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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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