Tempo Toronto » Princess of Wales Theatre

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert

admin — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:25:41 +0000

At Princess of Wales Theatre until January 2

reviewed by Ron Singer

How does a musical with a very gay sensibility and featuring drag queens manage to become an enormous popular hit, catering primarily to a well-heeled audience who, while not necessarily homophobic, would under normal circumstances probably not choose shows about gays and most definitely not about drag queens??

Well, folks, that was the question I kept asking myself…and then I saw this Toronto mega hit production that has already been a ‘humongous’ success in Australia and is about to take Broadway by storm, immediately following this already highly successful Toronto run.

This musical stage version of the somewhat cultish and seminal Australian film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert, is based, story-wise, on the movie and does in fact use several of the movie’s well known and extremely popular disco-oriented tunes, such as I Love the Nightlife and Shake Your Groove Thing with many other up-tempo original tunes.

The story, in brief, is set in the Australian outback and concerns a young gay drag queen performer who had fathered a child prior to opting for the gay-only lifestyle and subsequently leaving his wife. We pick up the narrative a number of years later, when the child in question, Benjamin, tells his Mom that he’d genuinely like to see the Father he never really knew and the long separated, but reasonably friendly parents agree that father and son should meet in remote Alice Springs. And the rest, as they say, is showbiz, as the father and his band of merry drag queens sing and dance their way across the desert to their ultimate destination of Alice Springs.

I had some difficulty at first understanding some of the dialogue and if you’re very familiar with the Aussie accent, you’ll take offence with how badly two of the cast in particular handle that task. However, the one actor who is the worst offender in the accent department happens to be the best singer/dancer in the company, so he is easily forgiven.

Very much like in other cult productions, The Rocky Horror Show for example, where some of the audience know the story, dialogue and music and thus, occasionally join in, joyous sounds of recognition by some of the Priscilla cognescienti pepper the scenes in this show as well.

Harking back to my original question, what is it about this musical that makes it attractive to an all-encompassing audience? Well, to put it in simplest and most succinct terms, this show grows on you. It transcends the world of drag primarily because of the touching and extremely sentimental story, the strong acting, the brilliant singing and dancing, the very recognizable, popular, driving, rhythmic and infectious disco music, with tunes that you can hum and with lyrics you can remember, and to cap it all off, there are the many spectacular, glitzy, eccentric costumes and set pieces.

Additionally, this production has a most unusual-looking chorus, featuring every size and shape of performer. This is truly a “different’ musical than most and definitely an audience-pleasing spectacle. In fact, the jam-packed audience clearly not only grew to like or even love the characters and their very idiosyncratic behaviour, they stood as one at the curtain calls to repeatedly applaud and loudly cheer the delighted company.

About Ron Singer: Artistic Director Emeritus of The Randolph Academy of the Performing Arts, former Chair of the Department of Theatre at York University, former entertainment critic (CFRB Radio and Standard Broadcast News), and former arts and entertainment reporter (CBC Variety Tonight). We’re honoured to have Ron with us.

Legally Blonde

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:10:15 +0000

Bubble-gum Musical

Princess of Wales Theatre until August 8

Reviewed by Ron Singer

LEGALLY BLONDE is a bubble gum, feel-good musical designed for an audience who want reasonably mindless musical spectacles. Disclosure; I saw this production on Broadway, prior to its move to Toronto – so I can include general highlights of the production, but can’t comment on the performances of the Toronto stage brigade.

The story and plot are reasonably simplistic; a very pretty, high-energy and bright blonde girl is dumped by her Harvard-bound boyfriend because he believes that she comes across like a “dumb blonde”. So, she decides to also go to Harvard in order to show him that not all blondes deserve the “dumb” label.

At Harvard, naturally, she succeeds at all levels academically, socially and romantically and more than proves her point:, namely, don’t let appearances fool you, or you can’t tell a book by its cover. The NY acting varied from strong to schticky, except for the two dogs in the production whose acting was outstanding. And there are some up tempo tuneful songs and lots of energetic, well choreographed dances.

Legally Blonde is a well-produced, fun entertainment over-all, but as saccharined and artificial as cotton candy, and just about as Barbie Doll colourful. Nevertheless, I’ll admit that I actually enjoyed it for what it is: a fun, uptempo, but mindless, Valley Girl mentality musical. And the many, many prepubescent girls and their mothers in the audience, for whom this production is perfectly geared, seemed to be eating it up, so to speak.

The Canadian Tenors’ holiday album “The Perfect Gift” goes gold December 8

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:11:48 +0000

Stunning. Uplifting. This awesome foursome makes you proud to be Canadian

The Canadian Tenors – Clifton Murray, Victor Micallef, Remigio Pereira and Fraser Walters – are world class performers, possessors of incredibly powerful tenor voices and with diverse vocal styles.

Tempo Toronto met them and heard them perform (minus Remigio Pereira, who was unwell that evening) at “It’s Always Something” for Gilda’s Club at the Princess of Wales Theatre recently. Among the amazing performances that evening, as the final act in this superb benefit show, these talented young men stood out as refreshing and inspiring. On top of all that talent, they are great people, full of positive energy and enthusiasm.

They’ve done well; deservedly so. We found out that the foursome has received rave reviews and standing ovations around the world from the Tel Aviv Opera house where they shared the stage with Andrea Bocelli to Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Coliseum with David Foster and Friends to Toronto’s Air Canada Centre where they headlined at ONE NIGHT LIVE with STING and Sheryl Crow.

From performing opening songs for President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Shimon Peres to making musical memories at events with icons such as John Legend, Wyclef Jean and Canada’s musical maestro David Foster the Canadian Tenors’ reputation is that of talented singers and genuine artists with big hearts. They have raised their voices to support many children’s charities, which is how we came to meet them and be as impressed as everyone else whose lives they touch.

Their debut album went gold in Canada, and was released around the world by Universal Music and its affiliates.

It’s not too late to see them live, and quite honestly we’d urge you not to miss the opportunity. Their local dates in the GTA are

December 18 and 19, Markham
December 20, St. Catharine’s
December 21 and 22 Brampton
December 22, Markham
December 23, Brampton

Catch them now if you can, because, in the New Year, they have mostly American appearances along with their support for the Vancouver, Olympics. Tickets are available through their website as well as Tickemaster. “The Perfect Gift” is also available through the website (only $20) as well as in stores.

www.canadiantenors.com
See and hear a sample of their work too,
www.canadiantenors.com/tenors_tv_2.html
www.canadiantenors.com/tenors_tv_html

Russell Peters hosts variety show for Gilda’s Club

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:43:38 +0000

Line-up of supreme Canadian talent, The Canadian Tenors close off the evening, all for Gilda’s Club

What an amazing evening! All-star, all Canadian, cast of entertainers kept the audience rapt or laughing out loud for two hours straight. This line-up of extraordinary Canadian talent donated their time for a great cause – Gilda’s Club. If you didn’t get tickets for this year, you’ll want to make sure you do in 2010.

Tickets for “Toronto’s Number One Night of Entertainment”, It’s Always Something, an evening of comedy, music and dance in support of Gilda’s Club, Greater Toronto, went on sale on Monday, September 28. This eighth annual Variety Show took place on Monday, November 23 at the Princess of Wales Theatre. It’s a benefit in support of Gilda’s Club, named after Gilda Radner of Saturday Night Live fame. Gilda lost her battle with ovarian cancer in 1989, but not before imagining a place where people touched by cancer could go for social and emotional support.

Back for his third consecutive year of hosting, was Canada’s number one comedian and Gemini Award winner Russell Peters, with another all-star cast of comedians, musicians and dancers all donating their talents to Gilda’s Club, Greater Toronto, a cancer care centre providing free emotional and support programs for kids, teens and adults living with cancer, and their families.

Joining Russell was legendary Second City and SCTV star Dave Thomas, former Barenaked Ladies lead singer Steven Page, three of the acclaimed vocal group of four – The Canadian Tenors (all four pictured above, but as one was unwell only three pictured at the left with Tempo Toronto Publisher Tina Rogers), comedian and musical theatre star Sean Cullen, Canadian R&B artist and 2009 Juno winner Divine Brown, stars of the Emmy-nominated “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” Colin Mochrie (pictured right) and Brad Sherwood, and comedian Irwin Barker. Eugene Levy also stepped on stage to address the crowd of 2000.

As one of the must-attend and always sold out events of the entertainment year, all proceeds go to support Gilda’s Club, Greater Toronto. Over its first seven years, the show raised more than $2.5 million to fulfill Gilda’s wish that “no one should face cancer alone.”

If you missed it you may want to plan to go next year, November 2010. There’s more information at www.itsalwayssomething.ca, and about Gilda’s Club, Greater Toronto at www.gildasclubtoronto.org. Media relations for the event were in the capable hands of dkpr Public Relations Inc. www.dkpr.ca