Revue reviewed
Book looks at first 10 years of local theatre tradition
Now that The Cape Breton Summertime Revue has been born again with the staging of The Next Generation at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay, Breton Books has published a book about the first 10 years of the revue—told by those who made it happen.
Author Ron Caplan sat down for interviews with Bette MacDonald, Maynard Morrison, Leon Dubinsky, Max MacDonald, Stephen MacDonald and Gerald Taylor. Maynard tells how he developed the Cecil character out of his relatives and strangers, and Bette talks about bringing Mary Morrison to life by combining family and friends and the people she observed in church and in the shopping mall.
The book pays tribute to the three elements that gave birth to The Cape Breton Summertime Revue: the Cape Breton Rotary Shows that for years delivered Broadway to Cape Breton, The Liz and Harry Boardmore theatre classes at Xavier Junior College that encouraged The Rise and Follies of Cape Breton Island and Fred Tomie’s Whitney Pier Athletic Club that allowed young people to perform their own Cape Breton-based music and sketches onstage. Add to this the determination to put on a great show, and you have The Cape Breton Summertime Revue.
This book features 34 photographs from all 10 years taken by Warren Gordon.
The show lives on with The Next Generation, which opens at the Savoy Theatre on August 1. And this year at the Savoy Theatre on August 1, Ron Caplan’s “The Cape Breton Summertime Revue - The Story of the First 10 Years” will be launched.