The Soulpepper Theatre Company from
Canada will appear at Pershing Square Signature
Center, 480 West 42nd Street, July 1-July
29, with 12 productions and 65 Canadian theater
artists. On July 1 Canada Day which celebrates
the nation's 150th birthday, I attended two
wonderful shows, and a fabulous reception. True
North: A Concert of Canada featured two
narrators, and ten terrific singers, and four
marvelous musicians. Sixteen songs plus an
Encore were performed, with videos of Canadian
scenes, based on writings of esteemed Canadian
poets. Musical director Mike
Ross arranged the songs, and is a splendid
musician at the piano, guitar and mandolin.
One of the highlights was a comic song The
Hockey Song, written by Stompin'
Tom Conners, performed by Daniel
Williston, who made the audience join him
singing the chorus praising the national sport.
It was a superb program.
Kim's Convenience,
by Ins Choi,
is a play, that has become so popular, that it
has now been produced as a television series. It
is about a Korean immigrant, who owns a
convenience store, and wants his children to
continue running the store as he ages. The play
depicts the generational gap, as the children
grow up as Canadians. It has lots of humor, as
well as revealing the serious aspects of family
life. A five member cast, headed by a
magnificent Paul
Sun-Hyung Lee as the father, directed by Weyno
Mengsha, provides an entertaining evening at
the theatre.
Finally, a fabulous reception was
offered by the Canadian Consul Phyllis
Yaffe, who addressed the guests, with
Artistic Director Albert
Schultz (photo below). A group of singers
and musicians, headed by a powerful singer Jackie
Richardson, (photo below)entertained the
guests, who sampled the delicious buffet,
while drinking fine wine and beer. It was the
conclusion of an unforgettable celebration of
Canada Day.
To adapt a long novel to a play
is quite an accomplishment. Of Human Bondage,
by Vern
Thiessen, based on the novel by W.
Somerset Maugham, directed by Albert
Schultz, is the third production by the Soulpepper
Theatre Company, and it is quite impressive.
The eleven member cast, many in multiple roles,
is excellent, especially the two leading
actors, Gregory
Priest, who, as a doctor/artist is on stage
for virtually the entire play, and Michelle
Monteith, who plays a slutty waitress with
whom the doctor is obsessed.
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The set and lighting by Lorenzo
Savoini, the costume design by Erika
Conner and the music and sound design by Mike
Ross all contribute to the success of the play.
The imagination and invention of this production is
a crowning glory for this wonderful company.
The Riverside Branch Library,
127 Amsterdam Avenue, presented Homecoming, by Mervyn
LeRoy,
USA, 1948, starring thee magnificent film stars, Clark
Gable, Lana Turner
and Anne
Baxter. A
successful surgeon (Gable) enters the army in World
War II. His nurse (Turner) assists him for the
duration of the war. When he returns home, he is a
changed man. The film shows the horror of warfare,
with young soldiers wounded and dying in the
temporary hospitals set up to help them in those
barbaric times. The film is a serious, intelligent,
powerful indictment of the suffering that mankind
inflicts on its armed forces. The acting is superb.
.
Columbus Library, 742 10th Avenue,
presented Thank Your Lucky Stars, by David
Butler, USA, 1943, that has a silly, convoluted
plot, not worth describing, but is a highly
entertaining film. It is an all star extravaganza,
with many Hollywood stars.Eddie
Cantor is the lead, playing two comic roles,
and Dennis Morgan and Joan
Leslie are the romantic leads, and Dinah
Shore sings. Among the cameos in scenes of a
concert being held for charity during World War II,
we see among many others Bette
Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ida Lupino sing
and Alexis Smith dance.
It is quite entertaining.
American Ballet theatre (ABT)
concluded its season at the Metropolitan Opera House
with a Tchaikovsky Spectaclar, four
selections to the music of Peter
Ilyitch Tchaikovsky. The two major ballets were Mozartiana choreography
by George
Balanchine, in which Hee
Seo, Cory Stearns and Jeffrey
Cirio were the outstanding soloists, and Aurora's
Wedding,principal choreography by Marius
Petipa, with a brilliant Grand Pas de Deux,
by Isabella
Boylston and Alban
Lendorf, with a spectacular couple Sylar
Brandt and Zhiyao
Zhang as Princess Florine and The Bluebird. Two
short Pas de Deux completed the program from Swan
Lake, choreography of Lev
Ivanov, with Misty Copeland and Herman
Cornejo, and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux,
choreography by George Balanchine, danced to
tumultuous applause by Gillian
Murphy and James Whiteside. The
orchestra for three of the selections were conducted
by Ormsby Wilkins and
Aurora's Wedding by David
LaMarche. It was the end of another marvelous
eight weeks of glorious ballet performances.
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