THE LION KING – REVIEW OF 2024 PRODUCTION AT PRINCESS OF WALES THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas 

Is there an insatiable appetite for The Lion King? It’s a musical that has been seen by more than 110 million people according to Mirvish’s  program for the current production at the Princess of Wales Theatre. But clearly there are people in Toronto who have not seen it or want to see it again.

The question parents need to answer: have you taken your nine-year old (give or take a few years) to see The Lion King? This is not an idle question.

You may think it is a show about the struggle for power, usurpation, displacement of a legitimate ruler by an evil sibling, attempted assassination, despoilation of a community and, eventually, restoration of peace and legitimacy. These are the Trumpian lies that you can tell your children if you want to scare them from wanting to see The Lion King. Make sure you use the suggested big words to help you get away with it. But remember that someone will eventually punish you. But who? 

If you want to evade retribution, you may choose veracity over mendacity or, more plainly,  tell the kids the truth.  

Tell them that they will walk into a theatre where there is palpable excitement in the air before the show begins. Youngsters and adults alike will react with noises. screams and laughter, yes, excitement throughout the performance. In other words, they will experience the communal joy and  magic of live theatre.

They will see a large cast of characters, make that jungle animals, come running down the aisles from the back of the theatre onto the stage. Yikes. They are unexpected, startling and spectacular.  The stage will be filled with animals from lions to a giraffe, to zebras and  hyenas.

 

David D"Lancy Wilson as Mufasa. Photo: Matthew Murphy

There is a plot, of course. Mufasa (David D’Lancy Wilson) is the wise, benevolent lion king who has a nasty, ambitious and creepy brother, Scar (Salvatore Antonio). He wants to dethrone him. Mufasa has a faithful companion and advisor in Zazu (Will Jeffs), a red-billed hornbill and a young son, Simba, (a lively Ira Nabong) who is prone to misbehaving. Mufasa wants to teach him to be a future wise ruler. But Mufasa dies in a freak “accident” and Scar takes over with the help of the creepy, cackling hyenas starring Shenzi (Jewelle Blackman), Banzai (Joema Frith) and Ed (Simon Gallant).

Young Simba is thrown out of the kingdom and goes through some adventures, some great laughs and the spectacle on stage continues. There are lessons to be absorbed by the young about growing up, learning and accepting responsibility, but don’t tell them that. That’s the boring and subliminal part of the plot.

The wise baboon Rafiki (a ball of fire and energy called Zama Magudulela) opens the show with “The Circle of Life” with the ensemble on Pride Rock, the symbolic throne of Mufasa and then the adult Simba (Erick D. Patrick). The spectacle ends triumphantly on Pride Rock with a reprise of “The Circle of Life” in a rousing and satisfying rendition by the ensemble that was kept busy throughout the performance.

Timon (Brian Sills) the meerkat and Pumbaa (Trevor Patt) the warthog are a hilarious and loveable duo who sing the unforgettable and best known song of the musical “Hakuna Matata” but there is a myriad of marvelous songs for individual characters, but they are almost always accompanied by the ensemble. 

The important part is the sheer spectacle that generates the excitement in the audience. The animal kingdom is brought on stage in brilliant, imaginative, entertaining, colorful ways. There are quiet moments, of course, for people to catch their breath and parts played for comedy but the spectacle, the music and singing are not far off to keep the frantic and wonderful pace. The production uses the entire theatre when possible. Watching the amazing costumes that the actors wear and the way they manipulate the animals is alone a marvel.

There is a small army of behind-the-scenes people to bring the show to life but I will mention only director Julie Taymor who has almost countless pieces to handle to bring the whole show together. Elton John and Tim Rice are credited with the music and lyrics but there are five more people who provide “additional music and lyrics” including the director, Julie Taymor.  The Disney organization sure knows how to put a show together.

Oh, yes. Who might punish you if you do not take your youngster to The Lion King? The Furies will appear to you at night and torture your conscience for the offence of omission. You will have to find a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena and beg for absolution!
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The Lion King, music and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice with additional music and lyrics by Lebo M. Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor, and Hans Zimmer, book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi opened on November 10, 2024, and continues at the Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King St. West, Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD – REVIEW OF 2024 COAL MINE THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

A Case For The Existence Of God is another superb production by Coal Mine Theatre. God is never mentioned and if there is a case for His existence it is left to our imagination or perhaps a scene in the play. Thank God.

Samuel D. Hunter’s play has two characters and it builds on their lives, their hopes and aspirations, their past relationship, their evolving friendship and eventual fate. Hunter modulates the plot and we see the players in dramatic and humorous scenes that make for   wonderful theatre. 

The play’s two characters are Keith (Mazin Elsadig), a Black homosexual mortgage broker and Ryan (Noah Reid), a working-class man looking for money to buy a piece of land. We are in Twin Falls, a real city of about 52,000 inhabitants in south Idaho. (It’s real and I checked it on Google). And I may add that Hunter comes from Idaho.

The two men come from different worlds. Keith is an educated son of a lawyer who has travelled and after getting a degree in Early Music and English literature ends up as a mortgage broker. Ryan is going through a divorce with a fight for custody and wants to buy a parcel of land that was in his family a century ago. He wants to build a house.

The play is built around a few scenes that change quickly and seamlessly with almost no indication of the change but you can tell that it happened from the context. The set by Set and Costume Designer Nick Blais represents a pleasant if sparsely decorated office with a desk and two chairs where Keith is trying to find a mortgage for Ryan who has a bad credit rating, no assets and lies about having a job.

Mazin Elsadig, left, and Noah Reid in 
A Case for the Existence of God. Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann

 The play reveals the backgrounds of the two men and we learn that despite their social and educational differences, the men have many points in common. Ryan is fighting for custody of his daughter and Keith has gone into fostering a child to be able to adopt her. He runs into a problem when an aunt of the child appears and claims the right to the child. The two watch lovingly the little girls playing in playground in a scene that is moving and humorous.   

Elsadig and Reid act superbly. Elsadig, being black, gay and the son of a lawyer comes from a well-heeled family that provided international travel. Despite having a university degree, he ends up as a lowly mortgage broker and he is aware of his lack of achievement. He has failed to adopt a child and even the fostering route seems to be headed for failure. Elsadig shows Keith’s subliminal and obvious feeling of a failure and he cannot establish a friendship with Ryan. 

Reid as Ryan has a failed marriage and the probability of getting limited access to the daughter that he adores. He is aware of his lack of education (“harrowing” is a big word and unknown to him), and that he comes from a broken family He understands nothing of the process of buying and financing the purchase of a piece of land that will return him to the past when his forebears were more successful. Reid gives a wonderful portrayal of Ryan. Both men come out as sympathetic and we are rooting for them but if their fate is a case for the existence of God, He does not appear to be on their side.

There is a final scene that may suggest that God exists and there is some redemption for the men however indirect. But I am not sure and I will not reveal the content of the scene. Go see the play for yourself.

Ted Dykstra devotes his immense talent in directing a seemingly simple play and getting all the drama, humour and depth of the play and the characters. He modulates every word and every line for full effect be it to move us to tears, to get a guffaw from a single word or to show the attempt of the men to make human contact. Terrific work.

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A Case for the Existence of God by Samuel D. Hunter continues until December 1, 2024, at the Coal Mine Theatre, 2076 Danforth Ave. Toronto, (northwest corner of Woodbine and Danforth). www.coalminetheatre.com/ 

James Karas os the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

PLAYING SHYLOCK – REVIEW OF 2024 CANADIAN STAGE PRODUCTION AT BERKELEY ST. THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

It starts almost innocently. Saul Rubinek is playing Shylock in a Canadian Stage production of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice but he and the rest of the cast are interrupted halfway through a performance and told that the production has been cancelled. The reason given is that the play is incompatible with the times. Very curious. And in the middle of a performance!

Canadian Stage intended to cancel the production the next day and had prepared a mealy-mouthed press release dated the next day to explain its precipitous action. But the pressure got to them and they decided to cancel it on the day it did and when the post-dated press release was leaked.  

Before I continue my review of Playing Shylock I want to lavish praise on Saul Rubinek, the star and only performer. He is on stage for almost an hour and a half performing as the aggrieved actor, as Shylock in parts of The Merchant that he re-enacts and as a Canadian of the theatre with a fascinating background. This is brilliant storytelling, stunning acting and a splendid night at the theatre. Rubinek tells us about his background from being born in a camp in Germany at the end of World War II and his parents bringing him to Canada when he was nine months old. His father was involved in the theatre and he himself has found success in numerous roles in the world of entertainment.

When he enters the stage, he is dressed like Shylock, a Jew, and as the performance continues, he removes all his Jewish attire from yarmulka to prayer shawl. He performs under a huge cross hanging over the stage of the cancelled production. He talks about The Merchant, the actors who performed the play in history, about Jews in the theatre, all interwoven with autobiographical facts. We have the factitious blended with the autobiographical to lend credence to the cancelled production.

 

Saul Rubinek in Playing Shylock. Photo: Dahlia Katz

Rubinek walks around the stage that has a large table and a couple of chairs, addresses the audience frequently and evokes laughter. He leaves no doubt about the essential humanity of Shylock, a role that was not played by a Jew for 300 years after Shakespeare wrote it. Oh yes, it is unlikely that Shakespeare knew any Jews on which to base Shylock and maybe Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, did write The Merchant because he lived in Venice when the play was written and would have known Jews.

Rubinek gives a superb performance of Shylock’s part in the trial scene. The judge was Portia, neither a lawyer nor a judge but who is married to the person for whose benefit the money was borrowed from Shylock. There is no reason to believe that she is not as antisemitic as the rest of the Christians. She pleads eloquently for “the quality of mercy” but only that it be applied to the viciously antisemitic Christians.

Playing Shylock is written by Mark Leiren-Young who wrote a one-act play called Shylock in 1996. That play has some similarities with Playing Shylock but it is a very different. Playing Shylock evolved from the first play after a long period of gestation with numerous changes and the addition of biographical details about Rubinek to give the impression that we are watching a documentary. It is wonderful theatre from Rubinek’s bravura performance to the brilliant and different view of Shakespeare’s play  (except the suggestion that de Vere may have written it) and the informative script.

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Playing Shylock by Mark Leiren-Young continues until November 24, 2024, at the Berkeley St. Theatre, 26 Berkeley St.  Toronto, Ont. https://www.canadianstage.com/

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of the Greek Press

 

FAUST – REVIEW OF 2024 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Faust has had a happier relationship with the COC than Nabucco.  It was last produced by the COC in 2007 and it got seven performances that season.

If Faust had consulted a good lawyer, say Sir Thomas More, about the bargain he was making with the Devil, Mephistopheles, the man for all seasons no doubt would have said “why Doctor, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world, but for a woman.”  Faust sold his soul and did not get the whole world but did get some youth and the young and lovely Marguerite for a brief time. Not a great bargain for him but a huge boon for poets, playwrights and composers.

The COC production tries to capture the essence of the bargain and entertain us with some of the liveliest music on the subject. The production tries illustrating the theme in the detailed set by Emma Ryott and lighting by Charlie Morgan Jones. There are stairs leading up to heaven, I suppose, that also look like the backbone of a prehistoric animal. We have a projection of a human chest that looks like an enhanced x-ray so that you have to look at all its details to get the full picture and all the symbolism. I took their word for it. The church scene was different and starkly impressive.

Mephistopheles (Kyle Ketelsen), dressed in high hat and tails, is the essence of a gentleman. When he strikes the bargain with Faust, he asks him to sign a contract without any information about what is in it. Faust becomes young and able to seduce Marguerite (Guanqun Yu) but we only find out about that when we learn that she had a baby that she kills. We assume that Faust ends up in the place where the sun does not shine but we don’t learn much more about his faith. Marguerite is destroyed and gets a reconciliation scene with Faust but she has God on her side and does not join her lover in the “Other” Place where we assume he goes. She sings her two big arias beautifully.

Kyle Ketelsen, Long Long and Guanqun Yu in COC’s Faust. 
Photo: Michael Cooper

Director Amy Lane embellishes the plot by adding some characters. Mephistopheles is accompanied by two beautiful silent dancers dressed as if they work in a cabaret in Berlin in the 1920’s. They do not sing but they do look good. During the famous Jewel Song, the jewels are shown off by the dancers.

I admit that the familiar story as worked out by Gounod does not grab me but Gounod’s music does. I found a disconnect between the tragedy of Marguerite even if it is relieved by the choir of angels and the grace of God and the beautiful music and melodies. Where is Mephistopheles’ evil to make us cringe with horror?

I cannot complain about the singers. Kyle Ketelsen is a distinguished bass-baritone and he sang a swaggering Mephistopheles, not evil but a fine-voiced man-about-town accompanied by two lovely cabaret girls. Tenor Long Long gave us a well-sung Faust who, as far as we can tell, got Marguerite and, as I said, then destroyed her life. I still can’t figure out why Siebel, a man, is sung by a woman, the lovely-voiced mezzo-soprano Alex Hetherington. Baritone Szymon Mechlinski sings Valentin, Marguerite’s brother, who gets the sonorous and moving aria ‘Avant de quitter ces lieux’’ He bids farewell to his sister and entrusts her care to the Lord and goes off to war where he is killed.

One can argue about Gounod’s treatment of the Faust legend and the creaks of his famous opera but there can be no disagreement about the sumptuousness of his music. The melodic waltz, the Soldier’s Chorus, the beautiful Jewel Song and much more carry the opera and the audience with them. Conductor Johannes Debus conducts the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and Chorus with superbly.

Amy Lane directs the production at its best and its creakiest and does her best under the circumstances. 
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Faust by Charles Gounod, directed by Amy Lane, conducted by Johannes Debus ran until Nov. 2, 2024, at the Four-Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. W. Toronto. For more information go to www.coc.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press 

NABUCCO – REVIEW OF 2024 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

For its fall season the Canadian Opera Company has chosen Verdi’s Nabucco and Charles Gounod’s Faust. Both operas are reasonably well known but not exactly chestnuts. Faust was last produced by the COC in 2007 and it has never staged Nabucco before and even this time it offers a production from the Lyric Opera of Chicago. We are happy and grateful for it.

Nabucco has several distinctions, including that of being Verdi’s first great success and being an opera that may best be known for its famous chorus, “Va pensiero.”   A more dubious distinction may be that it has a soprano voice killer role of Abigaile for singers who take on the role while young, undisciplined and unmentored.

The role demands vocal range and prowess that very few sopranos possess. The number of singers who possessed those vocal qualities in the past century can be counted on your fingers so to suggest that Mary Elizabeth Williams, the COC’s Abigaile, does not fall in that category is not to diminish her abilities. She does give us Abigaile’s emotional conflicts, and her ambitions. She reaches vocal and emotional peaks but understandably cannot maintain them throughout. At 47 Williams is not young but she is disciplined enough in not attempting to sing at full throttle for the entire performance. I give her credit for her peaks and understand her care not to overdo it.

Roland Wood as Nabucco and Mary Elizabeth Williams as Abigaille 
in the COC’s production of Nabucco. Photo: Michael Cooper/COC

Baritone Roland Wood has a clarion voice that he unleashes for his performance as Nabucco. The king is arrogant, of course, then he loses it, then he regains his sanity and then he converts. That’s keeping the character and the singer very busy but Wood handles the role well. Mezzo soprano Rihab Chaieb plays the nice Fenena, Nabucco’s real daughter and she sings well and provides a contrast to the megalomaniac Abigaile. But she is not without problems. The nice Babylonian has fallen in love with Ismale (tenor Matthew Cairns), a Hebrew, whom she in fact helped him escape from captivity, and became a hostage of the Israelis. Cairns and bass Simon Lim as the Hebrew High Priest Zaccaria deserve kudos for their performances. Lim”s Zaccaria is a steadfast and sonorous leader who keeps the spirits of the Israelites in check under trying conditions.

Verdi paid special attention to the choruses and the dream of freedom of “Va pensiero” is only one of them. They vary from martial bravado, to fear, to expression of triumph. The  COC Chorus under the direction of Sandra Horst is simply outstanding. The COC Orchestra is conducted in exemplary fashion by Paolo Carignani.  

The sets by Michael Yeargan and the lighting by Mikael Kangas favour dark tones and spotlights. The Babylonian throne at the top of a staircase looks like a simple bench and we have the right to expect something more ostentatious. A few brightly lit scenes would help.  

The same observation applies to Director Katherine M. Carter, who may have had to face budget restrictions rather than failure of the imagination in some of her decisions. I feel that perhaps I am being churlish when I should be grateful and applauding loudly for a production that is highly laudable, of an opera opera that for all its shortcomings, deserves to be produced more frequently.

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Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi (music) and Temistocle Solera (libretto) was performed seven times between October 4 and 29,  2024 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. West Toronto, Ont. www.coc.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

THE STUDENT PRINCE - REVIEW OF 2024 TORONTO OPERETTA THEATRE PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Toronto Operetta Theatre offers its third production of Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince after a nine-year absence since its last showing. It is a creditworthy effort on the 100^th anniversary of the operetta’s opening. The 2015 production was performed five times but this year’s staging will get a paltry three showings. What is happening to operetta productions in Toronto these days? More below. 

The current production has some fine spots but also some hiccups that affect the overall enjoyment of the bright piece. The operetta is lively, often funny, and full of romantic, boisterous, melodious and wonderful songs. It is operetta as it should be.

We are in the country of Karsberg where the young and handsome heir to the throne Prince Karl Franz (Xavier Flory) is preparing to go to the University of Heidelberg to finish his studies. His future is laid out for him. He will become king upon the death of his elderly grandfather and will marry Princess Margaret (Minerva Lobato) to whom he is already betrothed.

He is accompanied by his bossy valet Lutz (Karen Bojti), his humane tutor Dr. Engel (Ryan Hofman) and will be visited by the Prime Minister von Mark (Sebastien Belcourt) when necessary. The Prince feels that he is under surveillance all the time.

But life as a student in Heidelberg proves to be a riot. At The Inn of the Three Golden Apples he meets other students including members of The Saxon Corps who drink, sing and lead a riotous life. The colorful Ruder (Sebastien Belcourt again) is the keeper of the inn and he has a toothsome and fetching niece called Kathie (Brooke Mitchell) who catches the Price’s heart. Between the members of the Corps and the staff of the Inn there are opportunities for student shenanigans and a serious bout of inebriation and entertainment for us.

Brooke Mitchell as Kathie (centre) and cast in The Student Prince
Photo: Gary Beechy / BOS Studios 

The Prince’s betrothed shows up at the inn with her snooty mother, Duchess Anastasia (Carrie Parks) but our hero is in love with Kathie and plans to elope with her. But the king dies and he is summoned to Karlsberg and the reality of having to become king. He does and his plans to elope with Kathie are unraveled. Princess Margaret is not too bad, he decides and it is time for  him to settle down and the audience to go home.

The original tenor became ill and had to be replaced on five days’ notice by Xavier Flory. Aside from some missteps, he does a fine job in the role especially considering the short time he had to learn the role.

There were several cast members who unfortunately did not enunciate to the point where we could not follow what they were saying.  Director Guillermo Silva-Marin  had some difficulty getting out all the humour of the operetta. Lutz, the students and some of the servants could have been used for more laughs which simply did not materialize. Silva-Marin usually interlopes jokes about current politics but this time there was only one about Justin Trudeau.

Kudos to conductor Kate Carver who conducted the tiny orchestra and the action on the stage meticulously and enthusiastically.

What is happening to the production of operetta in Toronto? In the program, TOT describes itself as Canada’s lyric leader bringing classic operettas and related musicals to us. It is in its 40^th year and that is a major achievement. Credit is due to the tireless Silva-Marin who almost single-handedly manages to continue entertaining us despite some obvious financial issues.

The first operetta I saw was The Mikado in 1974 with the inimitable John Reed at Sadler’s Wells in London. I was hooked. Most European countries have productions of operettas as part of their cultural life. Why is it not catching on in Canada?

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The Student Prince by Sigmund Romberg is being performed on November 1 ,2 and 3, 2024 at the Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. Tel:  (416) 366-7723. www.stlc.com or www.torontooperetta.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON - REVIEW OF 2024 CANADIAN STAGE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

My Name Is Lucy Barton is an adaptation for the stage by Rona Munro of Elizabeth Strout’s novel. It is performed by a single actor and no review should start without giving credit to Maev Beaty for a bravura performance of a complex and long (1 hour and 40 minutes) script without an intermission and without a hitch. It is acting at its best.

This is a memory play and Lucy Barton’s recollections about her life come pouring out as she recovers in hospital from complications following an appendectomy. The first thing that struck me is the title of the play. She insists on telling us her name as if to make sure that we know who she is. She needs to establish her identity first rather than telling us that she will talk about her life or being a writer or any other angle that she may wish to examine. Why the insistence on her name?    

We meet Lucy Barton in the hospital where she is waking up after an operation. Her  appendectomy has become infected and what should have been a brief stay has extended to nine weeks in a New York hospital. Lucy finds her mother seated at the foot of her bed, nothing unusual in that, one would surmise. But she has not seen her mother for nine years and it becomes an important event. Lucy has complicated relations with her mother and almost everyone else that she meets and her mother’s visit begins the unraveling of Lucy’s life as she relates it to us.

She had an unhappy childhood with poverty and difficult, unaffectionate parents. but her mother overcame her fear of flying and is sitting at the end of Lucy’s hospital bed. Do the facts as told by Lucy reflect with reality?

Maev Beaty in My Name Is Lucy Barton. 

Photo: Dahlia Katz/Canadian Stage

The hospital room, the set that is by Michael Gianfrancesco  consists of a bed and a chair for the entire performance. He also designed elegant attire for Beaty. She moves around the stage and narrates part of her autobiography which covers her life from childhood to marriage, to children, divorce and her becoming a successful writer. She tells her story in a stream-of-consciousness style meaning that she tells us whatever comes to her mind without attempting chronological order or any other order that I could discern.

There are a few flashes of humour but Lucy tells us her story in a straightforward fashion that hides far more than it reveals. Her relationship with both her parents, her siblings and her children suggest that this is a dysfunctional family. Is this normal?  She shows very little emotion or histrionics about some very miserable parts of her life. She does love her children and expresses grief about the death of a gay friend from AIDS. She had not seen her mother for nine years and is pleased to see her? Back to her mother’s visit where the two women appear normal. Is it only on the surface? After her mother leaves the hospital, Lucy does not see her for nine years again. What is going on?

Lucy is advised to be ruthless and perhaps she is but her real motivation is to watch people it is that trait that makes her a writer and perhaps all the ups and downs of her life and all the strained relationships are merely a preparation for Lucy to become a writer. The reality behind what she tells us may be opaque because it may simply be the basis for her becoming a writer.

The simple set is supplemented with projected videos of waves in changing colours designed by Amelia Scott, lighting designed by Bonnie Beecher and sound by Jacob Li.

Jackie Maxwell once again displays her sensitivity and mastery in  directing a difficult play to perfection.
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My Name Is Lucy Barton adapted for the stage by Rona Munro from the novel by Elizabeth Strout continues until November 3, 2024, at the Bluma Appel Theatre, Toronto, Ontario. www.canstage.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press