THEATRICAL TRIBUTE TO JONI HITS FRESH NOTES
Boomer music is back. Not that it ever went anywhere, really, but this season Vancouver theatres are filled with the sounds of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. The Arts Club is about to launch a summer of Elvis and Jerry Lee (Million Dollar Quartet) and girl groups (Bittergirl: The Musical), while the Firehall is grooving to the iconic tunes of Joni Mitchell.
A few years ago, the Firehall premiered Chelsea Hotel, a concept musical with minimal dramatic structure, basically an excuse to revisit and recontextualize the songs of Leonard Cohen. It was a major success, subsequently remounted and toured.
Circle Game: Reimagining the Music of Joni Mitchell gives similar treatment to another Canadian icon, but without even the pretence of a dramatic frame. Conceived and co-directed, arranged and choreographed by husband-and-wife team Andrew Cohen and Anna Kuman, this new show, like Chelsea Hotel, utilizes an ensemble of performers who provide their own multiinstrumental musical accompaniment to a couple of dozen great Joni songs.
The “reimagining ” is mostly done via Andrew Cohen’s startling and sometimes audaciously radical rearrangements of Mitchell classics. Speeded up or slowed down, rhythmically altered and often redistributed among multiple voices with innovative harmonies and counterpoint, the songs take on new life.
Not always for the better — it’s hard to improve on Mitchell’s unique performative genius. And sometimes definitely for the worse. Early in the show, the ensemble does You Turn Me On I’m a Radio in a kind of aren’twe-all-just-having-wacky-funhere mode that had my Uh-Oh Meter flashing red. But the show grows on you. The staging and Kuman’s choreography become increasingly imaginative as the evening progresses, and some of the arrangements are exceptional — A Case of You sung as a duet, Raised on Robbery slowed down to a sultry ballad, Down to You in six-part a cappella and a killer reworking of Big Yellow Taxi.
Showcasing Mitchell’s brilliant songwriting and a group of talented performers not seen much on our stages, the freshness and sheer artistry of Circle Game completely won me over by the end.
There are multiple standout performances. Long-legged soprano Adriana Ravalli, with a dancer’s grace and the most Joni-like voice in the group, does beautiful work on A Case of You, in which she sings and shares an acoustic guitar with David Cohen. They reappear throughout the show as a couple — one of its only structural devices — and have some gorgeous moments together when she interpolates lines from Clouds into his performance of River. David Cohen’s bravura drum routine that opens the second act is also spectacular.
Scott Perrie offers a marvellous solo and great guitar work on Free Man in Paris, and his antiwar anthem Fiddle and the Drum is a standout. Kimmy Choi shows impressive instrumental talents, especially on keyboards and violin, and reveals a lovely voice on Little Green, Mitchell’s melancholy song about the child she gave away. Rowen Kahn and Sara Vickruck flash their chops on Woodstock, Urge for Going and Winter Lady, among others.
Carolyn Rapanos’ richly decorated set, filled with hanging carpets, multiple instruments and flower-power designs, provides a colourful backdrop, and Ian Schimpf ’s lighting is used sparingly to fine effect.
Can’t be too long now until the Neil Young show.
Boomers rule.