Press & Reviews
Souvenir
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Off Note But On Key
Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins is a musical about a tone-deaf soprano
by Neil Boyce - Montreal Mirror
Speeding by with only three performances in The Next Wave mini-fest of musical theatre, Stephen Temperley’s 2005 play, Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins, is a funny, tender and witty piece that its two actors gobble up. The piece unfolds as a memoir. Cosme McMoon (Chris Barillaro) is playing piano in a dive, recalling his time as accompanist to the most tuneless, least-talented and loveliest singer ever: Florence Foster Jenkins (Nadia Verrucci). In a career that spanned over 30 years, culminating in a performance at Carnegie Hall in 1944, the real-life Jenkins thrilled audiences with her “unique” renditions of classical arias. Wealthy enough to indulge her whim of opera stardom, the gaudily dressed Jenkins would perform in salons for her society friends, aided by a pianist who would try to make sense of it all. The Rocky Horror of its day, audiences flocked to see the shows as a spectacle-du-jour.
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Plenty Of Off-Key Fun
Souvenir at the McCord Museum
By Anna Fuerstenberg - Rover: Montreal Arts Uncovered
It takes extraordinary courage to stage a new festival in Montreal. Stephan Pietrantoni has launched Montreal’s second English language musical theatre festival with Souvenir, a play about Florence Foster Jenkins, a woman who simply could not sing on key. The Centaur mounted Glorious some years ago about the same extraordinary person, but that play doesn’t compare to this show which is being held in the pleasantly intimate McCord Theatre space. The space and the fine writing from the point of view of the accompanist, Cosme McMoon, makes this a much more satisfying and delightful piece of theatre. It is an often hilarious story narrated by Jenkins’ accompanist, played by Chris Barillaro, and it keeps the audience enthralled from the very first note. Nothing quite prepares one for the appalling atonal singing of the lead character, but somehow, and this is what makes it work, the performance by Nadia Verrucci is so warm and innocent that one is quite taken by the story. Here is a woman who not only gives concerts of some of the great arias and lieder, but also produces a record called Murder of the high “C’s”.
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The Jazz Singer Hits Many Right Notes
Yiddish Theatre puts on expensive-looking, large production
by Pat Donnelly - The Montreal Gazette
Every year Montreal's Yiddish Theatre launches its latest production right in the middle of the festival rush. Which means I don't always get there for opening night. After seeing multiple Montreal Fringe Festival shows, however, I'm usually positively disposed toward spending a comfortable evening at the Segal Centre within the familial embrace of the Yiddish Theatre. This year's offering is the premiere of the first-ever musical adaptation of The Jazz Singer, with book, lyrics and music by Elan Kunin, who also stars in the show as the singer, Jacob.
As usual, this is a large, expensive-looking production with lavish costumes and the kind of look-at-me sets that only John C. Dinning can provide. This time, they revolve, which makes for quick scene changes. This is really high-end amateur theatre, with surtitiles. Few, if any, of the actors are paid, which means that the cast is large. I counted 34, which makes for densely populated crowd scenes and dance numbers looking for more leg room. It’s refreshing to have so many enthusiastic performers to look at.
As spectacle, The Jazz Singer is just fine. The choral singing is thoroughly enjoyable. Lisa Rubin, as Miriam, the childhood sweetheart of the young cantor whose heart belongs to Broadway, has a lovely voice and plays her role with touching conviction. Nadia Verrucci, too, as Mary, the Broadway star who falls for Jacob, proves that she is an accomplished song and dance performer. Kunin’s Jacob is good enough, charming, and of pleasant voice. But there’s more to the role of the young man torn between Jewish family tradition and the jazz scene than comes across here. At least, there was in the movie.
And perhaps, in the original play, by Samuel Raphaelson, inspired by Al Jolson, which led to the first feature-length “talkie” in 1927. But rather than just slip songs into that play, which was the initial concept, Kunin tried to write his own, “inspired by” previous incarnations of the story. As a result, this is a musical with a weak book, derivative songs, and forgettable lyrics. Still, director Bryna Wasserman has coached her volunteers well, and The Jazz Singer provides two hours (with intermission) of pleasant diversion.
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Something Like Jazz
The Jazz Singer at the Segal Theatre
by By Anna Fuerstenberg - Rover: Montreal Arts Uncovered
The play opens with the choir of a synagogue on a balcony of a very costly set, while the rest of the cast on the stage is dancing and singing something like jazz. This liturgical music mash is one of the best moments in the show, symbolizing the hero’s conflict and origins in the most interesting of musical moments.
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You've been invited to the roaring '20's to be a guest at The Wild Party!
by Bloody Underrated - Bloody Underrated
Don't you just love a good musical? I sure do. When it's done right, a live musical feels like nothing else, it feels great, it gets you involved without you knowing it, and it makes time slip away. When I caught The Wild Party on Thursday, that's exactly what happened. As soon as this giant cast walked onstage at Mainline and started singing the night away, I was hooked!
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In Your Face delivers the goods - with bathtub gin, cocaine and lust!
by Christopher Lane - The Charlebois Post
Step back into 1928 New York with In Your Face Entertainment’s current production of The Wild Party, directed by Jonathan Patterson and playing at Mainline Theatre. The musical, by Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe, takes place at a party hosted by Queenie and Burrs, a dysfunctional couple entrenched in the world of vaudeville. Their flamboyant parade of guests all seem to come to the party with differing intentions, which lead to some dramatic results at the party fuelled by bathtub gin, cocaine and lust.
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Theatre Review: Be My Baby
by Pat Donnelly - The Montreal Gazette
Be My Baby, by British playwright Amanda Whittington, is a rarity. The adoption issue is seldom discussed from the point of view of teen birth mothers faced with sudden, life-altering choices. Equally rare is a play about the 1960s that reveals the dark side of the sexual revolution. While everyone in London was swinging, in smaller centres, stories of heartbreak kids giving birth to children they will never be allowed to see again unfolded as usual. In this play, however, they have the comfort of listening to catchy tunes by the noted girl bands of the era: the Ronettes (who recorded Be My Baby), Dixie Cups and Shangri-Las. Although this isn’t a musical, the girls do more than karaoke justice to classics like Going to the Chapel. Mary Adams (Stevie Pemberton) is a quiet young woman who worked in a bank until she became pregnant. The responsibility falls entirely on her shoulders, and those of her anxious mother (Nadia Verrucci), rather than on her med student boyfriend, who remains an offstage character. The mother delivers her daughter to the church-run home managed by a stern matron (Sandy Ferguson). There she is to await her birthing time, along with three other pregnant girls – Queenie (Aimee Rose Ambroziak), Norma (Amanda Margelony) and Dolores (Jenessa Grant). Each one has her own sad story. But the resilience of youth is evident. Mary has brought her record collection. And the girls stick together in times of crisis. Ultimately, we see life does go on. Director Gabrielle Soskin has focused on pitch-perfect performances rather than elaborate staging. A laundry scene divides the set with a sheet. Verrucci is exceptionally good as the torn mother. And Ferguson nails the matron, in her studied benevolence. But it’s the girls who win us over, vulnerable yet spirited. Always ready to sing.