Volume 29 Issue 6 | June, July & August 2024

RAFEH MAHMUD DJ Me Time,

RAFEH MAHMUD DJ Me Time, the creator of R.A.V.E (Luminato Festival) New and experimental While cozy musicals and comedies rule the summer, at the same time new and experimental work still has its place and is often found in a festival context. In June the Luminato Festival in Toronto is showcasing a wide variety of music, dance and cross-genres performance including R.A.V.E. by Me Time – one of Toronto’s favourite underground DJs – which is causing excitement as the latest Outside the March immersive project. It is a DJ-led show/ experience, and the first ever performance at the Downsview Airport Lands new arts and culture venue. R.A.V.E. (Real Audio Visual Experience) is described as a “dance party, a theatre show, a rave opera for desperate times: parody meets autobiography: Black Panther meets Severance, Oprah meets Daft Punk,” all on a dance floor with performers in the midst of audience/dancers. June 9-16. luminatofestival.com/accesshub Also in June, an exciting new play adapting some of 13th century mystic poet Rumi’s greatest work is taking over the courtyard at the Aga Khan Museum in Don Mills with a site-specific and immersive production filled with singing and an original score by John Gzowski. Written by Rouvan Silogix, Rafeh Mahmud & Ahad Lakhani The Caged Bird Sings is a re-imagination of Rumi’s Masnavi in which the audience surrounds a surreal cage within a cage in which two star-crossed lovers and scientists Rumi and Jin share a cell with Sal, a mysterious vagrant. As the three characters navigate their new-found reality and reconcile their past lives they are haunted by ghosts and demons of their own making, with Sufi mysticism infusing their search for wisdom and a potential escape from the cages around them. This Modern Times world premiere is presented the Aga Khan Museum in association with Theatre ARTaud from June 10-26. agakhanmuseum.org/programs/caged-bird On the less radical side of new creation but nevertheless a surprising entry to the summer season is The Last Timbit at the Elgin Theatre, appearing for a very short run of five performances The Caged Bird Sings (Aga Khan Museum) features Navtej Sandhu (below), Mikaela Lily Davies and Rouvan Silogix ANN BAGGLEY From left: Henry Firmston, as Nigel Bottom; Starr Domingue, as Bea; and Mark Uhre as Nick Bottom, in Stratford Festival’s Something Rotten! from June 26-30. A collaboration between Tim Hortons and Come From Away producer Michael Rubinoff, the show is being created to celebrate the 60th anniversary of “Tim’s” and the producers have recruited a starry group of Canadian musical theatre artists to bring their dream show to life – starting with Rubinoff himself. Nick Green (who wrote the recent hit Casey and Diana) has written the script and sister team Anika and Britta Larsen of Life After have written the music and lyrics. The cast is led by Canadian Broadway stars Jake Epstein, Chilina Kennedy and Sara Farb, as well as Stratford and Shaw regulars Andrew Broderick, DeAnn deGruijter, Dante Prince and Kimberly-Ann Truong. The show’s plot is inspired by a real 2010 snowstorm that was so bad that some drivers, including a mother and daughter, had to take refuge at a roadside Tim Hortons. I have to admit that I am curious to see this show. Will it have the “legs” to go beyond this short initial run? Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. In July the Toronto Fringe Festival will be the place to go to find new experimental music theatre among the many productions chosen by lottery and performed at various venues around the city: fringetoronto.com. And in August the curated SummerWorks festival is always a hotbed and showcase of experimentation and new creation: summerworks.ca. Stratford and Shaw Meanwhile, all summer long, and in some cases already under way, are musicals and music-themed events at Ontario’s two biggest festivals, in Stratford and Niagara-on-the-Lake. At the Stratford Festival, along with this year’s core Shakespearean productions (Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet and Cymbeline) is the 2015 Broadway Hit Something Rotten! playing from April 16 to October 27, and already garnering great word of mouth. It’s surprising that this very silly but very entertaining musical is only making its Stratford debut now, as Shakespeare himself is a featured character with a wicked solo titled “Hard Being the Bard.” As the show begins, it is 1595, and brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom are in the midst of writing Richard II for their struggling theatre company only to find that Shakespeare is now writing his own version. After they lose their funding Nigel turns to the nephew of Nostradamus to find out what the next hit of the future will be. Nostradamus predicts it will be something new - “a musical” - where actors stop talking and suddenly burst into song. Nigel is dubious about this idea but decides to give it a go … and many shenanigans ensue including some wonderful mash ups of Shakespearean and musical plots. Who better to direct this combination than Donna Feore who has directed so many musicals on Stratford’s Festival Theatre stage? The acting company is also very strong and excitingly shines a star-making spotlight on Jeff Lillico in the role of Shakespeare Jeff Lillico 24 | June, July & August, 2024 thewholenote.com

(a role for which Christian Borle won a Tony award on Broadway). Always strong in whatever role he plays, whether in straight plays or musicals, this should make Lillico’s rank as a leading man clear to all. Another actor who is always excellent but hasn’t had the acclaim until last year’s Casey and Diana at Stratford is Sean Arbuckle. Like Lillico, he has always been a guarantee of quality in performance in second leads and supporting roles, until his leading performance last season catapulted him up a rung. This season we can see him in the leading role of George in La Cage aux Folles directed by Thom Allison at the Avon Theatre from May 6 to October 26. stratfordfestival.ca Over at the Shaw Festival, acclaimed actor Tom Rooney, already regarded as one of the country’s top actors, particularly in classic comedy, is taking on the iconic role of Henry Higgins in one of the most beloved musicals of the golden age, Lerner and Lowe’s My Fair Lady. Based, of course, on George Bernard Shaw’s hit play Pygmalion about a cockney flower girl caught up in a bet between phonetics professor Higgins and his best friend Colonel Pickering, this should be exciting as Rooney actually began his training and career singing, and this role needs an actor capable of great nuance in both dialogue and song. Kristi Frank, who was wonderful two seasons ago in the Shaw’s White Christmas will be playing Eliza. MFL plays from May 4 to December 22 in the Festival Theatre. The Shaw will also be presenting a new “play with songs” adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic novel The Secret Garden created by music director Paul Sportelli and director Jay Turvey running May 31 to October 13 in the Royal George Theatre, and the summer season will be sprinkled throughout with musical events and cabarets in the popular Spiegeltent and around the festival grounds. shawfest.com Jennifer Parr is a Toronto-based director dramaturge, fight director and acting coach, brought up from a young age on a rich mix of musicals, Shakespeare and new Canadian plays. Jennifer Parr is a Toronto-based Kristi director Frank as Eliza dramaturge, Doolittle, with fight director and acting coach, brought Gabriella up from Sundar a young Singh age (Ensemble), on a rich mix of musicals, Shakespeare in My Fair and Lady new (Shaw Canadian Festival, 2024) plays. DAVID COOPER VALERIE KUINKA General & Co-Artistic Director TICKETS $ 15 – $ 37.50 HALIBURTON TO LEARN MORE & PURCHASE TICKETS VISIT OUR WEBSITE RICHARD MARGISON Co-Artistic Director SEASON PASSES AVAILABLE! RICHARD MARGISON MASTERCLASSES Thursday, July 25 th , Friday 26 th , Saturday 27 th 7:30-9:00pm | St. George’s Anglican Church OPERAS HighlandsOperaStudio.com | BOX OFFICE 1-855-455-5533 MASTERCLASSES MISHAABOOZ’S REALM Thursday, August 15 th , 17 th | 7:30-9:30pm | NLPAP Experience this powerful & moving work COMMISSIONED by HOS in 2017 and WRITTEN in HALIBURTON COUNTY! Combining opera with First Nation singers and instrumentalists, created for HOS by Cree First Nation composer, Andrew Balfour, Mishaabooz’s Realm takes us on a journey through Creation, Colonization, and ultimately Hope for the Future. Post-performance chat with creators/ performers. IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA (THE BARBER OF SEVILLE) BY GIOACCHINO ROSSINI August 22 nd , 24 th , 26 th | 7:30-10:45pm | NLPAP Pre-performance chat @ 6:30pm August 25 th | 2:00-5:15pm | NLPAP (Opera: in Italian with English Surtitles) From Bugs Bunny cartoons to movie soundtracks, Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) is one of the world’s most popular Italian comic operas. Join Count Almaviva, his beloved Rosina, the conniving, old Doctor Bartolo, and the resourceful barber, Figaro, for the hilarious antics that follow! PROGRAMMING/CASTING SUBJECT TO CHANGE CONCERTS OPERA TO BROADWAY Thursday, August 1 st | 7:30-9:00pm St. George’s Anglican Church POP GOES THE OPERA Wednesday, August 7 th | 7:30-9:00pm Abbey Gardens HOMECOMING: HOS ALUMNI CONCERT Monday, August 19 th | 7:30-9:00pm St. George’s Anglican Church PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN EVENTS: WHY CHOOSE OPERA? Monday, July 29 th | 7:30-8:45pm Abbey Gardens MUSIC ON THE WATER Saturday, August 10 th | 6:00-7:00pm Mountain Lake, Fairfield Bay, Minden (Water access only) CASUAL SONG SOIRÉE Monday, August 12 th | 7:30-8:45pm St. George’s Anglican Church CONCERT: CELEBRATING POP TO OPERA! Friday, August 16 th | 7:30-9:00pm Lauren Margison, Nils Wanderer, Jennifer Szeto (piano) Northern Lights Pavilion thewholenote.com June, July & August, 2024 | 25