Three Mainstage Shows Provide Great Theatre at Shaw Festival 2007

With the month of August drawing to a close, let's conclude our look at the offerings this season at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-On-The-Lake with three big shows at the Festival Theatre:

Mack And Mabel, with book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman; revised by Francine Pascal (Festival Theatre until October 28th):
This Jerry Herman musical opened on Broadway in 1974, starring Bernadette Peters and Robert Preston. It received eight Tony nominations that year, but only ran for sixty-six performances. A revised book by Francine Pascal accompanied the British premiere in 1995, and this is the version we see this season at the Shaw Festival, the first full production of the musical in Canada. This is a real challenge to stage, as the story of Mack Sennett is not all hearts and flowers, as it were. He was pretty rough around the edges, to say the least, and the show doesn't attempt to hide that fact. In the pivotal role as the cigar-chomping moviemaker, Benedict Campbell is onstage almost the entire time, dominating the storyline from beginning to end - I suspect Mack Sennett would be pleased about that. Campbell is gruff, funny, touching and at times you even feel sorry for him; it is hard to love someone who can be as nasty as Sennett was but Campbell manages to tug at our heartstrings for awhile, at least. His love interest cum star vehicle around which most of his comedies are written is Mabel Normand, played with great flair by Glynis Ranney. She reaches the heights of stardom and the depths of depression during her time with Mack, and after seeing the musical it is easy to see why. Getting anything remotely resembling commitment from Sennett is akin to trying to nail Jell-O to a wall, as epitomized in the only memorable song from the score, I Won't Send Roses. The supporting cast is very good, all buzzing around Sennett at his command like bees around the hive. He may be nasty, but he's their meal ticket and they know it. Look for standout performances by Jeff Madden as Frank, Neil Barclay as Fatty Arbuckle and Peter Millard in dual roles as Swain and William Desmond Taylor, the oily character who entices Mabel away from Mack's studio to make 'real movies'. Overall, Mack and Mabel is a clever but ultimately sad show - in the end, you feel for both of them and can't help but conclude they deserved each other. If nothing else, it will make you want to read more about Sennett and his era, and I am sure the old filmmaker would be pleased about that.

Hotel Peccadillo, based on the play L'Hotel du Libre-Echange by Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallieres, adapted by Morris Panych (Festival Theatre to October 7th):
Certainly one of the more uproarious offerings at the Shaw Festival this season, Hotel Peccadillo is a fun and fast-paced French farce, but not at the furious pace we have grown accustomed to with British farce, such as the memorable One for the Pot starring Heath Lamberts years ago. Still, you have to keep your eyes on the action, as there is a lot of opening and closing of doors and running back and forth on the simple but creative set. The receding hallway in the hotel scenes with several doors running along both sides is clever, if at first a bit disconcerting. There is not much of a plot to worry about here, but suffice it to say the cast holds everything together with great style, and director Morris Panych gives them plenty to work with. In a nutshell, several characters move from the office of Dr. Pinglet, played by Patrick Galligan, to a little hotel, all seeking sexual liasons with a partner they shouldn't be with. The ensuing mayhem is documented onstage with clever commentary by Lorne Kennedy, who walks through the play as the author Feydeau, providing a calm respite while the actors search for their heart's desire. Several standout performances here, including a very sexy Goldie Semple as the wife of Dr. Pinglet, who is chasing afterMadame Paillardin, the wife of one of his patients. Galligan as Pinglet is having the time of his life here, even spending a good part of the play in heels! Some may consider Hotel Peccadillo a little low brow, but if you check your commen sense at the door on the way in, you should have a good time with this one.

Saint Joan by Bernard Shaw (Festival Theatre to October 27th):
Shaw Festival Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell provides a wonderful staging of this Shaw classic, performed twice before at the Festival. The staging is very clean and unadorned, but everything that is needed is there - nothing more. There are several strong peformances in the cast, including Norman Browning as the Archbishop of Rheims, which I found took some getting used to; Peter Krantz as Chaplain John de Stogumber; and Ric Reid as Robert de Baudricourt and The Inquisitor. The weakest performance, I found, was Harry Judge as the Dauphin - I don't see the attraction to such a weak individual. In the title role, Tara Rosling gives a very believable performance, and an audible gasp goes up from the audience when the sentence is handed down - how could they be so cruel to such a good soul? I still remember the Christopher Newton production in 1981 with Nora McLellan as Joan - what a magnificent production it was! But this one ranks right up there with a Joan you can't help but feel for, and a timeless story we should revisit often.

So that's it for the Shaw Festival this season. Just to recap with my four-star ratings for each production this season, which appear on my website wwwfinemusic.ca:

A Month In The Country ***
The Philanderer ***
The Cassilis Engagement ***
Tristan **
Summer and Smoke ***
The Kiltartan Comedies **
The Circle ****
Mack And Mabel ***
Hotel Peccadillo ***
Saint Joan ***

Next month, we'll travel to Stratford and check out some of the productions offered at this year's Stratford Festival.

Mike Saunders
August 28, 2007.