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.

Theatre 2025: Clue on Stage

So many of the plays that we watch each year are dramas which are intense, sad or even downright tragic.  While these shows are enlightening and enjoyable in their own way, I often wish for a lighthearted, fun comedy whose only goal is to entertain and make me laugh.  The play "Clue: On Stage" more than fit the bill.

The basis of the play Clue is the same-titled board game that was originally developed in the U.K. in 1943 under the name “Cluedo” before being released in North America as “Clue” in 1949.  Through questioning and the process of elimination, players try to deduce which of six possible suspects murdered “Mr. Boddy”, with what weapon and in which room within his manor.  The American version of the classic game has made the suspects, including Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Miss Scarlett, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Peacock and Professor Plum, part of pop culture.  The game tokens match the colourfully named characters. The potential weapons include a rope, a knife, a candlestick, a wrench, a lead pipe and a revolver.  The murder takes place in one of nine locations in a manor including the Bathroom, Billiards Room, Conservatory, Dining Room, Hall, Kitchen, Library, Lounge or Study.  There are secret passageways connecting various rooms, making it quicker to traverse between some of the rooms.

The board game has inspired many adaptations in various formats including book, video game, movie, television series, TV game show and live theatre both as a comedy and a musical.  Now considered a cult classic, the 1985 movie Clue featured a star-studded cast including Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock, Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White, Leslie Ann Warren as Miss. Scarlet, Christopher Lloyd as Professor Plum, Martin Mull as Colonel Mustard and Michael McKean as Mr. Green.  Additional characters added to the plot of the movie included Tim Curry as Wadsworth the Butler, and other actors playing Mr. Boddy, the French maid, the scary cook, and several others who show up at the manor.

Six strangers, each being blackmailed, are invited to dinner at a creepy manor by the mysterious Mr. Boddy.  When he winds up dead, the guests and staff work together to catch the killer before anyone else is killed.  By the finale, six bodies have piled up and it is up to the butler Wadsworth to hilariously reenact all that has happened and reveal the killer.

Acting as a parody of classic murder mysteries, the movie plays as a farcical, slapstick comedy with intentionally groan-inducing jokes, pratfalls and slamming doors while cleverly incorporating all the characters, weapons and rooms from the game.  Three endings are offered and when the movie first played in theatres, one of the three endings was randomly used at each. 

Adapted from the 1985 movie, the 2017 play "Clue: On Stage" maintains all of the salient plot points and much of the dialog from the movie, but amps up the jokes, slapstick and farce. The stage actors play their characters more broadly and larger-than-life, leaning into the caricatures and archetypes established in the movie while further accentuating quirks and tropes.  Colonel Mustard comes across as a pompous buffoon who is hard of hearing, leading to many humorous misunderstandings and some exchanges reminiscent of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s On First” skit.  Miss Scarlet is the tough, sarcastic, sexy vamp. Mrs. White is a cold, morbid “Morticia Adams” type and possibly killer of multiple husbands. Mrs. Peacock is neurotic, a bit batty and quick to hysteria, giving off blood-curdling screams.  Professor Plum is an arrogant lothario and self-proclaimed ladies’ man.

For me, the two most interesting characters were Mr. Green and the butler Wadsworth, but for different reasons.  Mr. Green is timid, anxious, klutzy, effeminate and quick to declare his innocence as each death arises.  He is also extremely physically agile and acrobatic as he dodges, rolls, flips and bends to avoid danger.  In one scene, to avoid a crashing chandelier, Green performs a “limbo” move that has his body parallel to and almost touching the floor.  Wadsworth is a quick-talking British butler and the scene where he reenacts the evening’s events while mimicking all the other players is a tour-de-force.  Yet what caught my eye upon his first appearance and the thought that stayed with me throughout the show was how much the actor (Jeff Skowron) playing Wadsworth looked and acted like iconic Canadian actor Martin Short.

The set design in this play is extremely clever as it has to change quickly to represent the many rooms within Boddy Manor.  The main set where much of the action occurs is in the front hall, featuring a front door which all the characters arriving at the manor come in through, multiple doors on either side of the stage representing the many rooms of the manor, and two large chandeliers hanging in the hallway, which feature prominently in the plot.  Throughout the show, the doorbell rings repeatedly as more and more characters arrive through that front door.

Set pieces roll onto stage or descend from above to represent the various rooms, while multiple doors on either side of the stage are opened and closed in farcical manner during scenes when the search is on for the murderer.  In particular, the lounge, where each guest is deposited as he/she arrives, is configured on a rotating turntable.  With each additional guest, the door to the lounge swings wider and wider, exposing more of the furniture and décor of the room, and revealing the accumulating people being asked to wait there.

The stage version is fast-paced and manic but must use theatrical techniques to simulate movement including running in spot while the set changes around them and the stereotypical “chase music” plays.  The excellent choreography dictating the movement of the characters adds much to the humour.  One sight gag, repeated from the movie, has Miss Scarlett using a glass against a wall to eavesdrop on Waddsworth talking to Mr. Boddy.  Each subsequent guest presses their glass against the previous person, as if that would continue to amplify the sound.  The final joke occurs when Colonel Mustard, who is at the end of the chain, puts the glass against the wrong ear.

Trumping the movie’s three alternate endings, “Clue On Stage” offers up six different endings and a big, climatic, uproarious finale, leaving the audience laughing, cheering and thoroughly entertained.  Mission accomplished.

Theatre 2025: Strange Loop @ Soulpepper

A co-production between Crow's Theatre and Soulpepper Theatre, Strange Loop is a daring, complex and thought-provoking musical by Michael R. Jackson who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2020 and the Tony Award for Best New Musical in 2022.  This is a meta, self-referential show about Usher, a self-proclaimed “queer, fat, black man” in his mid twenties, who ironically works as an usher for a Broadway production of Lion King but aspires to be a successful playwright. The musical that Usher is working on is autobiographical, about a gay black man (himself) writing about a show about a gay black man who is writing a show about a gay black man.  The cyclical nature of his play is just one aspect of several recurring “loops” in his life as he struggles to define his identity.

Throughout the show, Usher deals with insecurities, self-doubt and angst regarding his race, sexuality and body image as he faces societal pressures including racism, homophobia and body shaming. These anxieties are amplified by harsh judgement and condemnation from his ultra-religious parents and are perpetuated and personified by the internal Greek chorus of his inner thoughts, including “Self-Loathing”, “Financial Faggotry” and “Corporate N***atry” and “Sexual Ambivalence”.  In the program, the characters are referred to as Thought #1 to Thought #6.  In the opening number "Intermission Song", the Thoughts repeatedly chant "Usher" and it is unclear whether they are calling his name or generically calling for the usher in the theatre.  This adds to the meta nature of the show.

Usher battles the psychological and emotional loops of his self-doubt as he struggles between conforming to the expectations of others and remaining true to his own identity.  Usher wants to form a meaningful connection in the gay dating scene but is mercilessly rebuffed in the song “Exile in Gayville” where he is deemed “too fat, too black, too ugly and dick too small”.  Out of desperation, he accepts a hookup with a sadistic white man from “Inwood” (a New York suburb) who has a fetish for black boys in an unflinching scene that is very difficult to watch.  This experience just reinforces his feelings of shame and self-deprecation.

Usher also deals with constant guilt trips from his parents.  His mother wants him to write gospel plays like Tyler Perry, who is known for writing melodramatic plays reflecting Christian values, focusing on forgiveness and redemption, faith and family values.  Usher shows distain for Perry’s works, deeming them too simplistic, formulaic, commercialized and lacking authenticity, relying on black stereotypes and reinforcing problematic tropes regarding gender and sexuality.  Combating his reluctance to write a gospel play, Usher’s “Thoughts” pressure and convince him by appearing as legendary black figures including abolitionist Harriet Tubman, civil rights activist James Baldwin, the titular character from the movie “12 Years A Slave” and “Whitney” (Houston).  To appease his mother, Usher writes an over-the-top Tyler Perry-esque parody that exaggerates all the themes, plots and characteristics that he finds objectionable.

I thought it was interesting to learn that at least publicly, Tyler Perry did not take offence to the way his work was depicted in Strange Loop and even phoned Jackson to congratulate him on winning his Pulitzer award.

In addition to Tyler Perry, the songs in Strange Loop make passing references to many names within pop culture that might be missed without more research.  In “Didn’t Want Nothing”, Usher’s father cluelessly mentions Scott Rudin, a successful gay (white) TV and theatre producer that Usher should get to know (since they are both gay!).  When Usher sings about feminism in “Second Wave”, he mentions Betty Friedan (writer of the Feminine Mystic) and “Charlene, Mary-Jo, Julia and Suzanne”, the first names of the characters from the TV show Designing Women.  In the final number “Strange Loop”, Usher refers to Dorothy which probably alludes to the character from The Wizard of Oz but might also be a play on the phrase “Friend of Dorothy”. 

The use of the actors playing the six Thoughts is quite interesting in the musical since they also portray other characters including theatre patrons, Usher’s potential lovers, his doctor, and his parents.  But rather than having just one actor play Usher’s mother, in some scenes all of them come out dressed as the mother and each sing a line of the song.  This was particularly impactful given the different vocal ranges of each of the actors, who were each cast with a specific vocal type to create a more diverse and dynamic chorus.  Thought #1 is a mezzo-soprano, #2 a tenor, #3 a high tenor, #4 a bari-tenor and Thought #5 and #6 each sing bass.

After struggling throughout the show, Usher finally realizes that rather than trying to change himself to get out of his unending loops of self-conflict, he needs to learn to live with and accept himself as he is. He is given some sage advice from a sympathetic patron at The Lion King, who tells him to “Live your life and tell your story… truthfully and without fear.  Find joy inside your life while you’re still here”. 

The term “strange loop” refers to American cognitive and computer scientist Douglas Hofstadter’s theory about cyclical, self-referential structures that loop back to their starting points, which is used by the brain to define one’s sense of self and identity.  Jackson’s intelligent application of this complex concept to represent how the recursive loop of a person’s thoughts, self-perceptions and external experiences influence one’s sense of self is very impressive and a bit mind-boggling.

What makes Strange Loop so groundbreaking is its innovative, no-holds-barred, and heartbreaking depiction of the experiences of being a gay black man, told with such vulnerability by a voice that is not often represented in live theatre.  The show is bold and unapologetic, not shying away from profanity, sexuality and subversive topics.

While I really admired the intent of this musical and particularly enjoyed the smart, insightful lyrics in the self-reflective songs sung by Usher, I found all the yelling and abuse from the parents hard to take.  The actor who played Usher had such a sweet, innocent smile and baby face that I just wanted to wrap my arms around him and shield him from the hurt being hurled at him.  I also did not particularly like the gospel play scenes as I found them depressing as opposed to satirical.  But overall, I thought this was a special show and understand why it deservedly won all the accolades that it did.

Theatre 2025: Flex @ Crow's Theatre

On the surface, the play Flex by American playwright Candrice Jones deals with a group of black, seventeen-year-old girls who are the starting five on a high school basketball team called “Lady Train”.  Living in rural Arkansas in the 1990s just as the WNBA (Women’s basketball league) was formed, they strive to make the State finals and hope to be discovered by college scouts.  In actuality, basketball merely serves as a backdrop that allows us to explore the lives of these girls, including their hopes, dreams, challenges, fears and desire for a better life outside of their impoverished community.

Starra is the talented point guard and captain of the team, who has a big chip on her shoulder.  Her need to prove that she is the best makes her a selfish player seeking personal glory over team success.  Growing up playing on makeshift basketball courts in dirt fields, she views success in basketball as her ticket out of her life of poverty in what she calls a “Dirt State”.  It is also a way to honour her deceased mother who was a rising basketball star in school herself and taught Starra to do whatever it takes to make it.

Starra’s ultra-religious cousin Cherise has just received her youth minister’s license and wishes to baptise her teammates but feels conflicted by her sexuality and feelings for fellow teammate Donna.  Donna is the only player who has aspirations beyond basketball, since she has a full scholarship in pre-med at Xavier college in New Orleans.  Sidney is an elite player from Los Angeles who had to move to Arkansas for family reasons and is seen as a major threat by Starra.  Rounding out the starting five is April who is two-months pregnant despite making a pact with her team to abstain from sex during the season and now might be banned from playing by their coach.

Starra is the main protagonist with the largest character arc.  Her insecurities drive her to an act of sabotage against Sidney that is seen as a major betrayal and alienates Starra from her team.  Starra needs to learn humility and embrace the sports tropes (also life tropes) that “There is no ‘I’ in Team” and “A Team is Only as Strong as its Weakest Link”.

The other main story arc relates to April’s pregnancy.  At the start of the play, in solidarity for April’s situation and attempting to convince Coach Pace to allow her to play, all the girls appear at practice wearing “pregnancy bellies” stolen from Home Economics class.  Thinking that it is her only way to play, April’s journey involves deciding whether or not she wants to terminate the pregnancy and if so, how to go about doing it.

The title of the play is named after a basketball strategy (Flex Offence) that involves constant ball movement between the players as they shift positions around the court and set screens to block out their opponents, until one player cuts into an open position to get off an uncontested shot.  The strategy is first drilled during practice and then executed in the State Finals game at the end of the play.  The Flex strategy becomes a metaphor for teamwork, cooperation, self-sacrifice and trust of your teammates.  As the girls learn to perfect the moves throughout the play, it signifies their own personal growth both as athletes and individuals.

As with many Crow’s Theatre shows, the stage was almost “in-the-round” with the audience sitting on three sides.  Half of a basketball court fills the stage with the lines of the backboard lit up to highlight the basket.  Benches on either side of the court where the team sits during games are moved around to form other locations including the seats of a car and sofas from Sidney’s living room.  Of specific interest were a few tuffs of grass emanating from the edge of the court closest to our seats.  These were meant to signify the “dirt courts” that Starra was used to playing on.

It was interesting hearing during the post show talkback that none of the actresses were professional basketball players and came with varying experience in the sport.  They went through a brief training “boot camp” to learn the lingo and moves but there would be no guarantees (just like in professional sports games) whether any particular shot would be made from night to night.  I found a PDF of the script for the play and thought it was fascinating how this was accounted for in the stage directions.  Even in the initial practice, for each shot there are a pair of directions and dialogue separated by a slash that would be performed if the shot was made versus if it was missed.  This culminates in the climax of the play when the final deciding shot is taken in the State Finals.  Depending on whether the shot is made or missed, an entirely different ending has been prepared.  In sports, as in life and now in the live theatre experience of this play, you don’t know from night to night how things will play out.  Regardless of whether LadyTrain wins or loses their big game, the team shows grit, resilience and teamwork, making their coach proud.

Theatre 2025: Trident Moon @ Crow's Theatre

Crow’s Theatre is known for its bold and edgy plays that do not shy away from difficult or even traumatic topics.  In the past, we have watched a play with vignettes about the horrors of the 2014 Russo-Ukrainian War, as well as one dealing with the recollections of a female pastor who was kidnapped and tortured by a Neo Nazi mental patient.  We knew that the play Trident Moon would be of the same vein, given that it is a fictional story set during the chaotic period of the 1947 Partition of India.  We further braced ourselves for an intense experience when we read the trigger warning sign posted outside the theatre that cautioned us to expect depictions of death, physical and sexual violence towards women and children, strong language, discussions of rape, torture, murder, decapitation and derogatory language directed at a disabled person, as well as the use of prop guns, simulated gun fire, flashing lights, theatrical haze and fog, and loud noises.  This is by far the most severe trigger warning that we have ever encountered.  Compare this to a previous Crow’s Theatre show, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, which warned us (tongue in cheek) about depictions of sleigh rides!

The conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India dates back to the 7th century when Islam was first introduced into the country.  During their colonial rule from 1757 to 1947, Britain tried to keep a lid on hostilities, with varying degrees of success. To facilitate their intention to end colonial rule in India, in 1947 Britain enacted the Indian Independence Act, which included a Partition that split the country into two separate independent sovereign states divided by religion—the Republic of India for the Hindus/Sikhs and Dominion of Pakistan for the Muslims.  The Partition displaced over fifteen million people, creating an overwhelming humanitarian and refugee crisis in both new countries which led to families torn apart, homes destroyed and large-scale violence resulting in deaths of up to two million people.

It is in midst of this time of historic turmoil that Dora Award winning playwright Anusree Roy sets the imagined events in her thrilling play Trident Moon.  The set is configured to represent the interior of a cargo truck that is motoring through Pakistan towards towards India. As the play begins, we see six females seated, kneeling or prone on the floor of the truck.  The three on the left are dressed in ragged orangey-yellow linen saris and it is apparent that one of the women is injured with a bleeding wound at her abdomen while one is an intellectually disabled child.  The three on the right are dressed in light blue saris that seem more elegant and expensive in style and material.  They consist of two women who have their hands bound behind their backs and a young girl.  The two sets of adult females verbally spar and hurl insults and each other.  It becomes apparent that the wealthy Muslim employers have been kidnapped by their Hindu servants as some sort of revenge plot initially triggered by violence that occurred between their husbands.  As the play goes on, we learn more about what happened to bring these women to this point.

The “truck” is forced to stop several times throughout the action, as refugees of both religions seeking transport and marauders searching for riches attempt to board.  Through the use of light and sound effects timed perfectly with jolting motions of the bodies in the truck, the stagecraft to simulate these stoppages is so effective that the audience can almost feel the motion from our seats.

This is an intensely harrowing tale that highlights the brutality of this traumatic time period and yet manages to highlight the strength of human resilience and a spark of humanity that gives hope to this tragedy.  For such a violent time in history, it is interesting that most of the story is told through the eyes of women.  Also of interest is the innocent interaction between the children who have not yet learned to hate or fear each other.  In a talkback discussion with the playwright, who also portrayed one of the Muslim women, she stressed the importance of understanding that there are no real villains in the show.  All the characters are victims of circumstance, acting out of fear, desperation and anger as they react to the tragedy of their situations.  The actresses themselves represent both Hindu and Muslim religions and the comment was made in the talkback that although they loved each other fiercely, none of them could safely marry the other’s brothers without being disowned by their own families.  The violence may have subsided but the divide remains as strong as ever.

This was an extremely well-acted and thought-provoking play that taught us about a time in history that had not been that familiar to us.  By the end of it, we understood the significance of the title where the trident represents Hinduism and the crescent moon symbolizes Islam for the Muslims. Despite its difficult subject matter, this was a riveting show to watch and the 90 minutes just flew by.  

Theatre 2025: Cabaret @ Al Green Theatre

With music and lyrics by John Kandar and Fred Ebb, the 1966 musical Cabaret is about the decline of the decadent Weimar era and the rise of Nazism in Germany. We watched an excellent version of this musical at the Al Green Theatre which was made all the more poignant given its subject matter, since the theatre is situated inside the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre.  It was a fascinating exercise to trace the history of the musical, from its source material, the various adaptations in different formats that preceded and followed it, and the various changes made to the musical itself in each subsequent revival through the decades.  Its relevance is distressingly prevalent in our current troubled political times.  Just in case you didn’t catch the significance from the story itself, this rendition of the show added a chilling addendum at the end to hammer home the point.  But more on that later.

The genesis for Cabaret stems from the life of Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood, a gay Anglo-American writer who briefly relocated to Berlin during the final months of the “Golden Twenties” to partake in the city’s colourful nightlife, jazz scene and the availability of young male prostitutes.  During his stay, he befriended and shared a room with 19-year-old British flapper Jean Ross, helping her procure an abortion when she became pregnant from one of her various affairs.  Both Isherwood and Ross became sexually involved with wealthy American playboy John Blomshield before he abruptly abandoned them. Their wild days ended once Hitler came into power and the pair fled Germany along with other bohemian friends.

Isherwood wrote several semi-autobiographical novels about his escapades in Berlin.  In Mr. Norris Changes Trains (1935), William Bradshaw meets a mysterious stranger on a train who turns out to be a spy.  In Goodbye Berlin (1939), English expatriate Christopher Isherwood rents a room in a boarding house and encounters a diverse group of residents including the owner Fräulein Schroeder, British good-time girl and cabaret singer Sally Bowles (obviously based on Jean Ross), prostitute Fräulein Kost and Nazi sympathizer Fräulein Mayr.  At a nightclub, Christopher and Sally meet a rich playboy named Clive (inspired by Blomshield), who wines and dines them, funding their lavish lifestyles before abruptly disappearing.  Goodbye Berlin depicts the hedonic times of Weimar Germany that slowly dissipates as poverty, unemployment and political unrest takes hold, leading to the Nazis coming into power. 

Goodbye Berlin opened with the line “I am a camera with a shutter open, passive, recording, not thinking”.  Using the beginning of that line for his title, in 1951 John Van Druten adapted Isherwood’s novel into a play called “I Am A Camera” which ran on Broadway for 214 shows.  In addition to the characters from Goodbye Berlin, the play added two extra roles.  Fritz, a poor young German Jew passing himself off as a Christian, falls in love with wealthy Jewish heiress Natalia. Their romance highlights the rise of antisemitism as Fritz struggles to conceal his Jewish identity for safety reasons before finally confessing to it so that he can marry Natalia.  Their traditional romance offers contrast to the platonic relationship between Christopher and Sally. To escape the increasingly oppressive situation in Germany, Natalia and Fritz emigrate to Switzerland while Sally departs for Paris to pursue an acting career and Christopher returns to London.  

Filmed during the Hayes Code era, the 1955 movie version of “I Am A Camera” was still based on Isherwood’s novel and Van Druten’s play, but what had previously been a serious drama was now presented as a romantic comedy with significant changes forced by the censors and the Hayes Code.  Sally no longer had an abortion but only had a pregnancy scare that turned out to be a false alarm.  The depiction of sexual promiscuity, homosexuality, morally controversial themes and social-political issues were also toned down or eliminated.

By the time Cabaret, the musical version of Isherwood’s stories opened on Broadway in 1966, it was the decade of “free love” and societal norms had changed.  As a result, the show was much grittier and more salacious than the previous adaptations, adding back depictions of decadence and sexual depravity, as well as providing scathing commentary about the political situation.  Much of this was conveyed by adding the complex character of “The Emcee” and creating the cabaret setting of the Kit Kat Club where he, Sally Bowles and other cabaret performers work.  In the opening number “Wilkommen”, the Emcee makes bawdy jokes about his skimpily clad cabaret girls while the sexually explicit song “Two Ladies” depicts the sexual freedom and debauchery of 1930s Berlin as the Emcee and two Kit Kat girls act out a threesome.  Sally continues the raunchiness with her flirty number “Don’t Tell Mama”.

For a more forceful critique of antisemitism and the threat of the Nazi regime, the characters of Natalia and Fritz are replaced by elderly, openly Jewish fruit seller Herr Schultz who romances and becomes engaged to the boarding house proprietor, now renamed Fräulein Schneider.  In an incredibly satirical routine titled “If You Could See Her Through My Eyes” the Emcee dances with a gorilla who he vehemently defends and declares his love for, with the final whispered words “If you could see her through my eyes, she wouldn’t look Jewish at all”.  The analogy to the doomed relationship between Schneider and Schultz is so impactful.  When she breaks off their engagement, succumbing to threats and the danger that their union would bring, her mournful song “What Would You Do?” is heartbreaking.  The rise of Nazism is first hinted at early on in the musical and then depicted in full force later on in the show.  The first singing of the song “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” comes across as a sweet, tender patriotic melody.  By the time it is reprised, the tune has transformed into a darker, Nazi marching song with the performers displaying their Nazi arm bands while gesturing with the Hitler salute.

Surprisingly, what is not depicted in this original rendition of the musical is homosexuality, often referred to in the entertainment industry as “The Last Taboo”.  The male protagonist, now renamed Cliff Bradshaw, is heterosexual and enters into a sexual relationship with Sally, making it a possibility that he might be the father when she becomes pregnant.  This puts a different spin on her abortion which she procures unilaterally without informing him.  This shatters his dreams of moving to England with her and the baby as a family.  The wealthy playboy from previous adaptations is no longer in the plot, but elements of Isherwood’s first novel Mr. Norris Rides the Train are added.  Cliff arrives in Berlin by train and during the trip, he meets Ernst Ludwig who turns out to be a German smuggler and Nazi sympathizer.  Ernst offers Cliff work as a “carrier” which he initially accepts.  But once Cliff realizes Ernst’s political affiliations, he refuses further jobs and ends up being attacked by Ernst and his goons.  All this makes for a much darker, more serious show despite being a musical.

In 1972, a movie version of Cabaret was released as a star vehicle for Liza Minelli as Sally Bowles with Michael York playing the male lead, now named Brian Roberts, and Joel Grey playing the role of the Emcee.  Significant changes were made relative to the musical and some elements from “I Am A Camera” were resurrected.  For this movie, Brian once again prefers men, but ends up in a sexual relationship with Sally anyways, thus making him bisexual. The subplot with the wealthy playboy (now named Max von Heune), is back as Max courts and has sex with both Brian and Sally before leaving them 300 marks and disappearing.  When Sally becomes pregnant, she is not sure which man is the father.  Herr Schultz and his romance with Fraulein Schneider are cut and the subplot with the younger Jewish couple Fritz and Natalia is reinstated.  In my mind, these changes dilute the impact of the Nazi plotline, making this a weaker story from that perspective.

The portrayal of Sally Bowles changes between the musical and the movie.  In the musical, Sally is a mediocre singer with limited options, making her vulnerable, but also reckless and impulsive.  She chooses to stay in Berlin and at the Kit Kat Club since it is the only place she knows and feels wanted. Perhaps to appease Liza Minelli, the film portrays Sally as an extremely talented performer who could find work anywhere.  Thus, her need to stay in Berlin despite the growing danger makes less sense, although it highlights the self-imposed obliviousness and denial that permeated through much of the German population.

The reveal of the Nazis is also handled differently.  In the musical, most of the first act is devoted to showing the fun-filled, carefree Weimar days and it is not until the end of that act that the threat of Nazism is portrayed.  This stark change in tone makes the reveal hit harder.  The movie shows men wearing Nazi arm bands right from the beginning, depicting their rise in power by their degree of access to the Kit Kat Club.  At the start, Nazis are not allowed in the club but by the end of the movie, they are sitting in the front row.

But the biggest change that the film makes is the way that the songs are presented.  The musical Cabaret is a typical book musical where songs are sung spontaneously to advance the plot.  While some of the songs are performances sung at the Kit Kat Club by the Emcee or Sally and cabaret girls as dictated by the storyline, other songs take place wherever the action is happening, such as at the boarding house.  In a good book musical, the songs replace dialogue in order to express larger emotions.  Wanting to create a more “realistic” story, the film is no longer a book musical.  Instead, all the songs are “diegetic” meaning they are sung as “performance numbers” at the Kit Kat Club, which takes some of the songs totally out of context and in my opinion, makes no sense in the overall plot.

As I am a huge proponent of the book musical, this artistic choice alone made me not enjoy the movie.  But the interpretation of the big finale number made it even worse for me.  Sally Bowles sings the eponymous 11 O’Clock number “Cabaret” with a big smile and jazz hands, belting it out as if she were Ethel Merman.  She does not show any remorse about her abortion or Brian leaving, nor any horror about the numerous Nazi soldiers who are sitting in the front row of the audience.  There is no irony, regret, pain or pathos in her voice as she cheerily sings “Life is a Cabaret old chum.  Come to the Cabaret”.  This highlights her self-delusion that everything will be OK, ignoring the evidence right in front of her.

Since the 1972 movie was initially my only frame of reference for Cabaret, I was totally unprepared for the experience of watching the stage musical for the first time, when in 1999, a touring version of the 1998 Broadway revival arrived in Toronto.  I was blown away by the completely different, gut-wrenching interpretation of the song “Cabaret” as sung by Joely Fisher playing Sally Bowles.  In this version, Sally is heartbroken at losing Cliff and possibly starting to realize the horrors happening outside of the Kit Kat Club.  She sings at first somberly, then with increasing fear and sorrow, breaking down at the end as she is overwhelmed by her situation. Seeing the sub-plot of Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz for the first time also tugged at my heart strings and the song with the Gorilla finally made sense!  Director Bob Fosse strove to remove the sentimentality of the musical from his movie.  But in doing so, he also took away its emotional core, heart and pathos.

The movie did have one redeeming quality for me, in that it added three songs written by Kander and Ebb which were so iconic that they were added to most subsequent revivals of the musical.  “Money (makes the world go round)” perfectly describes the greed, power and corruption of the times.  The song “Mein Herr” gives Sally another big Cabaret number and further illustrates her free spirit and need for control with lines like “A tiger is a tiger, not a lamb, Mein Herr”. And finally, the torch song “Maybe This Time” allows Sally to show her vulnerability and hope for a real relationship with my favourite line “Everybody loves a winner, so nobody loves me”.  Once again, the lines of this song make much more sense for the musical’s more vulnerable version of Sally.

Since the 1980s, the musical version of Cabaret has had at least one revival every decade, either on Broadway and/or London’s West End.  Each new version may make some modifications to better reflect the current day’s tastes, tolerances and socio-political climate.  In the 1987 Broadway revival, a song by Kandar and Ebb called “I Don’t Care Much” that was cut from the original production was reinstated.   Sung by the Emcee towards the end of the show, this haunting number exposes his pain, growing desperation and fear of the Nazi regime while feigning indifference and apathy.  This reflects on the general population who dealt with the growing issues by ignoring or downplaying them.  This song has since become an integral part of future revivals.

Significant changes came in the 1993 London production directed by Sam Mendes.  This was the first time that a theatre was reconfigured to include Cabaret table seating in front of the stage, to augment the experience for some theatregoers.  The Emcee was reimagined to be more sexualized, seedy and overtly queer, physically groping, kissing and humping the Cabaret girls and male members of the orchestra.  While previous versions including the 1966 musical and 1972 movie saw the Emcee dressed in a tuxedo, Alan Cumming’s character came out in a black leather trench coat which he removed striptease-style to reveal that he is topless except for suspenders and a bowtie.  In the final number of the show, the Emcee appears again in his trench coat to reprise the opening number “Willkommen” but this time when he removes the coat, shockingly he is wearing the striped concentration camp uniform with the yellow Star of David in a much more overt reminder of tragedies that occurred.  The Emcee becomes a proxy for all the victims of the Holocaust.

The 1998 Broadway revival, with Alan Cummings reprising his role, incorporated the changes from 1993 London and added some of its own by ramping up the sexuality and queerness even more.  The lyrics of the song Willkommen were updated to add more lewd innuendos about lesbians, sexual acts (describing one girl as a very “cunning linguist”), and explicitly calling out the Cabaret Boys Bobby and Victor, who later out Cliff as a bisexual who had an encounter with one of them in the past.  This version also added the song Maybe This Time, which was missing from the 1993 production.  This extremely well-received show ran for 2377 performances and won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.

Since 1998, each subsequent version has leaned further into darker, more explicit portrayals of Berlin’s decadence in the Weimar era and the impact of the rise of Nazism.  In what might seem like stunt casting, or just the trend for more TV and movie stars to perform on stage, Sally Bowles has been played by celebrity actresses including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Molly Ringwald, Terry Hatcher, Michelle Williams, Emma Stone, Sienna Miller and Jessie Buckley.

What seems to be most tinkered with in each iteration of Cabaret is the ending.  In the most recent 2024 Broadway revival where the Emcee was played by Eddie Redmayne and now, Adam Lambert, instead of portraying him as a victim in concentration camp garb, they show him as a collaborator dressed in a bland gray suit.  This signifies conformity and loss of individuality brought about by fascism.  By the end of the show, the entire cast is dressed uniformly in grey.

The production that we watched at the Al Green Theatre seems to have taken notes from all the previous versions of Cabaret and then added its own spin as well.  When we entered the space, it felt like we were in the Kit Kat Club with cabaret tables surrounding the base of the stage.  Tickets for table seating included a free cocktail with a choice of whiskey sour, hard iced tea, gin smash or margarita which you could sip during the show.  We had bought tickets for a table right in front of the stage next to a few steps where the performers would descend, sometimes to use the telephones that were placed around us.  During the show, Cliff sat at the table behind us and was propositioned over the phone by first Bobby and Victor, and then Sally.  The immersive feeling of being in the middle of the action was so much fun.  During the “Money” number, the cast tossed fake Deutschmarks all over the stage before fighting to scoop them up.  One bill slipped and landed at our feet so we got a good look at it during intermission before returning it.

This was a great production with stellar acting, singing and dancing by the entire cast, effective staging and fabulous costumes.  The Emcee and Cabaret girls and boys came out for the opening number in Lederhosen, wearing not much else underneath. Nathaniel Bacon who played the Emcee is tall, muscular and bald with a powerful voice and an extremely expressive face that can change from playfully grinning to frightfully menacing in a flash, which he does again and again during one of the songs.  Several of the Cabaret dancers could do full side splits on demand.  The choreography was wonderful and acrobatic.  During the scene where Cliff gets beaten up by the Nazis, even though we were sitting very close to the stage, it still looked and sounded like he was being smacked.  After one punch, he even did a bit of a flip as he crashed to the ground.

Again, the biggest and most impactful changes to this rendition came towards the end of the show.  Amanda Milligan, who plays Sally Bowles, leans into the angst, turmoil and sorrow right from the start when she sings Cabaret, so that every word sounds insincere and ironic.  There is no gentle start building up to a breakdown at the end.  This Sally cracks right from the beginning of the song and continues to fall apart (even downing a bottle of champagne mid lyric) before imploding by the last note.  It was quite the performance to witness.  Then the final scene is reinterpreted again with the big, tall Emcee coming out dressed fully as a Nazi commandant.  He towers over the rest of the chorus plus Herr Schultz who are all dressed in the striped concentration camp uniforms.  Visually this makes much more sense than trying to make the enormous actor appear as the victim. A gun is pressed against Schultz’s head and the stage fades to black as the sound of a gun shot rings out.

But we were not done yet.  While sitting in the dark, we hear the voice of US President Donald Trump spewing his much-quoted rants about the need for a wall and that immigrants are poisoning the blood of our nation.  Just in case the parallels between the musical’s dark themes with what is happening today were not clear enough, these words left no room for doubt. The famous saying goes that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.  Sadly, and alarmingly, this appears to be our current reality.  The audience left the theatre a bit shell-shocked.

Cabaret is playing at the Al Green Theatre until Sunday April 27, 2025.  Whether you have already watched a version of this musical before or not, it is worth seeing now.  Never has this show been more relevant or its message more important than it is today.

Theatre 2025: Just For One Day @ Ed Mirvish Theatre

The London West End musical Just For One Day depicts the events leading up to the iconic 1985 Live Aid charity concert to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.  Although food issues and malnutrition are always an ongoing concern in Africa, between 1983 to 1985 the situation escalated to the point where a famine was declared.  Conditions contributing to the famine included a combination of severe drought, ongoing civil war and government policies that prioritized on military spending over social aid.

When 33-year-old Bob Geldolf of the Irish alternative rock band Boomtown Rats learned of the tragedy, he was greatly moved and spurred into action, recruiting help from his friend Midge Ure, leader of the group Ultravox.  Together they wrote the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas” and formed a super-group of Britain’s largest music stars to record it.  Joining them in the group were members of hit bands at that time including The Police, U2, Genesis, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Wham!, Spandau Ballet, Kool & The Gang, Bananarama and more.  Geldof named the group “Band Aid” since he knew that his efforts would not end hunger but would at least be a bandage solution to provide some relief.  American musicians joined the cause by forming their own supergroup “USA for Africa” and recording the song “We Are the World” written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson.  In this recording were superstars including Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper, Ray Charles, Huey Lewis, Kenny Loggins, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Billy Joel, Tina Turner, and more.

Despite the two charity songs raising £8 million pounds and $11 million US Dollars respectively, it was not enough to address the problems.  The food which this money bought was not getting through to the starving people due to corrupt cartels and government officials blocking the process.  As a way to raise even more money and more importantly, awareness around the world, Geldof and Ure organized an unprecedented one-day, live music event named “Live Aid”, that was broadcast to 1.5 billion people across 150 countries.  British artists performed at London's Wembley Stadium in front of 72,000 people with their acts interspersed with American artists playing in Philadelphia’s JFK stadium in front of a crowd ranging between 90,0000-100,000.  This time over £110 million pounds were raised, which was enough to cut through the corruption and red tape, so that food finally flowed to the starving people of Ethiopia.

The originally proposed concept for Just For One Day was more in lines of a biopic focusing on the heroic acts of Bob Geldof, which he was totally against.  The offer to donate 10% of the show’s proceeds to charity convinced Geldof to let the show’s producers try again.  He insisted that the musical’s main focus must be on the cause.  After multiple attempts, librettist John O’Farrell finally produced a version that met with Geldof’s approval, using several fictional archetypes, a framing device, and flashback scenes to convey the story.  Amara, a Red Cross nurse in Ethiopia gives a voice for and provides first-hand witness accounts of the suffering and deaths happening in Ethiopia. The character of Suzanne serves as a proxy to represent the innumerable ordinary people who helped promote or were affected by the charity movement back in the 80s.  In current day, Suzanne’s university-bound daughter Jemma is a stand-in for the next generation who will hopefully carry on the torch.

The musical opens in the present with Suzanne trying to make Jemma understand the magnitude and significance of the Live Aid concert.  As a teenager, Suzanne and her coworker Tim worked in a record shop where they hawked the Christmas charity single and attended the actual concert.  Suzanne reminisces about the concert with a group of attendees including Jim, the sound technician and Marsha, who acted as an assistant producer.  They express how proud they were to have participated by singing David Bowie’s song Heroes with lyrics “We can be heroes, just for one day” (thus the title of the musical and a song also used in the musical Moulin Rouge).

Somehow Bob Geldof is summoned and called upon to relay to Jemma the events leading up to the concert. Geldof is annoyed by how the group’s memories of that time are romanticized and sets the record straight about all the issues, heartaches, tensions and near disasters that occurred along the way.  In retelling how it all came about in 1984-85, the action jumps from Britain to America to Ethiopia. Intermittently a scene returns to current day to get reactions from Jemma.  Liverpool actor and singer Craig Els hilariously portrays the character of Bob Geldof as manic, foul-mouthed, pushy and reckless, which the actual Geldof laughingly concurred was just about right!  The other character used for comedic effect is Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who Geldof spars with several times in order to convince her to forgo the taxes that she wants to levy on the charity money collected.

Created as a jukebox musical, all the songs in Just For One Day where chosen from performances in the actual Live Aid Concert.  For those of us who lived through the 80’s, this musical was wonderfully nostalgic as familiar hit songs flowed one after another.  Up until the concert begins, the songs were selected perfectly set the mood or advance the plot with lyrics acting almost as dialogue.  This is exactly how a good jukebox musical should work.  When Amara pleads for assistance for the starving, she sings the Cars’ haunting hit “Drive” with lyrics including “Who’s going to tell you when it’s too late? Who’s going to come around, when you break?”.  When Geldof decides he needs to generate more visibility and cash for the relief fund, he sings “Message in a Bottle” by The Police (“I’ll send an SOS to the world”).  When introducing Harvey Goldsmith, the concert promoter extraordinaire who helps pull the concert together, the song “Pinball Wizard” by The Who is performed to highlight his expertise (“How do you think he does it? What makes him so good?”).  And when Amara prays that the concert will work and finally bring relief to the starving masses, she sings Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” (“How many ears must one man have, before he can hear people cry?”).

The musical’s portrayal of the Live Aid concert led to some interesting artistic choices.  Most of these songs were not presented as imitations of the original artists or their performances, but rather were reinterpretations of the songs.  This made the well-known songs feel fresh without having to live up to the standards of the original.  The only exception was the set performed by the Boomtown Rats, where Craig Els channeled Bob Geldof and gave a stirring rendition of the hit song “I Don’t Like Mondays”, including the moment where Gedolf sang “the lesson today is how to die”, then stood for multiple seconds with his fist in the air while the crowd went crazy before carrying on with the song.  Once the song was done, Geldof told the crowd “Thank you very much.  I just realized today is the best day of my life”.  

Action cut between the concert performances and the frantic activity in the background by the crew including Jim and Marsha who struggle to keep things on track while Geldof and Goldsmith panic.  Checking back in with Jemma towards the end of the concert, she sings The Who’s anthem “My Generation” to show that she (and by proxy her generation) understands what was accomplished by Live Aid and accepts the challenge of carrying on the fight for change and for a better future. The show closes with Paul McCartney performing “Let it Be”, including the depiction of an actual technical glitch which muted his microphone for a few minutes. The crowd chimed in to fill the silence until the problem was fixed.

The set and staging were quite simple with several rows of stadium-styled bleachers for the cast while the 5-piece band played on a platform behind and above them.  As each set of featured characters performed or interacted on centre stage, the remaining cast acted as the chorus behind them, often popping up to deliver a line before sitting down again.  During the concert performances, occasionally one or more guitarists would descend onto the stage to perform solos as would have happened in the Live Aid show. Throughout the musical, so many different artists and bands were represented in such quick succession that the names of the people or groups were projected overhead so that the audience could follow who they were supposed to be watching. In many cases, the iconic song being performed gave it away but in some cases, the visual cues helped.

After watching this enjoyable and inspirational musical, I went into a bit of a deep dive into researching Band Aid and Live Aid.  I listened to Bob Geldof’s recent interview with the CBC radio program Q with Tom Power to promote the opening of the musical and watched copious YouTube videos of the Live Aid performances from both London and Philadelphia including Queen’s now iconic set and one where David Bowie introduces a CBC video clip from Ethiopia. Seeing images of the starvation and devastation reminded people what the concerts were really about and started the money pouring in.  It also helped when Bob Geldof went on BBC radio in the middle of the concert to remind people that they were not just here to have a good time.  He made an impassioned plea for donations that was later misquoted as “Give us your F**king money!”.  This became a running gag in the musical as he had to repeatedly deny using the profanity.  I listened to a video of his actual plea and it is true that he did not curse, but it made for a funny gag for the show.

I also watched the documentaries “Band Aid – Making of the Original Do You Know It’s Christmas” and “The Greatest Night in Pop” (Netflix) that documented the recordings of the two charity songs.  But the most interesting documentary was “Wham! Last Christmas” (Netflix) which expanded on a small subplot that was briefly referenced in the musical.  George Michael of Wham! had written “Last Christmas” which was a shoo-in to be the #1 song on the UK charts at Christmas before Band Aid’s song come along.   Although disappointed, George Michael gave up fighting to promote his own single and even became one of the soloists on “Do They Know It’s Christmas” which indeed was the #1 seller in 1984.  Last Christmas came in at #2 and Wham! generously donated all the proceeds from that record to the cause.  This was another example of altruism and personal sacrifice that warms the heart.  In 2023, Last Christmas finally made it to #1 but unfortunately, George Michael never got to experience this achievement since he passed away in 2016.

The poignant tale of Band Aid and Live Aid, as portrayed in the musical Just For One Day, did an amazing job of reminding past generations and teaching a new generation what it was like to have empathy and to care about the world and humanity as a whole.  Given how countries are becoming more and more insular, protectionist and self-serving, this show could not have come at a better time.  I’m not sure given the current political climate globally, that such an amazing feat as Live Aid could happen today.  Although he did not want to be featured, the passion, selflessness and generosity of Bob Geldof came through loud and clear.