The following three shows were reviewed on Friday, Dec. 20, 2013, CIUT FRIDAY MORNING 89.5 fm, The Little Mermaid at the Elgin Theatre until Jan. 4, Venus in Fur at the Berkeley Street Theatre, Downstairs until Dec. 29 and The Musical of Musicals the Musical at the Panasonic Theatre until January 5, 2014.
The guest host was Phil Taylor
(PHIL)
Good Friday morning, it’s theatre fix-time with Lynn Slotkin, our theatre critic and passionate playgoer. Hi Lynn
(LYNN)
Hi Phil
(PHIL)
What treats do you have today?
(LYNN)
I have three which is really too many to review in a short spot, but I’m doing it because one is a remount; one is a goofy formula panto and the other is a spoof of musicals, always good for a laugh.
(PHIL)
Ok enough with the suspense. What are the shows?
(LYNN)
The first is The Little Mermaid, which gets the Ross Petty treatment. Family fare; the yearly pantomime that fractures fairy tales.
Then the remount of the hugely successful Canadian Stage production of Venus in Fur which has been moved to a smaller venue; The Berkeley Street Theatre, Downstairs.
And finallyThe Musical of Musicals the Musical a Fringe Festival hit and now part of the Mirvish Productions season.
(PHIL)
Ok, let’s dive in and begin with The Little Mermaid. Is it based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale?
(LYNN)
Very loosely. The fairy tale was about a mermaid who fell in love with a prince and was willing to give up her mermaidness and soul to love the prince and live on land.
But in a Ross Petty production, there is always a local element. So Angel is a mermaid living in Toronto Harbour when she learns an evil man named Ogopogo is planning to take over the harbour, build condos and a casino and spoil the landscape and destroy their environment. She overhears a young man named Adam planning to protest the expansion; sees him; and falls in love. He sees her in the water and is smitten too.
(PHIL)
You call it a goofy, formula panto. Why?
(LYNN)
It always has the same elements: good guys we root for; a dastardly villain we love to boo; silly side-kicks; current songs that fit into the action; topical references; for the adults and lots of groaning laughs for kids and grownups too; and the audience knows exactly what it’s getting and loves it. This year it’s billed as “Ontario’s O-Fish-Al Family Musical.
(PHIL)
You’ve seen these shows over the years, how did The Little Mermaid stack up?
(LYNN)
I didn’t flip over it. I think the script by Reid Janisse is a bit flat and not as funny as it could have been. He is a writer for Second City. This show isn’t a skit. It’s a full stage play and there is too much dead air and awkwardness in the scenes.
But the cast is first rate. As Angel, Chilina Kennedy is sweet and feisty, as you would expect a mermaid with a cause to be. Dan Chameroy, plays the hip-swaying Plumbum, a blonde-bombshell of a woman with bad makeup who has a motor-mouth and a wonderful sense of humour. And of course Ross Petty plays the dastardly evil Ogopogo, the guy we love to boo. Petty milks those boos for all their worth.
And it’s directed with real imagination by Tracy Flye who has all the mermaids on roller skates—that’s how they suggest the fluid movement. Family fun, but it needs a better writer.
(PHIL)
Tell us about the remount of Venus in Fur.
(LYNN)
Venus in Fur is by David Ives based on an 1870 novel by Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch about kinky sex, and sexual power struggles. The term Sado-masochism was named after him.
In the play, Venus in Fur a playwright named Thomas, has adapted the novel and is looking for the perfect actress to play Vanda, a sophisticated sexual adventurist. In walks a tough talking, leather-bustier-high-heeled wearing young woman who wants the part. She has a heavy Bronx-New Yawk accent. She reads for the director and turns into the sophisticated, elegant woman in Thomas’s play.
She challenges him about his play, saying it’s sexist against women. He objects. She argues back. Her talk is punctuated by thunder occasionally. Who is she? She’s no ordinary actress.
(PHIL)
It originally played in the fall at the Bluma Appel Theatre and now it’s in a smaller venue. How does that work?
(LYNN)
It works better if you ask me, which of course you are. Debra Hanson’s set is very pared down. The theatre space is spare—a table, a few chairs a divan and the back brick wall of the theatre. It gives a grungy feel to the proceedings which I think you need for the grungy work of auditioning for a tough part.
Jennifer Tarver’s direction brings out the fierce struggle between Thomas who is overpowered and toyed with by Vanda. If anything I think the acting of Carly Street as Vanda and Rick Miller as Thomas is more intense. They have a real chemistry. And while one of the characters seems overwhelmed by the other, the actors are not. It’s a wonderful pairing watching those two.
(PHIL)
And finally The Musical of Musicals The Musical. What does all that mean?
(LYNN)
This was created in 2004 in New York by Eric Rockwell (music) and Joanne Bogart (lyrics). With both of them writing the book. Hilarious and clever. While they would have loved creating their own original musical that proved too difficult. What they found easier was using their knowledge of knowing every musical that played on Broadway in the past 60 years to produce a show composed of five scenes written in the style of a different, established composer/lyricist.
So they wrote scenes in the style of Rogers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Kander and Ebb.
Sweet corny stuff reminiscent of Oklahoma; complex stuff like Sondheim (Sweeney Todd); golly-gosh stuff from Jerry Herman (Hello Dolly fame) the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber that sounds like Puccini (Phantom of the Opera), and the work of John Kander and Fred Ebb—Cabaret, Chicago, etc.
The central theme is that a young woman named June is unable to pay the rent and is given all manner of terrible consequences by the landlord if she doesn’t come up with the money. And she sings about it, as does the landlord and others, in the style of the musical and the song they are singing.
A Canadian version played at the Toronto Fringe Festival this past summer, for which I am never here. I am glad it’s been picked up by Mirvish Productions. It’s a loving spoof, send-up of musicals.
(PHIL)
Do you need an encyclopaedic knowledge of musicals of the 20th Century to appreciate it?
(LYNN)
No. People who are not devotes of musical theatre will appreciate the lyrics and cleverness of the writing. And people who know their musical theatre history will get a charge out of recognizing all the referenced musicals in the various styles of songs. There are a few hints in the theatre program, and lots of others that are not.
The cast of four are all talented, charming, have their tongues in their cheeks: Mark Cassius, Adrian Marchuk, Dana Jean Phoenix and Paula Wolfson.
It’s directed with a wink by Vinetta Strombergs who knows her musical literature and can assume the atmosphere and style of each musical referenced with efficiency.
Michael Mulrooney plays the piano accompaniment and narrates with a dry wit. The whole thing works a treat. But I have one caveat. There is a 20 minute intermission for what is really a 90 minute show.
Dumb….Padding. Get rid of it. Other than that, a treat of a show.
(PHIL)
Thanks Lynn. That’s Lynn Slotkin, our theatre critic and passionate playgoer. You can read Lynn’s blog at www.slotkinletter.com
The Little Mermaid plays at the Elgin Theatre until January 5, 2014.
Venus in Fur plays at the Berkeley Street Theatre, Downstairs until Dec. 29, 2013
The Musical of Musicals The Musical at the Panasonic Theatre, until January 5, 2014.