World Theatres blog
Our theatre season opened with the Civic Light-Opera company’s production of Carousel, the Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein II musical based on Ferenc Molnar’s Liliom. It opened on Broadway in 1945 and ran for 890 performances (less than half of Oklahoma). The musical was called the “best of the Century,” by Time Magazine. And when one sees the list of songs, from If I Loved You, June is Bustin’ Out All Over, A Real Nice Clambake, What’s the Use of Wond’rin, You’ll Never Walk Alone, and the most powerful song ever in a musical, “Soliloquy,” one can only hope they have found the voices to carry this musical. And in this case, they definitely have, Joe Cascone as Billy, Caroline Moro-Dalicandro as Carrie and Finne Jesson as Julie. We saw a production a few years back by the Scarborough Music Theatre and unfortunately the casting of Billy let the entire performance down. This is NOT a happy musical, but has a great story in spite of its dark tones. Rodgers and Hammerstein went on to write South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music, and a few “failures” like Allego, Me and Juliet and Pipe Dream. Rodgers considered Carousel his personal favourite.
We were so lucky to have witnessed the ultimate version of “Soliloquy” by Hugh Jackman in Concert at the Princess of Wales a few weeks back.
http://worldtheatres.blogspot.com/2011/09/worldtheatresblogspotcom.html
Oct 12/11 – Private Lives has to be Noel Coward’s greatest play, and in 2011 it still is as brilliant as it was when it was written in 1930. I have seen the play many times and it always works well, with the brilliant Maggie Smith, the exquisite Tammy Grimes, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in 1983 (probably the worst of the productions I have seen, and it more or less worked even with them). Kim Cattrall and Paul Gross give it their all, and is a joyful and hilarious time in the theatre. Even Noel Coward’s song “Someday I’ll Find You,” is prominent in this production.
It is seldom one is treated to this level of theatre and one leaves almost walking on air. The supporting players, Simon Paisley-Day and Anna Madeley are tremendous as well. There was only one problem with the play and that was the hideous setting for the 2nd and 3rd acts. It may have been Art Deco, but of the worst possible sort.
Sept 28/11 – In 2003 I saw a concert version of Chess at the St. Lawrence Centre, and after this performance at the Princess of Wales, I realize this show should only be played or seen in the concert version. The music by Abba’s Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus is great, as are Tim Rice’s lyrics, the problem is the very heavy-handed book (unfortunately written by Rice as well). Another concert version at Royal Albert Hall in London featured Josh Groban, Idina Menzel and Adam Pascal, and was highly successful. The staged show has since its premiere in 1986 had nothing but problems. Add to this the direction by Craig Revel Horwood, who has copied the works of John Doyle which features the actors playing the instruments as well as acting. This, I guess, must be called Quadruple Threat, as Triple Threat is acting, singing and dancing. Mr. Doyle has put me off with his versions of Sweeney Todd, as well as Company, Mack and Mabel and Road Show, all shows that I did love, before his versions of them. I realize the producers must adore Doyle as they get a great bang for their buck, the cast can be much smaller when one does not need an orchestra, the actors take over this, but what a great challenge for the cast. Long gone are the days of the large cast and full orchestra, now if you are lucky you get two actors and perhaps a piano or canned music. It was wonderful to see the current South Pacific at the Four Seasons Centre with full orchestra, and this is the reason we enjoy the small theatres like Civic Light Opera and Scarborough Music Theatre who can put on musicals with FULL casts (their version of Titanic probably had a cast of around 50 and a fairly large orchestra). There are brilliant voices in Chess (Shona White, as Florence, Tam Mutu, as Anatoly and Rebecca Lock, as Svetlana, and some great songs like Heaven Help My Heart, and I Know Him So Well, but unfortunately I cannot give the show more credit than that.
Sept 21/11 – Last evening we saw Daniel MacIvor’s play “His Greatness,” loosely based on Tennessee Williams, with star performances by the three member cast, Richard Donat (who starred in the original Vancouver production of Red Devil), in a tour-de-force performance as Williams, Daniel MacIvor as his former lover and now long-time suffering companion, and Greg Gale as a younger hustler, trying to come between the two friends. The play is well directed by Ed Roy and takes place during the presentation of The Red Devil Battery Sign, at the Vancouver Playhouse in 1980, just 2 1/2 years before Williams death. Williams final plays were all demolished by the critics, from “Red Devil Battery Sign,” to “In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel,” and “Small Craft Warnings.” He had to rest on his laurels and the royalties from his brilliant plays were taken with drugs, hustlers and alcohol, and he was left more-or-less penniless at the end of his life. From what I have read, although the New York presentation got some great reviews, none of the former efforts, from San Francisco to Vancouver can possibly top this first rate production at Factory Theatre. I was fortunate enough to see “Not About Nightingales,” a play written by Williams in 1938 which only resurfaced in 1999 with a production at Circle in the Square in New York starring Corin Redgrave (it was his sister Vanessa who found the play). It was nominated for 6 Tony Awards, but this success was much too late for Williams.