Christmas fun online for kids and grown-ups
There is plenty of online musical mischief for both adults and kids planned for this upcoming holiday season. Forte Musical Theatre Guild has filmed the seventh edition of its popular holiday cabaret musical Naughty but Nice and Occasional Notes has done the same with its family musical Candy Cane Kids.
Joe Slabe, the creator and musical director of Naughty but Nice stresses the online edition entitled Seven's On Screen “is not an archive of the stage show.”
“Our director, JP Thibodeau, and I took our inspiration from shows like Saturday Night Live.
“We want to make it clear we're in a live theatre so you'll see bits of behind the scenes action as the cameras move.
“We're also featuring some of our videos, including the one for Pimp My Tree, an animated short of one of the most popular songs — Brendan the Brown Nosed Reindeer — and sketches like The Little Match Girl.”
Because the videos were filmed in February, Justine Westby, who has relocated to the United States, gets to be a special guest star opposite this year's featured performers — Scott Olynek, Selina Wong, Tenaj Williams and Katherine Fadum.
There are 14 songs in Seven's On Screen including the newest addition, Behind the Mask by Dan Perrott, which looks at a couple trying to spark a relationship in these COVID times.
Slabe says “only our title song Naughty but Nice plus Brendan and Baileys for Breakfast have been in every single edition of Naughty but Nice and we've found ways to make each of them special for this version.”
ONE FOR THE KIDS
Barb Mitchell and Laurie Parente's family musical Candy Cane Kids, which has been part of the Calgary Zoo's holiday fare, is available through video-on-demand until Jan. 2
“Laurie and I realized Candy Cane Kids is exactly what people need this holiday season. More than ever, we need to sing and dance. We need to laugh and we need to feel those sparkly feelings that Christmas brings,” says Mitchell.
Mitchell conceived the show with Parente but cowrote the songs with Montreal composer Bob Stagg and directed the video version. The show's choreographer, Kayla Mackenzie, stars opposite Jeff Follis, Keirstyn Secord, Quinn Lazenby, Bri Zubick, Evelyn Frechette, Jocelyn Mah and Robyn Harris in this story of how the quality control inspectors at Mcjingles Incorporated have to reinvigorate Canada's waning holiday spirit.