Theatre 2026: Hell's Kitchen @ CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre

I have stated many times that I prefer a book musical with an original plot and songs over a juke box musical that relies on the catalog of a popular performer or group to form a show. For me, the worst is the biographical juke box musical that is often a drama about the performer’s life and career with songs sung in a diegetic manner as part of auditions, studio recordings or concert performances. Almost as bad is the jukebox musical that comes up with a ridiculous story in order to force-fit a set of songs. Bat Out of Hell (Meatloaf) and We Will Rock You (Queen) come to mind, each reduced to using the trope of the “dystopian” world in an attempt to make the plot work. The gold standard which all future jukebox musicals with original stories are compared to is Mamma Mia, whose plot weaved ABBA’s songs so seamlessly that it felt like each song was written for the show.

Lately as a way to generate a built-in audience, more and more juke box musicals are being produced, hoping to cash in on the fans of the artist(s). Hell’s Kitchen is the latest jukebox musical to come to Toronto via Mirvish productions, featuring the discography of R&B and soul singer Alicia Keys. Since I only know a handful of Keys’ songs and her genre is not usually my favourite, I could not even count on familiarity like I did for MJ the Musical. Knowing that the show was playing at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, which is notorious for its poor acoustics, did not help. I therefore went in with low expectations, hoping to be pleasantly surprised. But first, to give myself a chance, I read the synopsis in Wikipedia, then listened to the cast recording while following along with the lyrics.

One interesting aspect of Hell’s Kitchen is that it is a hybrid of the two types of jukebox musicals. While this a fictional story and not considered a typical biographical musical describing Keys’ childhood, career and rise to success, many elements of the plot are heavily influenced by Keys’ life. The main character is a 17-year-old girl named Ali with a protective white mother nicknamed “Jersey” who once worked as a performer, and absentee black father named Davis who is a traveling piano player always on the hunt for his next gig. The show implies that Ali gets her musical talents from Davis. The portrayal of Jersey closely mirrors Keys’ mother Terria Joseph, who maintained an acting career while working as a paralegal to support her child. Keys’ real father Craig Cook was a flight attendant, not a musician, and was not a part of her childhood, unlike Davis who pops in and out of Ali’s life but cannot be depended upon to stick around.

The supporting characters, including sounding-board friends for Jersey and Ali, Ray the doorman, and especially the older street percussionist Knuck, who becomes Ali’s love interest, are all fictional composites that help flesh out this coming-of-age story and the mother-daughter conflict that is the heart of the musical. The ensemble dancers with their baggy clothing, low-riding jeans that expose their underwear, and hip-hop dancing add to the vibrant and gritty vibe of the neighbourhood.

I thought the book writer (in collaboration with Keys) did an excellent job of selecting songs and weaving together a earnest and heart-felt (albeit, a bit derivative) tale of the spunky, independent 17-year-old, Ali, who chafes against Jersey’s efforts to shield and protect her. The show opens up with “The Gospel”, a song written by Keys in 2014 which acts as a no-holds-barred depiction of New York City ghettos. The fast-paced lyrics, starting with “I said we're all God's children, products of the ghetto. Momma cooked the soup. Daddy did the yelling… The roaches and the rats, heroin and the crack, Couldn't blame me, I'm just giving the facts" went by so quickly and was mostly drowned out by the loud orchestrations, vindicating my efforts to review the words beforehand. I still couldn’t follow what was being sung, but at least I had an idea of what the song was about. This was a great song to set up the environment for the story.

Next wisely, Keys wrote two new songs specifically for the show which introduced each of the two main protagonists, revealing their hopes and fears. Ali sings the “I want” song “The River” which describes her desire for more freedom. “I'm alone here in a crowd of seven million. I know there's more to life than this, cause something's calling me”. Jersey then sings “Seventeen” which vocalizes her frustrations and fears that her daughter would get into trouble trying to grow up too soon. “She’s just 17 and her brain just don’t work… Think she knows it all. She don't know nothing.” 

Then the show takes flight and reels off one Alicia Keys hit after another, including the few that I recognized. When Ali tries to talk to Knuck for the first time, she and her friends sing “You Don’t Know My Name” as they dare her to approach him although for the first few choruses, the friends tease her by singing “He don’t know your name”.  Eventually Ali starts a relationship with Knuck (without revealing she is just 17) and also discovers her love of the piano through lessons with Miss Liza Jane.  Ali’s euphoria is perfectly depicted through the song “Girl on Fire”. The song is interrupted by Ali’s friend Tiny who spews off an angry rant in rap, giving her a reality check and reminding her that Jersey is going to kill her once she finds out.  Unfortunately, the lyrics were unintelligible given the loud background music and bad acoustics. I had to google later to find out what all that was about.

Later, things fall apart after Jersey catches Ali and Knuck together and has the police haul him away. Devastated, Ali refuses to speak to her mother, who calls Ali’s father Davis in for moral support. Davis is all charming and flirty with Jersey, singing the sultry song “Fallin”, then cheers up Ali by singing the song he wrote for her as a child “If I Ain’t Got You”. But then, Davis takes off again and Ali realizes that it is her mother who has aways been there for her. They reconcile with the song “No One” (“No one can get in the way of what I feel for you”).  I must admit that familiarity does have an impact since I appreciated the songs that I recognized more and marveled at how well they were integrated into the story—not quite Mamma Mia standards, but not bad at all!

There were a couple of powerhouse songs that were new to me but blew me away with their force and passion. The first was “Perfect Way to Die” which Miss Eliza Jane sings about the racism and police brutality that she endured and witnessed in her past. Keys wrote this song in 2020, at the height of Black Lives Matter, as a protest against the frequent murders of blacks by white policemen. This scene was one of many that effectively used background video. In this case, images of murdered children including Emmett Till (murdered in 1955) flashed by. The other was “Pawn It All”, sung by Jersey to express her dismay that Davis was leaving and disappointing his child once again. The tour-de-force performance by Jersey as she belts out this song made it the “eleven-o’clock number” of the show, leading to thunderous applause.  Hell’s Kitchen ends with the uplifting anthem “Empire State of Mind”, acting as a love letter to New York City.

The set representing the neighbourhood of Hell’s Kitchen in New York City was filled with scaffolding with video used to project skyscrapers.  The orchestra played on various platforms within this scaffolding, including the piano player who provided much of the live music while the actors portraying Miss Liza Jane, Ali and Davis pretended to play. On Broadway, the piano player in the orchestra was Alicia Key’s own high school piano teacher at Manhattan’s Performing Arts School. The show opened with a very effective use of video as Ali rides down the elevator from her 42nd floor apartment, describing how different musicians lived on various floors. As the elevator door stops, there is Jazz on the 32nd floor, Merengue and Latin dance music from a dance class on the 27th, Opera on the 17th floor, Classical music on the 7th to 4th floors, and finally piano on the ground floor, which turns out to be Miss Liza Jane playing.

As much as I prepared myself not to like this jukebox musical, I found myself really enjoying it and admiring the natural ease with which Keys’ lyrics propelled the story. I can see this musical being used to introduce a younger generation to musical theatre. The age of the audience members surrounded us at our performance seems to confirm that this is the case.

On a side note, shortly into the first act, the musical had to be paused due to technical difficulties. A voice came over the intercom asking the actors to leave the stage, the audience sat in the dark for a few seconds, and then the lights came on. It took several minutes for the action to resume.  This is the second time within the same year that an issue occurred at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre.  The same thing happened during a performance of Some Like it Hot, which we watched in February.  Add this to the fact that the sound quality at this theatre is terrible, to the point where entire reddit threads complain about it, and you wonder if it is time to shut down this theatre and perform a major upgrade. Hopefully something is done soon to resolve these technical issues.

Amélie Musical @ Daniel Spectrum (AKI Studio) Theatre

The whimsical, endearing, and critically acclaimed 2001 French-language romantic comedy Amélie was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best International Feature Film. Starring a wide-eyed Audrey Tautou in the titular role, the movie explores how Amélie’s sheltered childhood with Raphael, her emotionally detached father, and Amandine, her strict, high-strung, and apathetic mother, affects her relationships with others as an adult. When her doctor father gives her a regular checkup as a child, she is so excited to see him that her heartbeat rises, causing him to misdiagnose her with a heart condition. Trying to protect her, Amélie’s parents keep her isolated at home with a goldfish named Blubber as her only friend. Once she turns 18, Amélie leaves her now-widowed father behind and lands a waitressing job at the Two Windmills in Montmartre, Paris. There she interacts with the eccentric staff and customers but shies away from any personal entanglements. Things change upon the death of Princess Diana along with the unexpected discovery of a hidden box, which leads Amélie to open up and become a do-gooder like her idol Diana. Through her adventures in discovering the owner of the box, Amélie meets her soulmate Nino, an equally quirky character who is obsessed with the photos left in photobooths. But can Amélie overcome her awkward upbringing to embrace true love?

In 2017, a Broadway musical version of Amélie bombed, closing after just 6 weeks.  Created in the vein of slick, commercialized Broadway musicals, this show went for big, broad sets and an Americanized score and songs. This includes a confidence building “I Want” song (“Times Are Hard for Dreamers”) sung by an intrepid Amélie as she heads off for Paris, that channels Maria from the Sound of Music as she leaves the convent. This totally deviated from and therefore lost the quirky, innocent charm of the original story, and undermined the character of Amélie, who is supposed to be a shy, naïve dreamer. The change in tone did not resonate with the audience, leading to the show’s early demise, despite casting Broadway powerhouse Phillipa Soo of Hamilton fame in the lead role.

Luckily for musical lovers, in 2019, a new U.K. musical version totally revamped the show, resurrecting the charm, whimsy and quirkiness of the movie. Instead of American accents, the characters spoke with French accents intermixed with common French words.  Actor musicians played various instruments while acting and singing on stage. The sets and staging were more intimate to closer reflect the source material. Many songs changed in tone with slower pace and a more wistful, European feel. Some tunes were replaced with new songs to flesh out the characters and story, and others were moved to provide a better flow.

In the American version, young Amélie was played by a child actor who sang the earlier songs and appeared throughout the show to harmonize with her adult counterpart. The goldfish, renamed Fluffy in the musical, is played in full camp style by a grown man with a fish costume on his head. By contrast, in the UK musical, both young Amélie and Fluffy are played by puppets. The result of all these changes was a show that fared much better, playing across the UK and the West End between 2019 and 2021 despite being subjected to COVID shutdowns for over a year. This version received multiple Olivier award nominations whereas the U.S. version received no Tony nominations.

Shifting Ground Collective is a Toronto-based incubator for emerging musical theatre talent, giving early-career artists opportunities to act in full-scale musicals and cabarets.  We watched this group’s excellent production of The Drowsy Chaperone earlier this year and thought it was extremely well done. For their new show of the 2026/27 season, Shifting Ground Collective put on a production of the UK version of Amélie. Once again, we thought the show was stellar, featuring impressive triple-threat young performers who could act, sing and dance, although they did not play instruments. Instead, the band was positioned on either side of the stage with the strings, woodwinds and piano on the side and drums/electric guitars on the other. The actors also didn’t try to adopt French accents but did occasionally throw in simple French words such as “au revoir” or “merci” which even non-bilingual people like us could understand. I approve of this choice, since a fake French accent would have made the dialogue and lyrics more difficult to understand, especially in a theatre that already did not have the best acoustics.

Amélie is portrayed by Colette Richardson who is also a founding member and the executive director of Shifting Ground Collective. She plays the part with a sparkle in her eyes, a mischievous grin, and a sweet shyness and vulnerability that perfectly embodies the role. The strong supporting cast complement her well, providing both comedic and touching scenes and great dance numbers. At the Two Windmills Café, she meets the owner Suzanne, who once was a circus trapeze artist before an accident occurred where she was dropped by her partner (both physically and then romantically). Her two co-workers are Gina, who is still mourning the death of her husband who had left her for another woman, and Georgette, a hypochondriac who has a crush on the customer Joseph, who in turn is fixated on Gina. Other customers include Hipolito, a poet who has writer’s block and Philomena, an airline stewardess. She also encounters the grocer Collignon, who mistreats his assistant Lucien, her neighbour Dufayel, who is housebound due to a bone disease and spends his time reproducing copies of Renoir’s masterpiece “Luncheon of the Boating Party”, and finally Nino, who she falls in love with but is afraid to get too close to.

The main set piece on the left side of the stage is the photo booth that drives key plot points, with stairs behind it that lead to Amélie’s small Parisian flat. Various props are pushed onto the centre of the stage create the father’s doctor’s office, the family’s dining room, and later on, the interior of the Two Windmills café. Without props, it becomes the open space where large ensemble dance numbers are performed. On the right side of the stage is a door and a window which acts as the frontage of various homes including that of her neighbour Dufayel.

Following the lead of the UK musical, this version had some creative staging including the use of the cutest puppet to play young Amélie, styled with the same haircut as the actress playing the role. The scene of the child’s physical examination by her doctor father seemed much less creepy when performed on the doll as opposed to the adult actress. Rendered as a papier-mache fish on a stick, Fluffy the goldfish leapt out of the fishbowl and floundered on the ground. Shocked by what she considered a suicidal fish, Amandine insisted that Fluffy be released back into the river. As he swam away calling out “Au revoir”, he was represented by a large parade-float. When Dufayel showed Amélie his numerous attempts to reproduce Renoir’s masterpiece “Luncheon of the Boating Party”, the ensemble cast appeared on stage wearing similar straw hats and posed in the same positions as the people in the painting.

One effective concept that was not in the movie but added in the U.S. musical is the ancient Greek philosophical argument “Xeno’s Paradox” which argues that two objects (or people) can never meet because there will infinitely be a half-way point between them. During home-school lessons (in the song “Half-way”), Amandine teaches her daughter this theory and it becomes a metaphor for Amélie’s fear of intimacy and inability to form human connections. This inability to connect is mirrored in the other characters, who eventually are helped by Amélie’s good deeds. She helps pair up both Georgette and Joseph, and Raphael and Suzanne, gives Gina closure by forging a reconciliatory letter from her late husband, jolts Hipolito out of his writers’ block and gives him confidence by writing his insightful quotes on a wall, shames Collignon into appreciating Lucian, and spurs Dufayel into painting something original (a portrait of her) instead of merely copying others. But it takes Nino solving Xeno’s Parodox that leads to Amélie finally letting him in. With a reprise of “Half-way”, Nino determines that if they both step forward at the same time, they can bridge the "infinite" gap.

Two elements of high camp were retained from the US version, probably to demonstrate Amélie’s vivid imagination. First, after Princess Diana’s death, Amélie imagines that it is her funeral and Elton John, clad in his sparkly white jumpsuit and platform heels, is serenading her with the song “Goodbye Amélie”. Later, she steals Raphael’s garden gnome and sends it off on foreign adventures with a stewardess friend in order to help her father get out more and expand his world. To illustrate the postcards that Raphael receives from the gnome’s travels, an actress dressed in a green gnome costume prances around and sings the song “There’s No Place Like Gnome”. I felt like these two songs didn’t quite fit in with the vibe of the rest of the show.

We really enjoyed this delightful production of Amélie and were glad that we saw the U.K. and not the U.S. version. We continue to be impressed by the work of Shifting Ground Collective and look forward to watching more of their shows in the future. We especially like that they target more obscure musicals as opposed to the old standards that theatres like Stratford and Shaw like to produce. I regret that we did not learn about them earlier as I would have loved to have attended their recent productions of Ride the Cyclone and 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee.

Theatre 2026: A Fine Balance @ Crow's Theatre

I had not read Indo-Canadian author Rohinton Mistry’s acclaimed 1995 novel A Fine Balance, set in an unnamed city in India during a tumultuous period termed “The Emergency” between 1977-1979. But several of my friends had dubbed it one of the saddest books that they’ve ever read. Reviewing the synopsis of this 600+ tome in Wikipedia did nothing to dispel this assessment. Dealing with systemic oppression in India’s dictatorial political system at that time, the book touches on the inhumane caste system that demeaned and inflicted brutal violence upon the lower castes, abject poverty and slums, forced labour, rampant corruption, and programs of mandatory sterilization for population control. The novel follows the lives of Ishvar and his teenaged nephew Om, trained tailors who were born into the lowest caste and deemed “untouchables”, the financially strapped widow Dina who employs them, and Maneck, a well-to-do young student who she rents a room to in order to help make ends meet. The four form an unlikely “family” who struggle together to survive these turbulent times.

Given this horrific history as a backdrop and shocking plot elements that involve torture, physical mutilation including castration, murders and suicides, I was skeptical of the novel’s purported underlying theme of resilience and maintaining hope in midst of so much despair (the “fine balance”). I was therefore not looking forward to watching Crow’s Theatre’s stage play based on the novel and adapted by Indo-Canadian playwright Anosh Irani. I braced myself for a 3-hour long night of tension and misery. I also wondered what would remain and what would be lost in the adaptation of such a large novel with so many characters and storylines.

I concluded that Irani did an excellent job by focusing on the four main characters and distilling the important elements of the plot to fit into a reasonably long play, conveying entire chapters of events into single expositional dialogues. In this manner, we found out about the horrors that befell Isvar’s and Om’s families who were brutally murdered by a sadistic upper-caste landowner, about Dina’s struggles for financial and physical independence from her abusive brother, and of Manesh’s hazing in his school dorms that led him to seek lodgings with Dina. I was also surprised to find that the overall tone of the play was not as oppressive and downtrodden as I expected. While the horrors described in the book were definitely portrayed, they were interspersed with lighter, more personal and even tender moments of interaction between the characters and I was amazed at the few moments where I actually chuckled softly. By the end of the play, I was definitely grateful not to have been born to a lower caste in India, but I also admired the spirit, and yes, resilience of these poor people who could find a tiny bit of joy in midst of all the tragedy that they have encountered.

The actors portraying the four main characters were superb, as were the two extra actors who played all the other roles, including a bent-over, aged tax collector and an armless/legless beggar. But as always with every play at Crow’s Theatre, what impressed me most was the staging.  The main set is Dina’s apartment with a door and verandah stage left, the living room and kitchen in the centre, and a spare bedroom to the right where the tailors set up their sewing machines. An overhead metal rail at the front of the stage is used to slide across props that transform the space into different locations. At the start of the show, Ishvar, Om and Manesh are all crammed into the same train that is taking them to Dina’s house. A set of overhead grab handles are slid along the track and through the use of lighting, sound effects, and the jostling bodies holding onto the rails, the set becomes a moving train. That the train hits a bump and is delayed by what is probably a body on the tracks (either suicide or murder victim) and the nonchalant reactions of the commuters quickly establishes the normality of such occurrences and foreshadows more to come. Next the hand holds are slid off stage and a door is slid across to become Dina’s front door. This was a quick and effective way to control set changes.  On two occasions, video text displayed on the door to establish time jumps (e.g. 3 months later, 8 years later).

In the end, I still would have preferred to spend my time watching a happy play, but I definitely appreciated this work for the touching performances and the innovative staging.

Theatre 2026: The Great Gatsby @ Ed Mirvish Theatre

The Great Gatsby is a classic, tragic novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925 that deals with themes of obsessive love, privilege that comes with great wealth, corruption, moral decay, and disillusionment. Set in the decadent Jazz Age on Long Island, NY, the story is told through first-person narration by writer and bond trader Nick Carraway, describing his interactions with Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire obsessed with reuniting with his former lover, the flighty and selfish Daisy Buchanan (nee Fay), who is Nick’s distant cousin.  Jay and Daisy were in love before he left to fight in World War I. Because he was poor, she chose not to wait for him and married the wealthy, brutish and philandering Tom Buchanan instead. Determined to win her back after the war, Gatsby turned himself into a self-made millionaire through shady dealings including illegal bootlegging. He built a mansion directly across the bay from the Buchanan home, which has a green light on its dock that acts as a beacon of hope for Jay. He throws lavish, uproarious parties to entice Daisy to attend but she never does. When Nick moves into a cottage next to Gatsby’s estate, Jay convinces him to invite Daisy to tea as a ploy to set up the former lovers’ reunion. Gatsby’s obsession with the past and his unrealistic, idealized image of Daisy eventually leads to tragic events that symbolize the loss of the American Dream.

The Great Gatsby has been adapted into movies several times. The most notable movie is a faithful 1974 adaptation starring Robert Redford as the suave, aloof and mysterious Gatsby and Mia Farrow as the ethereal Daisy.  The tone of the movie is muted and melancholy, reflected even in the wardrobe of the characters which are often in white or black hues, while jazz music true to the era is played throughout the scenes. By contrast, the 2013 remake starring Leonardo Dicaprio in the titular role and Carey Mulligan as Daisy leans into the hedonism and debauchery of the times with hyper, fast-paced cinematography, bright colours and controversially, the use of modern hip-hop and pop music intermixed with jazz. Whereas Fitzgerald’s book is a dark, cynical critique of the wealth, greed and excesses of the upper class, the 2013 movie glamorizes and even celebrates it.

The musical version of The Great Gatsby opened on Broadway in 2024 to mixed critical reviews but rave audience reaction, partly propelled by the star power of Tony-nominated actors Jeremy Jordan (Newsies) as Gatsby and Eva Nobelzada (Hadestown) as Daisy.  A roadshow version has come to Toronto but must not have sold very well since the run was cut short by multiple weeks and our tickets were moved to an earlier date to fit the new closing date. Accordingly, we went in with low expectations.

Our first impressions were good since the set design was stunning. Before the show opened, we were treated to the view of the Buchanan home and its blinking green light as seen from Gatsby’s estate. Adding to the ambience were the sounds of crashing waves and the calls of seagulls. The stunning sets continued with glamorous Art Deco designs representing Gatsby’s mansion and the era-appropriate, luscious costumes were equally impressive. We received an early glimpse of some of the wardrobe from displays in the lobby.

The initial songs do a good job of setting the scene and propelling the plot. The opening number “Roaring On” describes the jazz age (“Tonight let’s misbehave … the city’s reignited. The Great War is done”) while also providing Nick’s exposition as he starts to narrate the story. “Absolute Rose” introduces Daisy and her friend Jordan Baker who becomes Nick’s love interest.  “New Money” explains Gatsby’s world of the nouveau-riche and “For Her” allows Gatsby to convey the depth of his obsession with Daisy.

We also liked the choreography, especially in the large group numbers like “Roaring On” where the influence of legendary choreographer Bob Fosse seems quite apparent. The number “Shady”, describing Gatsby’s illicit dealings with his partner Wolfsheim, was also well done with the use of square spotlights and dancers in fedoras and trenchcoats that flap around like capes as they move.

It was interesting to compare some differences in tone and especially in plot between the various sources. The musical tried to redeem the characters to make them less self-indulgent and unlikeable or added plot points to give them more depth. As a result, Daisy no longer cynically chooses money over love when she gives up on Gatsby and marries Tom. Instead, through manipulation from her father, she is led to believe that Gatsby died in the war and marries Tom while in grief. Tom’s mistress Mrytle is pregnant with his child in the musical and is given the fabulous torch song “One-Way Road” where she also debates her choice of love or money before meeting her unfortunate fate.

Our major issue with the show was with the portrayal of Gatsby and it is unclear whether this was a result of the actor’s performance or the way the character is written in the musical’s book. Rather than the mysterious, sophisticated and debonair persona described in the book and as portrayed by Redford and DiCaprio, our Gatsby came across as goofy, insecure and immature. This especially came across in the song “Only Tea” where he is so nervous to meet Daisy that he actually jumps into the bushes to hide when she arrives. As a result, we did not feel much romantic chemistry between the two leads.  Whether this was deliberately played for laughs or not, it undermined the dark nature of the source material. Looking at the images of the cast in the program, I wonder if the actor playing Gatsby was too young for the role.

It did not help that the show played at the Ed Mirvish Theatre and as always, the sound system is problematic.  Usually, it is impossible to hear since the sound is too low. This time, perhaps to compensate, the sound was cranked up so loud that every song sounded like the actors were shouting and that in itself muffled the lyrics for me and took away any tenderness or subtly to the love songs. As a result, although I liked the songs when listening to the soundtrack, I did not enjoy these live singing performances.

This show has promise and I might have appreciated it more had I watched it in a theatre with good sound and a more appropriate cast. Based on what we got, I understand why the show’s run ended early. We might have been in the minority in our assessment of the show since many others in the audience were really into it and there were multiple women walking around dressed like flappers.

Theatre 2026: Blyth Festival - Last Mayor of Rusty River, Curveball, Dry Streak

After talking about it for years, this is the first year that my husband Rich and I managed to get to the Blyth Festival in Huron County, Ontario. Founded in 1975, this is a theatre festival dedicated exclusively to the creation and performance of original Canadian plays, often with rural or small-town themes and occasionally based on true local stories. The festival runs each year between June through September and offers 5-7 shows for the season. There is usually a “Bonanza Weekend” where most if not all the shows are programmed to run back-to-back with special passes sold for this event. Two venues are used for the festival—the indoor Memorial Hall (Margaret Stephens Stage) and an outdoor space called the Harvest Stage with an open-air stage and a covered canopy for the audience.

Because of other commitments, we were not able to attend the Bonanza weekend this year.  But we did select three shows that would play on Saturday and Sunday and made a four day long-weekend out of it with visits to nearby Goderich (which we used as a home base) and Bayfield along the way.

Our first show was The Last Mayor of Rusty River, a bluegrass musical comedy which had a very promising premise for zaniness and hilarity. To protest the ineffectiveness of longtime incumbent mayor Larry Fletcher and his obsequiously loyal deputy Jerry Jones, two young, up-start councillors (Tina Stackhouse and Tim McCavity) decide to run Captain Whiskers, a cat, as his opponent in the next election. I wondered if it was intentional that Tim's last name was also the name of one of the lead characters in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats?

The first act of this two-act play sets up the conflict through several council meetings in municipal chambers, held both behind closed doors and open to the press, as represented by reporter Harmony.  The beleaguered clerk Judy Townsend tries in vain to keep decorum. In these meetings, through bluster, bullying and mockery, Fletcher rebuffs any attempts by the younger councillors to discuss important issues like infrastructure, economic growth, or homelessness, which is Tina’s passionate cause. Instead, he focuses on trivial matters such as deciding on a town mascot and tries to hide shady dealings made for his own personal gain. Finally fed up with Fletcher’s incompetence and corruption, Tim declares that he will register his cat Captain Whiskers to run against Fletcher in the upcoming election, since even a cat would do a better job than the current mayor. After this lengthy setup, we are primed for the mockery of an election between a buffoon and a feline.

Instead, the second act takes a tonal shift when Tina decides that she will also run for mayor, making it a three-way race, highlighted by a mayoral debate between the candidates. Suddenly the play becomes very preachy as Tina rails about the plight of the homeless and we feel like we are in a humanities or ethics lecture instead of watching a comedy. Whether intended or not, the character of Fletcher channels our current provincial premier Doug Ford, using his signature catch-phrase “my friends” to preface each sentence and replying with nonsensical doublespeak that never actually answers the questions put before him. Tim’s “interpretation” of what Captain Whiskers had to say produced some funny moments, including the proverbial “cat coughing up of a hairball” joke.  But for the most part, much of the humour felt sapped from the play as it veered from being a satire to trying to make a serious social statement. There were some cute songs sung by actor-musicians who also played the various instruments including piano, drums, guitars, and more. The songs were fun but didn’t really advance the plot to make this a traditional book musical and felt disconnected from the rest of the show. Both Rich and I thought that the play started strongly but waned by the second act and went on a bit too long.

We encountered clever promotional material that hyped up the show before even entering the theatre. There were political signs campaigning for Captain Whiskers found along the streets leading up to Memorial Hall. In the lower-level gallery below the theatre was a polling station where you could vote for Fletcher, Larry (“Experienced, Connected, Probably Knows a Guy) or Whiskers, Captain (“Independent, Curious, Answers to No one…except the Global Tuna Consortium”). We still found this show entertaining to watch, but it did not turn out to be what we expected).

Our next show was based on a true story from the 1950s of women employed at Stratford, Ontario’s Kroehler furniture plant who were part of the company’s softball team. This was during a time when corporate softball and fastball leagues were popular in Southwestern Ontario. After their day jobs assembling furniture, they played competitive baseball at night to packed stands. After a disappointing 1952 season and a slow start with many setbacks in 1953, the Kroehler Girls staged a “legendary” comeback that took them to the regional championships, resulting in their winning both the Provincial Women’s Softball Union Intermediate A and Junior A Championships.

Expanding on the 2021 play “Kroehler Girls!”, Curveball: The Fast-Pitch Ladies from the Factory Floor is a musical that dramatizes this historic achievement. Fictionalized characters, who are amalgamations of real-life players, were developed from extensive research through the archives of the Stratford-Perth Museum.  Some of the stories and dialogue were taken directly from interviews with the original team members.

The cast includes the male coach and six female players who represent the core of the team. There is Honey, the leader and star player who has lost her powerful hitting stroke due to personal issues that become apparent as the show progresses. Doll is the matron of the group with three children to juggle on top of her factory job by day and her baseball job by night. She represents the grit and determination of the players who refused to give up their passion for sports even after marriage. Shack is fierce, abrasive and the most competitive member of the team. Her character is named in honour of Elaine Shackleton, a key member of the 1950s squad. Despite being portrayed as the team’s “sexpot”, Wanda is intelligent, ambitious and determined to break free of traditional women’s roles set by the era’s patriarchal limitations. She dreams of leaving the steno pool to become a saleswoman. Wanda’s sister Georgie is the newcomer to the team, a power pitcher who tries to fit in and win the trust and respect of her teammates. Nora is a dependable player and factory worker who rounds out the core roster and takes part in the game sequences. Finally, James is a bit actor at the newly opened Stratford Theatre where evening performances conflicted with the baseball games that were played at the same time. James becomes a romantic partner for Georgie, thus merging the arts and sports worlds.

This is a heart-felt show about teamwork, camaraderie, “finding your power” and dealing with any “curveballs” that come your way, whether in baseball or in life. It intermixes action-packed sequences from softball practices and games with scenes that delve into the personal lives of the players and their coach, highlighting their hopes, fears and challenges. It also gave historical context to the regional Ontario in the 1950s, reflecting on post-World War II industrial culture, shifting gender roles, the rise of theatre in Stratford, and the start of decline in interest in women’s sports that had become so popular during the war years. 

It was especially fun to watch this show in the open-air Harvest Stage that was decked out with an old scoreboard and faded vintage signs advertising companies of the time including Kroehlers, Canadian Tire, A&P Food Stores, Olin Brown Candies, CJCS 1240 Radio and more.  The composer of the musical played piano at one side of the stage, providing musical accompaniment for tunes that ranged from emotional “I want” songs to upbeat team cheers. Before the show started, the artistic director of the Blyth Festival paid tribute to audience members who were descendants of Kroehler Girls. It was interesting to note that one of the playwrights was Andy Pogson, the nephew of the power-hitting 3rd baseman Marg Syms (née Pogson) on the team.

Our final show was a hilarious comedy that coincidentally starred the entire cast from Last Mayor of Rusty River, plus one additional actor. It was interesting to see all these performers in different roles so soon after watching them in the first show. Dry Streak is set in the fictional town of Stoney Valley, Saskatchewan in 1988 but is based on playwright and grain farmer Leeann Minogue’s real-life experience of living through one of the worse droughts in modern-day prairie history that year while working on her farm in Swift Current Saskatchewan.

The plot focuses on one multi-generational farming family headed by patriarch Peter and his put-upon wife Olive, who is expected to do all the cooking, cleaning and even answering the telephone. They have three children including Denise who is married with rambunctious twin boys (never seen but always getting into trouble), Charlie, the black sheep who spurned farming in favour of a job in radio broadcasting and youngest son John who is returning from the “big city” of Calgary with his new girlfriend Kate. 

This becomes the proverbial “fish out of water” trope as the family strives to accept Kate who is a punk-rock loving, vegetarian and is not interested in marriage and knows nothing about farming or rural life. John was born and bred to be a farmer and wants to take over the farm one day. Big-hearted and ultra-sociable, Kate works hard to fit in and adapt while suffering along with the rest of the community from the stifling heat, dust and lack of rain. One day after having a few too many drinks at a bar, Kate jokes that if it would just rain already, she would run naked down Main Street. Unfortunately, her flippant remark was overheard and reported in the local newspaper and from there things spiral out of control, going national after being picked up by the CBC.

Dry Streak is a wonderful, heartwarming, feel-good story that continues to build and gain momentum until it reaches a hilarious, laugh-out-loud, and thoroughly satisfying twist ending. Structurally, this is exactly how a good play should progress. Of the three shows that we watched, this was by far our favourite and it was so great to end our first Blyth festival on a high note.

Theatre 2026: Tao of the World @ Stratford Festival

Jovanni Sy is a Chinese/Filipino Canadian actor, director and playwright who has become known for reworking classic plays and putting a modern and often Asian spin on them.  As part of Stratford Festival’s 2024 lineup, his play “Salesman in China” dramatized and extrapolated upon the real-life events of American playwright Arthur Miller who traveled to Beijing in 1983 to direct a Mandarin version of Death of a Salesman featuring prominent Chinese actor Ying Ruocheng in the role of Willy Loman. Performed in both English and Mandarin (with surtitles), Salesman in China ponders how these two artists from differing cultural, political and linguistic backgrounds can learn to collaborate, while delving into each man’s personal history. We will see Salesman in China as the last show of our 2026/27 Mirvish subscription series.

This season, Sy is back at Stratford directing his latest play, “Tao of the World”, which is a re-working of the iconic Restoration Comedy, “Way of the World”, written by William Congreve in 1700. Restoration Comedies were written and performed between 1660-1710, beginning during the reign of King Charles II, and sought to rebel against the previous morally-strict Puritan regime led by Oliver Cromwell. As such, the plays featured risqué humour, provocative themes of sexual intrigue and adultery, fast-paced plots, and witty dialogue. Way of the World is also considered a “Comedy of Manners” in that it satirizes the behaviour, etiquette, and conventions of the upper classes.

In “Way of the World”, the charming but manipulative rake Edward Mirabell wishes to marry Millamant, who is set to inherit a sizeable dowry, but only if her aunt Lady Wishfort approves of her choice of husband. Unfortunately, Lady Wishfort despises Mirabell, who previously spurned her sexual advances. Instead, Wishfort considers her nephew Sir Wilfull Witwould as a more suitable spouse for Millamant. Mirabell previously had a secret affair with Wishfort’s daughter Arabella, who he then forced into a loveless marriage with his rival Fainall. Still smitten with Mirabell, Arabella helps him with a plot to compromise and blackmail her mother into agreeing to the marriage. Mirabell arranges for his manservant Waitwell to marry Lady Wishfort’s maid Foible. He then disguises Waitwell as his wealthy (but non-existent) uncle Sir Rowland in order to woo Lady Wishfort. He hopes to cause such a scandal once Waitwell’s identity and marital status is revealed that Lady Wishfort will be forced to consent to the marriage in exchange for suppressing the details. Fainall and Mrs.Marwood (who are also having an affair) find out about the plot and try to blackmail Mrs.Wishfort and Arabella themselves, since they also found out about Arabella’s affair with Mirabell. Fainfall demands control of the family fortune in order to preserve the reputation of the family. But clever Mirabell had anticipated this possibility and had previously arranged for all of Arabella’s assets to be transferred into his control. Grateful for his help, Lady Wistfort agrees to the marriage between Edward and Millamant.

In his graduating thesis for his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Calgary, Jovanni Sy discussed how he originally intended to stage Way of the World as written, just to prove that a “person of colour” could direct a Restoration Comedy. But while he was reviewing the play, he encountered elements of the plot that have not aged well and would be “problematic for modern Canadian audiences”. These issues included sexist tropes and double standards, lack of agency for the female characters and the overly cruel treatment of Lady Wistford which would no longer be considered funny. Mirabell’s character and actions make him so unlikeable by today’s standards that it would be difficult to portray him as a romantic hero. Also, a five-act play would not go over well with the limited attention spans of audiences today.

All these issues led to Sy’s writing of “Tao of the World”, which takes the basic plot points of Congreve’s play but transposes it to the modern-day world of Singapore’s uber-rich, mixing Restoration Comedy with influences from the 2018 hit movie Crazy Rich Asians. Sy has created a hilarious, fast-paced, intelligent romantic comedy that addresses or modernizes the less acceptable aspects of the source material. The female characters now have agency and drive much of the plot. Arabella is the protagonist of this story instead of Edward. Millicent is strong-willed, sexually adventurous and not afraid to pursue her desires. Arabella’s mother, Lady Helen Yu, is still a vain controlling woman, but her comeuppance is silly and farcical instead of cruel and humiliating. And this is a two-act play where you are having so much fun that the time just flies by.

In Sy’s version, Arabella is a spoiled, privileged rich heiress who was once romantically involved with Edward Lim but broke up with him and married Trevor Flynn instead. She regrets this decision and is still in love with Edward. When he declares that he is in love with and plans to marry her younger cousin Millicent, Arabella is crushed but schemes to break them up. Edward and Millicent’s path to marriage is blocked by Arabella’s mother Lady Helen Yu, who controls access to Millicent’s trust fund inheritance which will be released to her upon her marriage. A second stipulation states that Millicent must still be a virgin (which she already is not at the start of the play—a fact that she tries to conceal). Arabella pretends to help the couple but secretly tries to pair Millicent up with another suitor, Dr. Wilson Wong. Hilarity ensues when it becomes apparent to all that Wilson is gay and very attracted to Arabella’s good friend and confidante Devan, who is in a closeted relationship with his partner Jackson. Devan is the son of a former beloved servant who passed away during the COVID pandemic, a fact that becomes important towards the end of the play.

Following the twists from the source material, Edward tries to gain advantage over Lady Helen by finding incriminating photos from her younger days when she had a tryst with a shockingly famous and influential man who became a monk. As a running joke, each time his name is spoken aloud, it is bleeped over by perfectly timed sound effects including very soft bleeps the one time the name is whispered.  Playing on her fascination with Buddhist monks because of her lost love, Edward convinces Jackson to dress up as one in an attempt to steal the salacious photos. Trevor Flynn and his illicit paramour Eleanor Marwood wind up with the photos and try to blackmail Lady Helen themselves, as well as gain access to half of Arabella’s fortune through divorce. Using a similar plot device as Way of the World, Flynn is thwarted when it turns out that Arabella had signed over the shares of her company to Devan, in a show of love and act of contrition relating to another plot point. With the photos retrieved and the marriage blessed, we get the same happy ending as in the original play.

Sy wrote his comedy in 2021 during the tail end of COVID but set the action in the near future when the pandemic has run its course but is still fresh on everyone’s minds. At the beginning of the play, many of the servants wear masks and there is mention of vaccines. Sy modernized his play by adding gay characters at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Singapore (repealed in 2023) and gay marriage was prohibited (as it still is today). His female characters are unabashedly overtly sexualized and he gives a voice to the servants who initially just silently observe the hi-jinx of their employers but eventually get to express their grievances. In scenes where karaoke or singing is involved, well-known Mandarin songs are used to give authenticity to the world that Sy has wrapped his characters in.  Not understanding what was being sung (or occasionally being said) in no way detracted from the fun being had.

This was a joyous play to watch with superb acting and comedic timing, especially by Agnes Tong who plays Arabella and Michael Man who plays Wilson. As Arabella, Tong’s facial expressions are priceless, especially when she presents a fake happy face to Edward, then breaks the fourth wall and turns towards the audience to show how she really feels. Man’s portrayal of Wilson’s flustered anxiety and gag reflexes left the audience howling with laughter.  Kudos to Stratford for this avant-garde show that strays from its comfort zone of programming Shakespearean or classical dramas. I think it helped that Tao of the World was performed at the smaller and beautifully renovated Tom Patterson Theatre with its elongated thrust stage, while leaving its mainstream shows in the large theatre spaces.

Theatre 2026: Toronto Fringe Festival

This year, my husband Rich and I selected six shows to watch at the Toronto Fringe Festival—4 musicals and 2 comedies. It is always hit and miss when we choose which shows to watch based merely on several lines of descriptions. We don’t want to wait for reviews to see which are the hot shows since by then, the tickets might be sold out. So, we take our best guess and the results are usually mixed. Our first three shows ran back-to-back-to-back at the Factory Theatre Main Stage.

The first one was a musical called “1920s - Walking Around in a Dream” which takes an excerpt from the plot of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream”, focusing on the two sets of lovers while omitting the subplot involving fairies.  Now set in 1920s Chicago during prohibition, Hermie and Andy are in love and want to get married, but Hermie’s bootlegger/boxing promoter father Eggs wants her to marry up-and-coming boxing champ Dimitry instead. Dimitry was previously involved with Helen who still carries a torch for him but pursues Hermie to please Eggs and further his boxing career. When Hermie and Andy run off into the woods to elope, Helen and Dimitry pursue them. Instead of fairy magic, it is bootlegged moonshine that cause all the romantic chaos.

This was a clever take on the Bard’s classic comedy and the characters are dressed in cool period clothing but given names close enough to the original source that it was easy to figure out the parallels. Unfortunately, we found most of the cast very difficult to hear. At first, we thought that it was the acoustics in the theatre and lack of microphones, but when the actor playing Andy spoke and sang his songs, we heard him crystal-clear. The other actors did not project their voices or enunciate clearly. The situation was exasperated by the fact that the script was deliberately injected with 1920s slang, to the point where a glossary was added to the program to help us understand the lingo. All of this made it more difficult to catch what was being said or sung. Luckily, we were familiar with the plot of A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream so we got the gist of it.

Olivia O is a powerful and heart wrenching musical that shines a light on the travesty that has been happening in the United States since 2017 during President Donald Trump’s first term. His government introduced an immigration policy that separated asylum seekers from their children if caught illegally trying to enter the United States. While the migrant parents were imprisoned or deported, any children under age 18 were handed over to the Department of Homeland Security, which in turn shipped them off to “resettlement shelters” and foster homes across the country. The trauma and angst caused by these inhumane separations is highlighted through the plight of a fictitious family.

When 14-year-old Olivia Ortiz and her mother try to cross the US/Mexico border to meet up with Olivia’s American aunt Isabel, the pair are captured by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and forcibly separated. The mother is presumably deported and Olivia is sent to a detention centre to await placement. While there, she meets Gloria, another detainee who has become hardened and jaded after giving up hope that her family will come for her. Olivia is assigned to be fostered by an abusive and corrupt televangelist and his meek wife. In the meantime, Isabel is desperate to find her niece and joins a humanitarian activist and aid group devoted to reuniting families.

This is a touching musical with an important story to tell but once again, we had audio issues. The voices of several actors were much too soft while the music was too loud, obscuring the words even of the singers with powerful voices. The fact that Spanish was intermixed in the dialogue and lyrics compounded the ability to recognize and grasp what was being conveyed. But the emotions rang through loud and clear and the performances by the two leads playing Olivia O and her aunt Isabel were outstanding.

There were very simple sets for this show, comprised mostly of a few wooden benches that were constantly rearranged into different formations. The show began with several rows of benches each with a clump of tin foil that represented thermal blankets given to the children in the detention centre who were awaiting reassignment.  Video was projected at the back of the stage, contrasting happy, colourful crayon drawings of family that Olivia initially sent to her aunt in correspondence prior to their attempted meeting, and then stark photographs of actual detention centres and court houses in El Paso, Texas where much of these atrocities actually took place. The show closed with an image of beaded bracelets like the one Olivia made for Isabel that became a symbol of the search for her.

Other than not being able to hear properly, my only other issue with the musical was with the character of the televangelist who was so evil and diabolical that you could almost see him twirl his metaphorical mustache. Added for dramatic effect to heighten the danger and horrors that Olivia faced, he came across as cartoonish, detracting from the real-life drama being represented, which was terrible enough without this additional plot device. 

Our final show of the day was “Minimum”, a comedic satire about Simon, the bumbling, narcissistic, newly elected Premier of Ontario who is trapped into fulfilling a campaign promise that he flippantly and foolishly made while high on drugs and partying with college girls. Literally caught with his pants down on camera, he declared that he would live on minimum wage while in office, just like many of his constituents. The video goes viral as voters from all age groups (Gen Z to Boomers and even Taylor Swift) all laud him for this pledge, labeling this #MinimumChallenge. Simon is urged to go through with it by his idealistic assistant Grace while his estranged wife Helen (who campaigned for him but now wants a divorce) demands that he renege on the promise.

Simon’s nemesis, “the Prime Minister” chimes in and “supports” Simon’s initiative by canceling all his credit cards, draining his bank accounts and selling his houses (go with it … this is a satire).  Now Simon can no longer afford his daily $9 Frappuccino drinks, can’t pay Toronto’s sky-high rents so must move all the way out to Hamilton, has to transit to work instead of driving his Porsche (which he lovingly calls Portia), and in a repeated sight gag, instead of drinking his expensive booze, he gets his alcohol fix from chugging bright blue Listerine mouthwash.

Throughout the play, not-so-thinly-veiled references take aim at many of the questionable policies of our actual sitting Premier Doug Ford. This includes Ford’s buck-a-beer in grocery stores pledge which Simon one-ups by offering “quarter-a-beer” made available in all schools. There are also jabs about Ford’s “white elephant” spa project, OSAP (which Ford cut funding to but Simon pledges on behalf of the PM to forgive all loans), eliminating the Freedom of Information Act which Simon fully supports in order to hide his many misdeeds (and coincidentally, Ford supports this too), and the private jet that became such a scandal for Ford. In the play, the premier’s jet has a gold toilet.

This play was extremely funny and clever for 60 minutes and best of all, unlike the other two shows, we could hear all the actors perfectly, again proving that there was nothing wrong with the acoustics in the theatre. The problem is that Minimum ran for 90 minutes and the last 30 minutes lost its way. The same jokes about drinking Listerine or selling Grace’s desk were repeated multiple times, and the central premise of living on minimum wage fell by the wayside and never had a proper resolution.  Then the plot just took a totally wacky turn that changed the tone of the play. We concluded that this was almost a very good comedy that went on too long and could not come up with a satisfying ending.

On our next Fringe day, we watched two plays back-to-back at Soulpepper in the Distillery District. We almost missed watching an original new Canadian musical called Camp! since we had purchased a 10-pack of tickets and this show did not make our initial short list of five shows. However, I had a good feeling about this musical so we bought two extra tickets. Good thing we did, because this turned out to be our favourite show of the festival.

Camp! is set in Camp Clover, where kids to stay each summer and participate in activities including canoeing, crafts, sing-a-longs, trivia, talent contests, sports, and the season ending capture the flag competition. Nova and August first came to the camp when they were nine and became BFFs as soon as they met, progressing to become camp councillors. But something has happened and when they arrive this summer, they are cold and even aggressive towards each other. The other campers including junior councillors-in-training Max and Grace, August’s little brother Leo, Nova’s little sister Frances, and fellow campers Vinny and Moira spend most of the show trying to figure out what caused the rift and how to get Nova and August to reconcile.

Camp! is a co-production between Mixtapes Projects, an indie theatre company run by Margo Greve and Ben Kopp who wrote the songs and book for the show, and Bravo Academy, a Toronto performing arts school that offers music/musical theatre training. The amazing cast of the musical are all teens with excellent acting and singing skills and since they were all equipped with headset microphones, there was no trouble hearing them (which has become a major factor in our rating the shows we watch at this Fringe Festival).  The songs were fun, even innovative and advanced the story, the kids were witty and charming and this was by far the most professional production that we had seen at the festival.

The second play that we watched at Soulpepper was in the tiny RBC Financials Studio space which seats only 50 people. The chairs in the front row sit on the floor inches away from the action on the stage. The three subsequent rows follow in stadium style but on a very slight rake. I could not see at all from our original seats in the third row so I grabbed the last seat in the front row while Rich stayed back. Wanting to keep our shows light and happy, we stuck to the comedy and musical genres when selecting which shows to watch. We chose Gratitude since it was in the Comedy section, albeit described as a “dark comedy of teenage angst, insecurities and foibles in a coming-of-age story”.  By the end of this show, Rich and I concurred that what we watched in this 60-minutes play was definitely dark, not the least bit funny and more than a little bit troubling.

Set almost entirely in the boys’ locker room of a private school in Montreal, 15-year-old Dariya’s crush on Drew, the most popular boy in class, starts off relatively innocently with her passing cheat notes for an upcoming test. But soon the interactions escalate into transactional acts of sexual manipulation, seduction, and exploitation involving the two of them as well as fellow students Josh and Ben, where the concept of “gratitude” takes on salacious meanings. Playing almost like a tense psychological thriller with slight comparisons to the movie Dangerous Liaisons, we were taken aback by the explicitness of the dialogue and the simulated sexual acts that were portrayed (some literally at my feet).

Despite this play being not at all what we expected, we found the story to be fascinating and the acting of the entire cast to be superb. Particularly complex is Dariya’s character arc as you come to understand the motivations for her actions once more of her backstory comes to light. The plot is well structured with foreshadowing at the beginning and a plot point that we recognized as a “Chekov’s gun” moment both paying off by the shocking end of the play. The minimal set also cleverly conveyed graffiti on the boys’ locker room with a set of three cloth curtains with lewd graffiti scribbled on they. Despite leaving the theatre a bit shell-shocked, Gratitude spurred lengthy discussions afterwards as we dissected what we just watched.

Our last show of this Fringe Festival was the musical comedy Unsung; Accidental Villains in History. A troupe of six actors reimagine seven important moments in history. Through the use of humorous songs, choreography, costumes and props, they tell each story of how a fictitious character inadvertently caused the momentous event to happen, becoming the accidental villain in that story. The concept was fun and irreverent with some stories working better than others.

One of the best skits involved teenaged Lottie, who was hired to create lifeboats for the Titanic but not given enough time to complete the job. This resulted in not enough lifeboats being available for all the people when the ship hit the iceberg. She is put on trial with a prosecutor and defense lawyer arguing against and for her and then she finally gets to plead her own case.  She points out that the job was too big for one person but it should not have mattered since the ship was supposed to be “unsinkable”. The song ended with a cheeky reference to Rose and Jack from the Titanic movie.  Two supporting characters came out in ridiculous wigs as Lottie declares that more people could have been saved if they had just allowed more than one person on the floating door.

Other skits used hilarious props such as a cardboard representation of the wooden Trojan Horse horse that Trojan guard Calvin allowed through the gates because he loved horses. The horse had two holes cut out around its belly where the “Greeks” smirkingly hid. Mrs. O’Leary’s cow was unfairly blamed for starting the Great Fire of Chicago when it was actually Elliot O’Leary having a tryst with Suzanne when they knocked over a lantern.  The expression on the face of the actor on all fours dressed in a cow suit was priceless and the only thing missing was the cow breaking out into song. The cleverest and most effective staging was used for a skit involving two students who tricked their hated teacher into going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. This feat was illustrated using a long blue sheet representing the Falls over which a tiny figure in a barrel was lowered by a string.

The stories that worked less well included Steven who caused the stock market crash of 1929 leading to the Great Depression, Guy whose “Guy-otine” which he invented to chop watermelons was seized by the leaders of the French Revolution, and Josie, who was not given credit for being part of the moon landing and gets revenge by spreading conspiracy rumours that it was faked. If you are in the mood for silliness, this show was for you.

All in all, we enjoyed our all of our Fringe shows to some degree and did not encounter more sound issues after the first two performances. In fact, in this last show, there was actually a “loud noises” warning and offer of earplugs which we found perplexing. Other than one skit where one of the actors yelled very loudly (for no particular reason that we could discern??), the show was quite audible.