Goliath-like feel, the actress playing Kathy in the musical was also a tall blond that looked too much like the Lina character.  On top of that, when she was not singing songs that required her to adapt a deep, sultry voice, her natural speaking voice raised to a higher pitch that was not that different from what was supposed to be the problem with Lina’s voice.  This took away from some of the intended comedy.

While I recall most of the movie vividly, I had forgotten what happens at the very beginning.  It was only after re-watching it on Crave TV that I realized how closely the musical mirrors the scenes from the film.  Starting with the red-carpet premiere of Lockwood and Lamont’s new film at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, to the flashback recollections of how Don and Cosmo got started on Vaudeville, to the online screening of “The Royal Rascal”, the musical did an excellent job of recreating what we saw in the movie.

The musical also did an amazing job recreating the Broadway Melody dance interlude, both in terms of choreography, wardrobe, set, design and colour schemes.  A couple of subtle changes were noticed in the two ballet sequences where Lockwood’s character first performed a sensual dance with a sexy seductress, and then a dreamy, elegant ballet with a young innocent.  The two dances mirrored Don’s relationships with Lina and Kathy. 

In the movie, both dances were performed by the incomparable actress/dancer Cyd Charisse, who was dressed in tight, shimmering green dress for the first dance and a white, flowing dress in the second.  In the musical, the Charisse look-a-like was dressed all in black for the first dance, further accentuating the metaphor of good vs evil, or in terms of Don’s career, maintaining the integrity of his craft vs. selling out for the glitz and glamor of fame. The second dance was performed not by the same dancer, but by the actress playing Kathy Seldon. I tend to think there were several reasons for this change.  First, Debbie Reynolds probably could not execute the ballet as well as Cyd Charisse.  Also, in the musical, there would be no way for the same actress to make the costume change, as the dances happened in quick succession. Finally, having the Kathy Seldon character perform that last dance goes further to reflect on Lockwood’s own circumstances, so it made much more sense to me.  I wonder if they would have used Reynolds in the movie if she was capable of performing that ballet.

Because I do know the movie so well, it becomes jarring when there is a noticeable change, especially when it is not for the better (in my not-so-humble opinion).  This happened in the climatic finale when Kathy was forced to sing behind a curtain while Lina lip-syncs, only to have Don, Cosmo, and movie producer R.F.Simpson raise the curtain to reveal the charade. In the movie, the song sung was a reprisal of the upbeat theme song Singing in the Rain.  The sequence extended for quite a while before Lina caught on to what was happening and Kathy dashed off stage in mortification. The three conspirators did a jaunty little strut as they cheerfully pulled on the ropes in exaggerated fashion to raise the curtain, and then Cosmo did a hilarious bit of replacing Kathy in the singing while mimicking Lina’s arm gestures. There were shots of the audience howling with laughter after the reveal.

In the musical, they replaced the song sung with a reprisal of “You Are My Lucky Star”, one of the slower love ballads, which immediately made the scene less funny.  Then they rushed through the raising of the curtain and Lina caught on right away, causing the scene to end abruptly.  This totally robbed the ending of its buildup and the poignancy of Don pronouncing that Kathy was the real star of the show and singing the final love song.  This was too bad since up until this point, the show was humming along, perfectly recapturing the magic of the movie.  The only improvement made by the musical came when Lina had to ask Kathy what key she would be singing in and Kathy replied “A-Flat” which Lina repeats to the conductor. In the musical, Lina misinterpreted the answer and replies “a flat” instead.  This elicited a big laugh from the audience.

It is understandable that a stage musical needs to be longer with more songs than the movie, which is why so many of the best-known songs from the movie were reprised in new scenes.  In the 2012 musical revival, a hilarious new comedic song was written by Katherine Kingsley specifically for Lina Lamont to sing.  Called “What’s Wrong With Me?”, that extra song works really well, highlighting Lina’s shrill, shrieky voice as she laments with incomprehension about why Don is not in love with her her. An extra ballad called “You Stepped Out of a Dream” was also added to the musical, but this one is actually an old Jazz standard that was originally featured in the 1941 musical Ziegfield Girl.

This stage musical version of Singing in the Rain was so much fun to watch and brought back so many good memories. The acting, singing and dancing were all excellent for the most part, and the bright colour-scheme of the sets and costumes channeled the Techno-colour craze of the movie.  But the main star of the show was the rain, or the staging of the iconic “singing and dancing in the rain” scene.  This was not a drizzle that fell on the stage but a deluge.  As Don Lockwood stomped, splashed, twirled and kicked at puddles in the downpour, I’m sure that a few patrons in the front rows got a bit damp.  The scene ended the first act and during the intermission, we stayed in our seats and were thoroughly entertained watching the stagehands work hard to clear the water and dry up the stage with brooms that swept the bulk of it into holes on the floor boards, and then by dragging towels around to address the final dampness.

We thoroughly enjoyed watching this live musical version of Singing in the Rain. To quote a line from the eponymous song, “What a glorious feeling, I’m happy again” that live theatre is back and thriving in Toronto.