Theatre 2022: The Resurrection of Live Theatre and Two Tales of Juliet

After two years of pandemic-induced pause, live theatre is slowly making its way back.  Our Mirvish subscription series has resumed, albeit with a limited lineup since many of the originally scheduled shows including Love Never Dies, Oklahoma, and Murder on the Orient Express had either been canceled or moved on to other touring locations.  It is understandable that it will take a while before hot new shows will be available again.

Thus the 2022 season includes a retread of the old favourite, "2 Pianos 4 Hands" (which I reluctantly watched for a 3rd time!) and The Boy Falls From the Sky, which was originally part of the previous season's "Off-Mirvish" offerings.  It also includes Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which was supposed to be a stand-alone blockbuster show, but instead was required to fill out the subscription series.  Despite the cobbled-together feel of this season, we still enjoyed most of the shows so far (2P4H notwithstanding). 

The special effects in Harry Potter were spellbinding (pun intended), and included feats such as invisibility, levitation, transfiguration (where one character transforms into another in front of our eyes) and Dementor demons which soared into the air and flew right up to the balcony where we sat.  My husband Rich and I probably would not have purchased separate tickets to watch this show.  We are not "Potterheads" and have not read the books or watched the movies.  We actually had to read the synopsis of the stories in Wikipedia in order to prepare.  We are therefore happy that we were able to experience this show and enjoyed it much more than we thought we would.  Mirvish has bet big on this show, reconfiguring and redecorating the Ed Mirvish CAA Theatre in preparation for hopefully a long and profitable run.

Also of note was the first show of the subscription series. The live theatre rendition of Room was as powerful and poignant as Emma Donoghue's equally gripping novel, which tells the story of a captive mother and her child Jack but told from Jack's innocent, naive perspective.  An adult actor billed as "Super Jack" expressed the inner emotions and thoughts of Jack, while protecting the child actor from the horrors of the story.  Jack's imagination was also cleverly visualized through the use of video imagery.  We were surprised and skeptical when we first heard that this was "a musical".  Luckily, in addition to the moving score, there were only a few songs that expressed the agony and depth of emotion felt by the mother, fulfilling the textbook dramatic function of adding music to a play.

Fortunately, one of the biggest draws of the original subscription season is still a part of the 2022 season. The jukebox musical &Juliet uses the songs written by the prolific Swedish songwriter Max Martin to explore an alternative ending (or new beginning) for William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.  Exuding feminism, girl-power and the right to choose one's own destiny, &Juliet starts with the premise of "What if Juliet does not kill herself after finding Romeo dead beside her?"  Coincidentally, we watched another play with the exact same starting premise at the 2022 Toronto Fringe Festival just a few weeks earlier.  But more on that in a bit..

&Juliet uses songs initially made famous by artists such as Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Pink, Ariana Grande, Celine Dion, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, and more, to convey the journey of Juliet, after deciding not to kill herself over a boy she only met a few days ago. We were impressed not only with how many popular hits Max Martin had a role in writing, but also how well the lyrics of the chosen songs (with a few minor alterations here and there) fit into and advanced the plot of the story.

&Juliet uses the "show within a show" trope as a framing device, with William Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway as the initial protagonists who argue over whether or not Juliet should die at the end of his masterpiece.  While Shakespeare revels in the epic tragedy that he has created, Hathaway wants a happier ending where Juliet has more agency over her own life (something that Anne craves herself).  Will agrees to allow Anne to rewrite the ending, but then intercedes throughout the musical to inject more conflict into the plot.

With instantly recognizable songs, groan-out-loud humour, energetic choreography, dazzlingly colourful costumes and set design, and a clever plot twist at the end of Act I, &Juliet is so much fun and bound to be a great success when it heads to Broadway after its 4 week run at the Princess of Wales Theatre.  It is just a shame that it cannot stay longer.  The original shows were sold out and when Mirvish offered up one extra show at the end of the run, it sold out within hours of announcement!

Juliet: A Revenge Comedy, which we watched at the Toronto Fringe Festival just weeks prior to watching &Juliet, also starts with the idea of "What if Juliet doesn't kill herself?".  But rather than having this ending rewritten for her by an outside force, in this play, the character Juliet comes to the decision on her own.  Following performance after performance of repeating the same ritual, doubt begins to creep in until Juliet declares "but I'm only 13, and I only knew him for 2 days!".  While the Juliets from both plays come to the same conclusion, the journeys that they take after the fateful decision varies greatly.  The Juliet in A Revenge Comedy seeks to determine why she was motivated to kill herself, and in doing so, encounters female characters from other Shakespeare plays who also commit suicide.  They include Ophelia from Hamlet (drowning), Lady Macbeth from Macbeth (jumps to her death?) and Cleopatra (bitten by poisonous snakes).  This play is fast-paced and hilarious.  The cast consists of an actress who plays a smart and spunky Juliet, an actor who pops up occasionally as Shakespeare, Prospero from the Tempest and other male roles, and the ultra-talented Carly Pokoradi who plays all the other female roles.  Pokoardi is a force of nature as she rapidly switches from character to character by modifying her accent, vocal cadence, posture and facial impression, so that you are never in doubt which character is speaking.

In addition to the regular Mirvish subscription series and the "Off-Mirvish" series, each season there are usually a set of "extra" shows that consist of revivals of past hits, and smaller traveling shows.  In a regular season, there would be around 8-10 extra shows offered.  This year there are four and we watched two of them, with the intention of watching a third when it comes out next year. 

We bought tickets to God is a Scottish Drag Queen based almost solely on the absurd title and got exactly what we would expect.  Canadian west-coast comedian Mike Delmont prances around in a floral-print dress for his one man show as he takes on the persona of an irreverent, peevish, potty-mouthed God who riffs on various topics while speaking with an affected Scottish accent.  In one extended bit, God proves that the bible is "sexy" by quoting suggestive lines while accompanied by seductive mood lighting and music.  Both the jokes and Delmont's delivery had the audience howling with laughter.  The show was developed from a character that Delmont played with his comedy troop Atomic Vaudeville. Delmont said in an interview that he originally tried using a British accent for the character, but did not find it funny until he switched to the Scottish brogue.

Rich was the one who championed watching another one-man show called 6 Guitars starring Chase Padgett. I did not know what to expect, so I was confused when I only saw one lone guitar on stage.  This was probably a common misconception, since Padgett made reference to this at the start of the show.  We were not here to watch a man play 6 different types of guitar.  We were here to watch Padgett with his single instrument portray 6 different guitar-playing characters, each of a different age, background and each specializing in a musical genre.  As Padgett introduces and then switches between each character, you begin to notice that each one has his own background lighting.  There was the grizzled old man who played the Blues, appropriately bathed in a blue hue.  Next came the 20-year-old man-child who still lived with his mother, playing heavy metal rock with his tongue sticking out like a member of KISS, while lit by a bright, glaring red light.  Eventually we met the characters who played in the styles of country, classical, jazz and folk.  

Just like the actress from Juliet: A Revenge Comedy, Padgett flowed from character to character with amazing ease, using his posture, voice, facial expressions, lighting, and especially the musical style of guitar playing to differentiate which persona was being portrayed.  There was some audience participation (note to self - never sit near the front aisles) where one of the characters interviewed an audience member and then improvised a song in the style of that character, incorporating the details from the conversation.  As a grand finale, Padgett played John Lennon's iconic song Imagine and rotated through all 6 musical styles in quick succession.

It is clear that theatre in Toronto is well on its way to recovery.  The upcoming 2023 Mirvish subscription season looks amazing.  It includes Hadestown, the 2021 Tony winner for Best Musical,  the musical Mean Girls, the North American premier of the U.K. musical Fisherman's Friends, a U.K. comedy A Shark is Broken which won the 2022 Olivier award for Best Play and Pressure,  a tense drama based on true story about the decision of when to launch the D-Day attack. Rounding out the season is the return of the phenomenal musical Hamilton, which was canceled due to COVID in March 2020, preventing many subscribers and other ticket holders from seeing this show live.  We were one of the lucky ones that did see the show just before the shutdown occurred.  It was such a wonderful experience that we have no issues with watching it again.  Next season we have upgraded our subscription seats so we will have a better view of Hamilton than we had during our first viewing.

Many of the other Toronto theatres are offering interesting shows that we would like to watch. Before COVID hit, we had tickets to see Canstage's production of the musical Kelly vs Kelly and Soulpepper's production of My Ex-Boyfriend's Yard Sale.  We received full refunds for both these shows, which are now being remounted.  We will try once again to watch them when they play either later this or next year.  Maybe it is pent-up desire after being thwarted from watching live theatre for so long, but we seem to want to watch everything!  At Crow's Theatre, 15 Dogs, Red Velvet and Merrily We Row Along look appealing.  At Canstage, in addition to Kelly vs Kelly, we also want to watch Little Dickens and Choir Boy.  There are probably more shows at the smaller theatres that we have not looked into yet! So I think it is safe to say that theatre in Toronto is back, and not a minute too soon!

TIFF 2021: Digital Secret Movie Club and Film Festival

For the first time in many years, in 2020 we did not participate at all in the Toronto International Film Festival and we ceased being TIFF members.  We were already miffed at TIFF after the debacle that they made in the treatment of the loyal Patron Circle members/donors back in 2019 and were seriously considering ceasing to be members or at least reducing the size and scope of our membership.  The pandemic became the final straw when it became clear that we would not be able to watch movies the way we used to for the unforeseeable future.

The protocols put in place to control the spread of COVID19 decimated the size and scope of the 2020 Film Festival, which valiantly tried to carry on with a mere 50 films shown either outdoors or at drive-ins, as well as digitally.  At that time, we were not comfortable at all with the thought of watching movies with the general public, even while socially distanced and wearing masks.  There were also too few films of interest to us to make it worth our while.

Instead, we did participate in the first digital Secret Movie Club, a programme which we had attended in person for the past few years.  In the past, the Secret Movie Club involved trekking to the TIFF Bell Lightbox on a Sunday morning, partaking in a buffet breakfast of muffins, danishes, fruit cups and coffee, then sitting in the theatre to watch a movie that would be revealed on the spot with a brief introduction by the host (usually Norm Wilner, film writer for NOW magazine).  We would get a sneak peek at a movie that would soon be generally released in theatres.  Following the movie, there would be a moderated Q&A (either live or on video call) with someone associated with the film.  This could be a director, star, producer or subject matter expert on the topic of the film.  There are 7 movies in the series, occurring approximately once a month between October and April.  In general the movies were ones that we might not have picked to watch on our own, pushing us a bit out of our usual comfort zone. But for the most part, they were quite enjoyable and we were glad to experience them.

During the pandemic, we obviously could not continue to watch the movies live at the Lightbox, so instead the Secret Movie Club went digital.  For a fraction of the price for my husband Rich and I ($98 for the household as opposed to $175 per person), we got to watch the 7 movies online from the comfort of our home by streaming them on our laptop which we plugged into our TV via HDMI cable for better audio and visual.  We were given a 48 hour period during which we could watch the movie and the taped Q&A, with the ability to pause, rewind or restart if desired.

Obviously we no longer got the breakfast, but all in all, I preferred this format.  I could watch in my jammies at my hour of preference, did not need to take the time to travel to and from the theatre, and it was much more cost effective.  I did not miss the big screen experience since we were mostly watching smaller indie movies that did not have huge sound or visual special effects.   The 2020-2021 season’s movies included the American/Korean movie Minari which was nominated for Best Picture and won for Best Supporting Actress, as well as The Courier, a spy thriller starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Rachel Brosnahan (of Mrs. Maisel fame). To further our experience, I arranged a post-mortem Zoom chat with some friends who also participated in the digital Secret Movie club and we discussed and debated the merits of the movie that we had each just watched.  It will be interesting to see if there will still be a digital option for the secret movie club once the pandemic is over and things get back to “normal”.

For the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival season, TIFF expanded its movie selections from 50 to just under 200, with more in-person screening opportunities and a few big stars actually attending.  They also continued the digital offerings but not all the movies were available in this format and despite being digital, the streaming logistics mirrored much closer to those of live screenings.  There was a fixed start time for each movie, and a 4 hour window in order to complete watching it.  The number of “tickets” to each streaming was limited and a movie could be sold out.  All these restrictions were part of a possibly futile attempt by the movie distributors to prevent or at least limit movie piracy.

Still not comfortable with the thought of being in an enclosed theatre, albeit distanced and masked, but still in the vicinity of audience members and press potentially from abroad, we decided we would try the digital process.  Having gone from traditionally watching 30-40 movies in a typical festival year to quitting cold turkey last year, we thought we would dip our toes gingerly back in by buying a 3-movie digital package.  This gave us the right to pick three digital movies when our turn came up.  After getting used to being high-level TIFF members and getting early slots for movie selection which ensured that we got all of our choices, it came as a shock when now that we were non-members, there was hardly anything left when our turn came up.  None of the movies on our short list (or even our long list) were still available and yet we were under pressure to pick something before our selection time ran out.   In the end, we chose from what was available and it turned out that our final, last minute pick was our favourite.

This was the movie Jockey, about a previously successful jockey in his waning days, who learns that a younger, inexperienced jockey on the same circuit might actually be his son.  This was a small, intimate movie that eschewed all the typical sports and horse-racing tropes.  The focus was not on training for or building up to the big race that the elder mentor guides his protégé towards winning.  Instead there was character development that delved into the lives and tribulations of jockeys.  One scene in particular felt like an “AA meeting” for jockeys, where a group of them sat in a circle and described overcoming their death-defying, potentially career-ending accidents and injuries. The unique perspective came from the fact that the writer/director of the movie grew up in this environment since his father was a jockey.  The movie was filmed at working stables and racetracks where most of the extras were actual jockeys, grooms and trainers. Even amongst the cast of actors, the only name that I recognized was Molly Parker.  I was not familiar with Clifton Collins Jr. as the main protagonist, or Moises Arias as his potential son.  In addition to being a sweet but slow-moving story, what stood out was the beautiful cinematography, filled with sunsets and backlit shots.

Our other two films included a strange, almost documentary-styled Spanish film called “The Odd-Job Men” and a documentary on the life of celebrity chef Julia Child.  The Odd-Job Men follow around a team of three handymen as they go from job to job, dealing with eccentric clients.  Through the interactions of the three men, including the inner thoughts of the new guy who is not of the same ethnicity, we are exposed to themes of alienation, loneliness and cultural prejudices.  Interestingly, the 3 main characters are not actors but real handymen who were trained for their roles.  In the Q&A, the man who played the character with racist tendencies voiced his concern that the audience would label him a racist, which he declares adamantly that he is not .. he just plays one in the movie. The Julia Child documentary uses many archival photographs taken by her husband Paul Child, as well as past TV interviews to augment memories from those still alive who knew her in order the present her life story.  Both Julia and Paul worked in administrative roles for the OSS (predecessor to the CIA) in their younger days before she pursued her love for cooking in her late 30s. While it is now a well-known fact how accomplished and impressive Julia Child was in her culinary career, the most interesting fact that came through in the documentary was how devoted Paul Child was in supporting her passions, allowing them to supersede any of his own personal ambitions.  This was quite unusual for a man of his era.

While we were not able to select the movies that we wanted to watch the most via our digital 3-pack, we luckily were able to find other movie buff friends who did have access to a few of them and were able to wangle an invitation to watch with them.  My favourite was the German movie “I’m Your Man”, surprisingly starring hunky British actor Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey) as an almost life-like android named Tom.  Set in a futuristic world where robotics have advanced to the point of developing humanoid walking/talking/self-learning machines, it is up to the no-nonsense, non-sentimental female scientist Alma to decide whether this robot, that was specially developed for her using studies of her own thoughts and memories, could act as a viable life partner alternative to a real human.  This delightful romantic comedy has many funny moments but also explores the more philosophical questions of what it means to be human.  It was asked in the Q&A how Dan Stevens was chosen for this role.  It turns out that he can speak fluent German and has acted in other German films.  Regarding whether an robot, designed to be your perfect mate who  anticipates your every need and desire, could be a viable life partner, the internet chimed in with a definitive “Yes .. if he looks like Dan Stevens!”  I think that I concur!

The animated film “Where is Anne Frank” takes a unique, fantastical perspective in revealing the tragic story of Anne Frank, her family and her famous diary.  It is told from the point of view of Kitty, the imaginary friend that Anne addressed the entries of her diary to, as if she were writing letters to this confidante, to whom she could reveal her inner-most thoughts and fears. By some unexplained magical event, Kitty comes to life in present day Amsterdam, emanating from the diary that sits in a glass case inside the Anne Frank House (now a museum).  While she is within the house, Kitty is invisible to the public.  But as she snatches the diary and exits the building in search of her friend Anne, suddenly she can be seen and interacts with the people around her.  Through Kitty’s journey of discovery, the story of what happened to Anne and her family is revealed.  A sub-plot highlights the plight of refugees in the Netherlands who face deportation back to their homelands and tries to draw parallels between them and the persecution of the Jews in Anne’s days.  While admirable in intent, these scenes came across as a bit preachy in my mind.  Also a “romance” between Kitty and an activist skater-boy (meant to parallel a possible romance between Anne and Peter, whose family was in hiding with her) felt forced. Nevertheless, this film is quite innovative in its telling of a well-known history, bringing it to life for a new generation.

Are You Lonesome Tonight is a Chinese film noir that uses the “Rashomon Effect”, showing and re-showing the same scene multiple times from different perspectives, each time adding more to the storyline.  On the surface level, the plot involves an air conditioner repairman who accidentally strikes and kills a man on a dark, deserted road, hides the body, then befriends the dead man’s widow through several aborted attempts to admit his guilt and show remorse.  As we get deeper into the story and with each re-telling, we realize that much is not what it originally seemed to be.  Following the definition of a good noire, the movie is dark and atmospheric with a flawed protagonist, although the widow does not play the role of the stereotypical femme fatale.  The title “Are You Lonesome Tonight” references the various lonely characters in the movie, but also the actual Elvis Presley song is played and then sung several times throughout the film.  There is a quick moment at the end of the movie that seems like it will play out as a typical cliché, but turns out to be a psych, which we should have realized all along, once we remembered the key elements of the genre.  As the credits rolled, there were some closing comments which often appear at the end of movies, providing a post mortem of what happens next after the timeline of the movie is over.  In this case, it was shown only in Chinese characters with no translation (despite the rest of the movie being subtitled!)  Not being able to read Kanji but to be deterred, I took a snapshot of the characters and ran them through Google Translate.  I got an answer but am not sure there was not something lost in translation.

Theatre 2021: Blackout - Returning to Theatre After a Long Pandemic Pause

It has been over 1.5 years since my husband and I last went to live theatre.  Our final show, before COVID shut everything down, was the highly touted musical Hamilton.  I had looked forward to watching this musical for so long, and waited on hold on the phone for hours in order to upgrade our subscription seats and to buy extra seats for friends and family.  But it felt like a race against time!  I counted down the days until our performance date, while the situation with the pandemic grew more and more dire. 

We were extremely lucky as we managed to see our show on the evening of March 10, 2020.  Days later, we went into lockdown and most of our friends and family had their tickets canceled.  Fortunately, a filmed version of a live Broadway performance of Hamilton started streaming on Disney Plus, giving people who missed it a chance to see this wonderful show.  While the filmed version could not quite replicate the buzz and excitement of watching the show live, it did have the advantage of providing both close-up and wide-angle views, as well as pause and rewind capabilities.  I ended up watching this streamed version three times on Disney Plus and caught some details that I missed from my initial live viewing.

During the initial months of the pandemic, we made up for all the live theatre that we missed by watching the free online offerings from London’s National Theatre, Broadway’s Lincoln Theatre, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s repertoire of musicals and PBS Great Performances.  If there was a silver lining to the shuttering of the doors to live theatre, it was the plethora of great shows that were made available to us online, including comedies, dramas, musicals, Shakespeare plays and more.  Stuck at home with little to do, we ended up watching more theatre than ever, and experienced shows that we probably never would have had the opportunity to watch under normal circumstances.

But after a while the free online theatre offerings dwindled, so we were thrilled when live performances finally started up again, albeit with masks and social distancing.  We felt that the best way to dip our toes back into this arena was to watch an outdoor show.  The perfect opportunity came up when Musical Stage Company and CanStage presented a new Toronto-based musical called Blackout at the High Park Amphitheatre, as part of CanStage’s Dream in High Park outdoor theatre series.

Comprised of three vignettes set during the initial night of the big blackout of June 2003 that left Toronto as well as much of the Eastern seaboard in darkness, Blackout tells tales of loneliness, isolation and the need for human connection—perfect analogies for the thoughts and emotions that have resonated throughout this pandemic.  References were made to Toronto streets and locations such as Ossington Subway Station, Bloor & Yonge, Cabbagetown, St Margaret’s Hospital and its Murray Street parking lot, and Riverdale Park.  The three separately titled, self-contained stories ranged from two estranged sisters trying to reconnect (Gemini), a set of neighbours having an impromptu backyard gathering late into the night (Pandora), and two strangers to happen to meet at Riverdale Park just before dawn (Cygnus).

Music and Lyrics are written by Anton Lipovetsky, who has a 3-year residency with Musical Stage Company with a mandate to write three original musicals.  We actually first watched his third story Cygnus, when it was part of another Musical Stage Company initiative in 2019 called “Reprint”, where three groups each consisting of lyricists, composers and book writers were tasked with combing through the Globe and Mail photo archives and finding a photograph for inspiration in writing a new 30-minute musical.  The resultant mini-musicals were performed in the event space at the top of the Globe and Mail building, with a stunning view of the Toronto skyline in the background.  As we watched the three shows, the sun started to set, filling the sky with a bright red glow which was breathtaking and almost detracted from the performances in front of it. 

Lipovetsky’s Cynus (book by Steven Gallagher) was picked up by Musical Stage Company for further development, much of which happened over Zoom, and resulted in Blackout.  This musical was initially supposed to play at one of Canstage’s indoor theatres with more elaborate sets and a larger orchestra, before COVID health restrictions drove it outside.  For me, this actually improved the experience of the show, making it more intimate and focused on the characters as opposed to the staging.  Chronologically, each story was set later and later into the night and happened to time perfectly with the setting sun and oncoming nightfall.  The last two vignettes were set outdoors, so being outside in the fresh air along with the actors gave an extra sense of authenticity to the tales.  When one of the actors pointed up at the sky in order to look at the stars, we as the audience could look up at the actual sky with them.  As the night grew darker, the lights that shone onto the swaying trees behind the stage made the leaves magically shimmer and glow, while on stage, a backdrop of the Toronto skyline began to twinkle with its own “stars”.  It was a very unique and wonderful experience although we were a bit distracted by the presence of a rabbit that lingered on the grass just off the foot of the stage, and the swooping bat that flew overhead.

BLACKOUT (2021) Trailer - YouTube

BLACKOUT: "Shine Again" (2021) - YouTube

The great blackout of 2003 was one of those memorable events where you look back and can recall “What were you doing or where were you when … happened”.  Musical Stage Company reached out to the community and asked for such stories.  Remembering it vividly, I sent in my reply.

Theatre 2020: January-February Shows and Preparing for Hamilton

After my disgraceful procrastination of 2019 that led me to write about an entire year of theatre-watching all in one blog, I was determined to get a jump-start to 2020!  Just two months into the new year, we have already seen a wide variety of theatre performances, both live on stage and re-broadcasted film versions of productions from London’s National Theatre.

As part of our Mirvish subscription series, we saw a road show production of the 2017 Broadway stage musical Anastasia, which is based primarily on the 1997 animated musical film of the same name, voiced by Meg Ryan and John Cusack.  Both shows share the same premise (based on actual persistent rumours) that Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the royal Romanov dynasty, was the only survivor of the Bolsheviks attack that killed the rest of her family.  They both involve plots where con men Dimitri and Vlad find amnesiac Anya, an “Anastasia look-a-like”, and train her to impersonate the princess in order to gain reward money from her grandmother, only to discover that “imposter” is the real deal.

Where the two versions differ is in the portrayal of the protagonist.  The villain in the animated movie is the Russian mystic Rasputin who uses magical powers to curse the Romanov family, and whose minion sidekick is the albino bat Bartok.  With an obvious nod to old Disney movies, the Rasputin is a dead ringer for the evil Jafar in the film Aladdin and also reminiscent of the Evil Queen from Snow White.  By contrast, the musical version of Anastasia is more political and realistic.  The protagonist is Gleb Vaganov, a Boshevik general whose father was tasked with shooting the Romanov family.  When he learns that Anastasia might be alive, Gleb feels obligated to finish the job.

Anastasia the musical keeps the best tunes from the film including “A Rumour in St Petersburg”, “Once Upon a December”, “Journey to the Past” and “Learn to Do It”.  It then adds songs to fill out the back stories and provide more depth to each of the main characters.  The best new song is the haunting ballad  “The Neva Flows” which explains the motivation that drives Gleb.  The staging is impressive in depicting the attack on the royal family, their reappearance as ghosts in Anya’s imagination, the trolley ride out of Russia and their arrival in Paris.  The costumes are stunning in general, but especially the gorgeous red gown worn by Anastasia once she reclaims her true identity.

Last year we watched two very innovative plays (The Flick, and Ghost Quartet) at the Crow’s Theatre, so it was not surprising that their mounting of Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar was equally creative and original in terms of wardrobe and stagecraft.  The plot and dialogue remained true to the Bard’s play, but this production has added a post-mortem where each character (spoiler alert … including the dead ones, which is most of them), uses modern vernacular to reflect upon what has happened or what is to come (for the ones still alive).

You know you are in for something different when you first walk into Crow’s Guloein Theatre and see stadium seating along all four walls of the space, and a table with headsets, microphones and laptops in the middle of the floor (stage) surrounded by see-through barricades.  Three actors approach the table and proceed to give a modern-day “newscast” recapping Caesar’s exploits and military victories, setting up the situation at the start of the play.  Following what now seems to be a common practice, the cast members of Julius Caesar are dressed in modern attire as opposed to togas and sandals, and they carry pistols which are use to assassinate Caesar, as opposed to daggers.  The civil war that results after Caesar’s death is depicted with soldiers decked in camouflage outfits, guerrilla warfare tactics, machine guns and drone strikes.

I often have trouble understanding the flowery, archaic dialogue and terminology used by Shakespeare, so having all the characters ambiguously dressed, with colour-blind and gender-blind casting as well as some actors playing multiple roles, added to my general confusion over who was who and what was happening.  It helped that I read the synopsis and some of the actual text of the play prior to seeing the show.  Unfortunately I did not have enough time to get through the entire work.  Regardless, I was impressed by this production and the passionate acting by the characters who sometimes stood so close to us that we could see them spit as they enunciated.

After the intensity of Julius Caesar, it was a relief to watch the light, frothy and hilarious musical Motherhood at the Lower Ossington Theatre.  A baby shower is held for first time mother-to-be Amy by her three friends Tina, Barb and Brooke who already have children.  As Amy dreamily and idealistically anticipates the blessed event, her friends give her a dose of reality by providing their personal insights on the challenges she will face.  This leads to goofy, laugh-out-loud songs about handling the demands of multiple kids (Mommy!, In the Minivan, At Costco) and the affects of pregnancy on the body (“We Leak”, “Ode to Boobs”, “Baby Weight Blues”).  Each mom has her own issues to deal with including Tina, the single mother in midst of a divorce (“Every Other Weekend”), Barb, who juggles the needs of five children, and Brooke, who balances her career as a hard-working lawyer with her role as a mom.  Throughout the party, Amy fields constant phone calls from her own intrusive mother.  Written by the creators of the hit show “Menopause The Musical”, Motherhood is a great escape and pure mindless fun.

By contrast to Motherhood, Caroline, Or Change is a deeper, more complex musical both in terms of plot and themes, as well as songs and score which feature Sondheim-esque tunes with dissonant chords and eclectic musical styles that include blues, Motown, folk, classical, operatic and Jewish “klezmer”.  Played by R&B/Pop singer Jully Black (best known for her hit “Seven Day Fool”), Caroline Thibodeaux is a black maid working for the Jewish Gellman family which includes 8-year-old Noah who has recently lost his mother to cancer, his still-grieving father Stuart, and new step-mother Rose.  Caroline spends much of her time down in the basement, doing the laundry while listening to the radio.  The washer, dryer, and radio are personified by singers that channel Aretha Franklin, James Brown and The Supremes respectively while Opera singer Measha Brueggergosman plays the moon.  Noah often leaves spare change in his pockets which Caroline finds when doing the laundry.  To teach him the value of money, Rose wants Caroline to keep any coins that she finds—a request that prideful Caroline resists but is also tempted to accept since she needs the extra money to support her four kids.  Therefore the “change” in the title of Caroline, Or Change has multiple meanings, referring to the monetary change as well as changes happening in society and personal change which many of the characters go through.  Set in Louisana in 1963, the musical deals with important historic incidents of this turbulent times, including the assassination of  President Kennedy and the Civil Rights Movement as well as exploring themes of class distinction, income inequity, immigration and racial tensions.

Playing at the Winter Garden Theatre with its iconic leaf-lined ceiling, the set depicting the Gellman house is interesting as it needs to represent three levels, the basement, main floor and second floor.  To fit all the floors, the basement is actually located in what would usually be the first few rows of the audience just beneath the stage while the other two levels are represented on the physical stage.  While it was expected that Jully and Measha would have great singing voices, most surprising was the spectacular belting vocals of Vanessa Sears who played Caroline’s spunky, defiant daughter Emmie.  Also of note was the performance by the Evan Lefeuvre who played Noah.  The number of songs and amount of dialogue that he needed to remember was really impressive and his timing in singing some very difficult songs was spot on.

The final two shows that we watched in February were actually filmed versions of plays from London’s National Theatre.  The first was Hansard, a caustic, scathing and occasionally darkly humorous one-act two-hander set in the Margaret Thatcher era that is basically a 90-minute long argument/debate between Conservative Tory MP Robin Hesketh and his Liberal-minded wife Diana.  Yet being a British as opposed to an American play, there are no screaming scenes ala “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?”, but rather a calm but witty back-and-forth dialogue full of cutting comments, sarcasm and irony.  Robin returns to his home in the Cotswalds to find Diana still in her dressing gown and itching for a fight.  Their banter covers topics including politics (in particular the controversial Section 28 that banned the promotion of homosexuality), suspected extramarital affairs, the waning affections within their marriage and a pointed debate about nurturing or over-nuturing children as opposed to letting them learn to fend for themselves.  All this talk is a preamble to the actual elephant in the room that they finally get around to discussing, the issue of their deceased son Tom.  The term “Hansard” refers to the official transcripts of Parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries.  As the play draws towards the end, an excerpt of Tom’s diary, or his personal “hansard” is read aloud, providing insight into the true cause of strife in this marriage.  This is a highly intellectual and entertaining play but it may not do well outside of the U.K. because are so many references that only make sense to locals including names of relatively obscure politicians, authors, reporters, socialists and others.

The second filmed theatre production that we watched at Cineplex is a very unique version of Cyrano de Bergerac starring Scottish actor James McAvoy.  It is based on the similarly titled 1897 play written by French poet Edmond Rostand that very loosely dramatizes the life of  infamous 17th Century novelist, playwright and duelist.  The plot of Rostand’s play is well-known and has been widely adapted. Cyrano is a skilled swordsman who is bold, brash, quick-witted, and an accomplished poet with a gift for the romantic turn of phrase.  But due to his unusually large nose, he is self-deprecatingly unable to express his love for the beautiful Roxanne, who in turn is in love with the handsome but witless, inarticulate Christian, a fellow cadet in Cyrano’s regiment.  Cyrano agrees to provide Christian with the words to woo Roxanne, through written letters and even secretly speaking to her from the shadows on Christian’s behalf.

Like in Julius Caesar, once again the conceit of anachronistically dressing period characters in modern clothing is used in this stripped down version of the play.  But what made this production interesting was the lack of a large prosthetic nose on McAvoy’s face, as well as no dueling swords despite an extended dueling scene.  Cyrano’s nose is left up to the imagination and Cyrano fights his duels using razor-sharp rap poetry in an epic rap battle that involves both verbal and physical thrusts and parries, but with microphones in hand as opposed to swords.  In fact, hip hop music and rapping are used throughout this play in an interesting new take on an old tale.

This screening of the National Theatre play was broadcast live across the U.K. via satellite which unfortunately resulted in the sound and visual occasionally cutting out, as well as microphone feedback and poor sound quality.  It was nearly impossible to hear what was being said when any of the characters spoke softly, which Cyrano does on multiple occasions.  This detracted from what was otherwise a good production.

Next up for us is the highly anticipated hit musical Hamilton based on the life of Alexander Hamilton, American politician, military commander, lawyer, banker, economist and founder of the U.S. Banking system.  To prepare for this experience, which will include listening to some very fast rap singing, I have assigned the following homework for myself:

1. Read the Wikipedia entry for the plot/synopsis of the musical Hamilton
2. Listen to the cast recording on Youtube ...
3. ... while following along with the lyrics, since some of the rap sequences are sung so rapidly (and occasionally with a heavy French or British accent) that it is near impossible to discern what is being conveyed
4. If there is time, review the Wikipedia entry on the biography of Alexander Hamilton