You can always count on CITY OF ANGELS for a great night of musical theatre!

I had the chance to take in City of Angels at Grant MacEwan University (in the new Triffo Theatre) on Tuesday night. It was World Theatre Day so it seemed appropriate to see a show! City of Angels is one of my favourite shows which has several roles that I would personally love to play (I've aged out of a couple of them... but I could still play Donna/Oolie!!). Anyhow, I love the Cy Coleman score and the concept of the show which plays on film noir and Hollywood tropes. 

Set in Hollywood in the 1940’s the show follows Stine (Joshua Travnik), a young novelist attempting a screenplay of his bestselling novel for movie producer Buddy (Austin From). This is intercut with a film noir enactment of the film in progress which tells the story of detective Stone (Anthony Hurst) and his search for a missing girl. Travnik and Hurst are terrific vocalists and actors and they do an excellent job of capturing the style required for each of their worlds. They both hold their own onstage and the Act One closing duet, "Your're Nothing Without Me" is really outstanding  From plays Buddy with an appropriate bluster and roughness and doesn't shy away from the unlikable qualities of his character which makes for a lot of fun. 

The Director Leigh Rivenbark chose to not do the traditional doubling casting where actors play parallel characters in the 'real' world and the 'film'. I wasn't sure how this would work, but it did for the most part. It certainly allowed the production to showcase the talents of more of the class. It would have been nice to see a little more matching of the roles, however, if only for the audience to understand that Bobbi (Daniela Fernandez) & Gabby (Isabella King) and that Carla (Amalia Gonzalez Chovanec) & Alaura (Chariz Faulmino) are parallel characters. It's clearer with Donna (Kendra Humphrey) and Oolie (Jaclyn Kucey) because their song connects them. In this group of powerhouse women, there are no weak links. Faulmino plays her role with attack and sass and despite her small stature she has a huge voice. Fernandez has a appropriate level of brokenness and the duet of "With Every Breath I Take" between her and Hurst is the best I have ever heard. King brings intelligence to her role that makes you understand why Stone loves her and needs her. Humprey and Kucey play their 'Girl Friday' roles with a nice contrast and they each add their own tone to "You Can Always Count on Me" (however, I was hoping that with the role split there was a way to bring Oolie back for the end of the song... I know, I know... it's not written that way...).

I must also give kudos to the set design (Robyn Ayles) and how it's used. As the show flips back and forth from scene to scene much like a movie does, this production uses shadows, projection and a revolve in addition to hidden doors and a truck to make those switches as fast as they need to be. They do an excellent job at the film reel atmosphere really lends itself to creating the world. Costume designer Megan Koshka has also helped with the black and white aesthetic (right down to the black lipstick) in the movie vs. the Technicolor feel of 40's Hollywood. The ensemble also commits completely to whichever world they're in and you can tell they enjoy embracing the accents and attitudes. 

Anyhow, the show runs two more nights until March 31st. It's a fun show with wonderful music and if you like that Hollywood glamour and a hard-boiled detective story, I encourage you to check it out!

Click here for tickets. 

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.