Even though last year was the 50th Anniversary season of the Shaw Festival, and as good as it was, it seems the real celebrations are underway this season in Niagara-on-the-Lake. For the most part, Shaw has rattled off a string of critical and audience winners so far this season, and we have more to go in August! A couple of fine examples in my Shaw reviews this week, including the big musical and a Shaw sleeper for you.
After last season's critical and financial success with My Fair Lady, everyone wondered what this year would bring when Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell took a bit of a risk and programmed Ragtime as the big musical this season. As good a musical as it was, and is, Ragtime has not been a runaway success since it premiered in Toronto in 1996. It did well enough, to be sure, and went on to Los Angeles and finally Broadway, collecting 13 Tony nominations in 1998, winning for Best Score, Book and Orchestrations. But My Fair Lady it wasn't. So it was a bit of a gamble this season for Shaw, following last season's financial losses.
All fears were put to rest early on in the previews of Ragtime as audiences knew they were on to something special. Indeed it is! This production of Ragtime could easily travel elsewhere once it is done in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and do quite well. I doubt that will happen, though, so we'll celebrate the success right here in Niagara as people come from far and near to catch the show.
With a book by Terrence McNally and music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, Ragtime looks at turn-of-the-20th-century North America and the racial and economic hardships America was going through at the time. It was the industrial age, but not everyone was benefitting from it, and blacks especially were not seen in the best light back then to put it mildly. It is hard for some younger audience members to believe people could be so bigoted 100 years ago, but thankfully things have improved considerably and society as a whole, in spite of what some may think, is much more tolerant today than a century ago.
This big, expansive musical features great sets and costumes and a great orchestra in the pit all supporting an all-star cast that includes Thom Allison as Coalhouse Walker Jr., who is driven to the edge by unthinking idiots who have no tolerance for blacks. He is joined by the love of his life, Sarah, played by Alana Hibbert, and together they make a fine couple as they look to the future with their young son. But forces of society are not kind to them in Ragtime, making it all but impossible for them to imagine their dream would become a reality in this century with the election of the first African-American President in November, 2008.
The supporting cast is just as good here: Benedict Campbell as Father and Patty Jamieson as Mother are both effective; Kate Hennig is quite interesting as the social activist Emma Goldman; and Jay Turvey is very good as Tateh, himself seeking a better life for him and his family in America.
For some, they will see just one show at Shaw this season. If they choose Ragtime since it is a musical, they might find they are in for more than they bargained for, but will certainly not leave the Festival Theatre disappointed. It is a great show and rates a strong four out of four stars. Ragtime continues until October 14th, but I would not be surprised if it is extended to the end of October before the season is out.
At the other end of the theatrical spectrum, the intimate setting of the Court House Theatre is home to one of two Shaw plays this season: The Millionairess, which the Festival has produced every ten years or so, beginning in 1965. I didn't see the first two productions in 1965 and 1977, but I remember vividly the 1991 and 2001 productions, and this new edition stands with those as great interpretations of Shaw's lighthearted play.
In The Millionairess, Shaw checks his preaching at the door to simply deliver a good story and basically provide a great vehicle for a strong female character to steal the show. In this new production, director Blair Williams chose Nicole Underhay to steamroll through the title role as Epifania Ognisanti di Parerga, the wealthy but not quite wealthy enough heiress who is searching for her male soulmate. Her first husband, Alastair Fitzfassenden, played with great panache by Martin Happer, has had enough of her tactics and takes up with Polly, a much milder female played sweetly by Robin Evan Willis. Epifania, for her part, thinks she has found what she is looking for in Adrian Blenderbland, played by Steven Sutcliffe, but he ends up on the wrong end of her temper and ultimately ends up on crutches for the second act, bandaged to within an inch of his life.
Into all this mayhem comes another male, The Doctor, played by Kevin Hanchard, and she meets her match. Do they all live happily ever after? Well, if you don't know the story I won't give it away here, but suffice it to say the road to happiness, such as it is, is littered with many laughs in this Shavian romp.
The whole production moves at a relatively good clip, given the fact it is a Shaw play, after all, and the exceptional sets and costumes, all colour-coordinated to each scene, no less, do much to make the show a winner. The only quibble I have with the production is the overtly 'money' songs playing while you enter the theatre prior to the performance. They are a bit too contemporary for this show, I think, and pretty predictable. Maybe it's just me, but I am getting tired of hearing Pink Floyd's 'Money' for example.
Other than that, it is a fine show and well worth your time; The Millionairess runs at the Court House Theatre until October 6th and rates an equally strong four out of four stars.
July 17th, 2012.f
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