Review: (Ottawa / Theatre) 9-5 The Musical

Revenge of the Working Girls
by Jim Murchison 
@JimMurchison

Patricia Resnick’s book and Dolly Parton’s lyrics are quite fun. Orpheus puts its energetic fun stamp on the stage version of the popular movie. This play is not Titanic or Fiddler on the Roof so go to it expecting to have some laughs and see some energetic performances and you should have a good time. There is s good message about equity for equal work and revenge on demanding misogynistic bosses who are short on imagination and quick on blame, but that is a byproduct of the fun and fancy.

Review: (Ottawa / Theatre) Spamalot

Photo by Valleywind Productions/David Pasho

And Now for Something Completely Expected
by Jim Murchison

In the beginning there was Monty Python's Flying Circus. Now to say that the British comedy troop was the genesis of irreverent comedy on television would be unfair to the pioneering TV comics of the 50's, but certainly the film Monty Python and The Holy Grail is the source for the play Spamalot. The subtitle refers to it being “lovingly ripped off from the motion picture”. That is why it is a Monty Python work and not truly just an Eric Idle work although he has the sole credit for the book.

Monty Python fans expect things and that is what they get with this Orpheus production directed by Bob Lackey, with musical direction by Terry Duncan and choreography by Christa Cullain. That's as simple as I can put it. For people of my generation they will have seen almost every moment; many in the audience will likely be able to recite sections of dialogue. I don't need to put out spoiler alerts because the film has been around for almost 40 years. The only thing that is unusual, is a film being the inspiration for a play 30 years later rather than the other way around but then Monty Python never concerned itself with the conventional.

Review: (Ottawa) Legally Blonde

Omigod I Had Fun
by Jim Murchison
@JimMurchison

The Orpheus season opened up with the frothy Legally Blonde The Musical. As frivolous as it appears on the surface, the themes are pretty positive. Be true to yourself, don't judge a book by its cover and apply yourself and you can succeed are the ideas that run through this play with book by Heather Hach and music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin.

Review: (Ottawa) Carousel

Spinning for Spinning's Sake 
by Jim Murchison 
@JimMurchison

The amount of dedication that it takes to do musical theatre is remarkable. The size of the productions at Orpheus and the general quality of the shows done by people outside of their regular day jobs is usually very impressive. Having said that I was concerned that Carousel might be a little dated. It is much more than that. It is a social dinosaur. 

Carousel is a musical based on the mediocre Ferenc Molnar play Liliom. It was very popular, probably for the strength of three well crafted songs, If I Loved You, June Is Busting Out All Over and You'll Never Walk Alone. The last song is so inspirational that Jerry Lewis used to close the MD telethons for Jerry's Kids with it. The rest of the song and dance numbers are little more than filler.

There are some very fine messages in Carousel: Don't worry about what other people think of you; Stick to your path and your principles; Don't let your parent's mistakes hold you back or use them as an excuse for your own failure. 

There is another message that is so out of place that it transforms what might be a trite but somewhat entertaining escape into a jawdroppingly stupid choice to perform at any level in this millennium. When someone that loves you beats you, it doesn't hurt. To be fair, the frame of reference here is after a ghost has struck his daughter she doesn't feel it and as I am not an expert on the paranormal perhaps that is the true effect of ghostly beatings. In the real world being beaten by someone you love sometimes wears off after a couple of generations. Sometimes.

Review: (Ottawa) The Drowsy Chaperone

A Man with his Music
by Jim Murchison
@JimMurchison

As the play begins we see a very large unfurnished foyer, with a chair and a record player tucked downstage right representing an apartment, a kitchen with a large refrigerator up centre and a door downstage left. A neat little element in Christy Bindhardt's design is the way actors can be tucked away into the wall while lying in bed so the action is undisturbed. 

The Drowsy Chaperone is a one man play about a man who finds solace in his thoughts and his music. What sets this one man show apart from others is the 24 actors and the 12-piece orchestra that play in his imagination. Many one man shows would benefit from this approach.

Review: (Ottawa) Footloose

Fancy Free!
by Jim Murchison 
@JimMurchison

Last week was a busy week for theatre in Ottawa. So much so, that I did not have an opportunity to review Footloose until Tuesday evening. The play is an adaptation of the intensely popular film screenplay of the 80’s starring Kevin Bacon and written by Dean Pitchford. Pitchford and Walter Bobbie adapted the screenplay for the stage.

My seat was in row H and so I ventured down the aisle getting ever closer to the stage. As I reached row J, I stepped down two more positions and found myself at row G. That’s when it hit me! There is no I in the theatre. Actually there are lots of them. There are 42 people in this production. It makes Pride and Prejudice look like an intimate family gathering. The credit for making this production a true ensemble has to go to the dedicated production team headed by artistic director Shaun Toohey, but equally important is the musical direction of Wendy Berkelaar who also plays keyboards in the 8 piece orchestra and the choreography of Gabe Wolinsky. It is a huge task to move and motivate a group that large and mostly not possible for professional companies to undertake because of the expense. 

Review: (Ottawa) Rent

La Vie Bohème

Rent rises in the Capital

by Jim Murchison

I probably knew less about Rent than most of the audience last night. Oh sure I knew it was set in New York, based on the Pucinni opera La Bohème, so I knew it was about Bohemians and someone would die. You can’t have an opera without at least one great death scene. Among the dedicated “Rent Heads” however, I may have been the only person in the packed house that hadn’t even seen the movie. 

So, last night I finally crawled out from under my rock and joined the faithful for Orpheus’ production of Rent at the Centrepointe Theatre. The passion that the audience has for this play is as exciting as the play itself and it certainly was in the house full force last night. The incredibly talented ensemble gave back to the audience and earned every cheer, laugh and ovation they received.