INSIDE AMERICAN PIE - REVIEW OF 2025 PRODUCTION OF DOCU-CONCERT AT CAA THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

Mike Ross and Sarah Wilson have created a musical based on American rock and roll from the 1950’s to the 1970’s that is also a documentary about the growth of the music genre. They provide fascinating information and intelligent commentary about some of the songs, composers and performers of the era. Inside American Pie uses Don McLean’s “American Pie” as the pivotal song of the evening.

“American Pie” has become an iconic song with its extensive lyrics and cultural and historic references that are revealing and utterly fascinating. The lyrics of the dozen songs from the era receive commentary and indeed analysis of American society from the quiet and certain 1950’s to the uncertain and revolutionary 1960’s and the retrenchment of the 1970’s.

The songs used form a cross-section of popular music from Ritchie Valens to the Big Bopper, from Bob Dylan to John Lennon to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Janis Joplin.

The performers are Mike Ross who plays the piano, sings and narrates the commentary, Alicia Toner who sings, plays the guitar and the violin, Brielle Ansems who sings, Greg Gale, guitarist, and Kirk White, percussionist. They are concert performers that generate excitement, get audience participation and illustrate Ross’s commentary. All the performers are talented and have other lives but Inside American Pie originated in a tiny theatre in Prince Edward Island and played there successfully to a full house of 127 people for some years. Then someone from the Mirvish company noticed them and, as Ross tells us, here they are performing in Toronto. 

The cast of Inside American Pie. Photo: Dahlia Katz 

Ross tells us the story of Bob McLean who was delivering newspapers in 1959 and caught the headline about the plane crash in which Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper  were killed. He was 13 years old at the time and the experience seems to have made an indelible impression on him. The memorable refrain of the song that he composed in 1971 “the day the music died” is much more than the shock of a boy on a shivering February morning delivering newspapers with terrible news about the fate of those musicians.

It was also the harbinger and a metaphor for social and political change. It was the end of the comfortable 1950’s and the coming of the convulsive following decade of assassinations (John F, Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr.), the decade of the Viet Nam War and student protests across the nation. The brilliant lyrics  have numerous references, many very cryptic, to historical and cultural events that are not easy to decipher.

One of the more interesting comments is Ross’s interpretation of the following lyrics:   

“And they were singin', bye-bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry

And them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye”

American pie or perhaps “as American as apple pie” is a symbol of content, happy Americans imagined in the 1950’s.  The Chevy driven across America may reflect ads for Chevrolet cars by Dinah Shore promoting happy driving across the country. The folks are drinking whisky in the town of Rye rather than the tautological whisky and rye. That’s like saying pasta and spaghetti, Ross tells us. Rye is a town where drinking was permitted. It is an apt and beautiful interpretation.   

The  numerous historical and cultural refreezes are astonishingly wide and a pleasure to detect or find out what others have discovered or guessed.

The performers are vigorous and entertaining. They stay in place as one would expect in a concert performance but the energy and spirit that they show and the expert use of imaginative lighting designed by Simon Rossiter make for an enjoyable evening.

The songs of about fifty to seventy years ago resonated enthusiastically with the audience, most of whom had direct memories or borrowed ones of the era and the richly textured lyrics, they did not hesitate to show their enthusiasm.

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Inside American Pie by Mike Ross and Sarah Wilson continues until March 30, 2025, at the CAA Theatre, 651 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com/

James Karas is the Senior Editor Culture of The Greek Press

TRIDENT MOON - REVIEW OF 2025 CROW’S THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Trident Moon by Anusree Roy holds the promise of a tense, dramatic play set in 1947 during the carving up of a part of the British Empire, the Indian subcontinent, into India and Pakistan. Six women, three Muslim and three Hindu are in a truck traveling from Pakistan to India. The Hindu women were servants of the Muslim women and have abducted their former masters and all are in a truck heading for India. The servants are seeking revenge for the death of the husband of one of the women. This may be termed as the revenge of the servants.

The Hindu Alo (Anusree Roy) seeks revenge on the Muslim women for the murder of her husband and sons by the Muslim Pari’s (Muhaddisah) husband. She is with her sister Pari (Muhaddisah) and daughter Arun (Sahiba Arora). The well-off Muslims are abducted, as I said, by their former Hindu servants. Sweet vengeance.

The Hindu women are travelling to the safety of India. The husband of  Alo (Anusree Roy), one of the Hindu women, was killed and she is bent on wreaking vengeances on the Muslim women in the truck. The fate of the captives may be as ugly as delivering them to sexual abuse in the hands of Hindus. This is even though Alo raised the child Heera (Prerna Nehta) who is in the truck.

The women are travelling through the hellish war that is raging along the route. There is anger, violent language and physical violence. A woman is seriously injured and stretched on the floor. The women face imminent danger and they fear what might happen any minute. They are joined by two other women that are equally terrified of what maught happen to them. In a war zone no one is safe and the abductors and their captives soon realize that no one is safe. 

L to R: Sahiba Arora, Afroza Banu (standing), Zorana Sadiq, 
Michelle Mohammed, Prerna Nehta, Sehar Bhojani (lying down), 
Imali Perera (standing), Anusree Roy, and Muhaddisah. Photo: Dahlia Katz 

It is all a very dramatic story with some marvelous performances but some dramatic problems. The cast are dressed in traditional costumes of different colours for the Hindus and the Muslims. The problem is figuring out the details of who is who and what is happening in the plot development. I am not sure of the names of all the characters and I could not always hear what they were saying. At times, there  is a lack of enunciation sufficiency to follow all the dialogue. That means parts of the plot simply did not register.

We hear the noise of the truck and plenty of boom booms without much context or explanation. You can’t have a war thriller and a situation where the captors and their captives seem to put their differences aside when the external dangers take over and someone demands sex. A woman raises her dress and bends over allowing him to rape her. Some context, please.

One of the women has a gun that she keeps brandishing and near the end a half-naked man brandishing a rifle boards the truck. He is a thug demanding gold and is told there is none and he goes on to conduct a ludicrous body search of all the women. He is a bit of a clown or just an idiot who overacts and is simply annoying. He is named Lovely (Mirza Saehan), the only male in he cast and easy to identify.

The set  by Jawon Kang features the rear door of a truck and large curtains from the top of  the stage envelope scene. We see smoke and hear explosions and rifle shots when the truck door is open. It is simply hellish.

We are grateful to Anusree Roy for writing a play about a pivotal and tragic point at the  end of British rule of India and its incompetent and disastrous division into India and Pakistan. Unfortunately, the production, despite the powerful story of the play, lacks clarity and context.  Director Nina Lee Aquino commits some fundamental errors in not ensuring that all the actors spoke clearly, enunciated and could be heard at all times.

The names of the cast are Arun (Sahiba Arora), Sumaia (Afroza Banu), Bamnn (Sehar Bhojani), Munni (Michelle Mohammed), Pari (Muhaddisah), Heera (Prerna Nehta), Rabia (Imali Perera), Sonali (Zorana Sadiq), Lovely (Mirza Sarhan).

A big disappointment.

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Trident Moon  by Anusree Roy opened on March 7, 2025, continues until March 30, 2025, at the Guloien Theatre, Crow’s Theatre, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.  http://crowstheatre.com/

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

THE GONDOLIERS – REVIEW OF 2025 TORONTO OPERETTA THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Toronto Operetta Theatre is wrapping up its 2024-2025 season with Gilbert and Sullivan’s delectable The Gondoliers. The other works that made up the season are The Student Prince and The Countess Maritza. For 2025-2026 we  can expect The Mikado, Czardas Princess and My Fair Lady. We don’t wish to appear ungrateful but in the words of Oliver Twist we want more.

The Gondoliers was Gilbert and Sullivans 12^th operetta and it was a big hit. It has some wonderful melodies, patter songs, ensemble pieces and comic complications, The plot is vintage operetta. The impoverished Duke of Plaza-Doro (Gregory Finney) married his infant daughter  Casilda (Alyssa Bartholomew) to the heir to the throne of the King of Barataria. This is 18^th century Spain and when his majesty went religiously rogue by becoming a Protestant, his infant son and heir to the throne was sent to Venice by the Grand Inquisitor (Austin Larusson). A safe Catholic domain to prevent him from being infected by his father’s apostasy.

Twenty-one years later, The Duke is searching for the heir to the throne, now grown-up who was raised by a gondolier as a gondolier with the gondolier’s son. Get it? We have two gondoliers Giuseppe  and Marco but we and they do not know who the real heir is to the throne and who is the son of the gondolier. In the meantime, Casilda has fallen in love with Luiz (Marcus Tranquilli) and she is not interested in her husband from infancy. And Marco (Yanik Gosselin) and Giuseppe (Sebastian Belcourt) found two lovely girls, Gianetta (Brooke Mitchell) and Tessa (Lissy Meyerowitz) and married them. This is getting complicated and we need someone to identify the real heir, Nurse Inez (Francesca Alexander) who raised the heir knows who is who and we learn of a substitution that will make divorces unnecessary and happiness for all mandatory.

The inimitable Gregory Finney can as usual be counted on for good humour and his representation of the impoverished but proud Duke. He ventures into business as he and and we hope he finds financial security

Soprano Brooke Mitchell as Gianetta and mezzo-soprano Lissy Meyerowitz are well-voiced singers and the pair of wives who “lose” their husband as soon as the wedding ceremony is over. They make a good pair and sing beautifully as individuals. 

Sebastien Belcourt as Giuseppe Palmieri, Yanik Gosselin as Marco.

Photographer: Gary Beechey, BDS Studios

Belcourt as Giuseppe and Gosselin as Marco make the perfect loving husbands of the above two ladies whose honeymoon is cut short before it can begin. The baritone and the tenor do creditable work as singers, lovers, strapping young men  and comic characters as they wait to find out who will become king. There is a surprise waiting for them.

The operetta lists almost twenty musical numbers with an assortment of solos, duets and choruses. There is a generous supply of romantic pieces from “O rapture when alone together (Casilda and Luiz), to “Take a pair of sparkling eyes” (Marco), to “When a merry maiden marries” (Tessa). There are some opportunities for dancing but no choreographer  is listed in the program and Director Guillermo Silva-Marin provided a few steps.

The operetta is set in the eighteenth century and needs fancy gowns, and wigs for the aristocrats and less elaborate costumes for the gondoliers and Contadina (peasant girls)  He should have about a dozen of them (the opening chorus “list and learn” says there are 24 of them) and probably more gondoliers. Silva-Marin sensibly puts it in modern times with costumes provided by a commercial supplier. For a set, he uses some white boxes that can be moved around. Shoestring budget is the message.

The youthful Matheus Coelho do Nascimento, conductor, baritone and clarinetist, conducted energetically the orchestra of a dozen players squeezed around the apron of the stage.

Silva-Marin, the TOT’s Founder and General Director and the Bringer of Operetta to Toronto, directed and designed the lighting for the production. I find it salutary to acknowledge his contribution to Toronto’s cultural life. A cursory reading of this review and, better still, a view of the production, shows that he has to produce an operetta with one hand tied behind his back. The funding is pathetic, the theatre inadequate, the people he can hire for only three performances, limited. He should have, But he does not give up on us. We should not give up on him and TOT.
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The Gondoliers by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan is being performed three times on February 28 and March 1 and 2, 2025 at the Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. www.torontooperetta.com

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