Theatre 2025: Octet @ Crow's Theatre

Almost right from the start when listening to the songs in the musical Octet, it is quite apparent that Dave Malloy, the composer/lyrist of this musical, was also behind the 2016 Broadway hit Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, as well as the 2015 Off-Broadway musical Ghost Quartet.  All three shows share Malloy’s distinctive compositional style and have a similar sound to them.  His songs are often written in the minor key with dissonant notes and chord progressions, off-beat timings, complex harmonies and haunting melodies that have an operatic or chamber music feel, as well as wide vocal ranges that have strong emotional and narrative arcs.

Although the three musicals have vastly different plots and themes, they each have an air of mysticism and spirituality to them, since this seems to be a fascination of Malloy’s. In the song cycle Ghost Quartet, this was obvious both from the title and the eerie tales that each of four storytellers spin about life, death, magic, reincarnation, revenge and more.  In Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, which is based on a small section of the novel War and Peace, the mysticism comes from the eponymous comet.  Usually seen as a cosmic omen of untold horrors including war or the end of the world, Pierre saw it as a spiritual awakening and sign of hope for a new beginning. 

Octet is Dave Malloy’s most recent musical which opened off-Broadway in May 2019.  Compared to the other two, this is his most contemporary work in terms of timeframe, setting and theme.  It deals with eight technology-obsessed people who have convened at a self-help group meeting for Internet addicts.  In Octet’s original staging in New York, Malloy linked each song and character to one of the cards in a Major Arcana tarot deck, using the symbolism of the cards to reflect each person’s addiction and struggles.  By adding an element of the occult, he wanted to contrast “the coldness of technology with a hope for spiritual awakening and human connection”.  To that end, the off-Broadway production used the tarot card of “The Fool” modified to hold a mobile phone on the front of its programme cover and listed the pairings of cards to characters in an insert.  There were also explicit references within the dialogue.

The Toronto production at Crow's Theatre made an artistic decision to downplay the tarot card connection, choosing to concentrate more on the emotional themes rather than spiritual elements.  While references in the songs and dialog to tarot cards remained either explicitly (“I am the Magician”, “You are the Hanged Man”, “The Tower Tea Ceremony”) or through imagery and symbolism (The Moon, The Lovers, The Devil, The World), the programme and set design did not directly reinforce these connections.  Instead, to pay tribute to Malloy’s intentions without layering them into the production, prior to several Tuesday performances free Tarot Card Readings are offered in the lobby two hours before the start of the show.  A few minutes prior to the start of the show, Paula, the leader of the group, sat at a table dealing out tarot cards but these were put away once the musical began.  Electronic screens lined the walls of the theatre and their images changed with each scene, not quite displaying the images of tarot cards but pixelated representations of elements like the Sun, Moon or Hearts (love).  I wholeheartedly agree with this choice, since the main subject matter about various Internet addictions and the lyrics describing them were complex enough on their own without having to deal with understanding the tarot references as well!

Octet is an acapella chamber choir musical where all the songs are sung without instrumental accompaniment.  The self-help group uses the singing of hymns and personal confessionals as part of their “step-program” to confront and deal with their obsessions.  In the group songs where the cast all sing together, their voices blend beautifully with all the vocal ranges represented from soprano to bass.  For the solo numbers, the various voices of the other cast members set the tempo and provide harmonic accompaniment for each lead singer.  Each song begins with the playing of a pitch pipe, which provides a clear, precise starting note to allow the singers to tune their voices for that song.

The meeting starts with a soothing group hymn titled “The Forest” which describes a metaphorical safe space where they can digitally detox and try to escape from “the Monster”, which is the Internet.  The song ends with “I have screensaver-ed the forest, to remind me there are places that the Monster doesn’t go.” Then Paula asks for volunteers to give testimonials about their addiction and how it is impacting their lives and each of them begin with the typical statement “I am an addict”.  The songs start by addressing more common addictions that are easily relatable but eventually get weirder and weirder.

Jessica has a viral video online of herself acting horribly and has been publicly shamed and “canceled”.  Yet she cannot resist obsessively googling herself or as she terms it “ego-surfing” almost as a punishment for her bad behaviour.  Her song is called “Refresh” which has a double meaning as she sings of going to the Forest with no reception so as to refresh, but the chanting chorus singing “Refresh” also refers to her continued search for posts about herself.

Henry is addicted to playing online games including “candy-themed games” in a veiled reference to the popular 3-D puzzle video game “Candy Crush”.  He plays so often that he isolates himself and gets so obsessed that he stops taking care of personal hygiene and stops taking his medication.  Using “Candy” as a metaphor for his gaming obsession, he talks about tooth decay and rotting his teeth as a symbol or the rotting of his brain.  It is interesting that “candy” is a slang for drugs such as cocaine since Henry sings with such fervour that it feels like a drug addiction.  For the choreography of his song, the electronic floor on the stage lights up and becomes a gaming video screen.

Paula sings "Glow" about her husband’s obsession with nighttime scrolling on his cellphone in bed with the “lighting up the sheets with … the sallow blue glow of a screen” and I abashedly thought “guilty”!  Karly and Ed are each lonely souls addicted to dating apps and porn apps. Ironically titled "Solo" but sung as a duet, they alternately provide counterpoint to each other’s experiences as they each crave physical interaction IRL.  Toby has gone down the rabbit hole of doomscrolling and conspiracy theories. Marvin is a scientist who is obsessed with scientific forums and needs to make rational sense of all occurrences.  He describes a surreal experience with a “Little God” who performs inexplicable miracles, highlighting the cost of excessive intellectualization.  I found this song the most difficult to understand and relate to.  Singing last, Velma who is new to the group sings “Beautiful” the only song that reminds us there are positive aspects of the Internet including allowing isolated, alienated people to make online connections.  Suffering from self-loathing and poor self-image, Velma learns to accept and like herself after meeting another girl across the sea who is just like her.  Sung in the middle of the show with a tribal beat, the song that best sums up the musical’s theme for me is “Monster” where the group metaphorically sings about the Internet monster - “As you watch the monster, it digs deeper in your brain. Transforming neural pathways with its toxic refrain”.

Octet is an innovative, challenging and intellectually stimulating show with an important message and warning.  It felt like we were immersed in an episode of Black Mirror.  The choice of singing all the songs acapella was also unique and memorable, but also fit into the theme of the show, using the purity of human voices to contrast against the disease of addiction to technology and the internet.

In the talkback session after the show, a question was asked about whether new technological advancements have been added to the show since its 2019 inception.  The answer was that some changes were proposed but they mostly referred to isolation felt during COVID lockdowns and how the Internet was sometimes the only available source of connection. The advance of AI has not been addressed but maybe would be something to consider for the future versions?  There was also much discussion about how difficult it was to sing without an orchestra or conductor and how the cast was responsible for keeping each other in tune and on beat, especially with the difficult, unsyncopated timings of some of the songs.

Theatre 2025: The Welkin @ Soulpepper Baillie Theatre

The Welkin is the fictionalized story by playwright Lucy Kirkwood which is based on historical legal precedence and practice.  In 18th Century England, if a woman was sentenced to be executed while pregnant, she could “plead the belly”.  A jury of 12 women who had personally experienced pregnancy (and thus considered “experts”) were assembled to determine the veracity of the claim.  If they deemed her claim to be true, the execution would be stayed and converted into a banishment to “the colonies”, thus sparing her life (as well as the baby’s).

In this play, Sally Poppy is a poor, crass and unlikeable young woman with a troubled upbringing who left her unhappy marriage to run off with her lover Thomas.  The pair have been convicted of brutally murdering and dismembering a wealthy young girl and both are sentenced to be executed.  In fact, Thomas has already been hanged for the crime.  Sally has declared that she is with child, although it is early days and she is not yet showing.  A group of twelve matrons have been assembled to determine if there is truth to her claim.  The women of this “jury” are to be sequestered in a cold, dark room without access to food, drink, fire (heat) or light, so as to compel them to come more quickly to a unanimous verdict.  There is documented evidence that this harsh practice was actually used on male juries during this period in history but whether these methods were applied to a female jury is less clear.  This may merely be included in the play for dramatic purposes.

Most of the women did not willingly agree to participate in the jury since the process would take them away from chores and duties at home.  The few women who voluntarily signed up to “see justice done” were wealthy and had the luxury of time.  It is clear that the women do not have the training or medical expertise to render a valid judgement based on fact.  Much of their discussions of how to determine if a woman is pregnant are based on unscientific anecdotes, superstitions and personal experiences.

The one woman who should have carried some credibility is the midwife Lizzy, who had delivered many of the children for the women in the jury.  She shows compassion for Sally and wants to give her the benefit of the doubt.  Others feeling less charitable are basing their judgement on classism against the poor, horror at the crime that Sally is complicit in, calling her evil and the devil’s spawn, or harbouring prejudice against her based on previous crimes that she is deemed to have committed including theft and potentially harming another boy.  Although their job is to determine if she is pregnant, it is difficult for the women not to judge her based on her crimes instead and assume that she is lying.  When the option arises to get the opinion of a male doctor, the women spurn Lizzie’s expertise in his favour, highlighting the misogyny and sexism of the times, even amongst women.

Being touted as “12 Angry Women”, the parallels to the 1954 play/Henry Fonda movie “12 Angry Men” are apparent.  This includes one woman trying to sway the opinion of the others, and the juror who just wants to get it over with so that she can leave and will vote whichever way is more expedient to set her free.  There are also elements of The Crucible with references to witchcraft, demons, superstitions and mob mentality while the ending gives a nod to Of Mice and Men.

One underlying theme throughout the play is the cyclical nature of oppression as well as class and gender inequality as symbolized by Halley’s Comet which was passing by during the timeframe of the play.  The comet represents spirituality and a sign from heaven, but its cyclical nature is also used to emphasize how not much has changed through the generations.  To further emphasize this point, Kirkwood includes intentionally jarring anachronisms throughout the play.  Within the dialog, she includes modern swear words and inexplicable references to modern technology such as “aeroplanes”.  In one scene, a song is sung in the cadence of a hymn but eventually it starts to sound familiar.  The song ends up being Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” whose lyrics involve a couple making a deal with God to be allowed to understand each other’s perspectives.

But the most out of the blue anachronism occurs in the middle of a heated debate between the women when suddenly a modern-day housekeeper comes out with a vacuum cleaner, pushing it around for a few minutes while listening to music from her headphones, and then departing without a word.  This headshaking event was incorporated to replace the ending scene of Kirkwood’s actual play where all twelve women of the jury appear on stage in current day dress and silently perform modern tasks such as using a dust buster, ironing while watching TV, defrosting a freezer, etc. when they look up and see the comet again.  This scene would have paralleled a scene at the beginning of the play when the twelve women are shown performing 18th century tasks.  That sequence would have driven home the point that Kirkwood was trying to make while the replacement snippet was just confusing.  I understand why they cut out this final scene since it would have diluted from the shocking event that happens just before it, so there are pros and cons for both artistic decisions.

This show was a co-production between Soulpepper and Crow’s Theatre.  As always, you can count on a Crow’s show to be thought-provoking if not always cheerful or heartwarming.  For that, we need to go to back Mirvish Theatres and re-watch Tell Tale Harbour.

Theatre 2025: Tell Tale Harbour @ Royal Alexandra Theatre

A new musical titled “Tell-Tale Harbour” is based on one of my favourite movies, the 2003 French Canadian comedy “La Grand Séduction” (translated into the English Title “Seducing Dr. Lewis").  My husband Rich and I first watched this film at the Toronto International Film Festival where the audience roared with laughter despite the story being filtered through subtitles.   That movie was set in the fictional tiny fishing village of St. Marie-La-Mauderne, presumably in Quebec.  In 2013, the movie was remade in English as The Grand Seduction with the locale moved to Newfoundland.  Although the movies differ in language, location, character names, tone and regional culture, in both cases as with the musical adaptation, the premise, plot and even much of the dialogue is the same.

A small, down-on-its-luck fishing village named Tell Tale Harbour has a chance to generate jobs and revive its economy if it can be selected as the location for a new manufacturing plant.  To have a chance of being picked, the residents must show that they have a large enough population to work at the plant (which they don’t) and they need a full-time doctor in residence.  Hijinks ensue as they try to woo/trick a visiting doctor into staying with harebrain schemes concocted by their wily, scheming ringleader (Germaine in the first movie, Murray in the second).  With the protagonist being out of work and unable to support them, his wife is compelled to take a factory job in the city.  This adds to his determination to land a permanent doctor, by hook or by crook.

In both movies, the doctor is coerced into providing a month’s medical services at the harbour after being caught with cocaine in his possession.  To try to convince him to stay beyond the month, the villagers feign affinity with the doctor’s passions including playing cricket (which being hockey-crazed Canadians, they know nothing about), listening to jazz and eating Indian food.  They plant “lost money” for him to find since everyone loves money and go to great and ridiculous lengths to make him think that he landed a huge fish.  They even tap his phone to eavesdrop with the hopes of gaining more intel on his likes and dislikes.  There is also a pretty but elusive young female villager who acts as a potential love interest for the doctor, but who refuses to partake in the subterfuge.  Add a brilliant scene where the villagers scramble from location to location to fool inspectors into believing the population is much greater than it is and the result is a hilarious and heart-warming comedy that I still remember fondly all these years later.

Like the second movie, the musical adaptation Tell Tale Harbour is set in a fictional village in Newfoundland.  The music and lyrics are written by Alan Doyle, lead singer of the Newfoundland folk rock group Great Big Sea, along with music director and composer Bob Foster.  Doyle also helped write the book for the musical and plays the ringleader, named Frank in this case.  The character of the doctor is changed quite a bit in the musical from the movie.  Here he is named Chris and is British, possibly to better explain the love of cricket but also to set up a series of jokes and sight gags as the villagers try to act British and serve him warm beer heated up with a lighter, a cup of tea and mushy peas.  Instead of being forced to come to the harbour, Dr.Chris came willingly as part of his Doctors Without Borders tour, which we learn later is a way to procrastinate from returning home to the big city to marry his finance whom he seems ambivalent about.

Many of the iconic scenes from the movies are cleverly represented in the musical, including references to cricket, a hilarious sequence where a scuba diver covertly attaches a frozen fish onto the doctor’s fishing hook, and a well choreographed sequence where the villagers sing “Bar to the Church” as they race from one location to the other while changing clothing to fool the plant owners who are assessing the population of the harbour. An additional scheme is added to the musical where a fake wedding has to suddenly turn into a fake funeral/wake when Frank learns that the doctor doesn’t like weddings.  This leads to more hilarity as the elder villager Yvon is reluctantly forced to play dead and then hide in silly disguises.

In addition to the character Yvon, whose sardonic quips and antics often steal the show, Tale Tale Harbour provides more depth and personality to many of its supporting cast than in the movies, especially its female characters.  Vera, the vamp who struts around dropping sexual innuendos, is in a loving relationship with Yvon and a wonderful story is told about their courtship.  Kathleen is Frank’s niece and the love interest for Dr. Chris but is also a university-trained botanist.  She has a significant backstory detailing how she and her boyfriend Roger left for the big city but she returned alone when her mother fell ill and now stays because it is home.  Frank’s wife Barbara heads for her city job but is given a big duet with Frank ("What Are We Now?") before she leaves and is shown in montages at work before returning when she hears about Yvon’s “death”.  Gina is a senior member of the community who bakes bread every morning and heads up the “population” ruse with the song “Bar to the Church”.   Getting to know more about the villagers lets the audience invest more in their endeavours.

The songs in Tell Tale Harbour include a wonderful mix of fast-paced East Coast shanty music featuring fiddles and drums (Pay Day, Pitter Patter) and beautiful lilting ballads (What Are We Now, My Family, Maybe It’s Moonshine).  It was an excellent choice of Alan Doyle’s to nix the idea of trying to force fit Great Big Sea songs into a jukebox musical, instead writing insightful tunes that convey and advance the plot. 

As the audience sat waiting for the show to start, we were presented with an innovative set featuring lit-up miniature houses and a church set against a blue floorboard to represent a view of the village and ocean seen from afar.  Wavy lights against the edges of the stage were used to represent the surrounding mountains.  Through great lighting effects, as time went by, we watched the sun set and the moon slowly become visible until a full moon appeared.  Then the lights of the houses dimmed one by one as the villagers “went to bed”.  When the show started, all the houses were a drab beige colour but during the song “Pitter Patter” where the villagers worked to beautify their village, by the end of the song the houses were spun around to reveal brightly painted façades.   At intermission, the moon was back but it was now a crescent moon to show the passage of time.

We thoroughly enjoyed this musical and thought it more than lived up to our beloved movie. It had the same heart and humour but added more depth and emotion.  And there was singing and dancing which in my mind always makes a show better!  This is just the type of feel-good entertainment that we need right now to help us forget about the woes of the world for a few hours.  That is the magic of live theatre. This show premiered in Charlottetown, PEI in 2022 before being expanded for its Mirvish run in Toronto.  I hope this show can travel beyond Canada and become the next big Newfoundland-based hit after Come From Away.

Theatre 2025: MJ the Musical

While I love musical theatre, I am less fond of juke box musicals that use well-known songs from other sources that are force-fit into a plot instead of new songs written specifically for an original story.  Even less to my taste are the subset of jukebox musicals that are biographical musicals, where the plot is the life story of a musician or band.  For me, this is just laziness since neither the music nor the plot is original and usually the songs are diegetic and the lyrics do not advance the storyline at all, as songs from a good book musical would.

Based on the life and oeuvre of Michael Jackson, dubbed “The King of Pop”, MJ the Musical is the latest biopic to come to Toronto.  Three actors play Jackson at various stages of his life including “Little Michael”, teenager/young adult “Michael” and Adult Michael who is always referred to as “MJ”.  The show opens with MJ and his company rehearsing for his 1992 Dangerous tour.  Always striving for potentially unattainable perfection, MJ pushes his crew relentlessly and constantly demands to add more and more special effects, causing expenses to get out of control to the despair of his tour manager Rob and accountant Dave. 

Added as a plot device to generate exposition, the characters of an MTV reporter Rachel and her cameraman Alejandro arrive to interview MJ. This leads him to reminisce about his childhood and rise to fame as part of his family’s singing group The Jackson Five as well as his demanding, abusive father Joseph and supportive mother Katherine.  While most of the songs during the rehearsal and the flashback performances are sung in diegetic fashion, other scenes used  Jackson’s songs to convey emotion and advance the plot.  When Little Michael complains about how hard his father is pushing the group, Joseph sings “It’s The Price of Fame, don’t you ever complain .. don’t be feeling no pain” quoting a song from Jackson’s Bad 25 Album.  Katherine comforts Little Michael and tells him “Just call my name and I’ll Be There”.   When Young Adult Michael feels despair of ever breaking through beyond R&B stations, music producer Quincy Jones encourages him with the song “Keep the Faith”.  MJ sings various songs to illustrate his loneliness, isolation and vulnerability including “Stranger in Moscow”, “She’s Out of My Life”, “Human Nature” and “Man in the Mirror”.  One of the most creative uses of Jackson’s songs to show Little Michael’s emotional pain and fear caused by his father’s oppression was a slowed version of “Thriller” where “something evil’s lurking in the dark” takes on a new meaning.  As part of the choreography, Joseph manipulates Michael like a puppet on a string.

Through Rachel’s interview questions, there are references to some of Jackson’s controversies at the time including his Neverland Ranch, Bozo the Chimp, oxygen chamber, and the whitening of his skin.  But because the plot takes place in 1992, the 1993 accusations of child abuse had not arisen yet so the show could legitimately avoid addressing them.  The actor Devin Bowles played both Rob the stage manager and Joseph Jackson.  It was impressive how seamlessly Bowles switched between the two roles, sometimes seemingly in mid sentence, making it obvious by body posture and Joseph's limp.

The actor Jordan Markus who played MJ was perfectly cast to resemble Michael Jackson at that stage of his life, with a frail and lanky but athletic body, stringy hair and an emancipated look.  He did a terrific job of emulating Michael Jackson’s speech pattern, movements and especially his dance moves.  He captured all of Jackson’s signature moves including the moonwalk, toe-stand, and all of his gestures, gyrations and crotch grabbing.  In fact, the dancing and choreography were probably the best parts of the musical.  The songs were entertaining for the most part but because of the poor sound quality at Ed Mirvish Theatre (which we complain about constantly), many of the lyrics were muffled.  In particular when singing Billie Jean, inexplicably MJ covered his hand over his mouth for some of the lyrics, which made the sound carry that much less.  There also seemed to be something wrong with the iconic single glove which did not seem to fit onto his hand and felt like he was waving a giant Mickey Mouse glove as he was dancing.

In the end, I am still not fond of biographical Jukebox musicals but at least I was very familiar with and actually like Michael Jackson’s music.

Theatre 2025: Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (redux) @ Royal Alex

We watched Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 in January 2024 when it was first mounted at Crow’s Guloein Theatre.  That show was breathtaking with some of the best staging and use of intimate space that we had ever encountered. Configured as a thrust stage with the audience on 3 sides sitting in about 8 rows of stadium seating, as well as a few cabaret-style floor seats with tables on the sides, everyone was relatively close to the action.  Actors weaved across the floor and up and down the aisles, occasionally interacting with audience members.   I wrote extensively about this musical the first time that I saw it.  You can read about that here: https://torontohappenings.blogspot.com/2024/01/theatre-2024-natasha-pierre-and-great.html  

I will not describe it in depth again but will merely point out the differences in experience for the remounting of the show by Mirvish Productions as part of their 2024/25 Subscription Series.  Since just about the entire cast from the Crow's production has returned to reprise their roles, the difference will mainly be staging and choreography in the new space. 

When it was announced that the show would play at the much larger and less configurable Royal Alexandra Theatre, I felt some skepticism that we would have the same immersive and exciting experience.  The original show was just about perfect, with the one exception of the appearance of the “great” comet which came across as a bit of a dud. I was interested to see how the set design for this new space would compare to the magic achieved from the staging of the first production and whether we would get a more impressive comet, closer to the experience on Broadway.

Two rows consisting of around 15 seats were placed on either side of the Royal Alex stage to simulate the immersive staging from the Crow’s production and to give the actors access to audience members for the “audience participation” moments built into the show.  These seats must have been popular since they were all snapped up very quickly after being put on sale.  While this might give the seat-holders a unique, up-close experience, these are not the best seats for viewing and appreciating the show since you mostly get to see the sides and backs of the actors.  Meanwhile most of the over 1200 stadium seats that face the stage (including two levels of balcony) are too far away to feel part of the action like we did at Crow’s Theatre.  Even though our seats at the front of the Dress Circle offered us a great view, we were not close enough replicate the immersive environment from our first viewing of the show. 

Yet, the 1907 Royal Alexandra Theatre, designed in Beaux-Arts architecture, provides a fitting backdrop for this show in terms of elegance and lavish décor.  Its crystal chandeliers, elaborately carved railings, gilded plasterwork, ruby red chairs and red velour wallpaper perfectly complement the set design for Natasha, which features red velvet draped walls and cantilevered balconies and boxes leading to steep staircases on either side of the stage.  From that perspective, it felt like the staging was an extension of the theatre.

Whether it was the larger space and being farther away, or the loss of the anticipation and suspense that was present when I watched the musical for the first time, this new staging did not have the same wow factor for me.  The larger stage changed the choreography and movement of the actors and in my opinion, not for the better.  At Crow’s Theatre, during a big party scene, all the actors crowded together onto a tiny platform and then several men proceeded to do a version of the Russian squat dance while lined up in a row.  I remember being amazed that they did not fall off or kick one another.  This was missing in the same scene at the Royal Alex and the actors were much more spread out.  Another highlight for me in the original production was the advance of Balaga the Trokia Driver as he and Anatole approached on his sleigh to carry Natasha away.  The choreography in the Royal Alex production seemed less exciting and felt a bit flat in comparison.

Finally, we come to the Great Comet, which was the only part of the staging at Crow’s Theatre that I was disappointed in.  I found that comet to be more “Underwhelming” than “Great”.  At Royal Alex, the staging was better.  The round mirror at the back of the stage was transformed into the comet which glowed a bit as stage lights aimed at it to produce streaks.  Beneath this, a row of lights shone, perhaps to represent the path of the comet.  This would have been more effective had this row of lights not shone in other scenes and if a brighter light could have emanated from the orb.  But at least we now had a “Good” comet.  We had a direct view of this stagecraft since our dress circle seats put us at eye level with the mirror.  In retrospect, perhaps that mirror shone a little bit at Crow’s as well but since we were sitting closer to ground level, we did not notice so it couldn’t have been that bright.

Although I could not recapture the same magic that I felt the first time that I watched it, this is still a wonderful original musical with luscious sets, great singing and dancing and interesting staging.  I’m sure those who watch this version for the first time would love it as much as I did on my first viewing.

Theatre 2025: Back to the Future Musical @ Ed Mirvish Theatre

Back to the Future the Musical is based on the iconic 1985 hit movie starring Michael J. Fox as Marty Mcfly, Christopher Lloyd as the mad professor/inventor Dr. Emmett Brown, Lea Thompson as Marty’s mother Lorraine, Crispin Glover as his father George and Tom Wilson as the town bully Biff. Most of the plot is the same in the musical adaptation compared to the movie.  Marty is a cool, skateboarding, guitar-playing 17-year-old living in Hill Valley, California.  He has a girlfriend Jennifer and the dreams of being a professional musician.  He is dragged down by the reputation of his sad-sack family including a meek, spineless push-over for a father, an alcoholic mother, a loser brother who works at McDonalds and a wallflower sister. While visiting his friend Doc Brown, Marty is accidentally transported to 1955 in Brown’s Delorean time machine.  Marty inadvertently interferes with the historical timeline so that his father and mother may no longer fall in love, marry and have children.  Marty needs to rectify the situation before he and his siblings cease to exist.  Doc figures out how to transport Marty back to the future using a lightning strike to generate power in the time machine’s “flux capacitor”.  But first Marty needs to instill enough courage and confidence in a young George to woo Lorraine so that they fall in love.

Some changes from the movie were made when adapting the musical in order to better suit a live stage production and to reflect shifts in social norms. In the movie, Doc is killed by Libyan terrorists from whom he stole the plutonium needed to power the time machine. These days it is less politically correct to randomly portray foreign countries in a villainous manner and the car chase depicted in the movie would have been difficult to recreate.  In the musical, Doc is killed by plutonium poisoning caused by a tear in his protective suit.  Similarly, the movie scene where Biff and his goons careen through town in his car while chasing Marty on his skateboard has been changed to a foot chase through the school and on top of lockers.  Marty’s use of his skateboard in this show is cut down to a minimum.

Other plot changes highlight advancement in technology in the 40 years since Back to the Future first came out in 1985 or add more depth to the story.  The DeLorean is now voice activated and programmed to only respond to Doc’s voice.  This makes it impossible for Marty control the time machine to get help for a dying Doc or to return to the future once he is transported to 1955.  The role of Goldie Wilson who rises from bus boy in a diner in 1955 to mayor of the town in 1985, is greatly expanded in the musical.  Goldie is given the song “Gotta Start Somewhere” which describes his ambitions and drive while trying to help George increase his self-esteem and stand up for himself.

While the musical retains the iconic songs from the movie including Dream Angel, Johnny B. Goode and Power of Love, it obviously adds new songs, many written in 50s and 60s doowop style.  The song “Cake” sung by the 1955 townspeople of Hill Valley is especially ironic as they cluelessly laud the uses of super-leaded gas and fossil fuels, DDT insecticides, filtered cigarettes, and asbestos for housing insulation.  The song’s title refers to the adage “Have your cake and eat it too” while enthusing that it is the woman’s role to bake that cake.  Some of the memorable lines from the movie have been turned into songs including Doc celebrating the success of his time machine by proclaiming “It Works” and Marty worrying that he is “Future Boy” while stuck in the past.  While the Calvin Klein underwear joke from the movie did not become a song, it is reprised in a dialogue scene in the musical.

Some of my favourite songs from the musical explore the inner thoughts, fears and dreams of the characters.  Marty sings “Hello, Is Anyone Home” as he laments about his pathetic family who join in the song.  His father advises that if you don’t try, you can’t fail, his brother brags that his job allows him to say the important line “You want fries with that”, his sister just wants to date and his mother to drink.  My other favourite song “Something About That Boy” is first sung by Lorraine as she gushes about her crush on Marty (not realizing this is her future son) and later by Biff as he seeks revenge for Marty punching him.

The music is fun and the songs do a good job of advancing the plot while the dialogue (and subsequent delivery) come across as a bit corny and over the top.  But the real star of this show is the almost life-sized Delorean time machine and the video special effects used to make it appear to race through time and space.  The car “speeds forward”, spins and even “flies” in the final scene, as shown the movie.  The only flaw in the effects came in the big finale when Marty “drives 88”, connects with the lightning bolt and hurtles back to the future.  Instead of reappearing in the set representing 1985, the car sat in the dark in silence for over a minute.  To kill time while technicians tried to fix whatever was wrong, Doc Brown came running out on stage shouting “It Works” while winking ironically to the audience since obviously something did not work.  Soon after that, the scene was reset and this time it did work.

I enjoyed this musical and thought that for a road show cast, the performers did very well in both singing and acting.  But the actor playing Marty McFly was never going to live up to my memories of the charismatic young Michael J Fox who originated the role and for me, the actor who played Doc Brown was also totally wrong.  I did think that the actors playing George, Lorraine and Biff lived up to my recollections of what these characters should look and sound like.  The actor playing George channeled Jim Carrey in terms of comedic timing, limberness and flexibility and in the final scene, you could have sworn that he had just left the set of “Ace Ventura, Pet Detective”. 

Theatre 2025: Bittergirl Musical @ Regent Theatre in Picton

We have been wanting to visit Prince Edward County for a while now, so when we spotted the advertisement for Bittergirl: The Musical playing at the Regent Theatre in Picton, Ontario, it gave us the extra incentive to go. The musical first premiered in 2015 at the Charlottetown Festival and has since toured across Canada. It is based on a similarly titled play from 2000 that follows the lives of three women dealing with romantic heartbreak. Personal experiences of the three actresses turned playwrights were used to create the play, hilariously exploring their failed relationships and journeys to self-empowerment as they navigate and come to terms with their breakups. The show augments fast-paced, hilarious dialogue with classic 60’s and 70’s doo-wop songs and power ballads including probably the most iconic breakup song of the era, “I Will Survive”.

Three female characters, generically named A, B and C to represent “any woman”, are in different stages of relationships when they are each dumped by their respective partners. One is married and facing a divorce, another is left by a long-term live-in boyfriend and the third is dealing with yet another failed short-term romance. A single actor plays the parts of all three men and is given the name “D” in the program (representing "every man"). Each male character is portrayed as self-centred, insensitive and slightly misogynistic. It is clear that this is a feminist musical where the men are in the wrong and the poor women need to learn to move on. To highlight the universality of their situations, there are scenes where the women each speak part of the same sentence or question that the male character replies to, answering all of them generically.

At the start of the show, the women sing a medley of songs declaring their love and devotion to their mates including “Be My Baby, “And Then He Kissed Me” and “I Hear a Symphony”. As their relationships fall apart and the men leave, the women sing sad songs lamenting their breakups including “Where Did Our Love Go”, “When Will I see You Again”, and “Mama Said” (there’d be days like this). After a period of mourning that includes sobbing, anger, denial, compulsive cleaning, binge eating and stalking, the women think that maybe they can win their men back by improving themselves through exercise, new wardrobe, etc. They sing songs like “I’m Going to Make You Love Me”, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (to keep me from getting to you), “Always Something There to Remind me” and “Hot Stuff”. Their partners (still portrayed by the one actor) seem temporarily receptive singing “Be My Baby” before letting them down once again, condescendingly singing the song “Love Hurts” in a “sorry, not sorry” manner.

After more turmoil including a misguided, drunken attempt at revenge gone wrong (let’s key his car), the women finally come to accept their situations. This leads to cathartic declarations of independence with songs like “Set Me Free” (why don’t you babe) and the iconic I Will Survive. I envisioned these power anthems to be the climactic eleven o’clock numbers but they were weak versions that came at what felt like nine o’clock to continue the theatrical metaphor. More songs followed that diluted the ending in my mind before the final song “Too Many Fish in the Sea”.

For me, this musical started strong in the first act, broke for an overly long 20-minute intermission and then fizzled in the end. There was also a series of numbers performed in the dark in the second act and it wasn’t clear if this was a creative choice (if so, a poor one since we couldn’t see their faces) or a technical issue. It was still a fun night with well-known, peppy songs sung by talented performers.  But I think the intermission was unnecessary and a one act musical with the ending tightened would have worked much better. 

Theatre 2025: Toronto Fringe Shows

This year my husband Rich and I are traveling to Scotland for vacation, and specifically to Edinburgh to catch the tail end of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is the largest and oldest festival, originating in 1947.  To prepare for this experience, we decided to attend this year’s version of the Toronto Fringe Festival, which has starting to grow again after its pandemic pause.  This season, the festival hosted over 100 shows at 22 venues, which is almost a 30% increase from 2024.  It maintains its mandate of selecting shows by lottery as opposed to juried selection and provides an open, accessible, and largely uncensored platform for artists to present original, diverse and possibly unconventional works of live theatre.  Despite this, at least for the ones that we selected, it feels like many of the Fringe shows are more professional productions with more professional casts.  We look to our theatre experiences as a happy reprieve from all the turmoil and tragedy happening in the world today, so we selected five shows that are musicals or comedies (or better yet, musical comedies).

We got off to a great start with our first show “Almost Ever After” by composer and actor Andrew Seok who is a well-known name at Toronto Fringe after several years of his musicals being included in the festival.  This year’s submission has been advertised as “Love Actually” set to music with an intersection of five overlapping love stories that deal with meet-cute scenarios, a love triangle, a potential unexpected pregnancy, finding new love after loss and exploring the old adage “is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”?  The stories ranged from humorous to poignant as they explored the trials and tribulations both of falling in and out of love.

This show was notable for the impressive acting credentials of the cast which included Julia Pulo (who starred in the musicals Six, Wizard of Oz, and Life After for Mirvish Productions), Kimberly-Ann Truong (Miss Saigon on Broadway and the TV series Kim’s Convenience and Run the Burbs), Kelly Holiff (Rent at Stratford Festival) and other actors with various theatre or TV credits. The twelve main characters in the show play archetypes including the Cynic, the Hopeful, the Romantic, the Dreamer, the Charmer, etc.  The show had so much buzz that the entire run was sold out by the time the Fringe started.   While my favourite segment involves the couple trapped in separate elevators who bond over the intercom, my favourite song is from the pregnancy storyline.  The lyrics featured repeated counting of “One, Two, Three” where those numbers took on so many meanings including the three minutes to wait for the pregnancy test results and the implications of the number of lines revealed on the test.

Held in an “alternative space” called the Artist’s Play on 388 Carlaw Ave, Almost Ever After was staged more like a concert than a full musical with no set pieces, a slightly raised platform and no stadium seating.  Various actors come on and off stage to advance their storylines, singing in front of a series of microphones.  I would love to see this musical again if it ever got further developed, or as a movie since I heard on a podcast interview with Seok that he originally wrote this to be filmed as a movie called “What Am I Without You” which is one of the songs in the show. He mentioned that there are actually 8 storylines in the movie script but that would be too much to incorporate on a live stage.  As it is, the current show features twelve main actors and 10+ background chorus/musicians.

Our next two shows were staged at the slightly larger and more traditional Passe Muraille Theatre which has multiple rows of floor seating followed by a series of raised stadium seats and a small wrap-around balcony all facing a wide raised stage.  There are also two catwalk platforms on either side above the stage that were used by both shows as extra performance spaces.

The first show at Passe Muraille was once again not a traditional book musical but rather a “song-cycle” titled “People Suck: A Musical Airing of Grievances”.  A song-cycle involves a series of unrelated vignettes and songs that reflect a central theme (in this case, that people are awful) but do not form a conventional, unified plot.  This show first played at Minnesota Fringe in 2014 and debuted at Toronto Fringe in 2015.  The musical has returned multiple times to Toronto as it has continually been updated and revised since “people continue to find astounding new ways to suck”, as noted in the program.  

We arrived at the theatre 30 minutes ahead of showtime and 15 minutes prior to the doors opening to find that there was already a large lineup.  This was the case with our previous show as well so I wonder what time people start to line up.  While the forecast indicated no rain in sight, the single dark cloud directly above us had different ideas and we were showered on multiple times.  Not expecting inclement weather, we were getting wet so I made use of the Fringe Festival program guide for a bit of shelter.  The items at concession stand for People Suck was a harbinger of the cheeky irreverence that we would be in for.  I was really tempted by the orange boxer shorts for Rich, but I knew that he would never wear them.

After being seated inside the theatre, we waited over 10 minutes past the start time for the show to begin, which is unusual since the Fringe shows run on a very tight schedule.  When it finally did, the keyboardist/narrator broke the fourth wall with an impromptu statement.  He explained that on top of all the topics named in the show, the TTC sucks!  Delays caused one of their male lead performers to be late.  Rather than hold up the show any longer, he would be replaced by a female swing, which was fine for the first skit but would have become increasingly more difficult based on the male-centric roles of future scenes.  Luckily, half-way through that first segment, we saw the actor duck in and run backstage so that by the next song, he was ready to go.  Ironically and hilariously, the first line of his song talked about being late for work, causing the audience to chuckle.  This actor turned out to be David Silvestri, whose impressive body of work includes roles in Come From Away, Kinky Boots and Les Misérables with Mirvish Productions, 42nd Street and Pirates of Penzance at Stratford, as well as appearances on Broadway.  I’m really glad that he made it to this performance, albeit slightly late.

We were treated to 15 songs describing different ways that people suck, with some of them fitting the theme better than others.  The first few songs were quite effective and humorous including a Kindergarten teacher who advises her pupils that “Everybody is an Asshole”, followed by a country “hoe-down” styled song about “The Man They Call the Flake”, and then a generic airing of grievances against people acting like idiots and lamenting “Where the Hell is Darwin When You Need Him”.  No topic was off limits as the show mocked manglers of grammar, toxic masculinity, dysfunctional marriages and office cultures, extremists and even religion before ending on a hopeful note with a reprise by the Kindergarten teacher where she instructs that we can all try to be less of an asshole.  It was impressive how many scenarios were depicted by the talented and versatile comedic troupe through the use of just a chair and a long table as props.  It was also interesting to search on Youtube for songs from previous versions of this show to see how the references and topics changed over the years.

The show Ctrl Alt Delete: An Alphabetical Musical has a very clever premise.  The 26 letters of the alphabet work for a corporation that wants to downsize and expel one letter from the English Language.  Seven letters (F, K, Q, S, W, X and Z) have been chosen as candidates for elimination, based on the premise that other letter combinations can be used to make the same phonetic sounds.  Members of the audience were chosen to sit on stage (off to the side) to represent the letters J,U,R and Y, forming the jury who will vote on which letter to get rid of.  Meanwhile the various letters try to justify their importance by singing about what would be missing from the vocabulary without them.  “Z” starts off with a rousing song about Pizza while passing around (plastic?) pizza slices to the other letters.  “F” sings a funny song about Fun and Family while misunderstanding references to the infamous “F***” word. “Q” sings about his affinity to the letter “U” and pulls the corresponding audience member from the jury for a quick dance. The letters “K” and “X” sing the most poignant songs about the word “Knowing” while staying silent since the “K” is not pronounced and “Expectations” that cannot be lived up to.  A white screen at the back of the stage often depicts the word being sung about for extra emphasis.  At the end of the show, the jury needs to pick which letter is to be eliminated.  Presumably a different letter could be picked at each show and that letter gets a goodbye song before the grand finale.

The seven letters each wear an office access badge with their photo and their name (i.e.letter) emblazed on it.  At the beginning of the show, this helped us remember which letter was which.  As we had seats in the second row for this performance, we had a really good view of the actors and marveled at how much the one playing “Z” looked and sounded like Adele while the one playing letter “Q” resembled the star of the Toronto production of Strange Loop.  As a fun fact to add to the show program, each actor plus the writer and production staff named their favourite “weird” word.  These included gobbledygook, onomatopoeia, kerfuffle and shenanigans.  We found this amusing since Rich and I also have favourite words, so we totally relate.  His is defenestration (the act of throwing someone out of a window) while mine is Entlistungsfreude (a German word for the feeling of joy and satisfaction when crossing completed items off of a list).

Our final two shows were being held at Soulpepper’s Michael Young Theatre in the Distillery District which has been added to the list of Toronto Fringe Festival venues for the first time as part of a Soulpepper Theatre Hub.  With just over 200 seats, Michael Young Theatre has the largest capacity, which is probably why the shows selected for the “Next Stage Series” were all slotted here.  While most of the shows at Fringe are chosen by lottery, the Next Stage Series consists of a few curated shows selected by experienced Fringe Festival producers that were selected by a panel of Toronto Fringe staff and invited industry professionals.

Our first show at the Michael Young Theatre was selected as part of the Next Stage Series.  “Songs by a Wannabe” is a one-woman musical performed by Barbara (aka Babz) Johnston as a semi-autobiographical account of her decade portraying Ginger Spice as part of the Spice Girl tribute band Wannabe (named after the group’s most famous song).  We selected this show that was co-written by Johnston with her frequent collaborators and good friends Anika Johnson and Suzy Wilde because we have watched shows by various combinations of these artists in the past and really enjoyed their work.  We saw Barbara and Anika’s musical Blood Ties (featured in Orphan Black) and Summerland in previous Fringe years as well as Dr. Silver’s Celebration of Life which they wrote with Anika’s sister Britta Johnson.  Suzy Wilde also worked on Summerland and we recently watched her show After the Rain which played as part of our Off Mirvish subscription series.  It turns out that Anika and Suzy are also part of Wannabe, playing Sporty Spice and Posh Spice respectively.  Wannabe continues to be active to this day with most of its original members and have shows booked through the rest of 2025.  The three had met in high school and performed together as the indie-pop band Stonefox through their university days.

Using true stories from their life on the road augmented with fictionalized situations added for dramatic purposes, Songs by a Wannabe depicts of the group’s final days after a lengthy, arduous North American “tour from hell”.  The musical is set backstage during one of their final performances.  Babz is on her last straw and ready to call it quits.  She recounts how she first got involved with starting a Spice Girls tribute band after limited success auditioning for acting roles, how the group gained traction and started selling out shows before being derailed by the pandemic, how she started losing band members to pregnancy and other priorities (fictional), how she re-grouped by finding replacements for the band and finally how this new group set out on the grueling tour by driving across Canada and the U.S. in a recreational vehicle (RV).

  

Decked out in an orangey “Ginger-styled wig” and constantly changing costumes from the clothes rack on stage, Babz is mesmerizing as she relates her tales of woe through exposition interlaced with original pop songs that are influenced by the Spice Girls, including one slower ballad where she uses the lyrics “what I want .. what I really want” as a direct reference to the song Wannabe.  She describes situations of show stops in small cities in such detail that you feel these snippets must be true.  One story involves a man watching the show while clutching Spice Girl dolls which he said belonged to his recently deceased sister and then presented the dolls to the group.  Babz uses the dolls and a miniature model of an RV to visually illustrate their travels including various mechanical issues.  When the RV finally breaks down for good and they need to abandon it, she lifts off the back end to reveal a smaller vehicle that represents the rental car they group switched to.  This innovative way of conveying the plot was very unique and entertaining.  While we are usually wary of one-woman shows, this one was spectacular and we were spell-bounded and captivated throughout.  This turned out to be my favourite show of this Toronto Fringe season, which is saying a lot since the previous shows were excellent as well.

Unfortunately, I did not like our last show, “Emilo’s A Million Chameleons”.  We picked it because it starred the talented puppeteer Adam Francis Proulx who we watched in 2023 in his Fringe show “The Family Crow: A Murder Mystery”.  In that show, Proulx played all the parts and provided all the voices in a clever murder mystery where all the suspects and the detective were crow puppets. We enjoyed that show so much that we decided to give his new one a try.  But while that show was entertaining for both kids and adults, I felt that his new show was totally catered towards young children.  It involves Emilio Jr. who runs a chameleon circus where he boasts “a million” chameleons are behind a curtain and he would bring some out to perform various variety acts including singing, dancing and juggling.  There was no real plot and the gags did not land for me.  He used colour-changing sequin material to alter colours on the chameleon puppets and to reveal an image of his father Emilio Sr.  There was audience participation when he brought up a shy little girl to interact with a chameleon, and then he tossed giant inflated dice into the audience for people to bat around in order to generate a number that would represent which of the “million” chameleons would perform next.  It was lots of fun for the kids and their parents but just wasn’t what I was looking for.

Given the lottery nature of Fringe festivals, we always assume that any show we pick is a gamble despite our developing strategies over the years that allow us to better identify the shows that we would probably like.  So, having an 80% success rate is pretty good.  I just wish we could have ended on a high note.

Theatre 2025: After the Rain @ Tarragon Theatre

Musical Stage Company is a charitable organization with a mandate to make Canada a leader in the creation of new musicals from development to production, as well as championing and co-producing versions of existing musicals.  Some recent co-productions include Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (with Crow’s Theatre), Fun Home (with Mirvish Productions), and Wild Party as well as Caroline and Change (with Obsidian Theatre).  In terms of development of new, home-grown Canadian musicals, Musical Stage Company has run programs such as Noteworthy, a masterclass which pairs up composers, lyricists and book-writers, as well as Launchpad, a 10-month program for musical theatre composers, lyricists, and book writers to develop new work.  Noted names coming out of these programs include Britta Johnson, whose musical “Life After” is part of Mirvish Productions’ 2024/25 subscription series, and Barbara Johnston/Anika Johnson whose Edinburgh Fringe Festival musical Blood Ties was featured in an episode of the TV series Orphan Black.  My husband Rich and I love musicals and try to support Musical Stage Company’s endeavours whenever we can.

Two more names emerging from these programs include Suzy Wilde and Rose Napoli, who are the composer/lyricist and book writer of “After the Rain”, a new Canadian musical co-produced by Musical Stage Company and Tarragon Theatre.  First paired together in the Noteworthy program, the two continued to collaborate and searched for ideas to create a new musical.  The spark of inspiration came when Suzy played a song that she had written over a decade earlier based on a meaningful real-life experience.  Using this as the starting point, the musical was developed.

After the Rain is a coming-of-age story revolving around Suzie Evans Stone, the daughter of musicians Jean Stone and Ashley Evans, members of the “Canadian” famous folk-rock band Evans Stone.  All of Suzie’s musical knowledge has been gained through experience growing up with the band, for whom she currently works as a technical assistant and backup singer.  Her main skill is on the guitar although she has dabbled with playing the piano and is a fledgling songwriter trying to find her own way as a musician.

The show starts with the band in rehearsal, trying out both old and new songs in preparation to record a new album and a 20th anniversary concert tour.  With Suzie acting as narrator, we learn a bit about the dynamics between her parents and herself.  There is also a drummer and guitarist in the band but so little is revealed about them that they might as well be just one of the background musicians for the musical.

After the rehearsal, Suzie is asked to fill in for her father to give piano lessons to a new student.  Thinking the student will be a child, Suzie is shocked to find Donna, an eccentric older woman who is not interested in mastering any piano techniques but insists on learning to play just one song, Erik Satie’s “Gymnopedie No. 1”.   Suzie feels insecure and inadequate due to her lack of formal musical training but Donna brushes that aside and demands that she be the permanent teacher.  Donna also encourages Suzie to apply for music school at University of Toronto.

Over time, Suzie bonds with Donna and her family, including her awkward son Julian (whose actions and speech patterns hint at neurodiversity) and her mild-mannered and extremely quiet partner Frank.  These piano lessons and the goal of attending school give Suzie the sense of purpose that she has been lacking in her life. But it also leads to conflict with her mother, who wants her to join the band to revitalize it and bring in a more youthful audience.   The same actress plays the roles of Jean Stone and Donna while the same actor plays Ashley Stone and Frank.  It was interesting to watch them duck off stage to switch costumes and roles, creating totally different characters through their dress, movements and demeanor.

The small theatre was configured as a “traverse stage” with stadium seating for the audience on both sides and a large set piece on the floor between them.  The set piece consists of a pair of pianos positioned back-to-back topped with a large plank that creates a performance stage for the lead singers during rehearsal/concert scenes, with steps lead up to that platform from either side of the room.  The remaining members of the band and additional background musicians remain on the floor to the left and right of the platform.  While the set piece was interesting, we questioned the effectiveness of the traverse stage setup since the characters had their backs to us at least half of the time.

An audience advisory warned of loud music, strobe lights and haze effects that were used during the concert scenes but we found the effects to be relatively mild, especially after watching Beetlejuice the Musical the week before. Rich and I had the opportunity to briefly attend part of a technical rehearsal for the show and found it fascinating to watch as the cast painstakingly and repeatedly ran through small snippets of the show while technicians tweaked sound levels, lighting queues, staging and blocking of movements.

The show included multiple instances of audience participation starting with a man who was selected from the audience to play Suzie’s hot boyfriend.  He was handed a slip of paper with the line “I want to play you a song” and asked to read it out loud on cue.  In another scene, four other audience members were handed ukeleles and represented kids that Ashley Stone was teaching a lesson to.  Rich and I are not particularly fond of the use of audience participation and were grateful that we were not sitting in the front row.  We have been to shows such as Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, where the audience participation felt organic and enhanced the show.  For this one, many of the instances felt gimmicky and unnecessary.

The one instance of audience participation that did work for me was during a wedding dance scene after Donna and Frank were wed.  Julian asked a woman in the audience to dance with him and when she accepted, they twirled around with such prowess that it was impressive and a sweet moment.  The audience was also asked to repeatedly hum along to the first few bars of a song that Suzie spent most of the show trying to write, eventually nailing it for the final number which became the eponymous song “After the Rain”.  Along with Donna’s story, involving the audience was a way for the show creators to “democratize music” by showing that the creation and appreciation of music is for everyone, not just professional musicians.

For the most part, After The Rain is a “diegetic” musical where the singing is not internal but can be heard by the other characters as part of the plot.  The songs are sung during band rehearsals, recording sessions, during Evans Stone concerts, other smaller performances, or when characters sing to one another.  As such, the lyrics of the songs don’t always advance the plot or express inner feelings or emotions, but are presented like a juke box musical, albeit with original songs that are supposed to be from the catalogue of this fake band.  Suzy Wilde has written many wonderful songs for the musical and I hope that a cast recording will be released one day so that I can hear them again.  I just wish that she had included the song list in the musical’s program to help me remember some of the titles. One particular song that stands out in my mind occurs when Suzie and Jean finally hash out their differences.  This led to a powerful and emotional ballad sung mostly by Jean about being or not being “your mother’s daughter”.  It was performed while the pair each played on one of the dueling pianos.

Even though Evans Stone is a fake band, the paraphernalia in the theatre’s lobby did a fantastic job of portraying them as a real one.  This included posters featuring the band members, photographs, a set list for one of the concerts, T-shirts with their tour stops and even a CD cover.  The other photograph in the lobby was dedicated to “Erica (Donna) Scagliotti and her son Julian on her wedding day.  This confirmed that the story of Donna (aka Erica) and her piano lessons was based real people and experiences from Suzy Wilde’s life that she used as the inspiration for the final song that ultimately led to the development of the musical.  Suzy’s biographical details hint that other aspects of her life influenced the show.  Like her almost namesake Suzie, Suzy Wilde also grew up in a musical family and was part of the band “Dirty Dishes” as well as touring as Posh Spice in a Spice Girl tribute band.

During the post-show talkback, we learned that the real-life Julian had come to see the show and had also been a music student of Suzy Wilde’s.  The actors talked about the collaborative nature of working on new, original musical, how the show would probably continue to evolve as it tours beyond Toronto, and the experience of working closely with Wilde, who has a small but surprising role in the show.  This was a sweet show with some great songs and a triumphant product of the efforts by Musical Stage Company to foster new Canadian musicals.  Hoping for more to come.

Theatre 2025: Beetlejuice Musical @ Ed Mirvish

Recently it seems like more and more musicals are based on other sources such as movies, TV shows, and books, or use the music of famous musicians as the songs, either paired with an original story or using the life stories of those musicians as the plot.  This is not surprising given what a risky business it is mount a new musical with original songs and book.  Basing a show on an adaptation of well-known and well-loved material brings a built-in audience which gives the musical a better chance of being a success.  While totally understandable, it is also too bad since this trend stifles the creativity and originality that comes with new works.

Beetlejuice is the most recent musical arriving in Toronto that is based on another source.  It is adapted from the 1988 gothic-horror/comedy movie starring Michael Keaton as the eponymous ghoul Beetlejuice, who is summoned when his name is chanted three times in succession.  Dorky couple Adam and Barbara Maitland (played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) are in midst of renovating their cherished, quaintly designed home when they perish in a car accident and find themselves roaming their house as ghosts.

Real Estate developer Charles Deetz and his second wife Delia (Jeffery Jones and Catherine O’Hara) purchase the house and move in with Charles’ morbid, moody daughter Lydia (Wynonna Ryder), who is dressed in black.  When Delia starts to redesign the house in a “new-wave, post-modern aesthetic”, the Maitlands try to haunt and scare off the family but are too mild-mannered to make any impact.  It does not help that only Lydia can see them so their feeble attempts to frighten the oblivious Charles and Delia come off as humorous instead of horrific.

After discovering the “Handbook for the Recently Deceased”, the ghosts travel to the Netherworld (waiting room for spirits) for advice on how to expel the Deetz family.  Out of desperation, they summon the mischievous and malevolent spirit Beetlejuice to help them.  This leads to the iconic scene where the Deetz family and their dinner guests become possessed and start singing Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O (the Banana Boat song)”.   A botched exorcism threatens to permanently destroy the Maitlands who Lydia has bonded with.  Beetlejuice agrees to save them if Lydia will marry him, which would allow him to stay in the world of the living.  Once freed from the exorcism, the Maitlands rescue Lydia and invoke a giant sandworm to devour Beetlejuice, sending him back to the Netherworld.  The Maitlands and Deetz agree to harmoniously live in the house together.

Beetlejuice the Musical maintains the high-level plot of the movie but totally reframes the story, shifting the main focus and driver of the storyline to Lydia as opposed to the Maitlands.  Depictions of other roles are also tweaked for comedic effect and plot-points changed make it easier to portray on stage.  The result of these changes is a more heart-felt storyline, deeper, more nuanced characters and a more humorous show with broader jokes.

Rather than just being a weird, sulky goth girl as portrayed in the movie, Lydia is a lonely daughter missing and grieving the recent death of her mother, while frustrated with her father Charles, who is not able to share his own pain with her.  The show opens with the funeral of Lydia’s mother Emily.  Lydia voices her grief by singing “You’re invisible when you’re sad…nobody sees a thing”. The song ends with Beetlejuice breaking the fourth wall to proclaim, “A ballad already! What a bold departure from the original source material” before declaring in the next song that this is “A show about death!”. 

Beetlejuice continues as a narrator who often addresses the audience and injects pop-cultural and musical references into his rants and songs.  His character is given more depth as a lonely soul, craving for attention and love and putting up with an abusive mother Juno, who is an authoritative figure in the Netherworld.  In the finale, Beetlejuice is even given a bit of a redemptive arc.

The Maitlands are now secondary figures who are strait-laced and even more incompetent in their attempts at haunting.  Their method of death is changed from a car crashing into a lake to something easier to stage.   In an Australian production, the couple crashed through the floorboards falling into the basement.  In the Toronto touring production, they die by accidental electrocution.  Once again, only Lydia is able to see the Maitlands and Beetlejuice because of her gloomy nature. In this adaptation, a living human is required to invoke Beetlejuice to bring him into the living world but Lydia initially refuses since she finds him creepy (“Say My Name”).

While Delia was Lydia’s stepmother in the movie, the musical hypes up the comedy by making Delia a ditzy “life coach” who preaches happiness and positive thinking.  As well as being Charles’ paid employee, she is also his secret lover (does that make her a prostitute, she ponders?).  When the couple become engaged, Lydia feels powerless and isolated, thinking that her mother is being replaced.  Lydia enlists the Maitlands to use their power of “possession” to disrupt her father’s important business dinner, leading to the iconic “Day-O” number.  When that fails, out of desperation, she finally summons Beetlejuice who quickly ousts all the other humans from the house.  This leaves him and Lydia alone to rule the roost and frighten off all screaming visitors including a Girl Guide, Census taker, Pizza delivery man and a well-meaning neighbour (“That Beautiful Sound”).

After Charles and Delia return to the house to try to save their daughter, Beetlejuice tricks Lydia into thinking she can resurrect her mother, but instead she starts an exorcism on a screaming Barbara Maitland.  To save her, Lydia seemingly agrees to marry Beetlejuice, but tricks him by jumping into the passageway to the Netherworld in search of her mother with Charles jumping in after her.  There they meet many residents, including “Miss Argentina” and a shrunken head, who perform a big song and dance number (“What I Know Now”) to encourage the living humans to go back to the living world, lamenting on their regrets of not appreciating life when they could.  Charles and Lydia finally talk about her mother and reconcile but are chased by Beetlejuice’s mother Juno who wants to keep them in the Netherworld.

Returning to the house, Lydia and Charles find Beetlejuice in a rage, prepared to kill everyone.  Once again, Lydia agrees to marry Beetlejuice to appease him.  This time, the marriage takes place, which brings him to life, allowing Lydia to promptly kill him again, using a big ugly sculpture that was initially shown in the neo-modern redecoration of the house, making it the ultimate “Chekov’s gun”.  Now newly deceased, Beetlejuice can be sent to the Netherworld.  But when Juno arrives to reclaim Lydia, Beetlejuice stands up to her and conjures up a sandworm to devour her (thus the redemptive arc).   Beetlejuice leaves peacefully and the Deetz and Maitlands agree to coexist in the house, just like in the movie.  So, while most of the salient points of the movie are represented, the musical is definitely an entity unto itself.

Some of the current references made by Beetlejuice include “If I hear your cell phone ringing, I’ll kill you myself!”, “I’m invisible, powerless ... like a gay Republican” and “It’s a Green Card thing” when explaining his desire to marry a human.  When Adam and Barbara first encounter Beetlejuice and ask who he is, the demon jokes to Adam “I am your father” in a Darth Vader reference. There are several musical references as well. When describing how boring Adam and Barbara are, Beetlejuice claims they are more boring than the musical Brigadoon and during the song “Good Old-Fashioned Wedding”, Beetlejuice references Fiddler on the Roof with the lyrics “OMG”, L’Chaim, To Life”.

Extremely bright, flashing and strobing lights were used in the staging of this show including a green light that repeatedly shone right at our eyes from our seats at the front of the Mezzanine of the Ed Mirvish Theatre. It was surprising that there were no trigger warnings about this since there had been warnings at other shows for much less intense effects.  We also found the sound quality in Ed Mirvish Theatre to be lacking as it was difficult to hear the lyrics of many songs, particularly when Lydia was singing since she sang at a higher octave range than the other actors.  This is not the first time that we had trouble hearing at this theatre.  It might be just poor acoustics since in this case we did not feel like the background music drowned out the singing as we have felt at other shows.

Despite these staging issues, Beetlejuice the Musical was a fun night out with some of the audience really getting into the spirit of things by dressing up like Beetlejuice or Lydia.