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THE BASICS: Canada’s Stratford Festival continues post-pandemic to deliver first-rate performances of more than Shakespeare. They are fully up and operational in 2022 with four theaters including the Festival showing CHICAGO with all new choreography, the Studio with EVERY LITTLE NOOKIE, and the Avon, with LITTLE WOMEN in repertory into October. For more, read my season overview here.
Entry into Canada is as easy as it ever was, provided you download and fill out your ARRIVECAN app. That’s easy peasy as is walking around Stratford where the longest walk from, say, dinner near City Hall to the Festival Theatre takes only 20 minutes. Most walks take about 10 minutes, door to door. Each play or musical reviewed here runs under three hours, including one intermission.
CHICAGO, with a book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse and music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb, is an exciting new production like you’ve never seen, with stunning new choreography and direction by Donna Feore. With a run time of only 2 hours and 23 minutes, it will leave you breathless.
If you click here you can see all the production details, photos, a trailer, and this blurb: “In the Roaring Twenties, aspiring chorus girl Roxie Hart and fading vaudeville star Velma Kelly each face trial for murder. Both as cynical as they are sexy, the two women compete for the services of shady lawyer Billy Flynn, who promises to make them media celebrities and win them acquittals. With its killer score and all-new knock-’em-dead dance numbers, this deliciously lurid tale of adultery, murder and justice as showbiz packs some serious heat.”
In the past, I’ve had issues with Broadway shows produced by Canadian repertory companies. Repertory companies (meaning that they have a variety of plays running somewhat simultaneously during the entire season and often bring back the same roster of actors season after season) usually have every performer take on two different roles per season. And, in fact, it’s usually one of the more charming aspects of visiting either the Shaw Festival or the Stratford Festival – seeing someone excel on two different stages (almost never on the same day, mind you). But at Stratford, they’ve wisely assigned only one show – CHICAGO – to the lead characters.
As Roxie Hart, Chelsea Preston in their Stratford debut is not a Shakespearean actor forced into a “Broadway” role. She’s the real deal triple threat (singer-dancer-actor) as energetic as you’d want. She’s matched perfectly with Jennifer Rider-Shaw as Velma Kelly. Rider-Shaw is in her 12th season at Stratford, but she only does musicals. Sandra Caldwell as Mama Morton is also making her Stratford debut but rules the stage as effectively as her character rules the cell block. The casting of sob sister/reporter Mary Sunshine is inspired and I’ll leave it to you to see that for yourself. Two notable exceptions to the “musicals only” are Dan Chameroy as lawyer Billy Flynn who, in his 15th season at Stratford, seems to move effortlessly between straight plays (even Shakespeare) and musicals. The “Razzle-Dazzle” lawyer is a plum role and Chameroy makes the most of it. Also able to exist in two genres is Steve Ross as Roxie’s sad-sack husband Amos. Putting on a sort of Fargo, North Dakota accent, the audience LOVED him.
The direction and original choreography (no, it’s not re-heated Fosse; it’s fresh from the grill) is by Donna Feore and she does not miss a trick or kick. When we go to Broadway, we expect to be wowed, wowed by everything. Yes, the singing, dancing, and acting, but also the costumes, the set, and even the scene changes. If you’re wondering how CHICAGO can run under two and half hours including intermission it’s because it is non-stop. As one scene is ending, the next one is already starting. And I loved the finale/curtain call where each of the dancing troupe is announced by name for an individual bow. That was a classy touch. (Fun fact: Donna Feore is married to Colm Feore who is appearing this season as Shakespeare’s Richard III.)
CHICAGO runs through October 30 and I give it five Buffalos (“Truly superb–a rare rating”).
EVERY LITTLE NOOKIE by Sunny Drake, directed by Ted Witzel, is a world premiere and is another quickie (sorry, I couldn’t resist) coming in at two hours and 7 minutes including one 20-minute intermission. It’s in the place for more experimental contemporary plays, the Studio Theatre, located around the corner from the Avon Theatre, both in the very small downtown section of the city of Stratford. It’s a little gem of a modern venue, with a thrust stage and fairly steep seating so that every seat, including the last row, feels right on top of the action. Similar to the Studio Theatre at the Shaw Festival, the actors often use the same entrance and exit paths as the audience, adding to that feeling of intimacy.
What’s EVERY LITTLE NOOKIE about? Here’s the blurb from the stratfordfestival.ca website: “When a suburban boomer couple returns home to find their queer millennial daughter, Annabel, hosting a swingers’ party to make cash, they’re forced to question the state of their marriage. Annabel, in turn, must ponder her own future when she adds a new relationship to her chosen family of polyamorous and platonic roommates….”
I’ve been telling people it’s “like RENT with ‘rents” referring to the hit musical populated by LGBTQ+ and racially diverse characters set in New York City’s Lower East Side. There are real-life “starving artist” parallels between RENT creator Jonathan Larson (who shared an apartment that had the bathtub in the kitchen) and EVERY LITTLE NOOKIE playwright Sunny Drake (for very cheap rent, he slept on a mattress on top of the bathtub beneath the shower faucet and is proud that he didn’t once get soaked in his sleep!) This is a play, not a musical, and Drake adds to the diversity with three older (white-haired) characters – Margaret the mom (played by Marion Adler, 10th season at Stratford); Kenneth the dad (John Koensgen, 2nd season) and a sort of sexual shaman/guru named “Phoenix” (Robert King, 27th season). It’s a play about choice that will appeal to multiple generations. Important life choices can be made at every age. It’s never too late for another bite of the apple.
The play is also a little like Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM with older couples, younger couples, changing alliances, misunderstandings, and arguments that, in the end, get cleared up. And, while all the characters in both DREAM and NOOKIE are important, if the actor who plays Puck ain’t right, it ain’t a good night. Here, the parallel character is named Smash, and you can’t take your eyes off of him, as played by the athletic and energetic Stephen Jackman-Torkoff (Stratford debut). His before Stratford credits include playing Belize, the ex-drag queen and hospital nurse in Tony Kushner’s ANGELS IN AMERICA, which must have been wonderful. I mentioned above that one of the delights of repertory companies is seeing actors in different, often VERY different roles. At Stratford this summer he plays the mild-mannered role of John Brooke in LITTLE WOMEN at the Avon Theatre.
EVERY LITTLE NOOKIE runs through October 1. I give it Four Buffalos (see below for the rating system)
The “Family” offering this summer is LITTLE WOMEN adapted for the stage by Jordi Mand. The program tells us that it’s based on the novels “Little Women” and “Good Wives” by Louisa May Alcott. Don’t let that confuse you. It’s a Brit-Lit thing (after all Queen Elizabeth II’s image is on Canadian money) because, in England, what you read in the U.S. as “Little Women” (one volume) was printed in two volumes. Of the three shows discussed here, it’s the longest, with a run-time of 2 hours and 52 minutes.
Here’s the blurb: “Aspiring writer Jo March and her sisters, Meg, Beth, and Amy, do their best to make ends meet as they navigate the road to adulthood. Struggling to reconcile societal expectations with their own hopes and dreams, the girls are held together by bonds of loyalty and love. They may differ in their ideas of what it means to be a woman, but each of their journeys poses the same universal question: How do you find your own path? This production takes place in the present day, with 1860’s period costumes.”
There is a very mild “Audience Advisory” which reads: “This production includes mature content, bright lights, and haze. This performance is wonderful for families with children in all but the youngest of grades. Those in lower elementary or kindergarten may still enjoy the action, but the plot details are likely more complicated than most would enjoy.” Of course, you know your child, grandchild, or niece best, but I think 10+ would be a good recommendation.
In 2018, Mand’s play, BRONTË: THE WORLD WITHOUT premièred at the Stratford Festival. Also a play about sisters living in poverty and about women writing in a world dominated by men, I didn’t care much for that play or production, either. I thought the rich subject matter was squandered with dialogue that was repetitive and that the music was beyond obtrusive. The Stratford Festival’s current LITTLE WOMEN struck me the same way.
Buffalo audiences may have seen LITTLE WOMEN as adapted by local playwright Donna Hoke and presented this past May by Road Less Traveled Productions. You can read my review of that here and/or read the article on that Buffalo production by Buffalo Rising’s Liberty Darr here.
Hoke’s adaptation as presented was superior in my opinion. Using modern dress and props (the girls share one cell phone, Jo writes on a laptop) each of the characters has equal weight. I wrote at the time “Hoke has maintained four distinct through lines. Each of the sisters has her own story and we don’t get too far from each as Hoke skillfully drops in on one after the other, updating us as we go along.”
That didn’t happen at Stratford where their current adaptation is more centered on Jo. Her sister’s stories seemed important only as they impacted Jo and their individual motivations weren’t well developed. There was some odd staging as well, as Beth lingered dying on stage stage right while the action shifted stage left. Really? I was also put off by the insertion of out-of-left-field contemporary music and goofy dance routines. It was a jarring hodge-podge of costumes, language, and manners. However, if the target audience is indeed preteen girls who were in abundance the day we went, it’s a winner. They loved it.
If you want to introduce a young person to the theater, then it’s not bad, and for an older child if you could pair it with CHICAGO you’d have an engaging combination. Odd as it may sound, I’d say for someone 12+ you could also pair LITTLE WOMEN with the current production of HAMLET which is quite contemporary and moves along at a brisk pace with a runtime also just under three hours.
I’d have to give LITTLE WOMEN only 2 and a half Buffalos (see rubric below). LITTLE WOMEN runs through October 29.
I want to end on an upbeat note so let me clue you into the astounding series of “events” included in the “Meighan Forum” which range from speakers, to lectures, to guided discussions, to entertainments including comedy acts, music performances, and the occasional chance to participate in a reading of a play. On our visit we attended a moderated talk titled “Young Men in Crisis” by a professor of Shakespeare and two child psychiatrists, a topic germane to the plays HAMLET and ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. We also participated in the reading of a version of RICHARD III that predates Shakespeare’s. These “Meighan Forum” events are very similar to what might be offered at The Chautauqua Institution. All scheduled to not conflict with the stage performances, many of them take place in “Lazaridis Hall” in the beautiful new Tom Patterson Theatre building or if not there, in various parts of the Festival Theatre. The offerings are too numerous and varied to summarize, so my advice is to see what’s being offered by clicking here.
*HERD OF BUFFALO (Notes on the Rating System)
ONE BUFFALO: This means trouble. A dreadful play, a highly flawed production, or both. Unless there is some really compelling reason for you to attend (i.e. you are the parent of someone who is in it), give this show a wide berth.
TWO BUFFALOS: Passable, but no great shakes. Either the production is pretty far off base, or the play itself is problematic. Unless you are the sort of person who’s happy just going to the theater, you might look around for something else.
THREE BUFFALOS: I still have my issues, but this is a pretty darn good night at the theater. If you don’t go in with huge expectations, you will probably be pleased.
FOUR BUFFALOS: Both the production and the play are of high caliber. If the genre/content are up your alley, I would make a real effort to attend.
FIVE BUFFALOS: Truly superb–a rare rating. Comedies that leave you weak with laughter, dramas that really touch the heart. Provided that this is the kind of show you like, you’d be a fool to miss it!
Peter Hall continues trying to figure out how "it" all works. For over 20 years, as a producer and program host on WNED Classical (94.5 FM), he's conducted over 1,000 interviews with artists as he asks them to explain, in layman's terms, "what's the big picture here?" These days Peter can be heard regularly on Sunday afternoons from 1 to 5. On “Theater Talk” (heard Friday mornings at 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. on WBFO 88.7 FM) his favorite question of co-host Anthony Chase is simply "What's goin' on?" As mentioned recently in Buffalo Spree magazine, Peter's "Buffalo Rising reviews are the no-holds barred 'everyman's' take." A member of Buffalo's Artie Awards Committee, Peter holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from SUNY at Buffalo. For over twenty-five years he was an adjunct professor for Canisius College’s Richard J. Wehle School of Business.
As one of the region’s most read publications since its launch in 2004, Buffalo Rising’s diverse editorial team delivers a wide range of relevant content to our readers as it unfolds in real time. An independently owned and operated digital publication, Buffalo Rising provides editorial and critical reviews on all topics that relate to Buffalo, NY.
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