42nd STREET- REVIEW OF 2023 PRODUCTION AT PRINCESS OF WALES THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

"You're going out there a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!"

Who can forget that marvelous line uttered by a director to a neophyte singer/dancer stepping out on the stage to perform a starring role for the first time? It captures the dream of every would-be performer. It engages the wish of every audience and provides vicarious satisfaction when it happens even in a fairy tale on the stage.

Welcome to 42^nd Street, the 1980 smash song-and-dance musical that conveyed that fairy tale to the opening-night audience on Broadway who greeted it with a standing ovation. When the applause died down, they were informed that Gower Champion, the famous director of the production had died that day. Reality and fairy tale clashed head on.

David Mirvish has brought 42^nd Street to the Princess of Wales Theatre with the fairy tale intact but without the unpleasant reality. He has imported the United Kingdom production directed by Jonathan Church.

42^nd Street, more than a fairy tale, is a song and dance extravaganza, with spectacular tap dances, beautiful songs and glitzy costumes to light up everything. 

The company of 42nd Street. Photo: John Persson

The fairy tale. Peggy Sawyer (Nicole-Lily Baisden) from Pennsylvania arrives late for the casting of a new musical, Pretty Lady. We are treated to marvelous tap dancing that sends our heart pitter-patter in tune with the steps we witness. We meet the star of the show, the egotistical and sometimes obnoxious Dorothy Brock (Ruthie Henshall)  who can sing in a delicious voice but can’t dance. She is accompanied by her sugar-daddy, southern boor Abner Dillon (Anthony Ofoegbu). But before we get there, we need some more dancing and a polite invitation to lunch to Peggy by tenor Billy (Olly Christopher) and a romantic song  by the two, “Young and Healthy.”

Dorothy is a has-been but still a star and Henshall lends her luscious voice to several songs including the romantic “I only have eyes for you.”

The plot will inevitably involve some complications (we do have more than two hours to tell the whole story). Dorothy will be injured; Peggy will be fired and the show will be in serious danger of being cancelled completely. For tap dancing afficionados, there is a feast of routines done with precision, synchronization and gusto. The costumes have glitz and glamour and are a pleasure to watch. We are in the 1930’s and the dancers have the choice of accepting the job offers or going on the dole.

The music and songs of 42^nd Street have the benefit of familiarity and they are melodic, memorable and beautiful. Dorothy sings “You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me,” the Chorus and several dancers sing “We’re In The Money” and the cast serves up “Lullaby of Broadway”. Peggy and the Dancers  sing “Forty-Second Street” and the result is, let me coin a phrase and quote David Merrick, the original producer, a song and dance musical extravaganza.

Let me praise the people on the stage that I have not mentioned already from Adam Garcia as the tough director Julian Marsh, to Josefina Gabrielle as co-writer and producer  Maggie Jones and Michael Matus as co-writers and producer Bert Barry of Pretty Lady, the show they are putting on. I need hardly say that the ensemble of dancers is superlative. What they do is provided by the choreography and musical staging of Bill Beamer, what everyone is wearing and what they are playing in front and around them is the work Robert Jones, Lighting Designer Ben Cracknell, and Projection Designer Jon Driscoll.

The biggest credit for the overall success must needs go the the director of 42^nd Street (not the fictitious Pretty Lady), Jonathan Church. He is highly adept at marshalling the talent, energy, gusto and high caliber performances to give us a superb evening at the theatre.

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42^nd STREET  by Harry Warren (music), Al Dubin (lyrics), Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble (book) continues until January 21, 2024, 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

AIN’T TOO PROUD - REVIEW OF SPECTACULAR MUSICAL AT CAA ED MIRVISH THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

ain’t too proud – The Life and Times of THE TEMPTATIONS is a spectacular musical that tells what the title indicates. It is in Toronto for a short run at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre. It will run from December 7 to 17, 2023. Mirvish’s effusive blurb describes the show as “the electrifying new smash-hit Broadway musical that follows The Temptations’ extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.” 

The musical premiered in Berkeley, California in 2017 and it played in Toronto for more than a month in the fall of 2018 at the Princess of Wales Theatre. Its current brief visit to Toronto is welcome and undoubtedly successful. For those who keep track of our national artists, they should know that the production is directed by Des McAnuff. He is a master of grand musicals and this is just one of them.

The Temptations are five talented black singers and dancers who have been around with numerous changes since 1960. They sing with gusto and dance at the same time with unstoppable energy that may put Olympic athletes to shame. Their performance consists of a series of song and dance routines that leaves the audience breathless, let alone how the performers find the strength and stamina to last for more than two hours on stage.

The group was the creation of Otis Williams, a Texas-born bass-baritone who was raised in Detroit. The musical is based on his autobiography and the story of the group is told by Williams. He tells us that there have been 27 members of the group since its inception but the original five were Otis Williams (Michael Andreaus), David Ruffin (Elijah Ahmad Lewis), Melvin Franklin (Harrell Holmes Jr.), Eddie Kendricks (Jalen Harris), and Paul Williams (E. Clayton Cornelious).

Elijah Ahmad Lewis, Jalen Harris, Michael Andreaus, Harrell Holmes Jr., 
E. Clayton Cornelious from the National Touring Company of Ain’t Too Proud 
(Photo: © 2023 Emilio Madrid

I cannot overemphasize the performances of the original five and some of the replacements that we see that display vocal strength and athletic ability in dancing and singing.

The musical also features The Supremes, Diana Ross (Amber Mariah Talley), Florence Ballard (Shayla Brielle G.) and Mary Wilson (Brittney Smith)

We are treated to more than two dozen songs and you can judge their familiarity and popularity by the audience’s reactions.

The Supremes sing a medley of songs including "You Can't Hurry Love" and "Come See About Me."

With five talented people and many changes in the makeup of the group there are inevitable conflicts. David Ruffin sings with Tammi Terrell (Shayla Brielle G.) and ends up striking her. There is alcoholism, drug addiction, vehement arguments, ego trips and separations. There is also death, including Otis’s son, and a funeral, the full cycle of life. Otis Williams as our host relates the events to us but that is just background information. They then burst into song and dance with vocal fervor and athletic movements, arms flailing, feet moving frantically, all synchronized, impressive, entertaining.

Sergio Trujillo provides the over-the-top, boisterous  choreography. The scenic design by Robert Brill consists of a backdrop indicating the place where The Temptations are performing but also the names of the cities that they toured. It is a fine indicator of the supreme success of the group that they performed not just in numerous American cities but practically around the world.
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Ain’t too proud, The life and times of The Temptations  by Dominique Morisseau (book) based on Otis Williams’ autobiography The Temptations, with music and lyrics from The Legendary Motown Catalogue, played at The CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St. Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com

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

ANGELS IN AMERICA – REVIEW OF 2023 PRODUCTION AT BUDDIES IN BAD TIMES THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

If you want to see Tony Kushner’s epic plays Angels in America, you will have to devote two evenings and more than seven hours of intense attention. There are two parts, Angels in America, Part One, Millennium Approaches and Part Two, Perestroika. Kushner subtitles his doubleheader A Gay Fantasia on National Themes and that should give you a small handle on what to look for.

The pair of plays opened in 1991 and deal with a broad spectrum of American social issues with a focus on the AIDS epidemic of the time, homosexuality and the rise of conservatism. That Theatre Company and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre give the plays a highly effective if pared down production in the latter company’s tiny theatre on Alexander Street in Toronto.

The two plays contain numerous scenes and a complex plot that is not easily summarized but I will mention a few items to give some idea of the breadth of the play.

Kushner deals brutally, graphically and unapologetically with homosexuality and the AIDS epidemic and much more. There are eight actors who play some twenty characters. The plays go from the harshly realistic to the surreal with pungent remarks about political and social life during Ronald Reagan’s presidency and supernatural events like the appearance of angels and the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, the American traitor who passed secrets about the atomic bomb to the Soviets. She was executed partly and perhaps mainly because of Roy Cohn, one of the lawyers who prosecuted her.

Prior Walters is a homosexual in the 20^th century (played by Allister MacDonald) but also appears as a thirteenth century ghost (played by Wade Bogert-O’Brien who also plays Joe) and a seventeenth century wigged aristocratic ghost played by Jim Mezon who also plays Roy Cohn. It gets complicated, no?

Angels in America. Poto by Nathan Nash 

The best-known character in the play is Roy Cohn, a powerful lawyer, a bisexual who denied vehemently any sexual contact with men and died of AIDS. He was a malevolent, vile and vicious man, a Rottweiler, a fraudster, an egomaniac and the quintessence of evil. Jim Mezon gives a stunning performance, capturing the evil forcefulness of Cohn with bruising effectiveness.

In his final appearance in Perestroika, we see Cohn in a hospital bed visited by Ethel Rosenberg. He hallucinates or pretends that she is his mother and begs her to sing to him. She does and it seems that he is dead but he bolts up and triumphantly announces that he fooled her and got her to sing to him. She gets the pleasure of telling him that he has been disbarred. He dies.

Joe (Wade Bogart-O’Brien) is one of the main characters, a friend of Cohn’s who tries to manipulate him. Joe is a lawyer clerking for an appellate judge, a Mormon married to the valium-addicted Harper (Christine Horne) and a homosexual who vehemently denies it.  Joes goes for long walks in Central Park and comes out of the closet and falls in love with Louis. He is abandoned by him for political reasons. Joe is a conservative and a friend of the despicable Cohn. He tries to reconcile with his wife but nothing works for him. Bogart-O’Brien gives a stellar performance.

Joe’s wife Harper (Christine Horne) has serious problems with addiction and a husband who goes out for mysterious walks in Central  Park. She hallucinates about going to the Antarctic. She has sex and imagines being in heaven but all she wants is to be in San Francisco. We presume she overcomes her hallucinations and does end up in San Francisco.

Belize (Kaleb Alexander) is a decent and caring registered nurse who has a lot stacked against him. He is black, a former drag queen, gay and decent in an indecent world. He is assigned to look after Cohn in the hospital and has enough decency to do it. Alexander also plays the flamboyant Mr. Lies, Harper’s imaginary friend who emerges from a trap door on the stage to be with her. Superb performance.

Louis (Ben Sanders) is an idealistic Jew in love with Prior Walter but when the latter contracts AIDS, he abandons him. Louis does achieve maturity and displays faith in American democracy that is buffeted by the conservatives during Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the mid 1980’s. Ironically, it is as if nothing has changed in the last forty years. Superb performance by Sanders who also plays the ghost of Prior Walter in an unrecognizable English accent.  

Prior Walter (Allister MacDonald) retains his decency despite being rejected by his lover on account of his AIDS. After his death, he returns as a ghost on two occasions played by different actors. Prior is made a prophet by the Angel but he rejects it. In the end Louis tries to rekindle the old love and relationship. Prior generously avows that he loves Louis but rejects any idea of reconciliation. Marvelous performance  

The Angel (Soo Garay) is a mysterious and intriguing figure. Her wings have been clipped or fallen off and she has the barest indication  of  them. She wants to make Prior Walter a prophet but he rejects her.     

Director Craig Pike must organize the actors and the action of a complex play in a small rectangular playing area with the audience perched on each side. The advantage is that the audience is very close to the actors but the disadvantage is that we look at the back of one actor when two of them are seated on the stage facing each other. Unless the actors are moving around, this is unavoidable but undesirable.

There is very little room for a set of almost any kind except for two beds at opposite ends of the rectangle that are wheeled in and out as required and a few chairs being placed on the stage for some scenes and removed by the actors when they walk off. This is what I mean by a pared down version. 

Angels in America, Parts One and Two is a complex play with numerous characters and frequent scene changing. It is done on an almost bare stage and it requires close attention to keep up with the people and events. But it is theatre of high quality and That Theatre Company and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre deserve a standing ovation for the production.

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Angels in America: Part One: Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Perestroika by Tony Kushner continue until December 17, 2023, at the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre,  12 Alexander Street, Toronto, Ontario.  www.buddiesinbadtimes.com

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

CHRIS, MRS. – REVIEW OF NEW HOLIDAY MUSICAL AT THE WINTER GARDEN THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

If you are wondering about the title of the musical simply pronounce the two words and you should get Christmases. Chris, Mrs. is indeed a new musical unabashedly about Christmas and thoroughly enjoyable.

Its music, book and lyrics are by Matthew Stodolak and Katie Kerr. Stodolak is also the musical director and Katie Kerr directs the musical. They are a bright, young couple with experience in regional theatres and the ambition, talent and ability to write Chris, Mrs. and produce it at The Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto. That alone entitles them to a standing ovation. 

The musical takes place around Christmas, in fact much of it takes place on Christmas Eve. It is a  love story that has a few bumps to keep us entertained for over two hours with some wonderful songs, outstanding dancing and humour. The stars are Ben Chris (Liam Tobin) and Holly Carmichael (Danielle Wade) with Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane (Vicki Vandrelle) and AJ Bridel (Claire Chris) and a couple rambunctious children, Samantha  (played by Addison Wagman alternating with Finn Cofell) and Samuel (played by Lucien Duncan-Reid  alternating with Isaac Grates Myers). They are hilarious.

There are some seventeen actors and some of them dance up a storm and we have more than a dozen musical numbers from solos to ensembles. I will not disclose the plot because this is a new show and it will hold your attention more effectively if you see it firsthand.

Liam Tobin, Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane and ensemble.

Photo Max Power Photography

We need conflict and it comes when Ben Chris wants to sell the family lodge that is run by his brother Charlie Chris (Kale Penny). Ben goes to the lodge with his twins Samantha and Samuel, his teenage daughter Claire and his hoity-toity girlfriend Vicki. Will Ben convince Charlie to sell the lodge?

And those rocket-fueled children write to Santa, Nick in the play (Mark Weatherly), and he gives them holly which is the right gift if you write it with a capital H. You will have to untangle the rest for yourself in a romantic, family-friendly comedy that is perfect for the season.  

The songs are  melodic, romantic, comic and entertaining. We start with “Just Another Jingle,” go to the children’s “Dear Santa” to “All I Want  for Christmas” to “Vicki’s Lament.” There is a healthy offering of solos and ensemble pieces to fill up the evening.

Sarah Vance provides the superb choreography and Cory Sincennes designed the sets emphasizing the colour blue and costumes that are just what you want in a Christmas show.

I had a problem with some of the actors’ enunciation but the singing and the display of rhythm and athleticism of the dancing  was second to none.

Where I sat near the front, left I felt that the musicians should have been playing at reduced volume at times to allow the singers to be heard more clearly but my seat may have been too close to the band to merit this observation that may not apply to the rest of the audience.

The performers deserve praise and credit and I should mention that most of them are highly experienced. Chris, Mrs. is a youthful show but it is done on a highly professional level. Just go see it.

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Chris, Mrs. - A New Holiday Musical by Matthew Stodolak and Katie Kerr, produced by Boldly Productions,  continues until December 30, 2023,  at The Winter Garden Theatre, 189 Yonge St. Toronto. www.chrismrs.com

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

HERE LIES HENRY – REVIEW OF DANIEL MacIVOR’S PLAY AT FACTORY THEATRE

Reviewed James Karas

Here Lies Henry is a one-actor play that covers a wide range of matters. At 80-minutes it looks like murder for the actor but Damien Atkins performs it like the seasoned professional that he is. His character Henry goes  from an awkward beginning to a boisterous middle and wordy end, enough to test the mettle of any actor. Atkins performs with aplomb and no sign of fatigue or faltering. Kudos for his performance.

I am not sure I would give the same high marks to the play. If there is a structure to what Henry, the character in the play is addressing, it was not apparent and I must admit that I found myself mentally wandering away from what was happening on the stage.

Atkins as Henry enters barefoot wearing a black suit, black tie and a white shirt. The stage is dark except for a column of bright light behind him. He speaks haltingly almost as if he has a speech impediment and stays on the same spot for some time. Henry tries to ingratiate himself with the audience by telling a couple of jokes  and relates some incidents badly and incoherently. He hits the spot only when he tells us about going to a symposium of vegetarians where there was an all-you-can-eat salad bar. The punch line is that no wonder vegetarians don’t eat pigs, they are pigs. A good line that got a big laugh but it was one of the few.

Henry gives us some personal information, quotes Nietzsche and continues talking haltingly about lying and his parents. He describes at some length the types of lies that there are, the stages of growing up and gives a funny recapitulation of Genesis and the curt observation that Eve was created from a rib. Do you want fries with that rib?     

Damien Atkins in Here Lies Henry. Photo: Dahlia Katz

His speech becomes assured, he does some dance steps, gets closer to the audience and engages members including getting a cigarette and a lighter from one attendee. His engaging the audience may not have been very successful because of the small number of people in the audience.  I did not count them but there could not have been many more than thirty people in attendance. That can be murder for the actor that tries to develop a rapport with them. Atkins kept soldiering on, to his credit.

Henry talks about himself and his parents again and the prose gets weaker and one’s attention span shorter. Heny tries to tell us about love but he gets repetitive, uncertain, faltering, uninteresting.

Henry seems to have run out of steam and he tells us that he became a commercial pilot but could not fly because he was too tall. And something about Noah’s Ark. More about his parents and about himself as a liar and so it ends. 

There are some flashes of lights and some thunderclaps and Henry does move around in the latter half of the monologue. The stage is empty except for a chair that Henry brings to the stage from the front of the theatre but unfortunately, I could not find enough salad to make a pig of myself or, not being a vegetarian, enough meat to satiate my theatrical hunger.

Director Tawiah M’Carthy does a good job directing but, in the end, there may have been only so much that he could do with the script.
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Here Lies Henry by Daniel MacIvor directed by  Tawiah M’Carthy continues until December 17, 2023, at the Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario. www.factorytheatre.ca/