THEATRE NEWS: More Stratford prods set for 2012
18 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

TORONTO - The Stratford Festival has put some more flesh on the bones of the 2012 season announced earlier this summer. According to announcements made Tuesday, the roster for the fest’s 60th season reads as follows:

After an impressive turn as Lenny in The Homecoming, Aaron Krohn returns to the Festival stage, tackling the title role of Henry V, joining Ben Carlson, Juan Chioran, Deborah Hay, Lucy Peacock and Tom Rooney in a production helmed by artistic director Des McAnuff.

Veteran thesp Geraint Wyn Davies assumes the title role in Antoni Cimolino’s production of Cymbeline, joined by Ian Lake, Cara Ricketts, E. B. Smith, John Vickery, Tom McCamus and Mike Shara.

Yanna McIntosh plays the title role in Elektra, under the direction of Thomas Moschopoulos, heading a cast that also includes Peter Hutt, Laura Condlin, Seana McKenna and Lake.

Condlin is also cast in Chris Abraham’s production of The Matchmaker, opposite McCamus, McKenna, Shara, Ricketts and Wyn Davies in a cast that also includes Sky Brandon and Andrea Runge.

Richard Binsley, Bethany Jillard, Gareth Potter and Tyrone Savage are cast in Christopher Newton’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, joining James Blendick, Carlson, Hay and Chioran.

Stephen Patterson joins the cast of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, along with Erica Peck, Ken James Stewart, Andrew Broderick, Amy Wallis and Kevin Yee, under the direction of Donna Feore.

Sean Arbuckle and Wallis team up with Kyle Blair and Steve Ross in Ethan McSweeny’s production of The Pirates of Penzance, while Arbuckle and Naomi Costain will play opposite Cynthia Dale in Garry Griffin’s production of 42nd Street.

John Beale joins the playwright in the world première of Daniel MacIvor’s The Best Brothers, under the direction of Dean Gabourie, while Robin Hutton, Randy Hughson, Peacock and Rooney will tackle Wanderlust, written and directed by Morris Panych.

THEATRE REVIEW:
THE NORMAL HEART
17 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN,
QMI Agency
R: 5/5

Pictured: Sarah Orenstein, Jonathan Wilson

TORONTO - Imagine a snowflake trying to warn of an impending avalanche — or more appropriately, a single salt water tear attempting to raise the alarm in the encroaching waves of a killer tsunami.

That’s how activist-turned-playwright Larry Kramer must have seen himself in the early ’80s as gay men, his friends and lovers, started dying from a mysterious ailment in New York. In response, Kramer started the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, which would go on to become one of the leaders in the fight against a disease we now know as AIDS. But in the process, the incandescent Kramer would alienate so many, both straight and gay, that he would be forced out of the organization he founded, just as it was beginning to have an effect.

Kramer’s struggle is documented in his 1985 play, THE NORMAL HEART, a thinly disguised autobiography initially dismissed by some as self-serving and polemical, even while it enjoyed significant success. A quarter of a century on, it certainly seems a lot less so, in a new production that opened Sunday at Buddies in Bad Times, a production of Studio 180 in association with BIBT.

Presented in the round, under the direction of Joel Greenberg, THE NORMAL HEART starts quietly, but quickly moves into edgy territory as Kramer’s doppelganger — a gay writer by the name of Ned Weeks (Jonathan Wilson) drops by a clinic run by Dr. Emma Brookner (Sarah Orenstein) to discuss a recent wave of unexplained deaths within the New York gay community. The year is 1981.

What he learns from the doctor, (aside from, in Sunday’s opening, that Mom was right about never leaving home without clean underwear), coupled with his own concerns about the promiscuity within the recently liberated gay community compels Weeks to attempt to try to raise a meaningful call to arms. But while his concern about the rising tide of illness and death proves him prescient, it also puts him at odds, when coupled with his confrontational nature, with pretty much everyone with whom he comes into contact.

And as the numbers increase, so does his frustration with the apathy within the gay community and the antipathy in the broader community. His war with the establishment, represented off-stage by then-New York mayor, Edward Koch, and onstage by his lawyer brother (played by John Bourgeois), and with his fellow gays (Paul Essiembre as the closeted Bruce Niles, Ryan Kelly as Mickey Marcus and Jonathan Seinen as Tommy Boatwright) escalates at just about the same rate as his new relationship with journalist Felix Turner, played by Jeff Miller. Not surprisingly, tragedy — personal, interpersonal and finally, global — ensues.

Greenberg has once again created a strong ensemble that includes Mark Crawford and Mark McGrinder in a handful of supporting roles. Sure, one might quibble with individual performances — the talented but ever-affable Wilson makes Weeks’ most vicious tirades almost charming, further unbalancing a script that even the playwright might admit is already self-serving.

But taken as a whole, this is a stellar company, capable of sifting through the statistics and the polemic that Kramer packs into his script and shaping it into something that feels awfully close to living history. Which is, of course, what it is. In its documentation of the early shift that carried the gay community out from a hidden role within society that was almost exclusively social/sexual into an active and activist mainstream role, THE NORMAL HEART could be considered a sort of gay Birth of a Nation. But most of all, it is just damn good theatre — the kind that can still drive you to fury even while every normal heart in the joint is clearly breaking.

THEATRE NEWS: Dancap promises 8 Toronto prods, more across Canada
17 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

TORONTO - Dancap isn’t only expanding — it’s spreading out as well.

The upstart Toronto commercial theatre company headed by impresario Aubrey Dan announced an unprecedented eight-show 2012 season Monday at the Four Seasons Centre — a season that will also see the company throw its hat into the theatre scene in Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Saskatoon.

According to Dan, the company’s Toronto season, with shows slated for the stages of the Toronto Centre for the Arts, the Four Seasons Centre and the Sony Centre, is slated to kick off in late December with the previously announced Canadian première of Green Day’s American Idiot at the Toronto Centre — a production that will launch the ground-breaking punk musical’s North American tour. Dan also announced that three Canadians have been cast in the show, with Jake Epstein tackling the role of Will the slacker, while Gabriel Antonacci and Talia Aaron are slated to appear as part of the chorus.

Next up on the stage of the Toronto Centre will be the Tony Award-winning In the Heights, to be followed by a touring production of Shrek The Musical in March, which will surrender the stage to the touring company of Broadway’s latest incarnation of the classic West Side Story in May.

July brings dueling Dancap musical offerings with Disney’s Beauty and the Beast holding court at the Four Seasons Centre, while Million Dollar Quartet, featuring the music of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, shakes things up at the Toronto Centre.

Dancap’s new season will also include two bonus offerings: The previously announced world première of the Broadway-bound Prince of Broadway next summer at the Four Seasons, and a musical stage version of the iconic 1983 cult classic movie A Christmas Story slated to take over the Sony Centre in December of 2012.

Prince of Broadway, of course, is a retrospective of the musical theatre career of legendary Broadway producer and director Hal Prince, who was on hand for Monday’s announcement. “It would appear that I’m ready to have something biographical done,” the nearly 84-year-old Prince quipped before revealing that, in addition to choreographer Susan Stroman, who will co-direct with Prince, the creative team will include composer Jason Robert Brown and designers Jerome Sirlin and William Ivy Long.

Prince says he will be working with a high-octane cast of 12 (to be announced later) and an orchestra of 20 or more in what he describes as “a history of what Broadway has meant to me and what I’ve done on Broadway.” Which, as his 21 Tony Awards might attest, covers a lot of territory, from West Side Story to Kiss of the Spider Woman — an almost magical career that spans 57 years. “That’s a long time to be working in the theatre,” Prince reflects, “And to be welcome in the theatre — most of the time.”

Dancap is offering three different subscription levels for the 2012 season as well as tickets for the two remaining shows in their 2011 season — The Addams Family and Memphis: The Musical. Call 416-640-0172 or visit DancapTickets.com for further information.
 
Dancap is broadening its theatrical horizons. And while they may not yet reach from sea to sea, they will now stretch at least from sea to shining seaway. First off, Dancap is preparing to test the theatrical waters in la belle province next spring when it brings the touring company of Shrek The Musical, which opened on Broadway in 2009, to Montreal’s Place des Arts from March 13-18. Later in the year, Dancap turns its gaze westward as the touring company of Jersey Boys moves into the Jubilee Auditoriums in Calgary (June 28-July 15) and Edmonton (Aug. 15-Sept. 2) before moving on to Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre (Sept. 5-23) and Saskatoon’s TCU Place (Sept 26-Oct. 13),

THEATRE REVIEW: GHOSTS
16 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
R: 3.5/5
Pictured: Gregory Prest, Nancy Palk

TORONTO - If his reputation had depended solely on the play GHOSTS, one suspects playwright Henrik Ibsen wouldn’t figure as prominently in the classical theatre canon as he does. For while at its heart GHOSTS confronts the same hidebound social hypocrisy that brings drama to works like Hedda Gabbler and A Doll’s House, as a play it relies so heavily on theatrical coincidence that in the end it all but collapses under the weight of the chickens that the playwright brings home to roost. That said, it is, one suspects, a slightly better work than what Soulpepper’s new production suggests. Adapted and directed by Morris Panych, GHOSTS opened at the Young Centre Friday.

Set in the library of an upscale Norwegian country home late in the 19th century, the play opens as preparations are being completed for the dedication of a new orphanage, built to honour the memory of the late Captain Alving, whose widow, played by Nancy Palk, occupies the home in which the play is set.

Those preparations are, of course, foremost in the mind of Regine, the young woman Mrs, Alving has plucked from squalor and turned into her housekeeper/companion, and the ambitious young woman is less than thrilled when her drunken father (Diego Matamoros) drops by, determined to lure her away from her comfortable life with the widow Alving. And though Regine quickly dispatches her unwelcome visitor, she finds her father’s pleas echoed by the upright Pastor Manders (Joe Ziegler), who, as financial advisor to the widow Alving, has dropped by to go over some final details, including insurance, before the new orphanage is dedicated.

Discussions between the good widow and the pastor are interrupted by the widow’s grown son, Oswald, played by Gregory Prest, who has returned to his backwater home for the dedication of his father’s memorial, having spent the last several years abroad earning a considerable reputation as an artist. But all is not as it initially seems in this seemingly tranquil house, and slowly the secrets that have too long been tucked away begin to break loose, shaking the very foundations not only of this family, but of society itself, as the festering results of spousal abuse, alcoholism, rape and even venereal disease are made manifest, with increasingly tragic results.

Working on an imposing set designed by Ken MacDonald, its numerous nooks and crannies evocatively lit by Alan Brodie, Panych attempts to make the most of this high octane cast. And while there are moments of Ibsen-eque clarity scattered throughout, in the main the interaction never quite manages to strike the right note to carry things off, undone sometimes by miscasting, at others by a translation that slips too often into contemporary argot.

Though he gives it his best effort, the normally spot-on Ziegler fails to find the right note of religious zealotry and self-satisfaction in his portrayal of the chauvinistic Manders, a problem further exacerbated by Palk’s determination to pack as much sub-text into her performance as possible. And while Prest makes an impressive, if somewhat healthy showing as the troubled Oswald, Michelle Monteith’s primly buttoned-up Regine never manifests for the audience that powerful life force which so impresses the other characters in the play.

In the end, it all adds up to a production that falls squarely into the middle range of adequate, admittedly affording a few opportunities to catch glimpses of the genius that would make Ibsen great but rarely, if ever, striking those notes that might haunt an audience after the curtain falls.

THEATRE REVIEW: HARDSELL
14 OCT'11

JOHN COULBOURN, QMI Agency
R: 3.5/5
Pictured: Rick Miller

TORONTO - When it first premiered at the Berkeley Street Theatre back in ’09, Rick Miller’s HARDSELL was frankly a bit of a tough sell too — a sprawling, often unfocused look at consumerism that suggested, forcefully and none-too-tidily, that humankind might be hardwired for excess and further, that sooner or later, in a society driven by voracious consumption, the consumer must inevitably become the consumed.

Now, two years on, HARDSELL is back on a Toronto stage, completing a three part celebration of Miller’s work that has already embraced revivals of his MacHomer and Bigger Than Jesus, launching the Factory Theatre’s mainstage season. A reworked HARDSELL, produced by WYRD and Necessary Angel, opened a limited run there Friday, where it will play through through Oct. 23.

And while it is clearly a work on which Miller and director Daniel Brooks have lavished a lot of attention in the past two years, one suspects HARDSELL has benefited as much from changing public attitudes as it has from any adjustments its admittedly talented co-creators have made to it. While Brooks and Miller have tightened Miller’s one-man, two-points-of-view rant to pull things into focus, it is still a seat-of-the-pants affair that has its audience pondering the possibility it’s going to go off the rails as often as it has them pondering the seeming inevitability we are buying ourselves into oblivion. But this is an audience far different from only two years ago, thanks to shifts in the public consciousness that have shaken many out of a torpor of self-indulgence long enough to start demanding change, no matter how small. In a world juggling the demands of the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement, HARDSELL could well become a rallying point for both.

That’s thanks largely to Miller’s skill at playing two characters: Himself — an in-demand, articulate and socially conscious actor determined to at least try to do the right thing — and his own evil-twin Arnie, a cynic who not only embraces the notion we are all headed for hell in a handbasket but thinks it’s going to be a fun ride to boot. Fittingly, it all starts pre-show in the lobby, with Miller (as Miller) hocking a range of artwork, CDs and the like, which of course positions him to launch seamlessly into the show as a natural extension of what he’s been doing.

As Himself, he gives a bit of a personal history that, while it manages to be simultaneously self-deprecating and self-aggrandizing, also underscores just how hard it is to be socially conscious in a modern world where even his show’s sponsor has an questionable environmental track record. Cue Arnie, who takes over Rick’s body and after making it up to resemble some sort of latter-day Joker, takes over the show as well, leading his audience on a dizzying descent into the corporate hell of capitalism, aided and abetted not only by the latest in stage technology — he even uses a microwave to zap one particularly maddening cultural icon — but by a compendium of modern day philosophers and self-help gurus, whose words are used to drive things home.

Miller, ultimately restored to control of his show, seems to have trouble articulating just what it is HARDSELL is trying to say. But an ever-growing number of people, one suspects, will agree he’s said it very well indeed. For in the end, while HARDSELL acknowledges our economic and societal future seems pretty bleak, it arrives at a conclusion many embrace today, mainly that it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness — even when you’re worried about the carbon footprint of the candle.

DANCE NEWS: NBOC posts surplus
13 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

TORONTO - The artists of the National Ballet of Canada can dance into the company’s Diamond Anniversary season next month feeling as good as gold, it seems, based on figures announced Thursday at the company’s annual general meeting.

To complete her term as NBOC board chairman, Lucille Joseph was able to announce a surplus on a 2010 season that saw revenues reach $26,842,000, against expenses of $26,793,000. The resulting surplus of $49,000 reduces the company’s accumulated deficit – which two years ago sat at $694,000 – to $243,000.

Artistic director Karen Kain talked of the thrill of launching new works like Chroma, Russian Seasons and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland during the last season. “All these works were important in themselves,” she said, but staging them has also laid the groundwork for working with all of these extraordinary artists on future ballets, the first of which we will see realized this November with Alexei (Ratmansky)’s new Romeo and Juliet (opening at the Four Seasons Nov. 16 to launch the company’s 60th season).

THEATRE REVIEW:
I SEND YOU THIS CADMIUM RED
12 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
R: 4/5
Pictured: Julian Richings

TORONTO - It’s the reason my late grandmother always planted yellow roses by her front door, believing as she did that yellow roses spoke of friendship. She was informed by a very Victorian ethos, wherein flowers had become a language all their own. But as any visual artist will tell you, colour also has a language all its own. And so, at least, in our house, yellow became the colour of friendship.

A more in-depth study of language of colour is at the heart of an unusual but compelling evening of theatre that opened at the Berkeley Street Theatre Tuesday night, produced by Art of Time Ensemble, in association with Canadian Stage. I Send You This Cadmium Red is rooted in an ongoing real-life correspondence between two multi-talented artists, both of whom happened to be painters — specifically novelist John Berger and filmmaker John Christie. It was, however, a very specific kind of correspondence, as each of these highly articulate men took turns meditating on the hugely personal language of colour.

Their riveting correspondence, which spanned two years, was later collected and published in book form, which then became the inspiration for a radio piece commissioned for the BBC. It was at that point that a third artist became involved in their conversation, specifically composer Gavin Bryars, who, in an unobtrusive score, seemed to join these two very fluent men in their reflections to make their words and their colours take wing.

Now yet another artist has added his perspective to the ever-expanding prism of their discussion, with theatre director Daniel Brooks transforming the radio play into a piece of theatre that adds further depth and dimension to the conversation. With Julian Richings giving voice to Berger’s musings and John Fitzgerald Jay voicing those of Christie, Brooks creates an evening of intimate theatre, buoyed and underscored by the Bryars’ music, performed by four musicians under the direction of AOT’s Andrew Burashko.

It is, in its way, an evening of deep passion, as two very talented actors bring life not only to the words these men use to express their deeply held beliefs but to their friendship as well. One feels the affection of long association, implicit in the trust with which they communicate reflections both highly personal and deeply considered. Meanwhile, Bryars’ music fuses with designer Bruce Alcock’s imagery and the lighting of Glenn Davidson to cocoon the proceedings in such a way that the audience is cast, in the best possible way, as eavesdroppers on a conversation of deep artistic intimacy. Clocking in as it does at a mere 40 minutes, I Send You isn’t really a stand-alone theatre piece, despite everyone’s best efforts.

So Burashko, known for forging musical keys to unlock the world of theatre, has paired it with a work of dance set to yet another composition by Bryars — an almost hypnotic piece titled Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet. Presented in collaboration with Coleman Lemieux & Company, Soudain l’hiver dernier is choreographed by James Kudelka as a work for two dancers — Michael Sean Marye and Luke Garwood (who danced it on opening night), alternating with Ryan Boorne and Andrew Giday.

And while Soudain initially feels like a religious meditation, thanks to the lyrical background loop, it evolves into a touching portrait of intimate friendship, with each dancer taking a turn as the supporter or the supported, each movement linked by deep trust. Together, they make for a compelling, thought-provoking evening for anyone prepared to sit quietly and listen to what colour has to say.