Review: (Vancouver) Legally Blonde

Light and fluffy and totally entertaining
TUTS remount isn’t perfect, but it’s still fun to watch
by Chris Lane
@chrislanetweets

Just in case you thought the movie wasn’t campy enough, Legally Blonde: The Musical features even more pink and even more squeals, right from the energetic first number, Omigod You Guys.

It’s about as peppy as you would expect, but also somewhat formulaic and predictable. And yet it’s hard not to cheer for Elle, delightfully played by Reese Witherspoon’s doppelganger, Jocelyn Gauthier.

Review (Vancouver/Theatre) The Tempest

Art direction lets dramatic comedy brim with magic

Jennifer Lines is captivating as the sprite Ariel

by Chris Lane
@chrislanetweets

One of Shakespeare’s most fantastical comedies is brought to life this summer at Bard on the Beach, in a performance sparkling with magic, along with plenty of humour and passion. Director Meg Roe, re-imagining the script after helming the same production at Bard in 2008, brings the audience under her spell with an immersive experience.

The play begins with a powerful tempest that appears to wreck a ship and leave all aboard to perish. But it is no normal storm, as it was created by a magician, Prospero, who lives with his daughter, Miranda, on an isolated island. He explains to her that he was once Duke of Milan, but was sent out to sea by his usurping brother, aided by the King of Naples – both of whom are trapped in Prospero’s storm. He allows them, and the others on the ship, to wash up on land – at his mercy.

Prospero has carefully laid out a plan for vengeance against those who sent him out to sea without even expecting him to survive. And yet once they arrive, they are the first humans he has met in years, and the most people his daughter has ever seen all at once. What remains to be seen is how much Prospero has changed in his time isolated on the island, and what his past still means to him.

His plan is largely carried out by a sprite, Ariel, who is in his service to repay him for rescuing her tortured soul. Jennifer Lines is delightful to watch as Ariel, giving a powerfully physical performance as she flits around the stage as the jittery and fair-natured sprite. She adds loads of energy and vivacity to every scene she’s in, which, fortunately for the audience, is quite a lot of scenes. While her character essentially plays second fiddle to Prospero (Allan Morgan), Lines’s very memorable performance makes Ariel the true star of the show.

Review: (Vancouver / Theatre) The Concessions

(photo by Tim Matheson)

Facts, rumours and the preternatural collide in small-town thriller - Suspense and relationships make up for lack of warmth
A rural community is the nexus of mystery and hearsay in a play with a mystical twist on small-town drama.
by Chris Lane

The Concessions is a psychological thriller set in small-town Huron County, Ontario, where everyone knows each other and listens to the CBC. The play centres around Fay (Emma Slipp), at once a local and an outsider, as her vocation of reading tarot cards can bring about polarizing responses. She has a tumultuous relationship with barman John, thrown into even more turmoil upon the discovery that someone close to them has been murdered. Rumours abound, abetted by one meddlesome and inexperienced town reporter.

Review: (Vancouver / Theatre) Wicked

Kathy Fitzgerald (photo by Joan Marcus)

As magical as Oz

Broadway is in Vancouver with a powerful production of Wicked

by Chris Lane

A fantastic set, exquisite costumes, a highly talented cast and a captivating story spun off a well-known film: Wicked has all the right ingredients to cast a spell on a crowd, and it certainly delivers. It’s just what you expect the Broadway tour of Wicked to be – not quite the same as seeing it in New York, but oh so close.

Wicked tells the back story of the Wizard of Oz, delving into how two girls, Elphaba and Glinda, grow up in Oz and meet at college before becoming the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the North. It’s a captivating tale – better than many musicals that rely on song and dance to carry the plot. The play cleverly explains how all the different Oz characters came to be so Wicked or Wonderful, or to lack courage, a heart or a brain. The writing picks apart what it means to be considered wicked, and how a well-intentioned and intelligent girl, born with green skin, can become a pariah – and also forge a strong connection with Glinda, who couldn’t be more different from her.

Review: (Vancouver / Theatre) Spamalot

(photo by David Cooper)

Mixing a classic farce with Broadway makes quite a spectacle
A mixed bag of hilarious sketches and dated humour
by Chris Lane

Spamalot is completely ridiculous, over-the-top and makes very little sense, but fortunately, that’s the whole point.

The musical is based off Monty Python and the Holy Grail, with some other Python references and Broadway spoofing thrown in. It’s a glammed-up, Broadway-style farce, full of British wit.

There are many, many laughs in the show, although a lot of the jokes drag on longer than they should. The comedy relies on a lot of easy jokes, often dependent on stereotypes that toe the line between funny or just plain offensive – sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other. But each scene is vastly different from the next, so the occasional disappointing scenes are often saved by hilarious antics moments later. The energy level is high throughout the evening; it’s a true spectacle.

Review: (Vancouver / Theatre) Kim's Convenience

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Andre Sills (photo by Bruce Monk)

“Corner store comedy” balances humour, family drama and culture clash
Kim’s Convenience a familiar microcosm of immigrant experience in Canada
by Chris Lane

Kim’s Convenience is quintessentially Canadian, about a Korean couple in a multicultural Toronto neighbourhood overrun by condos.

It’s a classic immigrant story of a new arrival opening up a business and working long hours running it with the help of his wife and two children. The kids were born in Canada, so the play lays bare the within-family cultural clashes that arise between immigrant parents and their Canadian-born children – and how much the two generations can learn from one another.

A developer is pushing hard to buy Kim’s Convenience, but Mr. Kim won’t allow his customers to lose their shop, and is loath to see his legacy reduced to rubble. He wants his daughter, Janet, to take over; at 30, she has yet to leave the nest, and he’s worried she’s wasting the opportunities they gave her on a photography career. To him, it’s a matter of giving back after all that he gave her; to her, it should be her life and her own choices.

Review: (Vancouver / Theatre) Helen Lawrence

Lisa Ryder (photo by David Cooper)

Like a movie, but performed live
Helen Lawrence innovatively brings a slice of Vancouver’s past to life
by Chris Lane

Seeing Helen Lawrence is like watching a live performance of a movie. It combines the power of film to transport you with vivid visual scenery and to get up close and personal with actors, while at the same time delivering the energy of a live performance – thanks to the magic of projections.

The play uses an innovative mixed-media style to transport the audience just down the street to two parts of Vancouver that no longer stand: Hogan’s Alley, and the old Hotel Vancouver, which both have distinctive roles in Vancouver’s cultural history. The story takes place in 1948, a year before the grandiose Hotel Vancouver (second of three) was demolished, when the hotel was still being used to house Second World War veterans. Hogan’s Alley was the hub of Vancouver’s black community, as well as being a centre for gambling, drinking, and the sex trade – just a few blocks away from the present-day centre of the Downtown Eastside. This play brings together a cast of characters from both places, alongside the police who go between the two.

Review: (Vancouver / Theatre) Whose Life is It Anyway?

Jennifer Lines, Bob Frazer (photo by Tim Matheson)

Fighting for his death
A smart and darkly funny discussion of a contentious topic
by Chris Lane

Should a hospital patient be permitted to choose death over treatment?

Bob Frazer stars as Ken, who was recently paralyzed from the neck down in a car crash, with spinal damage so severe that the current state of medicine is incapable of helping him move his body ever again. He’s a smart, quick-witted man who carefully considers his situation, and decides he’d rather die than spend the rest of his life trapped in a body he can’t control. But the head doctor firmly believes that his duty is to keep his patients alive, and argues that Ken’s depressed state is preventing him from making a sound judgment. Caught in between the two is Dr. Scott (Jennifer Lines), who is struggling to judge what to do as a medical doctor and as a compassionate person who cares for her patient’s wishes and well-being.

Review: (Vancouver) Driving Miss Daisy

L-R Nicola Lipman, Brian Linds, John Campbell (photo by David Cooper)

Driving smoothly and without a hitch
A smart tale of colour-blind compassion
by Chris Lane

You know just where you’re going with Driving Miss Daisy, but it’s still plenty of fun getting there.

The play opens in 1948 with the eponymous Daisy, an elderly Southern Jewish woman, stubbornly insisting to her grown son, Boolie, that she’s still a perfectly good driver – despite having barrelled into a garage by mixing up the gears. He ignores her protestations and hires her a chauffeur, Hoke, who’s almost as old as Daisy but still knows exactly what he’s doing. Daisy isn’t keen on being driven around – perhaps least of all by a black man.

The affable Hoke works hard to get along with Daisy, and to make her see him as a fellow human that she can relate to. The plot is rather predictable, and yet this production succeeds at making the audience care for the characters and about their story.

Review: (Vancouver) A Brimful of Asha (PuSh)

(photo: Cylla von Tiedemann)

Inventive family drama is filled to the brim with humour
PuSh festival presents a clash of Indian and Canadian culture
by Chris Lane

As the house lights come down, Asha Jain, an Indian woman in her sixties, kindly welcomes the audience to her home.

“Well, not really my home, but let’s pretend for today,” she says.

And yet it really does feel like we’re in the Jain family home. Asha isn’t a trained actress, but rather the mother of Ravi Jain, an actor and director. The two of them created A Brimful of Asha and perform it together. As themselves, they tell the story of a dispute they had seven years ago – a cultural clash between Asha, raised in India, and her son, born and raised in Canada.

Review: (Vancouver) Daisy Theatre

(Schnitzel)

Wonderfully, lovably, hilariously Canadian puppets
Ronnie Burkett’s latest work ramps up the silliness
by Chris Lane

Ronnie Burkett is a true master of puppets, and with his latest work, The Daisy Theatre, he’s just plain having fun, and leaving the audience in stitches.

The production is a series of 'playlets' involving one or two marionettes, which are only roughly scripted and vary substantially from night to night. They all make up The Daisy Theatre, which is the kookiest and crassest travelling theatre troupe this side of the 49th parallel. The marionettes make so many snarky asides and Vancouver-oriented jokes that each performance feels like a special treat just for that night’s audience.

Review: (Vancouver) Other Desert Cities

Benjamin Elliott, Gwyneth Walsh (photo by David Cooper)

A family drama of secrets, divulgence, and more secrets

The Arts Club opens the season with a polished and compelling production

by Chris Lane

Other Desert Cities tells the story of what’s at risk when you try to tell your own story to the world – because your own story isn’t just about you, is it.

The Wyeth family is gathered together for Christmas at their lavish Palm Springs home, as for the first time in six years their 30-something neurotic daughter Brooke has returned to California from her new East Coast life. She’s there because she has a bombshell to tell her family: her new novel isn’t actually a novel, but a memoir about the family’s darkest hour.

Brooke wants to share the story of how her parents’ hard-right ideology was so fiercely at odds with that of their eldest child they abandoned him in a time of need; she wants to expose their part in the family’s sordid past. But she’s challenged by her parents and brother, who question if telling this story is truly worth alienating her family. And is her book a fair depiction of her family’s tale, or is there more to it?

The play is filled with twists and turns as the story of the Wyeth family unravels, and the motivations and faults of all five characters are revealed and reviled. They might appear as recognizable archetypes at the outset, but they all have multiple layers underneath that are gradually exposed. The power dynamics are very interesting, as they all have their own ways of exerting power, overtly or subtly.

Review: (Vancouver) Exit (Fringe)

More than just clowning around
by Chris Lane
@chrislanetweets

Exit is about a clown named Alejandro who has come to Canada from Venezuela, and tells the audience his story and his impressions of the two countries.

The one-clown show is written and performed by Isaac Luy. Everything the energetic Luy does is exaggerated, so be prepared for an entire performance of clowning. But don’t expect a comedy; he talks about painful experiences in his character’s past and present, telling a compelling tale of how he ended up immigrating to Canada. If you’re not used to clowning, the show will take some getting used to, but it’s hard not to be charmed by the excitable and passionate clown.

Review: (Vancouver) Riverview High

Archie comics set to music and an improved plot
Riverview High’s storyline makes more sense and is just as funny as Riverdale
by Chris Lane

Riverview High isn’t about Archie Andrews. Of course not, that would be copyright infringement.

Instead it’s about a completely different red-haired kid, Alex (not Archie at all), who can’t decide between the two girls he loves: the blonde girl-next-door, Cathy, and the rich and beautiful brunette, Erica. Alex’s best friend Parker just so happens to love food (hot dogs, not burgers) and get ceaselessly pursued by a girl he can hardly stand.

Review: (Vancouver) Dissolve

A very real depiction of sexual assault

Dissolve succeeds at being entertaining, informative and powerful

by Chris Lane

Playwright Meghan Gardiner hopes to be put out of business by her play’s material becoming irrelevant. Yet that’s unfortunately not the case, as Dissolve’s subject matter, drug-facilitated sexual assault, is just as common as ever.

The play tells the story of a college student, dubbed “Anygirl” in the program, going out for a night on the town that takes a turn for disaster. She wakes up the next day without any recollection of the previous night, to learn that she slept with a man she had repeatedly rejected, despite feeling pretty sure she only had one drink.

Lane's Week, May 20, 2013

A Week in the Nation's Theatre
by Chris Lane
@chrislanetweets

Congratulations: 
The 16 winners of this year’s Harold Awards have been announced, recognizing outstanding contributions to theatre in Toronto. The Ken McDougall award went to director Mitchell Cushman. According to the website, “to be Harolded is an honour of the highest subversive order.” And congratulations to Toronto theatre critic Kelly Nestruck for being the first Canadian journalist to take part in a U.S.-Germany exchange program for foreign correspondents, the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship.

In memoriam: 
Edmonton’s theatre community is mourning the passing of Jann Smith at age 62. The hard-working theatre administrator has been hailed as an “unsung hero.” (Source)

Review: (Vancouver) Dream Girls

Aurianna Angelique (photo: David Cooper)

Dreamgirls is glitz, glam, and so very showbiz
Aurianna Angelique is powerful and passionate as Effie
by Chris Lane

Dreamgirls is about selling a performance, and selling a song, and the cast at the Arts Club truly sells this show. It’s full of Motown soul and a whole lotta vocal talent.

The hit Broadway musical chronicles the story of the Dreamettes, a Motown trio inspired by the story of the Supremes. They start out as a closely-knit group fronted by Effie, before the slick and smooth Curtis Taylor Jr. moulds them into a money-making pop group. Dreamgirls is an homage to the sounds of Motown, with an engaging storyline that still resonates today.

Lane's Week, May 13, 2013

A Week in the Nation's Theatre
by Chris Lane
@chrislanetweets

Closing doors: 
After a 27-year history, Mississauga’s Stage West Dinner Theatre will be presenting its last dinner shows this summer. It’s been the only dinner theatre in the GTA. (Source)

In memoriam: 

We regret to announce the passing of Huguette Oligny. The celebrated Montréalaise actress of stage and screen acted in both English and French. She was 91. (Source)

Seasons announced: 
Toronto’s Angelwalk Theatre has announced their next season of off-Broadway productions, which will include a show about Liza Minnelli and Barbra Streisand, an autobiographical musical by the creator of RENT, and the Canadian première of Stars of David. Also in Toronto, Native Earth Performing Arts announced their upcoming season, which will feature a production of Quilchena with an all-indigenous creative team, as well as the second annual Panamerican Routes Festival.

(Have news you want to share? Contact us!)

Lane's Week, May 6, 2013

A Week in The Nation's Theatre
by Chris Lane
@chrislanetweets

Montreal on the world stage: 
New York’s Drama Desk Award nominees have been announced, with Cirque du Soleil’s Totem up for two awards. The Montreal circus scene was also recognized in Pippin’s six nods, as Dominique Lemieux and Gypsy Snider each got a nomination. Snider co-founded Les 7 doigts de la main, which brought the circus to Pippin. Things were similar with the Tony Award nominations announced also.

Financial woes: 
Cirque du Soleil may be going through some money troubles, as we’re hearing reports they’re taking away family support for their artists, and seven employees of Mystère in Las Vegas have been laid off. (Source: With the Circus, You Caring via Wayne Leung of Mooney on Theatre/Twitter)

Seasons announced: 
Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, “the world’s largest and longest-running queer theatre,” announced their next season. Toronto’s Obsidian Theatre announced their next season, which will feature a Canadian première and their second-ever musical. And across the pond, the English National Opera’s upcoming season will include two co-productions with the Canadian Opera Company, Die Fledermaus and Rigoletto.

In memoriam: 
We at CharPo regret to announce the passing of actor, translator, activist Kelly Ricard. She will be missed by all her friends in the theatre community. 

Lane's Week, April 28, 2013

This Week in The Nation's Theatre
by Chris Lane
@chrislanetweets

Théâtre en français: 

This week brought out a pair of season announcements from French-language theatre companies. Montreal’s Compagnie Jean-Duceppe announced their upcoming season, which includes a couple well-known translated plays, Les Liaisons dangereuses and La Vénus au vison, alongside the home-grown La traversée de la mer intérieure, to name a few. Quebec City's Théâtre Premier Acte announced a lineup of nine plays from a selection of the city’s small-scale theatre groups. I recommend broadening your horizons and checking out what French-language theatre has to offer across the country. And if your French isn’t great, it can still be a fun to practice.

Happy birthday William Shakespeare: 
Funnily enough, both his birthday and deathday are on the same day, April 23 (or at least that’s our best guess; his exact birthday is unknown).