Theatre 2026: Drowsy Chaperone @ Theatre Passe Muraille

The Drowsy Chaperone is the first Canadian musical to have substantial success and profitability on Broadway, playing for 674 performances from May 2006 through December 2007.  It was nominated for 13 Tony Awards, winning best book, original score, scenic design, costume and featured (supporting) actress.

The show had an unusual beginning. In 1997, it was created by theatre friends as a 30+ minutes musical spoof presented as a stag/doe party gift to Canadian actor/comedian Bob Martin and his fiancée Janet Van de Graaff, a Canadian improv artist and Second City performer. Written as an homage to and in the style of 1920s-40s musicals, it featured characters named after Bob and Janet who were about to be married. Robert was an oil tycoon and Janet a Broadway starlet in the Feldzeig Follies (a play on Ziegfeld), who was about to give up fame and stardom for love and marriage. Rounding out the cast were the eponymous drowsy (as in drunk) chaperone, Latin lover Adolpho, Follies producer Feldzeig, a pair of gangsters disguised as pastry chefs, and Robert’s best man George. Held at the Rivoli Club on Queen St. West, the musical was fully staged, complete with period costumes and featured bawdy or slightly racist jokes, pastiche torch songs, comedic duets, and rousing anthems. The plot was typical of the golden age musical era including hapless gangsters, wedding sabotage, seduction attempts and mistaken identities before the prerequisite happy ending.

The party sketch was such a hit that Bob Martin, along with the original writers Lisa Lambert, Greg Morrison and Don McKellar decided to expand and rework it to be shown at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 1999. They added the framing device of a narrator billed only as “Man in Chair”, a lonely, elderly musical lover who talks to the audience throughout the show. He is feeling blue and plays his double-vinyl cast album of the fictional 1928 musical (also named The Drowsy Chaperone), to cheer himself up. 

Here the show gets a bit “meta” as he describes the musical, the creators and actors playing each role in great detail, occasionally tossing in “Easter eggs” for musical theatre buffs to recognize. He tells us that The Drowsy Chaperone is written by Julie Gable and Sidney Styne, which seems like a tribute to the renowned composer Jule Styne (1905-1994) who wrote songs for many hit musicals including Gypsy and Funny Girl. More characters and plot points were added to the Fringe show including the odd duo of dotty Mrs. Tottendale and her stoic butler Underling who provide comic relief with a slapstick patter involving a traditional vaudeville-like “spit-take” gag, Kitty, the ditzy aspiring actress who wants to replace Janet as star of the Follies, and Trix the Aviatrix whose importance becomes apparent at the end of the show. Once the misunderstandings and mistaken identities are cleared up, there are four weddings to be held including Janet and Robert, Mrs.Tottendale and Underling, the Chaperone and Aldolpho, and finally, Feldzeig and Kitty, who turned out not to be as clueless as she appeared since she was able to trick the producer into marrying her.

Following a successful appearance at the Toronto Fringe Festival, David Mirvish financed a limited 3-week run at Theatre Passe Muraille, followed by a four-month run at Toronto’s Winter Garden Theatre in 2001 where the show was further expanded into a full-length production.  This eventually led to the move to Broadway where it played at the Marquis Theatre.

Now almost 30 years from its origin, the musical Drowsy Chaperone makes a triumphant return to its Theatre Passe Muraille roots. This is a production by the Shifting Ground Collective, a Toronto-based theatre company formed in 2022 with the goals of nurturing young Canadian performers and emerging musical theatre artists as well as developing new Canadian musicals. My husband Rich and I had not heard of this group before, but we fully support their mission.  So, we thought we would give the show a chance but had no idea what to expect.

We were blown away by the talent and professionalism of this excellent cast of triple-threat performers who were stellar actors, singers and especially dancers, all clothed in stunning period appropriate costumes. Particularly impressive were two dances —the tap dance number led by the actors playing Robert and George in the song “Cold Feet” and the ironic, semi-strip-tease performance by the actress in the role of Janet, who in the song "Show Off" proclaimed “I don’t want to show off” as she proceeded to do exactly that by strutting around and executing a cartwheel and a frontal split.

The main setting of the “outer” show is the apartment of Man in Chair which is decorated with posters of iconic musicals such as My Fair Lady, Oliver, Brigadoon, Anything Goes and A Chorus line, along with some black and white photos. One photo in particular is of actress Georgia Engel who played Mrs. Tottenham in the original Broadway cast and appears on the cast recording where her very distinctive voice harkens to her role of Georgette on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. While Man in Chair sits in his armchair with his record player on one side of the stage, the inner musical comes to life in the middle of the stage.  His couch and other furniture are moved around as the scenes dictate and the actors emerge and exit both from the back of the stage, and through the closet doors on either side.

The space at Theatre Passe Muraille felt too small for the huge cast of 16 actors from the inner show, especially when they are all on stage at once in the large group dance numbers that involve high kicks and waving arms. This might be why a few scenes wisely incorporated a catwalk balcony that overhangs the stage. This was especially effective in a closing scene from the second act when Trix the Aviatrix flew back into town and saved the day, since best man George forgot to book a minister for the wedding. Being the “captain of her plane”, which is almost like the captain of a ship who can perform weddings at sea, she is able to fly the four couples off to Rio and marry them while in the air. Having the couples gather on the balcony while the rest of the cast celebrate below provided enough separation so that the audience can see everyone.

Speaking of the “Second Act”, this was a feint since there is no second act despite references in the original cast recording song list and Man in Chair referencing it by changing to the second record of his cast recording. Instead, the lights brightened for a few seconds, then dimmed again as the show proceeded. Lighting effects were used multiple times in the musical. At the start of the show, the audience sat in the dark for several minutes as we listened to Man in Chair talk about how he hates the moments before a show starts when he prays that he didn’t waste his money and will watch a good show. Then towards the end of the show, just as the cast is about to sing their final note of a song, the power goes out and the theatre goes dark again.  There was a transformer issue in the apartment and the superintendent had been trying to phone Man in Chair throughout the day, with the constant ringing phone causing him all sorts of annoyances. When the problem is fixed and the lights come back on, the cast, who were frozen throughout this interaction come back to life and finish the final note. At other times, the record skips causing the actors to repeat a sentence again and again until Man in Chair gives the record a nudge. This is all very cleverly staged and the timing of the actors is impeccable.

Prior to the start of the show, we were given the usual pre-show preamble and then given the “content warnings” which went on for so long that we thought it was a joke.  We were advised to be prepared for sexual content, strong language, racial stereotypes, alcohol abuse, mentions of drug use and abuse, mentions of eating disorders, mentions of death, sudden loud noises, sudden bright lights possibly aimed at the audience, and haze.  It felt like we should have been handed a Bingo card to check off each occurrence.

We listened to the original Broadway soundtrack before attending this show and therefore noticed a significant change in lyrics in one of the songs. After the prerequisite “Boy loses girl” misunderstanding, Janet sings “The Bride’s Lament” as she regrets calling off the wedding.  Man in Chair warns the audience ahead of time to ignore the lyrics which “are not the best” and just listen to the beautiful tune, so we are prepared for some dumb lyrics. 

In the original lyrics, Janet sings “I put a monkey on a pedestal and trying to make it stay...monkey, monkey, monkey...” and then proceeds to wail on about her monkey.  In our version of the show, this has been changed to “bunny” along with a dance number where the chorus prances around with bunny ears.  I searched online to find out when and why this change was made. Apparently since 2020-2021, it was deemed socially unacceptable and racially derogatory to use the word monkey (a past slur against Blacks?) so future productions were changed to reference a bunny. While I understand why the lyric changes were made, I think doing so undercuts the forewarned and intended ridiculousness of the lyrics. Adding the chorus dancing with rabbit ears balances that out a bit since in the original torch song, there is no such choreography.

We really enjoyed this production of The Drowsy Chaperone and look forward to watching future shows produced by Shifting Ground Collective, especially if they end up developing original new Canadian musicals.

Theatre 2026: Cyrano @ CAA Theatre

Edmond Rostand wrote his classic French play Cyrano de Bergerac in 1897 about a skilled swordsman and witty poet who loves Roxanne but is too insecure about the size of his nose to pursue her for himself. Instead, he helps handsome but shallow and inarticulate rival Christian woo her by writing her flowery letters in Christian’s name and then speaking on his behalf in the famous balcony scene. The iconic character is inspired by the real-life Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655), a French novelist, playwright, letter-writer, duelist and perhaps a visionary since he is touted as the “first writer to depict space flight”. He did not have an unusually big nose, so that was just a plot device in Rostand’s story.

Since Rostand’s play was first mounted, there have been innumerable adaptations from other plays to movies to musicals.  It has been produced as play at Stratford, Ontario four times including once starring Christopher Plummer in 1962 and twice with Colm Feore, in 1994 and again in 2009.  The earliest film adaptation was a silent French movie from 1900, while more well-known versions include one in 1950 starring José Ferrer in the title role and in 1990, Gérard Depardieu took a turn. Each of these adaptations followed the origin story quite closely and depicted Cyrano’s large nose visually. Rostand’s play crossed many genres by blending comedic and romantic moments with swashbuckling action and tragedy, involving war and the deaths of both leading men. It is interesting that Rostand considered his play a heroic comedy and saw Cyrano as a hero for maintaining his pride and “panache” to the end.  In contemporary times, Cyrano would be viewed more as a tragic hero with a fatal or tragic flaw that allowed his insecurities to stop him from being vulnerable enough to find and accept love.

Recently, adaptors have looked for different ways to maintain the gist of the plot while adding their own twists to a timeless tale. A 2021 film musical adaptation, led by a singing Peter Dinkage, maintains the setting, time period and plot points, but substitutes the embarrassing nose for dwarfism. This is one of several versions that prove the nose is just a metaphor for any insecurity that might stop a suitor from declaring his feelings at the risk of rejection.  In a 2019-2020 modernized and stripped-down London West End production of the play starring James McAvoy, there are only a few chairs on the set, the characters dressed in black t-shirts, jeans and leather jackets, and perform rap battles with their microphones as opposed to sword fights.  McAvoy’s character is referenced to as having a large nose but no physical prosthetic nose is used. Cyrano’s insecurities and shame are conveyed through McAvoy’s speech, language and brooding, emotive performance. The actual nose is left to the audience’s imagination.

The 1987 modernized romantic comedy Roxanne starring Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah is one of the first adaptations that changes the tone of the entire story. It maintains just the bare bones of the plot but mostly follows the traditional romantic comedy tropes with the “boy gets girl” happy ending. Cyrano is now a witty firefighter named C.D.Bales who loves Roxanne but helps his colleague Chris court her by feeding him lines to say to her.  This includes a hilarious scene involving a radio transmitter that goes rogue. Played totally for laughs, C.D. sports an absurdly long hooked nose that attracts birds to perch on it. Instead of sword duels, C.D. partakes in a battle of wits to deflate a bully who calls him “big nose” by self-deprecatingly coming up with 20 “better jokes”, a modern, comedic spin on the classic nose rant by Rostand’s Cyrano in Act I of his play.

The movie Roxanne paved the way for happier versions of Cyrano-based love triangle plots. There are even versions featuring teenagers such as the movies The Half of It, Sierra Burgess is a Loser, and Whatever It Takes, as well as a punny jukebox musical titled Cyrano de BurgerShack whose setting is exactly as the title alludes to. The film is now such a modern-day classic that many contemporary viewers might not even know about the original Cyrano’s tragic fate. My own introduction into the origin story came when I listened to the lyrics of a studio recording of an unproduced 2002 musical version of Cyrano written by Michael and Rick Fox, featuring Canadian stage icon Brent Carver in the starring role. Without ever watching a performance, I was able to glean the whole story from the wonderful songs. What a shame that this never got produced.

Just in the past few years, there have been not one but two gender-bending, lesbian-centric versions of Cyrano each played by a woman. Starstruck is a musical adaption with music by Emily Saliers of the late 80s-90s duo Indigo Girls. Cyrano is now the female park ranger and astronomer Cyd who loves Roxanne but helps Chris send romantic texts to Roxanne. This show premiered in Pennsylvania in February 2026 with hopes of eventually making it to Broadway. It is interesting to see the method of correspondence change from letter-writing to texting as technology changes over time.

This deep dive into the history of Cyrano finally brings me to the play that we watched as the last show of our 2025/26 Off-Mirvish Season. Simply titled “Cyrano” but marketed as “the gender-flipping Cyrano” written by Virginia Gay, the eponymous titular role is cast as a woman who falls in love at first sight with the luminous and intelligent Roxanne who in turn falls “in lust” with the hunky Yan (a clever play on “Christ-ian”). This Cyrano once again is portrayed without a physical prosthetic nose, following in the vein of McAvoy’s performance.

We knew that we were in for something different when the 90-minutes, one-act play started with a “cold open”, without the typical pre-show land acknowledgements or warnings about no photos, turn off your cell phones, and unwrap your candy. Three unnamed characters (billed in the programme as “1”, “2” and “3”) appear as stagehands or perhaps bit players on a sparse stage that only contains three boxes of varying heights and a moveable, spiral staircase that will eventually be used in the infamous balcony scene. These three characters function as a “Greek Chorus”, providing commentary and acting as a sounding board for the main characters, both encouraging and challenging them. The Chorus also stands in for some of the numerous other characters in the original play.

This version of Cyrano is presented as a meta-play within-play where the lines blur between the theatrical setting and the main plot of the story.  The chorus interacts directly with Cyrano, Roxanne and Yan, not actors playing these roles, further obscuring the difference between what is the play and what is the play within the play. The characters also address the audience, so it is like the fourth wall is broken both in the inner play and the outer one.

Chorus #1 and #2 are more experienced, road-weary theatre-hands who try to mentor #3, a young, naive and exuberant newbie. They caution her against commenting on Cyrano’s nose—a warning that she promptly forgets and ignores when confronted with the infamous protrusion. This leads to another modernized version of the famous “nose rant” scene.  Cyrano takes offense to #3’s pedestrian reference to her nose and proceeds with a lengthy, fevered tirade, spewing out colloquial synonyms that are more inspired and imaginative including “Schnoz”, “Honker”,” Beak”, and functional descriptions such as “Blocking sightlines”.

At the start of the play, the Chorus and Cyrano seem to deliberate how the play should proceed. When Roxanne first appears, is she already known to Cyrano (a cousin?) or a stranger?  Throughout the show, they debate whether there is a chance of a happy ending for Cyrano.  Chorus #1 mildly encourages the possibility while the older, skeptical #2 champions staying true to the traditional work.  Chorus #3 is not familiar with the origin story so her main reference to the name Roxanne is the song by the Police which she repeatedly tries to sing.  Too inexperienced to understand boundaries, she firmly pushes for change and advocates for a happy ending.

When the hot, arrogant but dumb “Yan” finally appears, he is hilarious and steals the show. Sporting reflective sunglasses (think Tom Cruise in Top Gun), and a tight wife-beater tank which he lifts to wipe those glasses, he effectively flaunts his ripped abs. The best joke of the show involves his name “Yan” since he doesn’t want to be mixed up with the other famous “Chrises” – Hemsworth, Pine, Evans or Pratt (fat or thin versions). The physical interactions between Yan and Cyrano border on slapstick.

Traditional versions of Cyrano portray Roxanne as intelligent but without much female agency, as was the norm of the time when the original play was set. She does not become upset or angry at Cyrano’s deception although I guess it would be hard given that he is dying!  The modern adaptations of Cyrano change this as Roxanne is furious at being tricked and basically “catfished” into sleeping with Chris. The same happens in Virginia Gay’s play where Roxanne storms off and has to be wooed back to achieve the desired “queer happy ending” that the playwright aimed for.  The result is literally an apology party that the audience is invited to join in on.

It has been very interesting analyzing the many varied adaptations of Cyrano. It is one of those special tales with such a universal theme that it becomes resonant and enduring, yet so amenable to different spins from setting to time period to genre to gender and colour-blind casting. It joins such classics as Romeo and Juliet, A Christmas Carol, Dracula, or Frankenstein in being ubiquitous yet unique in its various adaptations. Virginia Gay’s version of Cyrano with its unique framing device is a welcome addition to the long list of adaptations of Rostand’s masterpiece.

Theatre 2026: Little Willy @ Canstage Berkley Theatre

My husband Rich and I first encountered master puppeteer Ronnie Burkett when we watched his raunchy, “not-safe-for-children” marionette puppet show “Little Dickens” in December 2022, very loosely based on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. He is back with a new show “Little Willy” where his cast of puppets from his Daisy Theatre vaudeville cabarets debate over who should play the leads in a staging of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Ever the master of the “dick joke”, I think Burkett selected the topic just so he could play off the delicious double entendres of the suggestive title. Specifically for this show, he has created a new marionette of William Shakespeare himself.

As Burkett does with every show, Little Willy starts with a striptease number by the puppet Dolly Wiggler, this time shedding the layers of her Elizabethan clothing to correlate with the Shakesperean theme of the show. Then various puppets vie for the role of Juliet including aging diva Esme Massengill, who does not acknowledge that she is far too old for the part, and Jolie Jolie, the faded French chanteuse who is also well past her prime. It feels like many of Burkett’s puppets are depicted as older characters, to maximize both humour and pathos. Esme and Jolie Jolie battle over the role in the duet “I am Juliet” (all voiced by Burkett).  Most poignant is the elfin fairy Schnitzel, who may have come out as non-binary when he states that he can play both roles of Romeo and Juliet, since he understands how both feel. Schnitzel appears in an outfit that is half pink and half blue to accentuate the point.

Many of the other usual suspects are trotted out including the cross-dressing General and the witch Debbie, who the audience are trained to curse at ("F**k you Debbie!") each time she appears, in an adult version of children’s pantomimes where the villain is booed. Suburban senior Edna Rural from Alberta (who has been in every Burkett show) is tapped to be the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, and wonders what advice she could impart to a young Juliet. Sitting down in her comfy armchair, she proceeds to deliver a lengthy, touching monologue about her courtship and marriage to her husband Stanley Rural, as a testament to the power of love.

Similar to the Little Dickens show, audience participation occurs in the second half of the show that ran over two hours without intermission. Just like in Little Dickens, a female audience member is invited to up to the stage to turn a crank that activates a pop-up mariachi band. This is to accompany crass, Italian Lounge singer Rosemary Foccaci as she sings her tune. Two male (semi-coerced) “volunteers” are asked to operate two sausage marionettes each, representing her back-up dancers. Impressively, with very little training, they are able to make the sausages bop, twirl and even twerk.

The final volunteer (who was chosen from the centre of a long aisle in the second row, debunking my theory that we were safe if not seated in the front row or on the aisles) was selected to play the dead Romeo in the final death scene.  As per Burkett’s standard schtick, Romeo had to be shirtless in this scene. The puppet Lillian Lunkhead, known as Canada’s oldest and worst actress, somehow stumbled into the part of Juliet. She proceeded to fling herself onto Romeo’s bare chest (and privates) while the audience howled with laughter and puppeteer Burkett made lewd comments. Luckily, the volunteer was a good sport about it and seemed to be enjoying himself, hamming it up by trying to slip Lillian the tongue when she tried to lick the poison off Romeo’s lips. Burkett smartly quipped, “You know she is covered with lead paint, right?”  I guess Burkett knows how to pick his victims.

The show ended as always with Schnitzel coming out in his jammies while holding a teddy bear to say good night and thank the audience and all the volunteers. Having now watched two Ronnie Burkett puppet shows within the past four years, it is clear that while the topic of each show changes, there is a general formula followed for the format of the shows.  Each one is extremely funny and entertaining on its own but taken together in quick succession, they can seem a bit repetitive.

We were lucky enough to attend a performance that had a talk back afterwards. Burkett confirmed that he personally constructed each of the marionettes and creates their characters and back stories. But if he can’t find the right voice for one, he scraps the puppet. He was asked what happens if there is a mishap with the puppets and he said that the trick is to acknowledge any issues by making a joke and roll that into the show, as opposed to trying to hide it.

Little Willy is an extremely fun show full of local references, unapologetic swearing, racy and politically incorrect jokes. If you are up for all of that, then you will have a very good time!  An unexpected highlight happened after the Q&A when we were actually allowed to look into the back of the stage to see the puppets up close.  They are truly works of art.

Theatre 2026: Kimberly Akimbo, &Juliet, Some Like It Hot, Shucked (Again!)

Between January to March 2026, four of the live theatre shows on our schedule are ones that my husband Rich and I have previously watched within the past 3 years. Prior to our self-imposed boycott of the United States, we made annual trips to watch Broadway shows before being sidetracked by COVID closures. To make up for it once the pandemic was over, we returned to Manhattan and attended four musicals and one play in the span of four days. As it turned out, 3 of the 4 musicals (Kimberly Akimbo, Some Like it Hot and Shucked) are now part of our 2025/26 Mirvish and Off Mirvish subscription series. This reiterates the fact that we don’t need to travel to the United States to have the chance to watch good theatre. There are enough home-grown productions plus traveling road shows to more than fill up our schedules and whet our appetites. Another musical that we already watched before is &Juliet, which was part of our 2022 Mirvish subscription series. Since I wrote about these shows when I first watched them, you can click on my links to our first viewings read my initial impressions. On these second viewings, I will merely comment on the differences that I noticed between the two productions in each case.

Kimberley Akimbo won the Tony award for best new musical in 2023 but is a smaller, more intimate show than the flashier big Broadway productions like Some Like it Hot.  Perhaps that is why despite its critical acclaim, the former show is part of our off-Mirvish subscription series in the smaller CAA Theatre as opposed to the latter which is staged in the much larger Ed Mirvish Theatre.  Kimberly tells the story of a teenage girl with a rare disease that ages her body four times faster than normal.  Although she looks like she is 64, emotionally and intellectually, she is still her natural age of 16.

When we first watched the musical on Broadway, I was blown away by how believable actress Victoria Clark was in portraying an awkward, gawky but ever optimistic and determined teenage girl. Clark sold this with her vocal delivery, movements, facial expressions, and that mischievous glint in her eyes. While watching Clark as Kimberly, I totally bought into the conceit of the story. The Toronto production starred Canadian stage icon Louise Pitre who we have seen in many productions including Blood Brothers, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, and Mamma Mia, in each case playing an adult. Perhaps it was my familiarity with Pitre’s previous roles but when she played Kimberly, I could not properly suspend my disbelief to see her as a teenager in an elderly body.  I just saw an older woman wearing youthful clothing.

As with most road shows, the stagecraft had to be scaled down for the Toronto production, which was performed on a much smaller stage than on Broadway to begin with.  This made ice skating scenes and dance numbers feel  more constrained than I remembered.  But the biggest difference that I noticed happened in a scene (slight spoiler) where Kimberly and Seth were on a road trip and writing postcards home.  On Broadway, video stills were broadcast in the background to illustrate their adventures.  In the Toronto version, the family sat at a table holding postcards in their hands that we could not see, so we had to imagine the trip based on the dialogue. It wasn’t a big deal but does illustrate what is lost in a touring show.

&Juliet is a jukebox musical, featuring songs by prolific Swedish songwriter and producer Max Martin. It tells the story of William Shakespeare and his wife Anne tinkering with the ending of Romeo and Juliet, exploring what would happen if Juliet did not kill herself.  I felt skeptical about revisiting this musical as part of our 2025/26 Mirvish subscription series since it has just been a few years since we watched it for the first time as part of the 2022/23 Mirvish lineup.  I thought that the initial excitement of experiencing a new show for the first time would be lost on second viewing, now that I knew the story and what to expect. I was totally wrong!  Right from the first notes of the Backstreet Boys’ Larger than Life, I was totally immersed and entertained again by this lively and fun show that cleverly uses the lyrics of familiar pop songs to advance the plot.

The staging felt familiar in that it included the same “ROMEO” and “&JULIET” neon signs, the rotating circular walkway in the centre of the stage, and the trap door from which a platform rose propelling Juliet into the air as she sang Katy Perry’s anthem “Roar”.  There might have been more use of video to indicate the travel from Italy to Paris France.  

This second staging of &Juliet in Toronto is a “sit-down” production that is intended for an extended run at the Royal Alexandra Theatre with an all-Canadian cast in the main roles. Canadian performers Vanessa Sears as Juliet, the ubiquitous George Krissa as Shakespeare, Julia Mclellan as Anne, Sarah Nairne as Angelique and David Silvestri as Lance were all stellar in their roles.  One thing to we noted watching this show at the Royal Alexandra Theatre is how great the acoustics are here, especially compared to the Ed Mirvish Theatre where we always have trouble hearing as the sound is consistently muddled.  At the Royal Alex, the voices are crystal-clear!

Some Like it Hot was one of our favourites of the five shows that we watched in New York, so it was disappointing that both Rich and I felt the touring show in Toronto felt flat in comparison.  It didn’t help that it was held at Ed Mirvish where once again, the sound quality and acoustics were lacking. I was particularly distracted by the speaking and singing voice of the actress playing Sugar, the female lead and romantic love interest.  This role calls for a vocal performance that ranges from sultry to earnest to spunky, all of which was delivered on Broadway.  The voice of the actress in the Toronto production was overly nasally and slightly annoying for me. Luckily, where this show did live up to comparisons with our first viewing was in the dancing and choreography.  In particular, the climatic chase scene involving many moving doors was a highlight, just like the first time.

What made our attendance at this performance most memorable were the two major technical issues that arose.  At the start of the show, we received the usual announcements to turn off cell phones and not take photos/videos and then the lights dimmed but the show did not start.  We sat in silence in the dark for several minutes before the lights went on again. A few minutes later, the lights re-dimmed and the show finally started. Things went relatively smoothly until the second last song of the first act before the intermission.  The scene was the lavish Hotel Del Coronado decorated with a large chandelier.  As the character Osgood come out to sing “Poor Little Millionaire” surrounded by dancing bellhops, the chandelier started to shake and wobble. The actors froze and a crew member off stage desperately gestured for them to scatter.  Osgood made some quip before the curtain came down and once again the audience sat in silence for many minutes while they fixed the set issues backstage.  I have never been to a show before where there were not one but two lengthy interruptions.

Finally, the last show that we watched for the second time was Shucked, a hilarious romantic comedy/musical about a tight-knit corn-growing community that had the audience howling with laughter from start to finish when we saw it on Broadway. Unfortunately, once again the touring show did not quite live up to the original production. Part of the issue was the stellar casting in the Broadway version that would have been impossible to reproduce. The two OBC (Original Broadway Cast) standouts were Alex Newell playing Lulu and Andrew Durand playing Beau. Their singing and charismatic acting performances took the show to the next level and their touring counterparts paled in comparison.  After being dumped by his finance Maizy, Beau’s lament “Somebody Will” as sung by Durand was a nuanced mix of defiant bravado and emotional heartbreak.  In Toronto, the song just sounded loud and shouty. Similarly, there will never be a performance of Lulu’s “Independent Woman” to beat the tour-de-force, award-winning rendition by Alex Newell.

The timing of the jokes felt a bit off in the road show and while the audience was definitely laughing, it was not the same continuous, uproarious laughter that we experienced the first time. In Toronto, the staging of the dance number “Best Man Wins” was scaled down and simplified compared to the intricate barrel-rolling, plank-jumping choreography in the original production.  But most inexplicably, the opening song of the second act was changed from the tongue-in-cheek, irreverent number “We Love Jesus” to the bland, expositional new song “The Ballad of Rocks”.  Perhaps this was to appease bible-thumping destinations on the tour but it was not a good change.

Having said all that, the touring version of Shucked is still a very funny, entertaining show that will please any crowd who doesn’t have the original to compare against. Some of the best gags come from the non-sequitur, deadpan patter of the character Peanut who muses about anything that comes into his brain.  The show is known for changing these jokes with each performance. At our performance in Toronto, some of the ones we heard included “What do people in China call their good plates?” and “Both politicians and babies need to be changed frequently … for the same reason”.

Having watched a lot of theatre over the years, we realize that the original production is usually hard to beat. But just being able to watch any version of an interesting Broadway or West End show at all without making the expensive trip to those destinations makes attending a touring production well worth it.  We are continually grateful that we live in a city that offers us such a vast and wide variety of live theatre choices.

Theatre 2026: The Surrogate @ Crow's Theatre

As its name alludes to, The Surrogate is a fascinating play about surrogacy that is layered with thought-provoking legal and ethical issues spanning politics, religion, race, sexual orientation, identity, class, wealth, privilege, lack of universal healthcare, bodily-autonomy, female agency, and more.

Sameer and Jake are a gay married couple from Manhattan who entered into a surrogacy contract with Marya, a Muslim woman from Houston, Texas. Problems ensue when Marya, who is 28 weeks into her pregnancy, becomes seriously ill while visiting her son at college in Louisiana. While commercial surrogacy is legally binding in states like California and accepted with conditions in most other states including New York State and Texas, it is prohibited and not considered legal in Louisiana.

Sameer is an aggressive lawyer who understands the danger in the situation. He races to Marya’s hospital to try to have her transported back to Houston. Were she to give birth while in Louisiana, their contract would be deemed invalid and Marya would be considered the mother of the baby, despite having no genetic connection to the child.  He spars with an antagonistic and homophobic nurse named Christina, who blocks Sameer against taking any action that could endanger her patient.

Jake is an aspiring writer who hopes to write about their surrogacy experience but is thus far financially dependent upon Sameer. You can see the inequality in their power dynamic even in the way they are dressed.  Sameer is in a suit and tie while Jake wears a casual shirt and slacks. Jake arrives at the hospital and tries to be the calming voice of reason, but soon arguments erupt as secrets emerge from all sides.

Playwright Mohsin Zaidi was born in Britian to Pakistani parents, raised as a Muslim and Oxford-educated as a barrister, who then moved to New York to practice law before giving it up to focus on writing.  His award-winning debut book “A Dutiful Boy” published in 2020 was his memoir on growing up gay in a Muslim family.  Many of his own attributes and experiences seem to be imbued into the play and especially in the character of Sameer.

In Sameer, Zaidi created a complex character who struggles with the dichotomy between his Muslim upbringing and his identity as a gay man who craves acceptance from his disapproving mother, both of his lifestyle choices and of his white husband Jake who she refuses to acknowledge. Sameer is also portrayed as a Canadian expat which accentuates the differences in the healthcare systems between the two countries.

Once again, the staging at a Crow’s Theatre is fantastic, set as a thrust stage with audience on three sides in the intimate Studio Theatre.  A hospital bed with a monitor and chair are placed at the far end of the stage backed by a large mirror that highlights Marya when she is lying on the bed so that she can be seen by all the audience regardless of their seating locations. Long fluorescent-like “hospital” lighting hangs above the length of the stage. They start off emitting that typical yellowish hue found in older medical facilities but change to bright red and blue colours during dramatic moments and occasionally momentarily fade to black. Sound design was experienced before the play even started with the occasional voice heard from an intercom calling “Transport requested to ICU” or “Code Blue ICU”.

While the focus was often directed at the hospital bed where Marya lay for most of the play, there were also heated conversations happening between the other characters who paced along the long empty space in the centre of the stage floor.  A chair in the first row on either side of the stage was deliberately kept empty, where Sameer and/or Jake would sit during certain scenes. We paid for “Tier A” seating facing the front of the stage, so we had the best vantage point of all the action. Although we were farthest from the bed, the reflection in the mirror allowed us to clearly see what was happening there while the scenes away from the bed occurred directly in front of us and we had a good view of the characters when they sat in the chairs.  The viewpoint was not always as good for the people on either side of the stage since they were often looking at least one character’s back.

This play was exhilarating to watch and spurred lengthy discussions afterwards. For me, that is always the sign of an impactful and memorable show.  Hearing about the issues with American healthcare and how illness was the leading cause of bankruptcy made me so grateful to be Canadian. This production of The Surrogate is a world premiere so we, as Canadians, saw it first. Given that compensated surrogacy is viewed so differently in each American State, and that it is illegal in Canada just like in Louisiana, it will be interesting how this play is received in each jurisdiction.

So far, other than Rogers v. Rogers, this has been my favourite play of the 2025/26 Crow’s Theatre season.

Theatre 2026: The Neighbours @ Tarragon Theatre

The Neighbours is a dramatic play by Canadian playwright Nicolas Billon, who also wrote “The Butcher” which remains one of the most intense and exciting performances of live theatre that we have ever experienced.  We first came across Billon’s writing when we watched the 2014 movie Elephant Song.  Billon presents interesting characters that gradually reveal their true selves, be it their secret identities or hidden agendas, and mysterious plots that that are initially disorienting with information slowly being fed to the audience a bit at a time until all becomes clear. Each of the three Billon works that we’ve watched dealt with a serious theme—genocide in The Butcher, mental health in Elephant Song and complicity in The Neighbours.

The Neighbours is set in the suburban neighbourhood of Stanley Court as cleverly illustrated by the set design.  The houses on the court are depicted by numbered rectangles on the stage floor while two sets of sparse furnishings on either side of the stage represented the home of longtime residents Denise and Simon on the right along with their daughter Sophie who is coming home from college to visit, and Mr. Au Yeung Wei on the left.  Most of the play focuses on Denise and Simon as they discuss recent events.

What starts off as banal conversation about summer barbeques and idle gossip about their neighbours takes a darker turn when they reveal that something shocking and evil has happened at the house across from them. This house is lit up on the stage floor and suddenly the broken fragments of houses dangling from above the stage make sense. They represent the hidden horrors that had been lurking in the seemingly quiet and peaceful suburban neighbourhood, foreshadowing that all was not well.

As Denise and Simon recall the traumatic discovery, discussions turn to whether or not they should have sensed that something was wrong and somehow intervened. The couple break the fourth wall to address the audience, as if trying to convince us that they are good people and definitely would have helped had they known. There is some debate over the fine line between caring enough to form communal and neighbourly bonds versus “minding our own business” to respect people’s privacy. Did they ignore warning signs so as not to get involved? Are they in any way complicit by choosing to turn a blind eye?  I am reminded of a line from the Robert Frost poem “Mending Fences” which states “Good walls make good neighbours”.

While Simon tries a bit too hard to prove that he is a “good man” and initially comes across as jovial and good natured, his throwaway comments show signs of misogyny, homophobia and racism including remarks directed at their Chinese neighbour Mr. Au Yeung Wei who Simon dismissively nicknames “Zoom Zoom”.  Throughout most of the play, Mr. Au sits quietly in an armchair in his own home, reading a book and drinking tea from a pink teapot that we learn later holds significance both for him and for Sophie. His silent presence creates a slightly distracting unease and tension for the audience as we glance at him occasionally wondering how he would contribute to the plot. Perhaps that was his purpose, to make us question whether there was more to the story that Denise and Simon were spinning.  This character acts as a physical reminder of other voices and perspectives that Denise and Simon chose not to acknowledge in their complacent acts of willful blindness.

While not as intense as his other two works, Nicolas Billon has once again created a thought-provoking play that held our attention from start to finish.  Curiously, The Neighbours had its world premiere in Tokyo, Japan in 2019 instead of Canada. Perhaps that is why when we inspected the book that Mr. Au was reading throughout the play, it turned out to be “Remains of the Day” by Japanese author Kazuo Ishiguro. Also on his table was the pink teapot and another major prop, a fake cover of the Canadian Walrus magazine with the headline referencing the horrific event driving the plot of the play.

Theatre 2026: Summer and Smoke @ Crow's Theatre

Summer and Smoke is Tennessee Williams’ lesser-known play that he wrote in 1948 following his two previous smash hits, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), and Glass Menagerie (1944).  Set in Mississippi in 1916, it deals with Alma Winemiller and John Buchanan Jr., who have known each other their whole lives, growing up together as next-door neighbours.  Now both in their late 20s, they are drawn to each other but cannot find common ground to be together despite their mutual attraction, due to opposing ideological views on life and love.

John chafes against the pressures to live up to the standards of his namesake father, a respected doctor, and the expectations to eventually take over John Sr.’s medical practice. Perhaps in rebellion, John lives a hedonistic lifestyle, seeking pleasure in drink, gambling and loose women. For him, the expression of love is physical, carnal and full of passion.

As the puritanical preacher’s daughter whose religious upbringing has instilled in her a sense of moral righteousness and propriety, Alma views love as a spiritual meeting of souls. Even her name is Spanish for “soul”.  Saddled early in life with the duties of caring for her demented, childlike mother who lacks self control, Alma has grown up as a repressed, high-strung young woman who suffers from anxiety and heart palpitations. Although she inwardly desires John, she cannot outwardly show it.

These fundamental differences keep them apart, leading John to satisfy his needs with the lusty Rosa Gonzales, daughter of the wealthy owner of a gambling casino. While she pines for John, Alma spends her time giving singing lessons. One of her pupils is the youthful Nellie Ewell, whose mother is the town trollop, looked down upon for hanging around the train station trying to pick up traveling salesmen. Nellie also has a crush on “Dr. Johnny” which becomes an important plot point at the end of the play.

Things come to a head when the unexpected death of John Sr. leads to an ironic role reversal between Alma and John. Alma finally embraces her sensuality and releases what John called the “doppelganger” inside of her, freeing her to physically demonstrate her love for him. But it is too late as John has also changed and now accepts their relationship as just a “spiritual bond”. The tragic events have shocked him into maturity and he has moved on with his life, taking over the medical practice and becoming engaged to the now grown-up Nellie. Devastated by this reveal and John’s rejection of her, Alma heads down to the train station and picks up a traveling shoe salesman, leading to the final irony of the play. While Nellie has attained respectability she craved by marrying John, Alma actions hark back to those taken by Nellie’s mother.

We watched a version of Summer and Smoke that is a co-production between Crow’s Theatre and Soulpepper Theatre, directed by Paolo Santalucia, recently named Artistic Director of Soulpepper.  It was held at Crow’s Theatre’s Guloien stage, set in the round with four rows of seats on each side. There are pros and cons to staging in “the round”.  On the plus side, every audience member is close to the action, creating a more intimate setting.  The disadvantages are related to sightlines and audibility.

At any time, the actors have their backs turned to at least one side of the audience. This makes it difficult both to see what is being performed as well as hear what is being said. In a well-staged show, the actors are constantly turning to provide adequate accessibility to all sides of the audience. Unfortunately, in this production, the blocking could have been improved. There were long periods of time when we were looking at the performers’ backs, making it difficult to comprehend the dialogue (the heavy southern drawls, rapid speech and occasional shouting didn’t help!) and obscuring important actions from our view. Adding points of action to the four corners “off stage” also didn’t help. We were luckily seated in the best side of the stage, so we could see characters approaching or disappearing in an aisle to our left behind the people seated on that side, who had no way to see this. In the far-right corner, we could see allusions to gambling, cock fights, flamenco dancing and later on, a pivotal fight and death scene. The people sitting directly across from us had no exposure to this.

There were elements of stagecraft that were extremely well done, as we have come to expect from a Crow’s Theatre production. In the play, Alma and John debate the dichotomy between the spiritual versus the physical aspects of love and humanity. In his text, Williams added the props of a stone angel statue that sits at a public fountain and an anatomy chart in the doctor’s office as the physical and visual manifestations of these two concepts. Santalucia enhanced these two symbolic visuals by hanging a statue of the angel bathed in an ethereal icy blue light in the middle of the stage.  The stone angel is prominent during scenes in the square and rises to the rafters but always slightly in view otherwise. He contrasted this with an anatomical medical model of a human’s innards to provide two strong physical images of the conflicting ideas.  Once again, because of our seats, we had a wonderful view of the front of the angel including its elegant wings. The people on the other side stared at its butt for the entire show.

Santalucia also tapped into the symbolism of “Summer” (representing the intense heat of vibrant passion) vs “Smoke” (a wispy emittance that dissipates, representing fleeting emotions that fade like mist). He emphasized these concepts with the use of theatrical haze and the smell of tobacco smoke that emanated in several scenes where characters smoked herbal cigarettes.

There is other symbolism built into the props and costumes used in Summer and Smoke.  Alma wears a ring that she constantly twists, representing her nervousness and emotional turmoil. She is dressed in white in Act I, representing her purity and saintliness. By the second act, she is dressed in bright red and wears a plumed hat to symbolize her released desires.  The plumed hat is a repeated image, as Rosa wears it in her first appearance which catches John’s eye, Alma’s mother impulsively purchases one, demonstrating her lack of restraint, and Nellie wears one in the final scenes.  Throughout the play, Alma’s mother tries to finish a jigsaw puzzle, frustrated that the “pieces don’t fit”. The puzzle represents the mental confusion in her life and later in a moment of stress, Alma repeats those words.

The ultimate tragedy of Summer and Smoke is that both Alma and John come to an understanding of each other’s points of view, just not at the same time. It is thought that this play was not as popular as Tennessee William’s other works because the characters are not as fleshed out, but rather act more as archetypes for his overarching themes. Williams seems to have imbedded elements of his own life and experiences in this (and other?) plays. As a gay man in the 1940s and 50s, he was well aware of and often wrote about loneliness, repression and societal constraints on sexuality. It is also interesting to note that his father was a traveling shoe salesman, a specificity that he gives to Alma’s final encounter.

Theatre 2026: Mrs. Doubtfire @ Princess of Wales Theatre

For me, there is nothing like the feeling of watching a musical for the first time and even better if it has a happy, feel-good story that leaves me smiling at the end of it. My husband Rich and I started off our 2026 theatre-going season in just that way by watching Mrs. Doubtfire, the Musical, based on the 1993 comedic film of the same name starring Robin Williams, Sally Fields and Pierce Brosnan.

In the movie, Daniel Hilliard is an unemployed voice actor, which gives Williams ample opportunity to show off his amazing mimic and improvisational skills.  Daniel dearly loves his three children (Lydia, Chris and Natalie) but is an irrepressible man-child who is not responsible enough to properly care for them.  Unable to put up with his antics anymore, his wife Miranda files for divorce and temporarily gains full custody of the children.  This will become permanent unless Daniel can establish a suitable home for his kids and secure steady employment.  Desperate to be able to see his children every day, Daniel asks his makeup artist brother to dress him up as a matronly woman and gets hired as the family’s Scottish nanny/housekeeper Mrs. Doubtfire. 

Mrs Doubtfire, the Musical does a great job of representing the major plot points, humour and heart of the movie while adding in songs and dance numbers to convey the story.  The show premiered on Broadway in 2020 but was shut down by COVID after just 3 preview performances.  Restarting at the end of 2021 and then temporarily shut down again at the start of 2022, the show never recovered from being derailed by the pandemic and only ran for 124 performances before closing for good.  It then moved to London’s West End where it was slightly revamped with changes to a few songs.  The show performed much better without the interruptions, ending up with 700 performances over 2 years.  The current North American road show is based on the West End adaptation.  Hopefully Broadway will give it another chance in the future.

Just like the movie, the musical begins with Daniel doing a voiceover for a commercial but getting fired when he cannot resist adlibbing to “improve” his lines.  While there will never be an actor to match the incomparable genius of Robin Williams, the actor Craig Allen Smith, who plays Daniel/Mrs. Doubtfire, did an admirable job with his voices and impersonations including Mickey Mouse, Kermit the Frog, Yoda, Golem and more.

The opening number (“That’s Daniel”) runs through multiple scenes showing Daniel’s recklessness including sneaking the kids out of school, throwing a party for Chris against Miranda’s wishes and accidentally booking a stripper.  The montage also shows Miranda complaining to her therapist and the couple fighting.  One telling lyric states “He has three kids, she has four”, which succinctly sums up their issues. By the end of this song, the couple is in divorce court where Daniel poignantly pleads with the judge not to separate him from his kids (“I Want to be There”). 

An early highlight of the musical is when Daniel begs his makeup artist brother Frank and Frank’s gay partner Andre to “Make Me a Woman”.  Presented as a big musical number, the pair suggest different looks using Jackie Onassis, Princess Diana, Cher, Grace Kelly and Donna Summers as examples with ensemble dancers dressed as each of these icons. When Daniel says he needs to be more matronly, they turn to older women for inspiration including Eleanor Roosevelt, Julia Child, Margaret Thatcher, Janet Reno, and “a bit of Oscar Wilde”.  Using these role models, they come up with the perfect and now iconic Mrs. Doubtfire look with the wig, glasses, fake teeth, skirt, cardigan, flat shoes and purse.  In the same scene in the movie, Robin Williams did impersonations of Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard, Barbara Streisand and the matchmaker from Fiddler on the Roof as rejected attempts to make him a woman.

While the conversion between Daniel and Mrs. Doubtfire happens mostly off-screen or via screen cuts in the movie, the stage production repeatedly shows the character switching costumes in real time and it was quite the feat. The Mrs. Doubtfire blouse/skirt/sweater or dress costume as well as Daniel’s shirt and pants were each one-piece outfits that the actor simply stepped into and was zipped or buttoned up in. The Mrs. Doubtfire persona also required a body suit, mask, wig and glasses which took a bit more work to put on and take off.  Most of the time this was done quite quickly on stage in front of us, which was very impressive. During the last frantic switch in the final restaurant scene, there was a minor faux-pas as Daniel strips down to his underwear and for a split second, the underwear slipped slightly too far down exposing a bit of butt-crack.  The audience gasped and laughed at the sight and Smith acknowledged the moment with a smirk and butt wiggle after the underwear was safely readjusted.

Frank and Andre have a much bigger role in the musical than the equivalent characters in the movie.  One running joke involved Frank being a bad liar who shouts very loudly whenever he tries to tell a lie.  Eventually after Daniel’s older children Lydia and Chris discover his Mrs. Doubtfire secret, Chris also starts to shout when he tries to lie.

I always admired the movie for not following the typical Hollywood rom-com trope by making the new love interest Stu into a villain (although apparently this was originally considered).  Instead, he was a successful, charming and overall nice guy and a good role model for the kids, giving Daniel reason to be jealous, but also someone to emulate.  The musical includes a great song titled “No” where Stu asks Mrs. Doubtfire whether he has a chance with Miranda and she unequivocally answers “No” while providing hilarious reasons why.

Many of the memorable scenes from the movie are represented in the musical including Mrs.Doubtfire dancing with the vacuum, scorching her blouse around her (luckily fake) breasts while trying to cook dinner, and pelting Stu with a lime while claiming that it was some anonymous “drive-by fruiting”.  Also recreated was the iconic scene where Daniel is trapped without his Mrs. Doubtfire makeup by the Child Services rep and hides his identity by planting his face into a frosted cake.  This includes a dollop of icing from his chin that ends up plopping in the rep’s teacup.  In the filming of the movie, that icing mishap was not planned and Williams quickly improvised a clever line that ended up staying in the film’s final cut.

The other standard trope that the movie did not pander to, although studio heads originally pushed for it, was the typical “Hollywood romantic comedy happy ending” where Miranda and Daniel magically solve their issues and get back together to reunite their family.  Instead, a more realistic yet heart-felt conclusion was chosen. This led to a memorable scene where Mrs. Doubtfire explains that families come in all shapes and sizes and that mummy and daddy don’t always get back together, but that doesn’t make you any less of a family. The musical wisely kept the same ending and punctuated it with the final song “As Long as There is Love”.

This is a fun and joyous show that was well adapted from its iconic source material, made us laugh and entertained us from start to finish.  What a lovely way to start off the new year.

Theatre 2025: Unauthorized Hallmark(ish) Parody Musical - Royal Cinema

After watching over 30 plays this year, our last show of 2025 is another Christmas-themed play with the unwieldy, self-explanatory title “Unauthorized Hallmark(ish) Parody Musical”. My husband Rich chose this show so I went with a bit of scepticism, since we did not enjoy some of his Yuletide picks from previous years including “The Christmas Tea” and “The Wizard of Oz” Christmas panto, which didn’t quite hold up without the influence of Ross Petty.  But I can’t resist any new musical, so off we went.

To prepare for this latest show, we front-loaded our Christmas viewing starting in late November by watching a slew of “Hallmark Christmas movies”.  These are all variations of the same plot, a small subset of the “boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-back” Rom Com trope.  In the Hallmark Christmas movies, the story obviously happens around Christmas time, the girl with a high-powered or at least white-collared job comes from the big city to a charming little town/village and falls in love with the local carpenter/contractor/fireman/cop/solider, etc. and decides to stay.  Even the same actors get recycled from movie to movie including past B-list stars like Lacey Chabert and Scott Wolf from Party of Five or soap opera stars like Hunter King (Young and Restless) and Ryan Paevey. (General Hospital).

I am happy to report that Rich finally picked a holiday winner!  Unauthorized Hallmark(ish) Parody Musical is a fun show with original songs that both advance and spoof the plot of a typical Hallmark Christmas movie. The entire cast has great singing voices and gives hilarious performances with their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks. The costumes are appropriately festive with lots of red and green and ugly Christmas sweaters.  What really stood out was the video backdrop that set the scenes, from the skyscrapers in Big City to the airplane and highway scenes traveling to and arriving at the quaintness of Small Town with its general store and snow-glistened trees.  This extensive use of video is quite apropos since the show is staged inside Royal Cinema, an Art Moderne movie house and event space built in 1939.

Introduced with an ensemble number titled “Big City”, the heroine, aptly named “Holly”, is the powerful businesswoman who lives in “Big City” working for “Big Bank” and is spearheading “Big Merger” with a Chinese bank.  When she learns that her mother Merry has heart issues and is overworked from running 12 companies in “Small Town”, Holly decides to return to her hometown to help her mother, singing “Going Home For Christmas” as she travels.  Holly turns over responsibility for Big Merger to her co-worker and quirky best friend Martha, another stereotypical role in Hallmark movies. Martha is played by the versatile Luke Witt in one of the many outlandish wigs that he dons in portraying a variety of characters including townswomen and a shady cookie contest judge.

Once in Small Town, Holly runs into her hunky high school sweetheart, Mark Hall, who is the town sheriff/Christmas Tree Farm owner/widower with a young daughter that he repeatedly forgets about.  Exaggerating the characteristics of the typical Hallmark movie male lead which emphasize emotional intelligence over book-smarts, Mark is portrayed as kind-hearted but a total idiot, to great comedic effect.  While the sexual attraction and spark is there, Holly becomes more and more aware of his lack of intelligence.  Mark explains how his wife died in the hilarious song “Ballad of Jenny” which feigns several false conclusions as to the cause of her demise (car crash, oven gas leak, etc.) before it is revealed that she died after ignoring her severe gluten allergy in order to make and consume “real Christmas cookies”.

Holly and Merry sing a duet titled “Love or Career” that cuts to the chase of the major dilemma of many Hallmark movies.  In many of these movies, the woman is made to feel guilty for prioritizing work and career over affairs of the heart.  This musical refreshingly subverts that decision with Holly deciding that instead of following her heart, she will follow her brain, which she declares with the song “I Choose Me”.

The arc of the musical which focuses on the love story between the two romantic leads is very satisfying and spoofs the tropes perfectly.  What worked less for me was the over-the-top subplot of Merry and her former best friend turned rival Cookie in a grudge match over a cookie contest that has been rigged in Cookie’s favour for years.  This satirizes the many movies that feature cookie baking contests including a “Cookie Cutter Christmas” or “A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe”.  In the musical, Cookie comes across as a sneering, Cruella de Ville lookalike with dark arched eyebrows who blackmails a crooked judge into voting for her annually. 

Cookie does get to sing a pair of great songs including the jazzy “Cookie Doesn’t Crumble” and another song where she lists a slew of different types of cookies (gingerbread, shortbread, thumbprint, etc.).  The tune and cadence of the song sounded so familiar and it took me a few minutes to realize that this was a homage to the song “Joseph’s Coat” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat which has the lyrics “It was red and yellow and green and Brown and blue”.  This is just one of multiple popular musical references or Easter eggs hidden throughout the show.  At the finale of one song, Cookie climbs onto a chair with arms spread and a green light shines on her, as if she is singing the last notes in “Defying Gravity” from Wicked.  Rich also thought he noticed quick dance poses that reminded him of Bob Fosse or the musical Chicago.

In midst of the whole cookie judging scandal, Matt’s moose Bruce got loose leading to a scene in the forest with flashlights as everyone is out looking for him while singing “A Moose Is Loose”.  While the song is said to be reminiscent of a Dr. Seuss musical, the choreography reminded me of mystery musicals like Curtains where characters are creeping around in the dark.  In another scene in the forest when Holly and Mark are trying to kiss, the introduction of singing and dancing Christmas trees changed the tone of the show away from a rom com, veering it more into more of a cartoonish affair.  I would have preferred if the plot stuck to parodying the Hallmark Christmas movies, but this is a minor nit.

From generalizing “Big City” and “Small Town” to playing on every Hallmark Christmas Movie Trope and then further exaggerating or even subverting it, this musical does an excellent job of skewering what is a guilty pleasure for many people each holiday season.  We left smiling, happy and wishing that a soundtrack would be released for the delightful songs.  Hopefully this show will tour and will return each Christmas season.