East Van Panto pulls in big laughs at Playland
THEATRE
EAST VAN PANTO: SNOW WHITE & THE SEVEN DWARVES
By Mark Chavez, with music by Veda Hille. Directed by Anita Rochon. A Theatre Replacement Production. At the York Theatre on Friday, December 1. Continues until January 6
Laugh-out-loud, loving sendups 2
of East Van stereotypes—and some excellent digs at West Van— couched in rewritten chart-topping songs of today and yesterday mean just one thing: it’s the annual East Van Panto!
This year’s Panto—the fifth—is a hyperlocal and wonderfully creative reimagining of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. But this Snow White (Ming Hudson) is a Hot Topic goth whose evil stepmother, the Fitness Queen from West Van (Allan Zinyk), keeps her locked in her room all the time. When the Mirror (Amy Rutherford) informs the Queen that she has been usurped by Snow White as the fairest in the land, the Queen blackmails her unpaid intern Heimlich (Chirag Naik) to kill her stepdaughter.
Instead, Heimlich confesses his murderous plot and helps Snow White escape to Playland, where she finds a ragtag group of aging rockers known as the Seven Dwarves living in the haunted house. The climactic chase scene is a raucous romp throughout the park grounds, featuring everything from the merrygo-round and the coaster to mini doughnuts and Superdogs.
The music is great (Veda Hille returns for her fifth year, with musical director Ben Elliott adding other touches), but there are some clear standout numbers, like the song in which the Queen wants to disguise herself as a “cool East Van mom”. Not only does she sing about her transformation potion to the tune of Salt-npepa’s “Push It”, but her lengthy list of ingredients includes spot-on East Side women’s essentials like Blundstone boots and the Divacup. Writer Mark Chavez’s script works well, and nicely balances the political with the silly. Adding famed East Van crow Canuck (Zinyk, pulling double duty) into the mix is brilliant. I particularly enjoyed Chavez’s excellent disruption of Snow White’s very name—it isn’t just “a reference to some antiquated, racist beauty standard”—and his total reinterpretation of the word fairest.
Director Anita Rochon brings out the best in her cast, and their genuine joy at the quality of the material, and their commitment to it, is palpable.
At one point, my niece, a sensitive child who just turned nine, was suddenly on my lap, scared that Snow White was really dead. Two minutes later she was laughing hysterically, screaming something at the stage, and I realized that while I thoroughly enjoyed myself, it’s her perspective that really matters. So here is Ashley Warner-smith’s review: “It’s hilarious and amazing. Give people a heads up about some of the scary moments. It’s amazing and the best.”
ONEGIN > ANDREA WARNER
By Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille. Based on the poem by Aleksandr Pushkin and the opera by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky. Directed by Amiel Gladstone. An Arts Club Theatre production. At the Granville Island Stage on Saturday, December 2. Continues until December 31
If you’re anything like me, the 2
phrase “adapted from Pushkin and Tchaikovsky” doesn’t send you sprinting to the box office. But the musical Onegin, written by Amiel Gladstone and singer-songwriter Veda Hille, is the opposite of the stuffiness that’s often associated with those two Russians. Instead, it’s electric, witty, and simply a ton of fun.
As the cast sings, “It’s Russia, it’s winter, it’s a long time ago.” Evgeni Onegin (Alessandro Juliani) inherits his uncle’s country estate and visits the neighbours, the Larins. His friend Vladimir (Josh Epstein) is betrothed to Olga Larin (Lauren Jackson). But that doesn’t prevent Onegin from flirting with both Olga and her older, shier sister Tatyana (Meg Roe), who falls hard for him. He is the cat set among the pigeons, and a fracas ensues.
Like, say, Rent, Onegin is a sungthrough musical, so there’s hardly any dialogue outside of the songs. Which is great, because Hille and Gladstone’s melodies are sumptuous and the cast is full of evocative singers.
A theatre professor once told me that “70 percent of directing is casting.” Taking nothing away from Gladstone’s staging, the cast here is magnificent, full of confidence and charisma.
Both in the writing and direction, Gladstone wields a light touch. Two jittering picture frames make a carriage, a few snowflakes suggest a storm.
The stage is all Edison bulbs and wooden chandeliers above, with stacks of paperbacks below. With the eclectic costuming and the cast occasionally picking up an instrument, it feels like folk fest in a St. Petersburg antique shop.
Ostensibly, the show is set near St. Petersburg in the early 19th century, but Gladstone plays fast and loose with time, place, and everything in between. Prince and Taylor Swift feature in the preshow music,
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East Van Panto: Snow White & the Seven Dwarves
with Alessandro Juliani (left), is back and better than ever, boasting a charismatic cast, rich songs, and a boho-stylized design. David Cooper photo.
Onegin,