TIFF 2021: Digital Secret Movie Club and Film Festival

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BLACKOUT (2021) Trailer - YouTube

BLACKOUT: "Shine Again" (2021) - YouTube

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

Theatre 2020: January-February Shows and Preparing for Hamilton

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Theatre Highlights and Lowlights in 2019

I continue to marvel at the vast amount and variety of theatre that we have available to us in Toronto. While we don't really have concentrated theatre districts in the city that match New York's Broadway and Off-Broadway or the West End in London, we can certainly claim a large number of independent theatres scattered throughout our city.  The options grow even more nurmeous if you include surrounding areas in Ontario including Stratford, Niagara on the Lake and little community theatres in small towns.  Each year we end up watching about 20-30 plays, anchored by our annual subscription to Mirvish Productions which includes 6-7 shows per season with an emphasis on musicals,( which I love!).  In the past, I've blogged about many of the shows shortly after we watched them.  I was remiss this year and so this will be one big blog with a few quick thoughts about some of the more memorable shows that we watched this year, for better and for worse...

One of our first shows of the year was called Foreign Tongue, a curated performance that was part of the annual Next Stage Fringe Festival, which provides a platform for emerging theatre artists to present their works.  Foreign Tongue is a whimsical romantic musical set in Toronto that deals with multiculturalism and acceptance.  Kathy Woodrough, a yuppie from Peterborough gets knocked on the head and wakes up speaking with a thick European accent (an affliction known as Foreign Language Syndrome).  Confused, disoriented and no longer able to pronounce her own last name, Kathy reinvents herself as "Ludmilla", joins an English as a Second Language (ESL) class where she bonds with the other immigrants and starts a romance with a man who is attracted to women with foreign accents.  For a semi-pro production, this show was quite strong in terms of clever songs and story-line and excellent acting and singing performances.  We look forward to this theatre festival each year since there are often some very entertaining and unexpected gems that you can watch for less than $20 per show.

We expected great things from our first Mirvish show of 2019, the comedy "The Play That Goes Wrong" which enjoyed a lengthy and successful run in London and received rave reviews.  We were additionally encouraged since during our vacation in London the previous year, we saw another play called "The Comedy About A Bank Robbery" by the same acting troupe and absolutely loved it.  That comedy was hilarious but also witty with a great farcical plot delivered with impeccable timing by the accomplished performers.  Unfortunately "The Play That Goes Wrong" did not measure up in any respect.  As the title implies, the show deals with a group of actors putting on an extremely low budget play where everything that can go wrong, does so.  But rather than clever farce, the plot was banal and the humour involved the lowest form of slapstick that failed to be funny after the same pratfalls and crumbling set sequences were repeated endlessly.  A good comedy starts slowly and gradually adds to the insanity until all hell breaks loose at the climax.  This play went full throttle right from the start, then could not sustain the pace since there was nowhere else for it to progress to.

 ** Photos by David Cooper

By comparison, Ladykillers, which we watched at the Shaw Festival (Niagara-on-the-Lake) in June had much more interesting characters, dialogue and a clever plot based on the classic 1955 crime comedy starring Alec Guiness and Peter Sellers.  A group of hapless bank robbers who are preparing for a heist, rent a room from a seemingly sweet little old lady, Mrs.Wilberforce, while pretending to be classical musicians.  Problems ensue when their intrepid landlady gleans the truth of the situation and the robbers agonize over how to deal with her.  I particularly liked the staging and set of the production, which showed a cross section of Mrs Wilberforce's two-storied home so that we could see the activities of the criminals in their second-floor room at the same time as the puttering of the old lady downstairs, as well as watch their reactions each time she comes up the stairs towards them.  The set then spins around to show to exterior of the house, where more shenanigans take place.  While the timing of the physical comedy was not perfect, this was still an extremely entertaining show to watch. We saw this at the beginning of its run, so perhaps the timing would have been better later in the season.

While on a short vacation to Pelee Island, we stopped overnight at Port Stanley to watch Lunenburg by Canadian playwright Norm Foster.  Recently widowed Iris has arrived in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to inspect the cottage that she inherited from her late husband following his sudden accidental death.  With her friend Natalie along for moral support, Iris meets next-door neighbour Charlie and slowly learns that she did not know her husband as well as she thought she did.  The entire story plays out on the porch of the cottage as the various characters interact in this touching yet humorous three-hander.  We have watched many other plays by Norm Foster and this one is by far his best and most poignant.

Lately, Mirvish Productions has done a great job of bringing the most recently acclaimed shows from Broadway or the West End.  The final shows in the 2018/2019 season included Dear Evan Hanson which won the Tony Award for best musical in 2017 and Waitress which was nominated for the award in 2016. Evan Hanson is an awkward, lonely teenager with a crush on his classmate Zoe.  After the school bully Connor ( Zoe's brother) commits suicide, Evan pretends that he was best friends with  Connor in order to maintain a relationship with Zoe and the dead boy's family.  To support the charade, Evan creates fake email correspondence between himself and Connor.

The musical Waitress, with music and lyrics written by singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles, is based on the 2007 film of the same name starring Keri Russell.  Jenna is the titular waitress who wants to leave her unhappy marriage when she finds out that she is pregnant after a drunken encounter with her abusive husband.  Jenna finds solace in the pies that she bakes at the diner that she works for.  As a clever tie-in to the musical, small jars of fruit pie were sold before the start of Waitress.  Both Dear Evan Hanson and Waitress were good shows but I wasn't sure either was worth all the hype.  I found the songs to be rather bland and not very memorable with the exception of the big number from each show—"You Will Be Found" and "She Used to Be Mine" respectively.

I enjoyed the lesser known musicals The Last Ship and Jukebox Hero better, perhaps because I went in with lower expectations than I had for the more highly touted shows. Last Ship is an original musical with music and lyrics written by Sting, whose own childhood experiences in the shipbuilding town of Wallsend, England inspired the story.  It deals with a community of generational shipbuilders who learn that the shipyard which provides the main source of the town's employment will soon be shut down. After some fruitless protests, in a final act of defiance the workers decide that they will build one last ship to sail down the River Tyne.  The songs range from haunting and melancholy to spirited and inspiring and it was an extra thrill to have Sting himself play one of the lead roles.

Even though I don't usually like jukebox musicals, I went to see JukeBox Hero, based on the songs of the 70s rock band Foreigner since I love so many of the songs by this group.  As expected with the jukebox musical genre, the plot is a bit clunky in order to force-fit Foreigner's hit songs into it.  At least it did not fall upon the hackneyed trope of the "dystopian world" as Bat Out of Hell and We Will Rock You did.  Ryan and Mace are two brothers who are part of a band playing in dive bars along with Mace's girlfriend Linda. In the beginning, the lyrics of a few songs actually seemed to advance the story until it all fell apart and songs started to be sung just for the heck of it. After a heated argument between Mace and Linda (Head Games, Say You Will, Say You Won't), Mace catches Ryan and Linda in an impromptu kiss (Feels Like the First Time) and the band breaks up (Break It Up).  Mace joins the army (At War With the World) and Ryan heading off to musical stardom as a solo act. The closing of the steel mill (doesn't this sound like The Last ship!?!) lures Ryan back to give a charity performance for the beleaguered town, giving the brothers a chance to reconcile.  Despite a convoluted plot, it was great fun hearing all my favourite songs, played with high energy and serious guitar licks.  All it took was the strumming of "one guitar" from the titular Jukebox Hero to get the crowd rocking.

One of the most intellectually stimulating and exciting shows that we watched in 2019 was the political thriller Oslo, offered as an "Off-Mirvish" production (emulating Off-Broadway).  The play hypothesizes what was discussed during secret negotiations held in and facilitated by Norway that led to the historic 1993 Oslo Accords, an attempt at a peace treaty between Israel and Palestine.  The simple use of tension-filled dialogue conveyed the high stakes of the talks, both personally for the negotiators and politically for their respective nations.  There were no guns, overt violence or even a soaring emotion-inducing score to ramp up the pressure and yet you were at the edge of your seat throughout the entire show.  This was a fascinating play that presented what was a brief glimmer of hope for these war-torn enemies, before it all fell apart by the actions of radical factions that could not condone compromise.  The main part of the play ended triumphantly with the signing of the treaty by Israeli President Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat on the lawn of the White House.  Unfortunately the denouement lined up all the characters on stage where each described what happened to them next including the assassination of Rabin by an Israeli settler.

The 2019/2020 Mirvish season started with two musicals that I did not enjoy very much.  The Band's Visit won the Tony award for best musical in 2018 while The Girl From North Country was a highly acclaimed show from London's West End that made a brief stop Off-Broadway before coming to Toronto.  The Band's Visit is based on the 2007 movie of the same name, which deals with an Egyptian police band who travel to Israel to play a concert, only to accidentally end up in the wrong town.  Stuck until morning in the tiny remote village of Beit Hatikva, the band members bond with the villagers, bringing a little excitement to their monotonous existences.  The movie is slow, quiet and melancholic in tone with not much action or even dialogue.  Unfortunately, even with the addition of songs and a few dances, the musical comes across in the same way.  While the music was culturally interesting and appropriate for the plot, there was not enough to keep my interest for the entire show.  The one song that I really liked from this musical repeated the words "Umm Kulthum and Omar Sharif".  Although I recognized the name of actor Omar Sharif, I did not realize that Umm Kulthum was a famous Egyptian singer and actress active from the 1920s to 1970s.

I did not expect to like The Girl From North Country and I was right.  The show is a jukebox musical based on the songs of Bob Dylan (which I don't know that well and don't really like to begin with).  But unlike other musicals of this genre, Girl From North Country takes pride in choosing songs that don't advance the plot at all, but rather "sets the mood" for what is happening on stage.  This goes against everything that I enjoy about a good musical and it did not work for me.  This was a sombre, overly long, morose play set in a rundown guesthouse in Minnesota during the Great Depression.  The people who interact with one another all have their problems, and then suddenly break into a Dylan song for no apparent reason.  The only character whose song reflects his situation is Joe, the black boxer on the run from the law who sings "Hurricane", which Dylan wrote about wrongfully convicted boxer Rubin Carter.  This was the only song in the show that I could relate to and yet the playwright ruefully suggested that it was "a bit on the nose".  Obviously we do not share the same opinion as to what makes a true musical.

I thought I would feel the same antipathy about Piaf/Dietrich, a biographical play detailing the tumultuous friendship between two powerhouse performers--Edith Piaf (nicknamed Sparrow) and Marlene Dietrich (The Angel).  Yet I ended up being won over by the amazing acting and singing performances of the two main stars.  Jayne Lewis portrays the German ice queen while Canadian legend Louise Pitre took on the role of the manic, emotionally-overwrought French singer.  Pitre in particular shone in her role as Piaf and sang all of her songs in French including the signature tunes La Vie En Rose and Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien.  Throughout the show, Piaf and Dietrich alternated in giving performances on a cabaret-styled stage with the respective singer's name lit up in giant lights.  To accentuate the feel of a floor show, the people in the first few rows of the orchestra section were seated at lamp-lit tables (with drinks!) while a few members of the audience were seated at elevated tables on either side of the stage.  While it would momentarily be a thrill to be situated so close to the actors, I'm not sure that I would like this since for the most part, you are looking at the back of their heads.

We like watching the occasional show at the Lower Ossington Theatre since its repertoire often includes smaller, more obscure musicals including ones that I have not seen elsewhere.  This season we watched 9 to 5 The Musical, the 2008 musical based on the 1980 comedic film starring Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda.  Violet, Loralee and new hire Judy are three harassed office workers who turn the tables on their sexist, lecherous boss in what has turned out to be a harbinger of the "Me Too" movement. For a relatively small theatre company, most shows offered at Lower Ossington are surprisingly high in quality and this one was no exception.  9 to 5 the Musical featured excellent production values including strong performances by the three leads, snappy choreography (especially in the opening number that featured the titular song 9 to 5) and great costumes and wigs which made the three leads look almost identical to their movie counterparts when viewed from the back.

In 2019, we discovered the Crow's Theatre in the East end of Toronto which has two performance spaces—the larger Guloien Theatre and the smaller, more intimate Scotia Community Studio.  There we watched two of the most unique and challenging plays of the season—The Flick and Ghost Quartet.  Each show demanded your attention in a different way and stretched your preconceived notions of what to expect from a play.

It is totally disorientating when you first enter the Guloien Theatre to watch The Flick since there is stadium seating located on both sides of the floor.  For a moment, it is not clear which side is part of the stage and which are the seats for the audience. The Flick is set inside the last non-digital movie theatre where underpaid movie ushers (Sam and Avery) and the movie projectionist (Rose) subsist in their dead-end, monotonous jobs which match their equally boring lives.  To emphasize this monotony, the 3.5 hour long show spends many many minutes showing Sam and Avery slowly, methodically and SILENTLY sweeping up popcorn from the aisles.  Somehow rather than being sleep-inducing, this robotic repetition was fascinating to watch.  In between scenes where the three characters interact with one other and we learn more about their lives and dreams, the stage fades to black.  The next scene starts up as if a new movie is being screened, as from the darkness we see the beam of light from the projection room and hear the opening credit music (e.g. the lion roar from an MGM movie).  It is set up so that the audience becomes the defacto location of the movie screen and often the characters sit in their stadium seats looking out at us.  Also, when the lights come back on, you see that the stage is once again strewn with popcorn.  We find out at the end of the play that there is a machine set up at the back to spit out popcorn.  The movie analogy continues with the "program" which, instead of a booklet,  is in the format of a paper movie listing calendar like the ones found at Hot Docs.  As well, the advertisement for the play in the windows of Crow's Theatre look like movie posters.  You need to go into this play with the understanding and acceptance of what the playwright is going for, but once you do, this is a superb experience that immerses you into the drab lives of the characters.  Luckily you get to go back to your own (and hopefully) much better lives at the end of this.

Ghost Quartet, which we watched in the smaller Scotia Community Studio, had its own unique staging and was cerebral, weird and disorienting in its own way.  We walked into a darkened, smoke-filled room and had to squint to see that there was stadium seating on both ends with a set in the middle consisting of a piano, drum set and various weird musical instruments.  Four performers appeared and proceeded to tell us an elaborate, eerie ghost story through spoken dialogue and haunting tunes.  But we were warned near the start that this was a "circular story" that jumped back and forth between time and space as each performer played multiple roles, switching on a dime with no warning.  This made it difficult to follow the plot, but after a while, you stopped caring and just gave in to enjoying the beautiful songs and spooky atmosphere.  It would have helped to read a synopsis like the one found on Wikipedia ahead of time.  I would have learned that this was a tale of two sisters who loved the same man, an astronomer in a treehouse (?!? just go with it...).  Wanting revenge, the spurned sister is sent on a quest by an evil bear to gather four items, leading to four intervening fairy tales that reference characters from Arabian Nights and Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher.  Not understanding most of this as I was watching the show, I still appreciated it but left the theatre wondering "What just happened?".

One of the stand-out shows that we watched in 2019 was not actually live theatre, but the filming of a live National Theatre production of The Lehman Trilogy, which we watched on a movie screen at Cineplex Theatres.  Three superb actors play multiple roles in telling the history of the global financial services and investment banking firm Lehman Brothers Holding Company before it went bankrupt during the financial crises of 2008.  Dressed in long black trench coats, they portrayed the original Jewish brothers Henry, Emanuel and Mayer Lehman who emigrated to America from Germany between 1840-50 and started a small business which eventually grew into the international empire.  Along the way, they invented the business concept of the "middle man".  Remaining on stage for the entire show and dressed in the same wardrobe, in addition to the three brothers, these amazing actors also portrayed their girlfriends, wives, children and grandchildren as well as other minor roles.

The set and staging was quite unusual as the action took place within a spinning glass cube on which the actors used markers to write dates and statistics to mark the passage of time and the growth of the company.  There was very minimal furniture on the set other than a boardroom table, a few chairs and a some cardboard boxes which were stacked in different configurations to form platforms, walls, towers, inventory and more.  The boxes take on a final poignancy when they become the containers carried out by workers who lost their jobs after the bankruptcy.

Including the three musicals that we watched on Broadway when we visited Manhattan in December, we saw many great shows in 2019 and already have several lined up for 2020.