Popcorn musicals
Hollywood movies adapted for the stage highlight Mirvish lineup
The old cliché used to be, “I haven’t read the book, but I’ve seen the movie.”
Well, nowadays, you’d be safer saying, “I’ve seen the movie and now I’m going to the musical.” The big trend on Broadway is to take movie hits and turn them into musicals, from Mary Poppins to Billy Elliot.
Mirvish Productions is bringing two such properties to the Toronto stage this fall. Sister Act started performances at the Ed Mirvish Theatre on Oct. 2 and La Cage Aux Folles begins at the Royal Alexandra Theatre on Oct. 10. (mirvish.com)
Sister Act is based on the hit 1992 movie that starred Whoopi Goldberg and Maggie Smith. It tells the story of a Vegas lounge singer who witnesses a mafia execution and flees into a convent for safety. Of course, she gets into the habit and then gets the nuns into a singing habit!
Bound to be a feast of seat-shaking musical numbers, this show enjoyed hit runs in London and New York. Now it’s Toronto’s turn!
La Cage Aux Folles is another show with legs, literally, as it deals with a drag show on the French Riviera. First a hit French stage play and movie, Jerry Herman turned it into a smash Broadway musical in 1983. Then there was the hilarious American film version, The Birdcage.
The tour hitting Toronto stars the perennially-tanned George Hamilton and is based on the Tony Award-winning 2010 Broadway revival.
See you at the movies, Wait, I mean the musicals!
The holiday season brings out the child in all of us and, this year, there are three excellent ways to give that child some fine seasonal entertainment.
When the frost is on the pumpkin, Ross Petty starts defrosting his crossdressing gear and hoard of hoary jests to prepare for his annual spectacular panto.
This year it’s Snow White: The Deliciously Dopey Family Musical and it starts performances at the Elgin Theatre on Nov. 23. (rosspetty.com)
Of course, Petty is the Evil Stepmother and the lovely Melissa O’Neill is Snow White, but there’s some clever surprises. Instead of seven dwarfs, we have Graham Abbey as 007, a tribute to the 50th anniversary of James Bond on film, no doubt.
Such comic stalwarts as Eddie Glen, Reid Janisse, Billy Lake and Bryn McAuley will be along to see that the comedy is low and the spirits are high.
For something a bit more serious, Soulpepper is bringing back its beloved (and excellent) production of A Christ
mas Carol, starting Dec. 3. (soulpepper.ca)
Joe Ziegler has made the role of Scrooge so thoroughly his that you absolutely must see him play the part. You’ll also love the way Michael Shama- ta’s virtuoso staging takes us whirling through Victorian England, with all of its tragedy and comedy.
For a really big finish, the MirvishAndrew Lloyd Webber production of
The Wizard of Oz will begin performances at the Ed Mirvish Theatre on Dec. 20. (mirvish.com)
Cedric Smith as The Wizard heads a cast of first-rate Canadian talent and the lucky girl who’s going to be play Dorothy is being determined every Sunday and Monday on the CBC-TV series, Over the
Rainbow.
Watch the program, cast your vote, and then come see the show.