Me and My Girl feel-good fluff at Shaw
Whether it deserves the tag or not, whatever musical the Shaw Festival books for its mainstage theatre is referred to as the ‘flagship show.’ Often times, it comes with the unwelcome pressure of deciding whether a season makes or loses money.
In recent years, they simply haven’t clicked. Flawed productions such as Alice in Wonderland (2016) and Sweet Charity (2015) have contributed to a flagship slump at the Festival Theatre. Conversely, the past two seasons have been a financial struggle for the company.
Into this somewhat desperate scenario comes the satisfying silliness of Me and My Girl, which if it was any more fluffy might float off the stage. Important? Not one bit. Fun? Absolutely.
In a season of change at the Shaw with new artistic director Tim Carroll, this feels like a throwback. While hardly a groundbreaking musical, this Stephen Fry rewrite of the 1937 hit does what’s required: Send the crowd home happy so they’ll tell their friends. The Shaw, quite frankly, needs this to be a hit.
And it deserves to be. In one of his biggest casting coups of the season, Carroll lured former Stratford great Michael Therriault to Shaw for the first time, playing an uncouth cockney named Bill who learns he’s heir to the Earl of Hareford.
From the second he hits the stage — greeted by some ‘What took so long?’ applause opening night Saturday — Therriault is a comic whirlwind, dropping cheesy zingers as he glides from one amusing set piece to the next.
To earn his title, Bill must first satisfy the late Earl’s wishes that his successor be worthy of such royal esteem. You can guess how that goes. Me and My Girl sticks so close to the Pygmalion / My Fair
Lady template, it’s shocking it took this long to come here.
Working on Drew Facey’s uncomplicated but elegant sets of 1930s London, the cast bangs off the show’s major moments with moxy. Jay Turvey brings plenty of goofy charm to The Family Solicitor, Kyle Blair as Gerald and the ensemble kick off Act 2 with a rousing The
Sun Has Got His Hat On, and the show’s trademark number — The
Lambeth Walk — is a slow-building romp which eventually gets the entire cast, and a few audience members, shouting “Oi!” Firsttime Shaw director (and Dora winner) Ashlie Corcoran takes a musical that has no business pushing three hours and makes it fly by.
Therriault’s shoulders are certainly big enough to carry the show, but he gets stellar support from Kristi Frank as Bill’s streetsmart lass Sally Smith, worried her man is getting too refined for her (“Do you know where the Magna Carta was signed?” “Ya, at the bottom”) and Elodie Gillett as the gold digging Lady Jacqueline, whose attempts at seduction reach peak hilarity in You Would If You Could.
Therriault also shares several amusing scenes with Shaw veterans Ric Reid and Sharry Flett as the crusty executors who eventually come around to his charms.
That might be a spoiler if there was anything even remotely surprising about this well-worn story. The joy, as always, is watching this great ensemble put substance behind all the fluff. Not much of Me
and My Girl sticks, but it’s a perfect summer time-waster in Niagaraon-the-Lake.