A Weekend of Song and Dance! City of Angels, West Side Story (AGAIN), and Hair!

This past weekend, we took in not one, nor two, but THREE musicals all within the span of about 27 hours! We also squeezed in a meeting with a contractor and piano lessons so we really maximized our time!

We started on Friday with ELOPE's production of City of Angels.  This is one of my all-time favourite shows to sing and I was very pleased with the production I saw.  It's a show that suggests a huge proscenium with flys and trucks and revolves as it switches from real life to the story of film so I was curious how it would play on the Faculte St. Jean stage. They did marvelous job making it all work. Kudos to the cast for handling the challenging music, particularly the super tight Angel City Four and the stellar leads - Jason Hlus, Trevor J, Monica Roberts, Andrea Graham, Erin Vandermolen-Pater and James Toupin. It was great to see the show on stage again (I haven't seen it in over 20 years) and have it live up to my memory.

On Saturday afternoon, I finally made my way back for a second viewing of West Side Story at the Citadel.  I had seen it Opening Night and was blown away by it! The Singing! The Dancing! The Momentum! I cried twice and spent a good deal of the show in awe of the talent onstage.  Pamela Gordon as Anita is literally as-good-as-it-gets! Eva Tavares as Maria is both fierce and delicate with a voice that cannot be more perfect.  George Krissa as Tony has a charm that emits like a strobe light from the stage. The whole cast is incredible particularly when they dance.  The direction and choreography is flawless. Choreographer Laura Krewski has worked some true stage magic that makes you think this show should ALWAYS be done on a thrust stage, and director Bob Baker has amped the testosterone levels so that it's terrible end feels tragically inevitable. Going again on Saturday confirmed for me how fabulous the show is.  I cried, again, but in totally different places. And oh, to her Pamela Gordon and Eva Tavares sing together in their heart-breaking duet... just fabulous! Only one week left for this one as it closes on May 22nd.  You can get tickets by calling 780.425.1820 or going online to www.citadeltheatre.com.

Finally, we grabbed a bite to eat and settled in at The Mayfield for a groovy evening with Hair. The show was a lot of fun with great voices delivering the catchy, rambunctious songs of the hippie-love-in show. I am not as familiar with the show, but found the ensemble cast quite entertaining. I really liked the comic character bits, especially those portrayed by Sheldon Elter and Amber Bissonette. The show runs until June 12th at The Mayfield and you can get tickets here. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fringe 2024 - Friday, August 16th - A Terrific Afternoon of Shows!

Image
I caught three shows yesterday afternoon and had a wonderful time! Bright Lights - So funny and so well done! This script is hilarious but it only works because the acting and directing is so excellent! I mean, you have to figure those that attend a group for Alien Abduction "experiencers" are going to provide opportunity for huour but I was laughing so much! Great to see some of our finest local actors in this piece and some in roles you wouldn't expect to hilarious effect! See it! ROB AND CHRIS (BOBBY+TINA)-A NEW MUSICAL - Another excellent show. This one a new musical based on Collin Doyle's Let the Light of Day Through ( perhaps the best new script I have seen ever and I think of it often... ). The musical is the same but different, as it is a musical. But it is excellent. Doyle worked with Matt Graham to adapt the piece and it still has it's humour and heart break, but now with wonderful songs. I would avoid spoilers if you haven't seen the play as I th...
Read more

Sometimes it's hard to be nice... Lessons Learned with Donna Orbits the Moon and Spinsters in #yegtheatre this week...

Image
I caught two thought-provoking (and funny) shows this weekend.  Patricia Darbasie in Donna Orbits the Moon , Brianne Jang BB Collective Photography The first, Donna Orbits the Moon presented by Northern Light Theatre, was a one-woman show with the impressive Patricia Darbasie as Donna, a woman finding herself reacting with intense rage to inconveniences in her life. We are not exactly sure at the beginning why these moments are provoking such anger and violence, but there's something in the way that Donna tells the story that we are totally on her side. Indeed when I read a description online before seeing the show, I immediately connected. Too often we are expected to smile and be accommodating and the desire to say " No! " is often very strong with me. I see you, Donna! But there's something more to Donna's rage. There's a concrete reason she's suppressing and the reveal is deftly revealed in a touching and emotionally moving way (Directed by Trevor Sch...
Read more

Fringe 2024 - Saturday, August 24th - Young Wives and The Bells!

Image
I saw two shows on Saturday. I'm pacing myself this Fringe so I might not hit my usual 30+ total! But despite the slightly overcast weather, it was a nice day - not too hot and my feet could handle the walk to Sugar Swing and back to the main grounds! What a Young Wife Ought to Know - This was a very well done production of Hannah Moscovitch's script. I had not seen the show when it was done in the city in 2018 but was glad to catch it here at the Fringe. It deals with the challenges and trials of a young (a very young) wife in 1920s Ottawa dealing with managing her fertility despite a lack of support both socially and medically. This is pre-birth control pill times; this is back alley abortion and throw yourself down the stairs to end a pregnancy time; this is the time when women frequently dies in childbirth. This is the time when you are looked at with disgust and judged when you ask for help for how to prevent a pregnancy. Anyhow, the show was very well done. The cast of ...
Read more