Musical delivers mature fun as it spoofs the season
Titles of songs like A Little Glass of Wine only hint at the renegade lyrics within
Actor, playwright and composer Grant Tilly just struck an item from his bucket list.
He gets to play a reindeer. It may not be Rudolph and not even Brendan, but it is a reindeer.
Tilly has been cast in Forte Musical Theatre Guild’s holiday musical Naughty but Nice! 4 Play which, as the title heralds, is the fourth edition of this subversive Calgaryborn musical.
Created by Joe Slabe with a little help from composer friends like Dan Perrott, Matt Board, Robert Maggio, Matt Hardy, Noah MacDougall, Jeff Thomson, Jordan Mann and Bill Nelson, these Naughty but Nice! musicals take wicked glee in spoofing holiday traditions and even the holiday spirit itself.
There are songs like Santa’s My Daddy, The Best Christmas Movie, A Little Glass of Wine, Waiting up for Santa, Brendan the Brownnosed Reindeer and Bling, whose titles only hint at their renegade lyrics.
Tilly has been a part of the Naughty but Nice! cycle since inception, just not on stage. He wrote To the People We Lost Last Year, one of the few songs that have been a staple in all the shows to date.
“I’ve always wanted to be in the show, but things never worked out. I was always unavailable, but I’ve never missed one.
“I spend every Christmas visiting with my dad in Calgary so I’ve seen them all and that has only made me long to be in the show even more,” says Tilly, who joins returning cast members Scott Olynek and Justine Westby and fellow newbie Ellie Heath.
Tilly was in Newfoundland when he saw the notice of auditions for the fourth edition of Naughty but Nice! and immediately let Slabe and director JP Thibodeau know he was not only very interested, but would finally be very available.
“Joe and JP asked me to send an audition video. They wanted me to sing Dan Perrott’s song Pimp My Tree to see if I could do a Christmas rap.
“I knew how tricky that song is so I brushed up on my rap and sent off a video. Three days later they told me I was cast in the show.”
Tilly completed his theatre training in 2001 and promptly auditioned for Stage West’s production of Hello Dolly!, nabbing a chorus role. The next year he was cast in Stage West’s first version of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.
Like so many performers, Tilly left for Toronto where he has been stationed ever since, not only performing but writing and composing. But he’s remained connected to the Calgary scene: Lunchbox Theatre premiered his musical comedy The Bingo Ladies, which he spun into a two-act musical and then starred in a version of it in Quebec. He is putting the finishing touches on his newest play, The Whole Enchilada, which will have a workshop production next spring. And he wrote the song Just an Old Ford for Slabe’s musical Touch Me: Songs for a (dis)Connected Age.
“It’s about my relationship with my dad and Joe does it each time he produces Touch Me.”
Tilly also wrote the song Thank You Christians for Naughty but Nice! but former cast member Selina Wong is pregnant and Ahad Mir is off making movies in Pakistan so there is not enough diversity in this year’s cast to warrant presenting the hilarious ditty about why Muslims, Jews and Buddhists eagerly piggyback on the Christian holiday.
In addition to Olynek, Westby, Mir and Wong, past shows have featured Adam Sanders, Jesse Cox, Jeremy Carver-James, Katherine Fadum and Devin MacKinnon.
Each show has been staged and directed by JP Thibodeau, who is presented with a bit of a yearly challenge. The musical is presented at Lunchbox Theatre, which means Thibodeau has to work around whatever set Lunchbox has for its holiday show.
Last year, with it’s A Wonderful Life The Radio Play, Thibodeau had to work around a vacant radio station. This year, Lunchbox Theatre is presenting The Santaland Diaries, so Thibodeau has had to set Naughty but Nice! 4 Play in Santa’s Village where an elf and three reluctant late shoppers bump into one another.
Naughty but Nice! 4 Play runs at Lunchbox Theatre from Dec. 5 to 17 at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays with a 3 p.m. matinee on Saturdays and Sundays.
Tickets are available at tickets. lunchboxtheatre.com or by calling 403-265-4292 and remember this show is definitely not for preteens.