Theatre: Vanya, Sonia, Masha, Spike

Most of the titled characters of the comedy Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, by Christopher Durang, are named after characters in plays by 19th Century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, with "Spike" being the notable exception.  Vanya is obviously from the play Uncle Vanya, as is Sonia. The name Masha can be found in two plays, Three Sisters and The Seagull.  Durang also incorporates common Chekhovian themes such as frustrated hopes and disillusionment with life.

Vanya, Sonia and Masha are siblings in their 50s.  Like their namesakes, Vanya and Sonia feel that life has passed them by and that they have accomplished nothing in their boring existence, much of which was spent caring for their parents who are now deceased.  Sonia has the extra baggage and insecurity of being adopted and feeling that she is a bit of an outsider in the family.  Masha is a vain, self-absorbed fading actress who justifies not helping to take care of  her parents by frequently reminding her siblings that she is the one who pays all the bills, while they have never held a job.   After five failed marriages and a waning career, Masha tries to hold on to her youth by dating a much younger actor, the preening, ostentatious Spike, who looks for any opportunity to take his clothes off.  Rounding out the cast are Vanya and Sonia's clairvoyant maid Cassandra, who spouts dire warnings mostly ignored but sometimes correct, and the young ingenue and aspiring actress Nina (also a character in The Seagull), who is seen as a threat by Masha.

Durang weaves in many references to Chekhov's plays in addition to the siblings' names.  In describing her boring life, Sonia quotes "I'm in mourning for my life"  from the play The Seagull, and lampoons the poignant line "I'm the seagull", instead declaring hilariously "I'm a wild turkey"¹.  Masha laments missing out on performing a theatre role of the play Three Sisters by repeatedly quoting from it "Oh Olga, let's go to Moscow".  Nina affectionately calls Vanya "Uncle Vanya", and refers to her birthday as her "name day", much like they do in the play The Party.  Vanya is inspired to write an experimental play, like the character Konstantin does in The Seagull.

There are several discussions regarding whether the 8-10 cherry trees on the property constitute an orchard–a clear reference to Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard.  The action in Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike takes place in the siblings' childhood abode, which Masha has decided to sell, much to Vanya and Sonia's dismay.  With her acting roles and therefore her income drying up, Masha feels she can no longer afford the upkeep.  The need to dispose of the beloved family estate is a recurrent scenario in Chekhov's plays, stemming from his own personal trauma of losing his home due to his father's bankruptcy.

Despite all the Chekhov influences, Durang's play is totally different in tone.  While Durang mirrors and even acknowledges many of Chekhov's grim, depressing plots and themes, he plays them for laughs.  Sonia and Vanya's pathetic existences are reflected in their wardrobe (Birkenstock sandals and socks) and the fact that the highlight of Sonia's day is bringing Vanya his morning coffee.  When Sonia laments "I had bad dreams .. I dreamt that I was 52 and I wasn't married", Vanya retorts "Were you dreaming in documentary form?"¹  And when Vanya suggested Sonia take medication for her depression, she quips "If everyone took antidepressants, Chekhov would have had nothing to write about".¹

The humour is ramped up as the siblings bicker over which costumes they will wear to a masquerade party that Masha is invited to.  Masha wants to go as Snow White and insists that Spike be Prince Charming and the others dress up as dwarfs in support of her costume.  Sonia rebels and instead, dresses up as "the beautiful Evil Queen as played by Maggie Smith".  She then proceeds to spend the next several acts of the play doing a Maggie Smith impression.

The role of mystic soothsayer Cassandra is played entirely for laughs with her weird premonitions such as "Beware the middle of the month", "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts" and "Beware of Hootie Pie"¹, a mysterious prediction that becomes meaningful towards the end of the play.  In order to change Masha's mind about selling the house, Cassandra practices voodoo, sticking pins in a doll clad in a Snow White costume, which causes Masha to inexplicably shriek in pain.

Throughout the play, various characters look out the window in wait for the return of a blue heron who occasionally graces the pond.  The heron, which might be a symbol of hope or fulfillment, never actually appears during the play.  These interactions seem to channel "Waiting for Godot", who also never comes.

Vanya & Sonia & Masha and Spike played on Broadway starring David Hyde Pierce and Sigourney Weaver as Vanya and Masha.  It was nominated for six Tony awards in 2013, winning the top honour of Best Play that year.  The acting in the Canadian production is excellent, especially by the three lead actors.  Fiona Reid's portrayal of Sonia's incessant whining could have been annoying, but instead comes across as pathetically endearing, so that we feel for her at the same time that we are laughing at her. Jennifer Dale perfectly conveys the vulnerability and self-doubt behind Masha's veneer of arrogance and narcissism.  Steven Sutcliffe, as Vanya, delivers an incredible monologue/diatribe that goes on interminably for about 5 minutes, spouting his fear of change (be it in climate, technology, or social mores).  Instead of sending texts or emails, he longs for the days when "WE USED TO LICK POSTAGE STAMPS".¹


Durang has written a funny, intellectual play that can be appreciated at face value, but reaches another level when all the Chekhov references are recognized.


¹Quotes from Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike by Christopher Durang

Theatre: Bare - A Pop Opera

It is always exciting to watch an obscure musical for the first time, especially when it has beautiful music and a strong storyline that is advanced through song instead of speech.  The 2004 off-Broadway musical Bare: A Pop Opera fits all of these criteria, especially the last one, since a "pop opera" by definition has sing-through dialogue based on rock or pop melodies, in the vein of the musical Rent.  You can listen to the music here on YouTube.

** Photo by Joan Marcus

Bare is about group of students in their last year at a Catholic boarding school, dealing with issues of identity and acceptance within the confines of their strict religious upbringing.  At the centre of the story is the tumultuous and forbidden love affair between Peter and Jason, two gay teenage roommates who struggle with the morality of their feelings in the eyes of the Church.  Peter is a sensitive, artsy student who wants the couple to come out of the closet, while top student and valedictorian Jason wants to stay behind the shield of his Letterman jacket and sports jock persona.  In order to maintain the façade, Jason succumbs to the advances of Ivy, causing jealousy in Matt, who always plays second fiddle to Jason, both in school rankings and now in the quest for Ivy's affections.  Meanwhile, Jason's overweight sister Nadine hides her feelings of insecurity and rejection behind a tough, sarcastic demeanor, with most of her snide remarks directed at Ivy, who she perceives as the promiscuous beauty who has everything handed to her because of her looks.

It is heartbreaking to listen to some of the songs, as you can feel the angst and pain of the characters through both the melody and the lyrics.  Peter laments about how he feels when Jason wants to hide their feelings for each other–"The role of a lifetime, it’s living a fantasy...A war with such casualties, all played out behind a smiling face."¹ Nadia complains about the pretty girls getting everything while she is left behind, calling herself "Plain Jane fat ass; Hungry for love, she's a sensitive soul".¹  Ivy reveals her vulnerabilities in being judged just for her looks–"Portrait of a girl .. object of rumour .. sought after, trapped like a pearl". ¹ Hurt after being rejected by their respective objects of affection, Peter and Matt reach out to God, asking "Are you there? Do you watch me when I cry? And if it’s in your power, How can you sit idly by?"¹  And finally, tormented by guilt over his secret, Jason goes to Confession looking for absolution and is devastated by the Church's immoveable stance against homosexuality–"I've tried to be strong, I've tried to belong; But I don't, or I won't, I can't ... Am I Ok?"¹

One of the most effective songs called "See Me" revolves around a phone call where Peter tries to tell his mother that he is gay, while she continually cuts him off with trivial chitchat so as not to hear the truth–"Don’t hang up; this took such courage; I’m dying here, I’m all alone; I know you know what I’m saying; Just let me tell you"¹

Part of the plot involves the students auditioning and rehearsing for the school play, Romeo and Juliet.  In several songs, the lyrics are actually famous excerpts of that play, including the balcony scene, the pilgrims' hands speech when the lovers first meet, and the Queen Mab speech.  Setting Shakespeare's verses to music added an interesting dynamic to the musical and this play in particular highlighted the parallels between the doomed relationship of the two sets of star-crossed lovers.

One thought-provoking element of Bare was the contrast between the reactions of the students versus the Church (as personified by the confessional priest) after learning about Peter and Jason's relationship.  The students are surprisingly accepting and nonchalant about the revelation, while the Church is unyielding and unsympathetic, spouting doctrine about morality and sin.  In general, the kids in this school don't show much reverence towards the Church, as illustrated by the song Confession–"We're doing time in confession; It's a sacrament of oppression; We have no need for forgiveness; Because our shit's none of his business"¹  There might be some personal opinions of the composers being represented here.

Bare: A Pop Opera only ran for 6 weeks off-Broadway in 2004.  It has since been remounted multiple times across North America in both professional and semi-pro productions, including a recent version by University of Toronto theatre troop Woodsworth Performing Arts Collective (Wolfpac), which we had the pleasure of watching.

The group of talented young actors gave good singing and acting performances, but they were betrayed by substandard sound system and miking equipment.  The volume of their voices faded in and out and it was difficult to hear the ones with the weaker voices that could not project through the theatre.  On several occasions, the volume on the mikes was turned up too much, resulting in grating feedback noise.  The stand-outs in the cast were the actresses who played Ivy and Nadia. They were by far the best singers and actors, and we had no problems hearing them speak or sing.  Execution of the choreography needed a bit of work, as there were a few times when members of the chorus missed their marks and bumped into each other while moving around the stage.  Given that we watched the first show of the run, hopefully they were able to work out these issues.

All in all, I enjoyed watching this show since I loved the songs and story and appreciated the staging and choreography.  I would really like to watch a professional mounting of Bare: A Pop Opera some time, where the performers would have proper technical support.  In 2012, the show was revamped  as a book musical (with more speaking parts and less dialogue through song) and 
renamed Bare: The Musical.  The story was updated to reflect more current societal views towards the LGBT population and bullying.  I would love to have the chance to watch this version as well.

¹Lyrics from Bare: The Pop Opera by Jon Hartmere & Damon Intrabartolo

Theatre: Spoon River

It was a weird coincidence that our last two theatre excursions were each inspired by early 1900s poetry, using lines of verse verbatim from their source poems. The musical Wild Party was based on a 1924 book poem of the same name, while the music-infused play Spoon River was developed around the 1915 book of poetry called "Spoon River Anthology" by Edgar Lee Masters. 

Spoon River Anthology was written as a series of short, rhyme-less poems of approximately 10-20 lines, each one representing the epitaph of a past resident from the fictional town of Spoon River.  Masters based many of the characters on people that he either knew or had heard of, from his two home towns of Petersburg and Lewistown, Illinois.  Each poem was named after the deceased, and was written in the first person, as if spoken from the grave directly by that person.  Occasionally, several epitaphs may be linked by previous living relationships, such as husband and wife, mother and son, master and servant, so that you don't get the whole story until you hear them both.  The verses could describe how a person died (murder, suicide, war, illness, accident), or the circumstances of his life, or might just make some general observation about living in rural, small town America at the turn of the 20th Century.  Some anecdotes were humorous while others were heartbreaking .

"Judge Somers - How does it happen .. that I who was the most erudite of lawyers ... lie here unmarked, forgotten, while Chase Henry, the town drunkard has a marble block .."¹

"Amanda Barker - Henry got me with child, knowing that I could not bring forth life without losing my own ..."¹

The performance of this original Soulpepper production of Spoon River begins the minute you enter the darkened pathway of the Young Theatre.  First you walk by a wall lined with black and white period photos, presumably of the characters who will present their stories.  Next you come across a sign declaring that the "Funeral of Bertie Hume" is about to take place, and just before entering the seating area, you see a wood casket with the actress playing Bertie lying peacefully inside it.  Tombstones line the path, while pallbearers dressed in black topcoats guide your way.  Once seated, as you look upon the semi-transparent backdrop of the tree-lined stage with a brightly lit full moon, you see shadowy images of other audience members walking through the forest.  The illusion is amazing since they look like unearthly spirits floating by.

Spoon River selects a subset of the over 200 epitaphs from the anthology and delivers them through speech or song and dance, as a series of declarations from the ghostly occupants of a cemetery atop a hill, who rise to greet the newly deceased Bertie Hume after her outdoor funeral.  This is not a musical in the traditional sense, but rather a play with musical numbers interspersed.  The songs feature foot-stomping bluegrass and hillbilly music, with a wide range of instruments including the banjo, violin, ukelele, acoustic guitars, bass, piano, autoharp, trombone, trumpet and drums.

The first song corresponds to the first introductory poem in the anthology, setting to music the words of "The Hill": "We are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charles; The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter .. We are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie and Edith; The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one ... all, are asleep on the hill ..."¹

Some of the vignettes use innovative staging techniques that are so simple and yet so visually powerful.  One comic series of theme-linked poems feature spousal pairs standing in front of wooden planks that represent the backs of their coffins.  Spotlights focus on the husband and wife as they each tell their side of their joint story.  When they are done, there is a fade to black and when the lights go on again, a new pair is standing there.

You have Tom Merritt who was shot to death by his wife's 19-year-old lover who "aimed and fired at my heart"¹, while Mrs. Merritt (note that she doesn't even warrant a first name!) was sentenced to 30 years and died in prison–"And the iron gates of Joliet swing as the gray and silent trusties carried me out in a coffin."¹

Ollie McGee who moans that "my husband .. robbed my youth and my beauty ... in death .. I am avenged"¹, followed by Fletcher McGee lamenting "she died and haunted me and hunted me for life."¹  Throughout this counterpoint, Ollie wears a ghostly white sheet over her head, which she occasionally lifts to display a ghoulish grin.

And then there is the marital discord between Benjamin Pantier and Mrs. Benjamin Pantier (again no first name!).  She "drove him away from home to live with his dog in a dingy room back of his office"¹.  He stands there cradling his beloved dog Nig in a swaddling cloth like a baby, describing Nig as his "constant companion, solace and friend .. partner, bed-fellow; comrade in drink."¹

Another example of inspired staging involves the creative uses of a wooden ladder.  In a scene about arsonist Silas Dement, the ladder is propped up against another actor as Silas climbs upward to gain access to the place he wants to torch.  Next the ladder is placed on the ground and a group of firemen "climb" it to reach the fire.  In another scene, the ladder is placed in front of a convict and the rungs of the ladder become his prison bars.

The best use of the ladder occurs during the eerie and hauntingly beautiful song sung by Mrs. Sibbley, who commits suicide by stepping in front of a train.  As she stands on the "railway tracks", she sings of "My secret: under a mound that you shall never find".¹  The mood and tension is ratcheted by the lighting and sound effects of the oncoming locomotive.  At the point of impact, which corresponds to the crescendo of her aria, red rose petals fall from the ceiling, symbolizing the splatter of her blood.  The entire scene was breathtaking!

One of the funniest epitaphs is by A.D.Blood, strict and moralistic past mayor who complains "If you think my work is good, who closed saloons and stopped all playing at cards, why do you let the miller's daughter and worthless son of Benjamin Pantier nightly make my grave their unholy pillow?"¹  Edgar Masters had a great sense of humour!

Spoon River begins with Bertie Hume's covered coffin being carried in by the pallbearers and set onto the stage. At first you wonder if the body you saw while entering the theatre is actually in the coffin.  But as the show goes on without her appearance, while the various characters dance, stomp, kick and play drums on the coffin, you think she can't possibly be in there.  But then at the end of the show, the coffin finally opens and Bertie emerges (probably from a trap door leading under the stage) to sing her song about needing to live life to the fullest while you can.

This was a very unique but entertaining show, taken from a very unusual and interesting set of poems.  After watching so much theatre, it is wonderful to stumble on something truly different and innovative.

¹ Quotes from Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters

Theatre: Wild Party - Lachiusa vs Lippa

Wild Party is a book-length classic narrative poem written by Joseph Moncure March in 1928 that was meant to be a "dark Prohibition-era morality fable".  It tells the story of vaudevillian performers and lovers Queenie, the dancer and Burrs, the clown, who have a volatile and abusive relationship.  As a way to make up after a violent fight, they decide to throw a party for all of their friends, with Queenie harboring the additional secret agenda of trying to stick it to Burrs by finding someone to flirt with.  The party turns into an orgy filled with gin, cocaine and both gay and straight sex and even an incestuous brother pairing.  Trouble brews when Queenie meets and develops a deep connection with the mysterious Mr. Black, leading to an explosively climatic conclusion (pun intended).

Even for the roaring 20s, this poem was quite scandalous and the book was widely banned.  Interest in Wild Party was not revived until 1994, when graphic novelist and cartoonist Art Spiegelmen (who won the Pulitzer prize for Maus) created the illustrations for a new publishing with the subtitle "The Lost Classic".

Suddenly, Wild Party was popular again, and resulted in two musical adaptions being produced in the same 1999-2000 theatre season.  Wild Party by Michael Lachiusa had a brief 68 show run on Broadway and starred Mandy Patinkin (Saul on Homeland) and Toni Collette (the mother in Sixth Sense and About A Boy - who knew she could sing?!?) as Burrs and Queenie.  The second Wild Party by Andrew Lippa ran for 54 productions off-Broadway, featuring Idina Menzel (Wicked, Frozen) and Tayne Diggs (Rent, Private Practice) as party guests Kate and Mr. Black who form a tragic love quadrangle with Queenie and Burrs.  Had Lippa's version made it to Broadway as intended, there would have been a chance for two musicals with the same name, based on the same source, to be nominated for a Tony award in the same year.  Sadly, this did not come to pass.

Having bought the soundtrack for Andrew Lippa's version of Wild Party many years ago, I love those songs and know them by heart.  Learning that The Wild Party would be playing at the Canadian Stage Berkley Theatre, I immediately assumed it was the version I was familiar with, and I was excited that I could finally see the songs performed live. Instead, it turned out that this was the Lachiusa version of the musical–the one that I knew nothing about.  After watching this version, I am now able to compare and contrast the two Wild Party musicals.

Both productions start with the same-titled first song and the identical initial lines of lyrics, taken verbatim from the first lines of the poem–"Queenie was a blonde and her age stood still, and she danced twice a day in vaudeville...".  But that is where the similarities end.  Although based on the same source poem, these two musicals are very different both in plot emphasis and musical style.  The differences are easy to spot by examining the first song of each show.  Lippa's version of Queenie Was A Blonde has a smooth, sultry cool jazz feel, featuring muted trumpets, saxophones and piano as the primary instruments.  Lachiusa's version is highlighted by blaring horns and brass, giving it a swing jazz or big band feel that is more representative of the era in which the story takes place.

On the whole, I much prefer  Lippa's Wild Party, since the tunes are more hummable, memorable and accessible.  His storyline is more intimate, focusing mainly on the tensions of the four main characters of Queenie, Burrs, Kate and Black, with the rest of the party guests acting merely as peripheral fillers.  In this respect, the plot is probably a bit closer to the poem than in the Lachiusa version.  In general, the music in the Andrew Lippa version sounds more modern and typical of contemporary Broadway fare.  Ballads and torch songs such as Poor Child, Maybe I Like It This Way, and What Is It About Her flesh out the motivations and relationships of the foursome, allowing you to become more invested in their plight.

By contrast, many of the Lachiusa songs seem like they are disparate acts or sketches pulled right out of a 1920s vaudeville show, in the spirit of Al Jolson or Eddie Cantor.  Despite being less melodic for my tastes, this music is definitely more authentic to the times.  Expanding on the poem, the plot is also more substantial, exploring deeper, serious themes such as racism, antisemitism, and violence against women.  Each of the party guests has a distinct story arc and is given multiple songs to further explore or develop his or her character.

Eddie is a formerly successful black boxer known as "The Champ" who has a white wife named Mae.  In their first song Eddie and Mae, the couple seem like the picture of wedded bliss.  But as the party progresses and Eddie flirts with other women, the strains of the relationship emerge.  Eddie feels he gave up boxing for Mae, while Mae gave up dancing in vaudeville for Eddie.  Although he is called "The Champ", he still experiences racism as shown in the lyrics of the song When Golden Boy Goes Down–"You're the pride of your race; Hey wait, use the back door; remember your place.  You can look at the white girls, sure;  But Champ, don’t you touch."

Oscar and Phil are performing brothers who also seem to be incestuous lovers!  Their bond is tested by the lecherous Jackie, who has the hots for anyone and everyone at the party, and is termed "ambisextrous" both in the poem and in the lyrics of his introduction song Breezing Though Another Day.  Jackie seduces Oscar, then later, while high on cocaine, tries to rape Nadine, the young sister of Mae.  Nadine starts the party as a young innocent who dreams of being on Broadway, but is corrupted by Jackie and ends up snorting cocaine before he attacks her.

Lesbian Madeline has brought her new conquest, drugged-up morphine addicted Sally to the party and is desperate for Sally to love her.  Sally spends most of the party in a catatonic state, but eventually awakens and in the song After Midnight Dies, she clearly sees all the revelers as they really are–"Down goes the wall; Down goes the guard; After midnight dies, it ain’t so hard to see the truth.  No need for lies.  What we are is all we are"

Delores is a faded vaudeville star who longs to reclaim past her past glories.  In that pursuit, she seduces a pair of Jewish theatre producers, Gold and Goldberg, hoping they will include her in their plans to move "Uptown" to Broadway.  Last to arrive are Queenie's best friend Kate, and her escort/gigolo Mr. Black.  While Kate makes the moves on Burrs, Black is immediately drawn to and falls in love with Queenie, sparking the main conflict to come.

One prevalent theme, that is illustrated by the behaviours of multiple characters, is the concept of hidden identities.  The song Gold and Goldberg deals primarily with the theatre producers arguing over whether they should hide their Jewishness by changing the name "Goldberg" to "Golden".  While most productions take the line "Queenie was a blonde..." literally and cast a Jean Harlow/Marilyn Monroe-like blond bombshell, Michael Lachiusa interpreted a later line in the poem stanza to mean that Queenie was actually black, but trying to hide that fact since "Her face was a tinted mask of snow".   At the end of the show, she finally removes her makeup and reveals her true self.  Lachiusa was originally going to cast African-American actress Vanessa Williams in the part, but recast with blonde Toni Collette when Williams became pregnant.  And finally, Burrs performs his clown act in black face, putting it on almost like
warrior paint.

** Photos byRacheal McCaig Photography

The Canadian Stage production of Wild Party resurrects Lachiusa's original concept of making Queenie a lighted-skinned mulatto (played by Cara Ricketts from Book of Negroes) but ups the ante by also casting a black actor, Daren A. Herbert, for the role of Burrs.  This led to the interesting proposition of having a black man wear black-face makeup, something that actually happened in vaudeville and minstrel shows in this period of history.  An interesting article in the Globe and Mail describes this practice as using a "clownish caricature" to accentuate blackness.  Herbert in particular is magnificent in his portrayal of the "sad clown" with a violent streak who struggles during the entire party to keep his emotions in check, until they explode at the end.  Herbert plays the role with enough pathos that you actually feel sorry for Burrs despite his volatile and destructive nature.

This CanStage production made choices for set and staging that take full advantage of the large floor space, fire escape staircase, upper balcony and even the aisles of the Berkeley Theatre to move the party goers around, allowing them to congregate or find private moments as required.  The dimly lit set had a smokey, grimy feel that was befitting of the debauchery that evolved over two-hour intermission-less show.

Of particular interest were the stage directions for the "secondary characters" who stayed onstage in the background while a main scene of dialogue or song was being performed.  While the spotlight shone on the main scene, demanding your attention, you could not help but glance around and notice various couples in the background making out, doing drugs, having an argument or even stripping nude and climbing into the bathtub–you definitely did not want to miss that action!  These secondary scenes were both fascinating and distracting at the same time.  In the Q&A session following the performance, the actors indicated that while it was scripted in general where they should be and who they were interacting with, much of what was actually happening in the background was improvised and changed from night to night.

In the end, while I still prefer the music of the Andrew Lippa version of Wild Party, I have come to appreciate the depth, complexity and period authenticity of the Michael Lachiusa version.

Theatre: Blithe Spirit

Noel Coward's classic 1941 play Blithe Spirit opens with author Charles Condomine and his second wife Ruth inviting a medium, Madam Arcati, to hold a seance, with Charles hoping to use the experience as research for his next book.  Madam Arcati unwittingly brings back the spirit of Charles' first wife Elvira, who died 7 years ago from a heart attack after "laughing too hard at a BBC series".  Hijinks ensue as Ruth tries to get rid of her ghostly rival while Elvira tries to kill her beloved Charles so that he can reunite with her in the spirit world.  Elvira's efforts backfire as she accidentally kills Ruth instead, and now poor Charles is haunted by ghosts of both wives.

We had already attended a performance of Blithe Spirit years ago at the Shaw Festival, so the main attraction of watching it again was the chance to see Angela Lansbury in her 2009 Tony Award winning role of Madame Arcati–and she does not disappoint!   Lansbury, who will be 90 this year, handles her many lines of dialogue with aplomb  and attacks the physically challenging role with an impressive amount of vim and vigour.  She delivers a hilarious performance as the medium who goes into trances during the seances, twitching and gesturing as if she was doing an Egyptian dance.  With her auburn wig and flamboyant clothes, Lansbury seems years younger than she actually is.  Considering that she performs six nights per week, one can only hope to have her stamina and energy at that age.

Adding a bit of extra excitement for Downton Abbey fans was the presence of actor Charles Edwards, who starred as Lady Edith's missing lover on the hit TV show.  Now we know where Michael Gregson went!  He's playing his namesake Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit.

The set for this production had some intricate special effects that caused a table to shake and rattle during the seance, and the manor home to be torn apart by unseen ghosts towards the end of the play. 

Blithe Spirit is a fun play in its own right, made all the more special by the presence of Angela Lansbury.  It is interesting that Lansbury won the Tony for Best Featured (or supporting) Actress, but in this Mirvish production, she is billed and heavily hyped as the star of the show, receiving a loud round of applause when she first appeared on stage.  I guess this is fitting since it definitely would have been disappointing to attend the show and find an understudy in that role.  It was clear that Lansbury was the main reason to watch this production for much of the audience.

Theatre: Five Presidents

 

We love live theatre so much that we always look for opportunities to watch a play or musical while we are traveling.  Recently on a quick trip to Phoenix, Arizona to escape the cold, we were lucky enough to catch a performance of the play Five Presidents.  Created by Rick Cleveland, whose writing credits include the politically-based television hits "The West Wing" and "House of Cards", Five Presidents imagines what might have been discussed at the real-life event of Richard Nixon's 1994 funeral, which the five surviving past and present Presidents of the United States congregated to attend.

The play takes place in a conference room where Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush and Bill Clinton arrive one by one (in chronological order of presidency) to await the start of the funeral.  A secret service agent announces the approach of each president, possibly to clarify for the audience which one he is.  The perfect casting makes this unnecessary since the stature, makeup, accent and manner of speech of each actor helps him to fully embody his respective role.  From Bush's large oversized glasses to Carter's relatively diminutive height and tale-tell grin to lanky Reagan's jar of jelly beans, each man was easily identifiable.

The five engage in pleasantries and light banter, while occasionally allowing past grudges and differences to arise.  Carter still resents Reagan's tactics in delaying the release of the Iran hostages until after Reagan's election and is annoyed with Clinton for not choosing him for an important diplomatic mission.  Bush simmers over losing his second term election to Clinton and blames Ross Perot for splitting the Republican vote.  Ford thought the offer to be Reagan's Vice President was a step back after already being President in his own right.  Each President is called out for making questionable military decisions that led to the deaths of American soldiers or civilians, and each is remorsefully able to quote exactly how many people died under his watch.

Despite their disagreements, they all realize that they are part of a very unique and exclusive "President's Club" who need to support each other.  Only those who have held their position can understand the stresses that they endured.  They are all annoyed at Nixon, since his downfall has changed the political landscape for the presidents that followed him.  The reverence once held for the presidency has diminished and public scrutiny has increased.  But none of them can say that they don't have their own political demons to face.

This mutual support is especially highlighted by the protective nature with which each of the other presidents try to guard the dignity of Ronald Reagan, who is suffering from the early stages of dementia.  Despite his occasionally confused ramblings, they treat him with a respect and tenderness that was sweet to watch.  The presidents also bonded over their shared experiences of having survived assassination attempts.  Ford described with incredulity that he was actually trying to shake the hand of his assassin when he was shot.  Reagan said that he didn't even realize that he had been shot.

The main dramatic impetus of Five Presidents revolves around Gerald Ford's refusal to deliver the eulogy for Richard Nixon, despite being listed on the program to do so.  Still stinging from the public outrage at his pardoning of Nixon, Ford did not want his eulogy to be interpreted as condoning the disgraced ex-president once again.  Each of the other presidents try to talk Ford into reconsidering and delivering the eulogy, except for Reagan, who offers to make the speech himself.  The others try to talk him out of it without revealing their fear that he will embarrass himself in his diminished capacities.

There are moments of humour in the play, as well as some foreshadowing of future events that have come to pass.  Clinton discusses a time when he and Hilary stopped at a gas station and came across her old boyfriend.  He said "You could have been married to a gas station attendant", to which she replied "No, I would have been married to the President of the United States", implying that she was the power behind the man–any man!  There were also thinly veiled allusions to the Monica Lewinsky affair in Clinton's future. George H. Bush threw in a few jabs at his own son, George W.  Gerald Ford spent most of the play trying not to drink alcohol, quipping that it was difficult to be an alcoholic when your wife has a substance abuse treatment center named after her.  There was also mention of the fact that in 1968 (true story), Senator Robert Kennedy predicted that in 40 years, there would be a black President.  Prescient almost to the day, Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2009.

One of the most poignant moments of the play was also based on fact.  Gerard Ford justified his pardoning of Richard Nixon by carrying around "a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision which stated that a pardon indicated a presumption of guilt, and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a confession of that guilt."  He felt that instead of a lengthy trial, the pardon was a faster way to end the national tragedy of Watergate and start the healing process for the country.

The amount of historical information conveyed throughout this play is astounding and is testament to the intensive research performed by Rick Cleveland in writing it.  Cleveland has created a humorous yet touching account of what might have taken place at such a momentous event, injecting dialogue that is entertaining and yet so totally plausible that it is difficult to discern which details he made up and which ones were based on fact.

Although being Canadian and only having cursory previous knowledge about these five men, I still thoroughly enjoyed this play.  So I could only imagine how much greater appreciation Americans would have for it.  At one point, after a rousing speech by the Reagan character, a voice behind us whispered, "You tell them, Gipper!"

AGO: Art Spiegelman Co-Mix: A Retrospective

My first exposure to the work of Art Spiegelman coincided with my introduction to the graphic novel.  This was fitting since Art's Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece Maus revolutionized the graphic novel industry and brought it into the mainstream.  Maus chronicles the experiences of Spiegelman's parents Vladek and Anja, who were imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camps during the Holocaust.  The Jewish population are depicted as mice (Maus means mouse in German), the Nazis as predatory cats, the French as frogs, the Americans as dogs and the Polish as pigs.  I found that the use of the animated art form and animal allegories desensitized the topic enough to make such a heartbreaking and traumatic tale bearable to digest.

Maus is definitely the highlight of the Art Gallery of Ontario's exhibition "Art Spiegelman Co-Mix: A Retrospective", with a huge section displaying sketches, studies and rare pages from the original manuscripts.  But, as the title denotes, this show is about much more than just Maus.  The show includes samples of Spiegelman's works throughout his career, ranging from his early days designing trading cards, to his roles as cartoonist or editor of various comic strips and magazines in the alternative underground comix movement, to contributing artist for the New Yorker magazine, and illustrator for various books. A play on words on the traditional term "comics", "comix" started as an alternative comic book movement in the 60s.  It typically has darker, adult or social-political themes and images, where the "x" in comix stands for "x-rated".

Examples of Spiegelman's cartoonist works in Underground Comix movement included early comic strips like "Mister Infinity" and "The Viper Vicar of Vice, Villainy and Vickedness". Also on display were sample editions of the two main comics anthologies for which he was editor and contributor–Arcade and Raw.  There were also works by or in collaboration with his wife Françoise Mouly.

 

Years before working on his opus Maus, Art Spiegelman first used his drawings as an outlet to excise his personal demons.  His series called "Prisoner on the Hell Planet - A Case History" depicted his memories and feelings about the events leading up to and the aftermath of his mother's suicide when he was 20.

Early on in his career, Spiegelman worked on some lighter fare that displayed his wicked sense of humour.  Just out of college in the late 1960s, he became creative consultant for the company Topps, designing a series of trading cards spoofing well-known brands with punny product names and satirical slogans.  Called "Wacky Packages", it included "Rice-A-Phoni"–fake rice that "lasts forever and can be used over and over again", "Gyppy Pop Popcorn"–"No flavour; Pops right in the package and all over the house", "NEVEREADY Batteries"–"Keeps you in the dark", and "BotchTape"–"Stickiest stuff in town".

A few decades later, cashing in on the hype over the Cabbage Patch Doll, Spiegelman created a new set of trading cards called Garbage Pail Kids.  Invoking and then subverting the cute puffy faces of the Cabbage Patch Dolls, his renditions included "Run Down Rhoda", "Frigid Bridget", "Sy Clops" (pun intended), "Leaky Lindsay" and "Phony Lisa" (the Mona Lisa being probably one of the most iconically spoofed images out there).

From 1992 through 2001, Spiegelman's artwork graced the covers of the New Yorker magazine, often embedding subtle social commentary in his satirical drawings.  His most poignant and well-known cover is probably the black on black rendering of the Twin Towers that he offered as a reaction after 9-11.  His wife Françoise Mouly, who was the art editor at the time, was quoted as saying "The only appropriate solution seemed to be to publish no cover image at all—an all-black cover. Then Art suggested adding the outlines of the two towers, black on black ... a perfect image, which conveyed something about the unbearable loss of life, the sudden absence in our skyline, the abrupt tear in the fabric of reality.”
 

One of my favourite sections of the AGO exhibition revealed Art Spiegelman's influences as an artist.  To explain the debt he owed to Peanuts creator Charles Shulz, Spiegelman created comic "essays", inserting his own iconic mouse into classic Peanuts situations such as typing atop of Snoopy's dog house or waiting at Lucy's analysis booth.  In these essays, Spiegelman notes that "Peanuts was about nothing before Jerry Seinfeld was even born", that Schulz was "more of a philosopher than a journalist", and  "If art that's beloved could bring immortality, the artist like his alter ego would never kick the bucket" (or football, as the case may be).

In the mid 1990s, Spiegelman wrote and illustrated a children's book called "Open Me - I'm a Dog" that encourages its young readers to "pet" it.  He also provided stunning woodcut-like illustrations for a reprint of the classic 1920s narrative poem "Wild Party" by Joseph Moncure March.   This was especially exciting for me to see since I was quite familiar with the 1999 musical "Wild Party" by Andrew Lippa, whose first song was titled and started with the lyrics "Queenie was a Blond ...".  These words were taken verbatim from the beginning of the poem.  We will be watching the musical Wild Party at CanStage in a few weeks.  To prepare for this, I bought a copy of the Art Spiegelman illustrated book and read the text of entire poem.  Spiegelman's drawings really brought the characters of the poem to life.

The AGO exhibit did an excellent job of showing the range and diversity of Art Spiegelman's body of work.  I went in only knowing about Maus, but came out with such a better understanding and admiration of Spielgelman's complete oeuvre.

Theatre: The Heart of Robin Hood

The Heart of Robin Hood is a rollickingly entertaining production based on the traditional Robin Hood lore, but with some clever twists.  It features everything from adventure, romance, comedy, well-choreographed fights, acrobatics, aerial gymnastics using ropes and pulleys, swashbuckling sword battles and lively music provided by the on-stage bluegrass indie band Parsonsfield, who are incorporated as peripheral characters in the show.

Instead of the well-known tale of the altruistic Sherwood Forest outlaw who robs from the rich and gives to the poor, playwright David Farr reverts back to the original 15th Century ballad-poem where Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men rob the wealthy and keep the spoils for themselves.  In this play, Robin Hood starts out as a common ruffian and thief who only cares about self gain and forbids his men from interacting with women.  Of course, this all changes by the end of the show, when the heart of Robin Hood is captured by the love of his life.  The trio of "Merry Men" provide comic relief and seem like they stepped straight out of the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou".  Traditionally the character named "Little" John is ironically played by a large man.  In this version, Little John is actually befittingly miniscule in stature, in another clever deviation.

Maid Marion gets a modern-day empowered feminist spin, which seems to be the new standard for fairytale heroines these days (think of Disney princess Merida in Brave, Rapunzel in Tangled or M.K. in Epic).  In The Heart of Robin Hood, Marion, the eldest daughter of the Duke of York, is a good-hearted, feisty and courageous noblewoman who can hold her own in a sword fight.  Rather than submit to an arranged marriage to Prince John for political purposes, Marion runs away to Sherwood Forest with her manservant Pierre and tries to join Robin Hood's gang.  When he rebuffs her, she disguises herself as Martin and together with Pierre (now Peter), forms a rival gang who actually do rob from the rich to help the poor.  To further drive home the point of the role-reversal, it is Martin who wears the traditional green costume that has been portrayed in countless retellings of Robin Hood including the one where he is a cartoon fox.

 

Prince John is still the throne-usurping, evil protagonist of this story and stays pretty much true to form.  I guess there is only so much you can do with this archetype of the villain.  A character added for comic relief and to act as a foil for Marion is her vain, man-hungry sister Alice, who cannot marry until her elder sister does.  We drew distinct parallels between the relationship of Marion and Alice to the dynamics of Kate and her sister in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.

The fight scenes, with Prince John's henchmen taking on Robin and the Merry Men, are boisterous and well choreographed, and often involve the added comedy of Little John jumping on the back of his much larger adversary.  But the best duel is the sword battle between Robin and "Martin", which involves the action-movie trope that has Robin arching his back as Martin's sword passes across his face–accentuated by spot-lighting and mood music as the parry is completed in slow-motion.

The set design for Sherwood Forest is stunning and includes a steep, 12 meter high slope on which the athletic actors scamper up and slide down.  Trap doors descend from the slope in various configurations, forming platforms that represented the manor home of the Duke of York, Marion and Alice, as well as the cross of the chapel where Marion goes to pray.  On multiple occasions, various characters including Marion would perform somersaults or back flips to descend from or ascend onto these platforms.  At the front of the stage is a small pond of actual water that various characters jump into, or emerge from, dripping wet.  It makes one wonder, how did the actors access the pond from underneath the stage?

We are used to shows that break the proverbial 4th wall, which actually happens when Alice speaks directly to the audience towards the end of the show.  The Heart of Robin Hood has incorporated a 5th and 6th "wall" with the cast taking to the air with aerial moves including climbing, swing and dangling upside down from ropes, as well as dropping below the stage through a trap door.  It is not surprising that this show is so acrobatic, considering its director Gisli Orn Gardarsson is the former gymnast who also directed Metamorphosis, featuring the man who turns into a fly and spends most of his time dangling from a wall or ceiling.

The Americana band Parsonsfield wrote and sang all the songs performed throughout the show, with the musical styles ranging from bluegrass to folk with influences from rock and roll.  They played an assortment of instruments including the mandolin, violin, banjo, guitar, saw, bass, pump organ, percussion, and more.  The 5-man group were treated as honorary "Merry Men", often dancing on stage and even sliding down the slope with their instruments in hand.  At one point, Robin Hood and his men proclaimed that they would all willingly march into danger to save Martin ... even the band, to which the band looked at each other nervously.  In two interesting scenes, instruments were used to represent animals, both audibly and visually.  In the first scenario, two band members playing trombones provided the illusion of a pair of jittery horses pulling a carriage through Sherwood Forest.  The trombones were played while raised into the air as the "horses" reared and "whinnied".  Later on, the squeals of a cello were used to simulate a wild boar, which was eventually killed and roasted on a spit.


The Heart of Robin Hood was so much fun that we plan see it again.  The first time, we watched it from our Mirvish subscription seats in the upper balcony of the Royal Alexandra Theatre.  Although it was a bit further back, it was actually a good vantage point for our first viewing, since we could see the entire stage including the trap door and pond that were at ground level, as well as the choreographed action and aerial work. The play is doing so well that it has been extended for another month before heading off to Broadway.  In a great marketing movie, Mirvish has offered subscribers the chance to watch the show again and buy tickets to any section of the theatre for only $49.  Our next seats will be in the centre orchestra level, 5 rows from the stage.  This time, we will be close enough to see the expressions on the actors faces, providing us with a different viewing experience.

Theatre: Venus in Fur

We went to see Venus in Fur not knowing what to expect, having only heard that it was an acclaimed "sex-comedy" that was brought back to the Canadian Stage Company for two consecutive seasons due to popular demand.  What we found was a complex, erotic, psychological play involving a cat and mouse power struggle whose "story-within a story-within a story" format had so many layers that it made our heads spin.
 

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See if you can follow this ... We watched the play Venus in Fur written by David Ives about a playwright/director who is holding auditions for a play adapted from the 1870 novella about sadomasochism and gender roles called Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, which also features a "story within a story" structure and was originally inspired by 16th Century paintings by Titian of the Goddess Venus wrapped in furs.

Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs begins with the framing story of a narrator describing a dream to his friend Severin, about the Goddess Venus wrapped in fur telling him that a woman's cruelty increases a man's desire for her.  Severin relays his own experiences of wanting to be dominated by a woman and explains how he was cured of this fetish. 

Like the narrator, Severin was fixated on a marble sculpture of the Goddess Venus wrapped in fur.  His obsession is transferred to the beautiful widow Wanda von Dunajew, who he sees as the Venus incarnate.  When she will not agree to marry him, he instead convinces her to sign a contract making him her slave. Reluctant at first, Wanda eventually comes to relish dominating and abusing Severin, treatment which he both loathes yet desires.  Severin reaches his breaking point when Wanda falls in love with another man and encourages her new lover to mistreat Severin as well.  This final humiliation cures Severin of his yearning for female subjugation.

The premise of Venus in Furs led to the coining of the term masochism and was likely inspired by Sacher-Masoch's own life.  According to Wikipedia, Sacher-Masoch also entered into a contractual agreement with his mistress Baroness Fanny Pistor, making him her slave for 6 months and dictating that Pistor wear furs while dispensing her cruelty.  Some years later, Sacher-Masoch's wife used the name Wanda von Dunajew from his novella as a pseudonym to publish her memoirs.

 

David Ives' Venus in Fur wraps a modern-day framing story around Sacher-Masoch's play, drawing parallels between the characters in each narrative.  Ives' play opens with director Thomas Novachek lamenting that none of the actresses that he auditioned were right for the role of Wanda von Dunajew (which Ives spells as Vanda von Dunayev) in his adaption of the play Venus in Fur (note the singular "fur", which Ives' felt sounded better than the plural).  Thomas is about to leave for the evening when in bursts the coincidentally named Vanda Jordan, whom he deems to be loud, crass, vulgar and completely wrong for the role.

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Despite his misgivings, Vanda harangues Novachek into letting her audition, with him reading the role of Severin.  To his amazement, she is perfect for the part.  When playing Vanda von Dunayev, she transforms into a refined, demure, 19th Century lady in voice, manner and disposition.  Curiously, she seems to knows every line of the play by heart and has brought the exact period costumes befitting the roles of Vanda and Severin.

While reciting their lines, Thomas and Vanda frequently break character to discuss and debate aspects of his adaptation.  The talented actress Carly Street switches between her roles as the two Vandas with rapid-fire dexterity. It was amazing to listen as she flipped back and forth from the silky-smooth, dulcet tones of Dunayev to the jarring, pointed voice of Jordan, sometimes in mid sentence.

At the start of the audition, as the director who can grant Vanda the job she so desperately craves, Thomas holds all the power.  But as Novachek becomes more and more enamoured by Jordan's pitch-perfect embodiment of Vanda von Dunayev, the balance of power begins to shift, to the point where she is threatening to leave and he is begging her to stay.  Gradually Vanda starts directing Thomas instead, and even convinces him to improvise a new opening scene where Venus comes to confront Severin, who defiantly rebuffs the Goddess.  This sets up the possibility that Vanda von Dunayev is actually Venus in disguise, coming back for revenge.

Jordan challenges and emasculates Novachek both personally and professionally.  When Thomas interrupts the audition several times with phone calls to placate his awaiting fiancee, Vanda implies that he is hen-pecked and belittles his "safe, bland" relationship. She accuses his adaptation (and also the source material) of being misogynistic, sadomasochistic pornography with elements of child abuse.  Through pure force of nature, Vanda eventually takes charge of the audition, convincing Novachek to switch roles.  By having Thomas play Dunayev, Vanda proves to him how his play is "degrading to women .. Just look at you.  Maiden in distress.  A mass of quivering feminine jelly."¹

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As Vanda's power and dominance reaches its peak, forcing Thomas into total submission, both he and the audience start to wonder who this woman actually is?  Suddenly, the prevalence of claps of thunder and flickering lights throughout the show takes on a new meaning.  And when Vanda pulls out a real fur stole from her bag, our suspicions are confirmed.

David Ives has written a fascinating play that succinctly captures the essence of the novella Venus in Furs, while wrapping it with a "meta-story" that acts as a contemporary mirror to Sacher-Masoch's work.  I found it particularly clever how Ives used a similar turn of phrase in both the inner and outer stories, drawing further parallel between them.  At one point, Severin calls Dunayev an individual, to which she replied "A man usually says that to a woman whose individuality he is about to undermine".¹  Later on, Thomas tells to Jordan that she is a "magnificent creature", which she rejoins with "A man usually says that to a woman whose magnificence he's about to undermine".¹

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The set for the one-act play is sparse with just a few pieces of furniture that seem dwarfed by the relatively large "stage" of the Berkley Theatre.  One of the main props is a velour chaise lounge that seems suggestive of the proverbial "casting couch"–that symbol of sexual power that directors typically hold over young ingenues.  In the Q&A session following the play, Carly Street conveyed the interesting fact that Venus started out as the Goddess of Fate and Judgement and it was only through time that she became known as the Goddess of Sex and Love... another example of the sexualization of a female entity.

 ¹ Quotes from David Ives' Venus in Fur
** Photos of the play Venus in Fur by David Hou - http://www.davidhou.com/ and courtesy of Canadian Stage 

Theatre: Kim's Convenience

It is every playwright or actor's dream to have his show from the Toronto Fringe Festival generate so much buzz that it attracts the attention of a major theatre company.  Toronto's own Ins Choi became one of the lucky few who actually made that wish come true.  His smash hit of the 2011 Fringe Festival, Kim's Convenience, a funny, heart-warming play about a Korean family running a convenience store in Regent Park, Toronto, was picked up by the Soulpepper theatre company for a professional run in 2012.  That production was so successful that Kim's Convenience returned to Soulpepper for a limited run in 2013 and then again in 2014.  It has been on a national tour across Canada with some talk of a US tour or possibly a TV show.  Ins Choi, who wrote and starred in this play, really has hit the jackpot.
 

As much as Kim's Convenience is about cultural and generational divides, at its core, it is about familial love and reconciliation.  Appa, the strong-willed, opinionated and traditionally Korean patriarch, tries to impart his experience and wisdom regarding running of the store to his second-generation Canadian daughter Janet.  He hopes to retire and pass his legacy to her, but she has no interest in accepting this torch.  The interactions between Appa, Janet and the various customers (all played by the same actor) that enter the store lead to some side-splitting moments of hilarity. Appa tries to teach Janet how to tell whether a customer will "steal or not steal" based on his appearance, shows off his martial arts skills when apprehending a shoplifter, and interferes with her love life when a potential suitor appears.  But through his gruff exterior and despite their arguments, you can feel the love between the two.
 

The tone changes from comedy to sentimentality in the latter part of the play which deals with the estranged son Jung, who has not spoken to Appa since he ran away years ago at age 16, but meets regularly with his mother Umma at a local Korean church.  Two scenes perfectly portray youthful hopes and vigor since worn down by the drudgery of life.  When Jung describes his school days as captain of the championship soccer team, his voice brims with pride and excitement.  But then reality sets in as he reflects on his current situation as a new father with a deadbeat job that barely makes ends meet.  A flashback scene shows Appa and Umma discussing what to name their newly purchased convenience store.  When Appa's reasonable choices such as Kim's Family Grocery are already taken by other Korean grocers elsewhere in Toronto, he comes up with amusing variations such as Kim Hortons instead of Tim Hortons, or Kim's Cheese instead of Mac's Milk.  During the flashback, the couple's faces were bright and shiny with optimism.  Once the memory was over, their expressions changed on a dime to show the weariness brought on by time taking its toll.

We first watched Kim's Convenience when it played in the 2011 Fringe Festival and were curious as to what changes would be made in the Soulpepper production.  Through the various iterations of the show in Toronto and across Canada, most of the 5 member cast have rotated in and out, except for Paul Lee who plays Appa.  He is so iconic in this role that it is inconceivable to imagine anyone else playing it.

During the post-show question and answer period, I asked how the show had changed since the Fringe days.  In terms of storyline, the script had pretty much remained intact, other than to add current social references such as Facebook.  The one exception was the addition of an extremely poignant and moving monologue.  Appa tells Janet that despite his prejudices, he does not mind if she dates a black policeman, who is an old friend of Jung's.  To explain why, he tells the story of his Korean grocer friend in Los Angeles who frequently loaned money to his black customers who needed help.  During the Rodney King riots, a crowd of black people descended upon his store and he thought he was about to be vandalized.  Instead, it was his customers who joined hands to form a human chain to protect his store.  This was such a beautifully written speech that it brought tears to my eyes (for not the only time while watching this play).

The other major upgrade from the Fringe show was the relatively elaborate set.  The convenience store was well stocked with actual products and had an actual swinging door with a bell.  This was all simulated in the Fringe show.  Through the magic of lighting, a separate section at the side of the stage was illuminated to reveal stained glass windows representing the church where Jung and Umma meet.  The actress currently playing the role of Umma is in fact Chinese and had to learn the brief snippets of untranslated Korean dialogue phonetically with the help of a dialogue coach.  She also described the process of learning how a traditional Korean woman would act in expressing anger, disappointment or weariness.

Ins Choi was told to write about what he knew, which included working in his parent's convenience store, the Korean church scene and downtown Toronto. He wrote Kim's Convenience both as a tribute to his parents and as a "love letter" to Toronto.  The play is filled with references to Toronto streets, shops and restaurants.  When asked whether the names of places changed when the show was on tour, the answer was an emphatic "No".  Toronto is an integral character in this play.

Kim's Convenience is so popular because it resonates with all people regardless of race.  The cast and crew talk about how often audience members come up to them and say "This is my story".

Theatre: Curtains

Feeding my life-long love of musical theatre, I have seen innumerable live musical performances over the years, mostly in Toronto but also a few on Broadway and in London's West End.  It has gotten to the point where I have watched some of the old standbys, such as Man of La Mancha, Fiddler on the Roof or Les Miserables, so many times that I am reluctant to spend more time or money to revisit them again.  It is therefore particularly thrilling for me when I get an opportunity to enjoy a new (for me anyways) musical that I have not seen before.

Recently, I watched the musical Curtains for the first time.  Curtains was nominated for multiple Tony Awards in 2007, with David Hyde Pierce (of TV show "Frasier" fame) winning the prize for best actor.  It was written by Kander and Ebb, the duo better known for the iconic musicals Chicago and Cabaret.

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Curtains is a musical comedy set in an off-Broadway theatre where the talentless leading lady of a musical Western called "Robbing Hood of the Old West" is murdered during the opening night curtain call.  The entire cast and crew of the show are considered suspects, as police detective Frank Cioffi arrives to investigate.  He is distracted by his own fascination with musical theatre and his admiration for the performers, taking a particular shine to young ingénue Nikki Harris.

 In considering the musical numbers for Curtains, the songs for the "show within a show" (Robbin' Hood) seemed relatively weak and mundane, possibly deliberately so, since that show was supposed to be a flop.  By contrast, the songs that dealt with the interactions of the theatre company behind the scenes, including the fallout of the murder and subsequent investigation, were witty, humorous, touching and inspired.

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In my favourite song, "What Kind of Man", the producer, song writers and major investor of the show lamented the scorching reviews they received, lambasting the critics by asking "What kind of man would want a job like that? Who could be jerk enough?  Hard up for work enough?  To want a job like that?"  Then when they suddenly found a favourable review, the refrain hilariously switched to "What kind of genius has a mind like that?".  The lyrics of this song come closest to matching the verbal gymnastics of Stephen Sondheim, by using and rhyming with words like "excoriated" and "perspicacious".  I was amazed that the singers could actually enunciate these big words in tempo.

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The rendition of Curtains which I watched was mounted by the 2014 graduating class of the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts, a non-profit institution providing "Triple Threat" performing arts training in singing, dancing and acting.  Judging by the stellar triple threat performances across the board by the cast of Curtains, the Randolph Academy has fostered a batch of future theatre stars.  In particular, I was impressed by the vocal and acting abilities of Tyler East who played Detective Frank Cioffi, Avery Dupuis and Luis daSilva who played songwriters and ex-spouses Georgia Hendricks and Aaron Fox, and Lindsay Frederick who played Producer Carmen Bernstein.

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There were some interesting staging choices for this show, especially in the song "He Did It".  The detective  had sequestered the cast in order to conduct his investigation, resulting in them all sleeping overnight in the theatre.  With the stage dimly lit, various cast members tiptoed around in their pajamas and made guesses as to who was the murderer, eventually singing in tandem "He did it ... She did it ... They did it ... I'm sure!".  Behind them, linen sheets were hung vertically from a string to represent beds.  The remaining cast members peeked their heads out from behind the sheets, shining flashlights onto their faces to create an eerie effect like that of a camper telling a ghost story by a camp fire.  It definitely set the right mood for the song.

The musical accompaniment was provided by an on-stage band that consisted of two pianists and a percussionist.  In several scenes within Curtains, songwriter Aaron Fox wheeled out a piano and tried to compose a song.  While he actually played a few bars on his piano, the actual music was coming from the band's pianos.  This is very similar staging to the musical Marry Me A Little which played at the Tarragon theatre.

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The Randolph Academy's version of Curtains ended with a final encore where the cast re-purposed a refrain from the song "Show People".  The audience was encouraged to pass on their "show programs" and spread the word about the show, but were cautioned not to give away the ending or "It May Be Curtains .. For You!".  This reprise provided the perfect ending for the show and I wonder if it was improvised specifically by this group, since I have not found mention of it in the cast recording, synopsis or any write-ups about the musical. 

Curtains was a delightful and entertaining show to add to my long list of musical theatre viewing pleasures.  It had many memorable songs, an interesting plot, and some corny jokes and clever puns that were delivered with aplomb and great comedic timing by the group of very talented young actors.  In addition to the performances, this was a very professionally mounted production with excellent costumes, sets, lighting and musical accompaniment.  I look forward to watching more productions by the alumni of the Randolph Academy of Performing Arts.

**Special thanks to Raph Nogal Photography for allowing the use of his beautiful photographs of the Randolph Academy production of Curtains.