Foster Festival chooses not to simply "mail it in"...

 Back in July I was contacted by my old business contact and friend Emily Oriold about their upcoming World Premiere of Norm Foster's play "Whit's End", now onstage until August 4th at the Mandeville Theatre on the grounds of Ridley College.

She wanted to know if I, as a now-retired employee of Canada Post, could scare up an old letter-carrier satchel for the play?  They just needed it as a prop as the central character, Whit, played by Peter Krantz, has just retired as a Canada Post letter carrier.  I pulled some strings (not hard to do with all the good friends and contacts I still have down at the depot) and voila!  I produced a suitably battered satchel for the show.

Emily offered me tickets to the show as thanks and I was happy to take her up on the offer.  I have slowly begun getting back to my pre-pandemic arts participation but sadly, the Foster Festival has not seen me back yet post-pandemic, and I must say I am all the poorer for it.  Might just have to change that in the future...

I knew going in there would be some similarities between me and Peter's character, as I too, delivered the mail for awhile using the exact same satchel as featured in the show.  Seeing it in the trunk of my car again as I picked it up from the depot made me smile and brought back plenty of memories of walking the routes as long as I did.

But the character of Whit is also widowed, as I am now, but unlike me he has found love again in the form of Nikki, played by Melanie Janzen.  Lucky him, although the play deals with the many complications of introducing the new love of your life to the children of your old love of your life, and that fortunately will not be an issue for me.  As Sophie and I met late in life as it was and neither had married previously to meeting, there are no children involved should I ever face that next chapter in my life.

As for Whit, what seems like a pretty simple exercise turns out to be anything but.  He has retired, met a new love, they are moving in together, and moving to a new city and indeed province, and that is a lot for his two grown children to take in when they both visit for "the big announcement".  As is often the case in these situations, Nikki can't believe Whit hasn't even told the kids about her yet, but then, such is the great divide between men and women it seems.  

Well, one of many, actually...

The play has Norm Foster's trademark humour to soften the blow of the more serious nature of the subject matter running as an undercurrent throughout the play, although I have heard Foster's wit in somewhat sharper focus in earlier productions.  But still, he remains a master of showing a mirror up to ourselves and making us laugh at ourselves in the process.

The cast is uniformly strong here, with Krantz as mentioned in the title role of Whit being suitably gruff and a little rough around the edges.  Melanie Janzen as Nikki is all bubbly and the perfect foil for Krantz's gruffness, but she possesses a lot of knowledge that oftentimes seems lost on her new love.

The two kids, David Rowan as Steven and Caroline Toal as Erica, flesh out this foursome with good, solid performances and just the right amount of "concern" for their father and just how his life is about to change.  

The set is simple yet stylish, and director Jamie Williams sets a fine pace for the actors from the get-go.

All in all, an afternoon well-spent with like-minded souls in search of a few laughs on yet another hot summer's day.  Whit's End rates a strong three out of four stars.

The final performance is tomorrow afternoon at 2, so go to www.fosterfestival.com for tickets and more information.

Enjoy your weekend!

August 3rd, 2024.

A farcical feast at the Shaw Festival this season

 As mentioned earlier in my review of the Shaw Festival's "My Fair Lady", the big musical has a big job this season...put bums in the seats in record numbers to erase memories of last season's artistically sound yet financially troubled season.  The shortfall last season meant this season some shows had to be guaranteed winners.

"My Fair Lady" is putting bums in the seats in spades this season, and with good reason.

But offering up a laugh-a-minute supporting role this season is Richard Bean's clever yet nonsensical farce "One Man, Two Guvnors" at the Festival Theatre.  Written in 2011 and based on Carlo Goldoni's "The Servant of Two Masters", this play exemplifies the British art form, if I can call it that, of uproarious farce.  It takes an exceptional cast to pull off something this inane and make it seem worth your time, and thankfully Shaw has assembled an almost ideal cast here.

Director Chris Abraham should buy a lottery ticket considering how well he cast the lead here, hapless and hungry Francis Henshall, played by Peter Fernandes.  In need of money and well, food, Henshall enters into employment as the servant of not one but two well-off British gentlemen (and I use the term gentlemen rather loosely here) and therefore sets off a full afternoon or evening of laughs, pratfalls and mistaken identities.

Fernandes conjures up memories of another Shaw comedic luminary in a riotous British farce, Heath Lamberts in "One For The Pot" years ago.  His abilities in the fine art of physical comedy is unequalled here, as it was a generation ago with Lamberts.

It takes someone of Fernandes' calibre to rescue this romp and make you want to feel a bit of sympathy for his plight while he subjects audience members to verbal and sometimes physical abuse, in the name of low-brow comedy gold.

Supporting Fernandes is an able cast of characters, all of whom have great fun aiding and abetting him in the search for laughs.  A standout in that regard is Matt Alfano as old Alfie, the server and barman at a ritzy restaurant who is at the mercy of a recalcitrant pace-maker and his body appears to be made of rubber.

The two "guvnors" in question, Martin Happer as Stanley Stubbers and Tom Rooney as Charlie Clench, each have their own collection of idiosyncrasies and challenge poor old Henshall at every turn.  Clench also breaks the sartorial rule of not wearing braces with a belt in order to keep his suit pants up.  The anarchy!  Happer as Stubbers is a high-brow twit and plays it to the hilt.

Along with food, Henshall's other focus is on pleasing the lady he wishes to woo, winsome Dolly, played with suitable coquettishness by Kiera Sangster.

The remainder of the cast is uniformly excellent as well and the musical numbers by a skiffle band prior to the show, during and at intermission really add to the flavour of escapism in 1960s Brighton.

Is "One Man, Two Guvnors" worth your time?  So long as you check your logic at the door prior to entering the theatre, yes, it is a riotous romp.  The Shaw Festival delivers on the promise of serving up laughs by the boatload here and it is great fun.

"One Man, Two Guvnors" plays at the Festival Theatre until October 13th and rates a solid three out of four stars.

Enjoy your weekend!

July 26th, 2024.

Walking in the snow in July...in Elora

 I made my annual trek to lovely Elora this past Saturday afternoon, and in spite of a plethora of traffic on the way up there, which appears to be endemic now anywhere in Ontario during the summer of 2024, I had a delightful albeit short visit.

Sophie and I started going to Elora early on in our time together, and in fact I recall my first visit on my own goes back to about 1986 when I recall attending a recital at the Elora Mill Inn during the annual Guelph Spring Festival.  Well, that wonderful music festival is now long gone and the Elora Mill Inn, though still there, has undergone a major overhaul and looks simply grand.

There is simply something about this little corner of Ontario that has always appealed to me...the people especially, the shops, the dining establishments, and of course the scenery.  Take a walk around the Elora Gorge next time you're in the area and you'll know what I mean.

Last year was my first visit back to attend the Elora Festival since Sophie passed away and the onset of COVID, and although emotional for me, I was glad I did it.  It felt good to be back and I felt I had returned to our second home there.

This year I anticipated my return visit early on this spring, and thanks to a kind invitation from the Elora Festival, I attended one of the four Bach-themed concerts on Saturday, dubbed "Bach Day at The Festival".  The concert I chose to attend was J.S. Bach's Long Walk in the Snow, a 1:30 performance at the cosy St. John's Anglican Church in the heart of the town.  This is the home church for the Elora Singers the rest of the year as well.

This concert was more or less a follow-up to last season's performance that featured Bach's music and stories, told with great wit and wisdom by CBC Music host Tom Allen.  Last year appeared to me to be based a bit more on fact; this year it seemed a good dose of "what ifs" and "we can only surmise" peppered the narrative offered by Allen.

No matter.  As always, it was informative, entertaining and well worth our time.  Tom Allen is a master story-teller and to hear him in person rather than on the radio is always a joy.

His supporting cast of musicians were up to the task of entertaining the near capacity audience admirably, with several laughing along with the audience at some of Allen's clever lines.

There was a nice blend of updated and traditional Bach here, covering a formative period in the young composer's life as he was finding his way in the world, both musically and personally.  How much of the story-line is actually true is up to the listener of course, but the journey was an enjoyable one.

The musicians were comprised of Dylan Bell on bass, Lori Gemmell, former principal harpist with the now defunct K-W Symphony, Rebekah Wolkstein on violin and Suba Sankaran as lead vocalist,  Suba's voice and stage presence are both wonderful, and it was a joy to hear both her and her musical friends have a bit of fun with music by a master musician.

The final weekend of this year's Elora Festival is set to get underway starting tonight, with all four of the final concerts taking place at the spacious and acoustically-sound Gambrel Barn on the edge of town.  Tonight beginning at 6:30 the Elora Festival Barn Dance will be held, tomorrow night at 8 pm it will be a concert entitled Talbot:  Path of Miracles, Friday night at 7:30 will be Constantinople: A Filetta, and Saturday night at 7:30 the Festival closes with a rousing performance of Carl Orff's ever-popular Carmina Burana.

For more information and tickets, go to www.elorafestival.ca.  It should be a great closing weekend!

Thanks to everyone at the Festival for allowing me the pleasure of returning to the musical fold again this year, and here's to an even more successful 46th season next July.

Have a great weekend!

July 17th, 2024.

The 45th season of the Elora Festival set to get underway

For some, the number 45 now has a bad rap.  Unfortunately it is now forever tied to a certain bombastic U.S. Presidential candidate and as such, I rather feel badly for that pair of digits.  Who could blame them for wanting to downgrade or upgrade their stature if at all possible?!

But take heart, dear 45.  You are also associated with not one, not two, but three arts-related anniversaries of note in Ontario this year, and that is truly cause for celebration.  

Both the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound and Toronto's Elmer Iseler Singers are celebrating their 45th anniversaries this year, as well as my much-loved Elora Festival.  There.  That should put a smile on at least our version of 45's face!

Oddly enough, both the Festival of the Sound and the Elmer Iseler Singers will be joining forces with the Elora Festival for the latter's Closing Gala this season at the spacious Gambrel Barn in the village of Elora on Saturday night, July 20th.  The performance will also feature a host of Canadian classical luminaries such as Russell Braun, Leslie Fagan, Beverley Johnston and the duo piano team of Anagnoson and Kinton.  The forces come together for a suitably bombastic (coincidence?!) performance of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The 45th season of the Elora Festival kicks off a three-week run at various locations throughout Elora and the surrounding area this coming Friday night, July 5th., also at the Gambrel Barn, with a performance of Haydn's The Creation, an absolute masterpiece for choir and orchestra.  For the opening gala The Elora Singers will be joined by a host of soloists as well as Musicians of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.  It promises to be a wonderful kickoff to the three weeks of music-making in and around Elora.

In between there are performances for most any musical taste, with artists ranging from The King's Singers to Laila Biali.  Performances include everything from a collection of Benjamin Britten's Canticles, Hymns and Folk Songs to music by Faure, Messiaen and of course, J.S. Bach.

One of the Bach concerts will be attended by your humble scribe again this season, and I am grateful for the opportunity once again to attend.  It's at the always-welcoming St. John's Anglican Church in Elora, and is entitled J.S. Bach's Long Walk in the Snow.

CBC Music host Tom Allen leads an afternoon of music, storytelling and history that features such artists as former K-W Symphony Principal harpist Lori Gemmell, vocalist Suba Sankaran, Dylan Bell, and violinist Rebekah Wolkstein.  I attended the Bach recital that featured Tom Allen and friends last season and it was delightful on a Saturday afternoon, so I am happy to return for the encore performance again this season.

The Elora Festival has long been one of my favourite summertime music escapes in Ontario, and this year promises to be no different.  I am looking forward to good food, music and friends all coming together on Saturday afternoon, July 13th at 1:30 pm.

If you're interested in finding out more about the 2024 edition of The Elora Festival, go to their website at www.elorafestival.ca or call the box office at 1-519-846-0331.

For me there is no better way to enjoy a July day in the village of Elora.

Have a great weekend!

June 29th, 2024.

The one show to see at Shaw this season? My Fair Lady!

 The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake needed a blockbuster musical this season to offset their surprise financial setback after last season.  That sounds like an easy fix, but really it isn't.  As the sole musical on the bill this season and running straight through to December this year, this musical choice had to have legs, as it were, and be about as guaranteed a crowd-pleaser as possible.

Lerner & Loewe's classic from 1956, My Fair Lady, fit the bill perfectly.  Much as it did back in 2011 to celebrate the first 50 years of the Festival and was a huge hit back then as well.  Really, this is the sort of musical goldmine Shaw Festival revels in and can do better than most anyone else around.  So I wouldn't say it's a sure bet, but darn close to it.

The musical, coming during the golden age of big Broadway musicals, is showing its age somewhat after all these years, but it is up to the co-directors Tim Carroll and Kimberley Rampersad to elevate and move the musical forward into the 21st century and bring together a cast able to fulfil that dream.

Here on all counts, I would say it is a job well done.

I won't give away the ending for those few who may not really know the story as of yet (it is based, of course, on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion) but for many it remains problematic, especially in the 21st century.  Still, the original musical changed the ending from Shaw's original intent so in either case it presented problems.

The ending of My Fair Lady has always left me with mixed emotions, even after the stellar 2011 production here at Shaw, but we always have to remember the context of when it was written and first staged and base your observations on that historical fact when revisiting the musical now.

Having said all that, the ride to the end is about as joyful, tuneful and full of masterful performances you just can't help but love this show.  The entire cast and crew shine brightly here and they seem to know they have a box-office winner on their hands.

There's no shortage of accolades to hand out with this strong cast, from David Adams' delightfully 'cocky' Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza's father, to Shaw veteran Sharry Flett's elegant and refined Mrs. Higgins, Henry's mother of course.  She knows the many shortcomings of her son but knows he is a good man in spite of his intractable demeanour much of the time.

But the two central characters, Eliza Doolittle and her elocution teacher Professor Henry Higgins are what make this production extra special.  Kristi Frank's Eliza is strong-willed with a desire to make more of her life than be a mere flower-girl for the rest of her life, and she sees in Higgins a way out of her squalid conditions.  Her voice shines in every number she sings.

Tom Rooney as Henry Higgins is crafty enough to know he hasn't got the pipes necessary for a full singing role here, so as many who have gone before him including the first Higgins, Rex Harrison, who originated the role on Broadway.  They make this a singing/speaking role and it just works.  But when Rooney does in fact sing, he does not disappoint.  His final scene as he longingly sings "I've Grown Accustomed to her Face" will absolutely pull at your heartstrings.  The old guy has a heart after all!

Along with a strong cast and direction the choreography by Rampersad is bang on, and Paul Sportelli's musical direction works well with the musical forces at his disposal,  I noted a bit of a sound issue in the early going as I sometimes could not hear all the ensemble voices on stage while the orchestra was in full flight but that might be rectified in future performances.

So, should you go?  Absolutely you should!  This is textbook musical done with much love and respect for the original.  It may not appear quite as splashy as the celebratory 2011 production at Shaw, but it is still one for the ages.

My Fair Lady rates a full 4 out of 4 stars and continues at the Festival Theatre through to December 22nd.  For tickets and more information go to Shawfest.com.

Have a great weekend!

June 21st, 2024.

Shaw Festival season gets underway with fun in the courtroom

 I must admit to having become a big fan of Dame Agatha Christie, the prolific writer who during a lengthy career made mystery whodunnits her calling card not only in England but throughout the world. My late wife Sophie, a big PBS fan, would always have a Poirot episode ready to go on a Saturday night it seems, and that was when the seed was planted for me.

Now that I am on my own I have even invested in a complete DVD set of the Poirot series to keep the tradition going.  Yes, I have indeed been bitten by the bug!

But I have learned over the years, as most have, you cannot take Dame Agatha too seriously, and indeed neither, it seems, did she.

This brings me to my first Shaw Festival show of the current 2024 season, the courtroom thriller Witness For The Prosecution, first published as a short story in 1925.  The stage adaptation debuted in London in 1953 and on Broadway the following year.

I can only hope audiences had their collective tongues in their collective cheeks back then as well, as Dame Agatha really has us on here in a play that simply cannot be played with a straight face.

Director Alistair Newton wisely plays this one with a knowing wink in our direction, as if to say "C'mon, let's have some good old fun..."  His actors respond accordingly with wonderful performances, sometimes campy and oftentimes barely serious.

The story is not so much a whodunnit as a whydunnit.  Most but not all the action takes place in the courtroom at the famed Old Bailey in London and the rest of the time in the prosecutor's chambers.   It is here we are introduced to the accused, Leonard Vole, played by Andrew Lawrie.  It seems he befriended a wealthy older lady and in short order she dies a violent death, but not before leaving everything she has to Vole.  

Did he do it?  That's the job of Prosecutor Mr. Myers, QC., and to Vole's defence comes eminent defence lawyer Sir Wilfrid Roberts, Q.C.  Both spar in the courtroom drama that unfolds in the middle Act, with Graeme Somerville's Myers up against Patrick Galligan's Sir Wilfrid.  These two Shaw veterans each offer up stellar performances as the action unfolds and the advantage seems to go from one camp to the other.

But you can't have a Christie mystery without the intrigue, can you?  Enter Vole's seductive and well-turned-out wife Romaine, played with just the right amount of camp by Marla McLean.  Will she defend her man, or stir the pot further?  Ah, that is the question!

Really, there is not a bad performance in the bunch, and the swift scene changes and clever set design and projections by Karyn McCallum keep this three-hour Christie classic moving and visually appealing.

The movie version from 1957 implored audience members from divulging the ending, a tradition maintained here as well in clever fashion.  No, I would never spill the proverbial beans here, but I would say the ending, however cleverly done, leaves me not so much satisfied as bemused.

You can't go wrong here at any rate:  a three-hour time-waster with fabulous performances providing a fun ride...what's not to like?

Witness For The Prosecution continues at the cozy Royal George Theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake until October 13th and rates a very respectable three out of four stars.

Have a great week!

May 28th, 2024.

Celebrating Black History Month this weekend in Niagara

 February is, of course, Black History Month, and here in Niagara there have already been several observances of the month to take in, and there is another this weekend that's always been near and dear to my heart.

Several years ago, Laura Thomas, an old friend and founder of the locally-based choral group Choralis Camerata approached me to narrate a new concert they had designed for this very month.  If I remember correctly it was back around 2012 and I think it was in Niagara Falls at one of the area churches.  I returned to narrate the concert again in 2016 down in Stevensville on what I recall being a bitterly cold Sunday afternoon at the tiny church in the heart of the town.

The performances are always well attended and very entertaining, so when I was approached to narrate the concert again this season I readily agreed, even though I am officially now retired and my personal hosting opportunities are few and far between.  But always happy to be back in the so-called saddle again!

The problem this season was...where was the script?  They didn't have a copy as there had been a change of artistic directors and since it was 8 years since the last time they had done the concert, it didn't seem to be anywhere.  I checked my venerable old computer nearing retirement and found a reference to it having been saved many years ago, but somehow it became lost in the ether during the ensuing time period.

No matter.  I had plenty of time, so armed with a new set list and a set of parameters I knew I wanted to follow from my memories of previous performances, I began my research and rewrote the script from scratch.

Learning about the history of slavery in the United States as well as here in Canada is both enlightening and heartbreaking at the same time.  I find myself so often asking myself "how can we be so heartless towards our fellow man?!"  But history records time and time again that we can be.  I don't want to go into too many of the details here as some are quite frankly gut-wrenching and besides, I would humbly suggest to get the full effect of the history as well as the music that revolved around the period, you might want to come out tomorrow afternoon and attend the concert for yourself.

We held our dress rehearsal last evening at Trillium United Church at 415 Linwell Road in the north end of St. Catharines, a church I often delivered mail to during my days as a Canada Post letter carrier.  

I must say the choir is in fine fettle and primed and ready for action.

The current Artistic Director and conductor, Giancarlo Feltrin is a pleasure to work with and knows the strengths of this choir very well.  Joining the singers will be pianist Aaron Albano and Devon Fornelli will be featured on a variety of percussion instruments.

Interested?  You should be.  The concert, "Listen to the Lambs" is both educational and entertaining, and I guarantee you will be humming some of those old tunes on your way out the door tomorrow afternoon.

For more information, check out the website, www.choraliscamerata.com and to order tickets.  The concert is at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon at Trillium United Church on Linwell Road.  Hope to see you there.

Have a great weekend!

February 24th, 2024.