Latest from Stage West Calgary: Drinking Habits, by Tom Smith

Drinking Habits

Stage West Calgary

Photos courtesy Stage West Calgary

Given that religion is in the news in a very polarizing manner as of late, perhaps it is prudent timing to have this rollicking glimpse into a fictional convent on stage right now at Stage West Calgary.

A broad farce of human nature set behind religious trappings, Drinking Habits is both a wordplay on the dress of nuns, and a nod to this particular order’s penchant for brewing up a little bit of illicit vino to help keep their convent afloat. 

Utilizing every element of classic farces in the tool chest, playwright Tom Smith takes familiar stereotypes of the Christian faith and blends them with intrepid journalism (fake news?) to provide hearty and continual laughs, once the cast has been introduced, and the scene set.

I’ll have my official Calgary Herald review next week to follow this one, so just a few highlights here:

The Sisters Of Perpetual Sewing is a very small order, barely scraping by, alongside an even smaller neighbouring parish. A note from Rome arrives to indicate there may be some scrutiny, and if necessary, both may be closed if not found sufficiently worthy (profitable).

Cue the paranoia around who the spy will be, the elaborate schemes to catch him or her in the act, add slamming doors and mistaken identities, and you have all those aforementioned farce elements, just then requiring an able cast to draw the audience along in a convincing enough manner. 

Here, director J. Sean Elliott has outdone himself, populating this little world with a stable of talent that brings exceptional comic timing to Smith’s well-conceived story - it’s worth noting that there’s already a sequel to this fun-fest, and an award. The play picked up the Robert J. Pickering Award for Excellence in Playwriting in 2004.

Photos courtesy Stage West Calgary

Alphabetically, the cast includes Al Braatz as George, the gentle-natured, goofy groundskeeper that gets recruited into Mother Superior’s plan to root out the holy spy sent to investigate. But he ends up having an even greater deception that plays into the results.

Natascha Girgis is Sister Augusta, one of the two denizens of the sparsely populated convent - and she is a delight in every aspect of her role here. Whether that may be conspiring to keep the illicit wine business on the down-low, or as she develops her detective skills to make sense of the added population introduced by happenstance from afar, Girgis draws plenty of belly-laughs from a well written role.

Charlie Gould is Sally, the runaway bride bent on elevating her journalistic career to a rightful place, or basically any place aside from where she has been languishing in that effort. She goes undercover in the convent with determination. And a nun’s habit…

Elinor Holt is a marvellous Mother Superior, somewhat oblivious to what her fellow nuns have been doing behind her back, but well determined to prevent whatever that might be from coming to an abrupt end. To that end, she directs espionage to out the spies that would be right home in an episode of TV’s Get Smart.  

Robert Klein is Father Chenille of the tiny parish next door, wrought with anguish that he is about to be replaced by a younger priest. Jeremy LaPalme is Sally's partner in the undercover press, Paul - also her ex-fiancé, but maybe not so ex as she might be thinking. 

Esther Purves-Smith is the other nun in the order, and her Achilles Heel appears to be a lack of any ability to lie, which plays out towards the build-up to the finale in a scene-stealing display of emotion. 

The final element is Sister Mary Catherine (Arielle Rombough), who is not quite yet a nun, but she’s still very vital to how this all unfolds. It is after all a puzzle that must fit together for the twists and turns at the end, which may be there on display all along for intrepid mystery fans in the audience. 

Based on the laughter last night, I think this stands out as one of the strongest farces in recent memory.

5 out of 5 stars.

Link back here when the official Calgary Herald review is out!

Drinking Habits runs to April 16.

Stage West Calgary's Young Frankenstein - Blog Review

Young Frankenstein cast - courtesy Stage West Calgary

The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein
Stage West Calgary
 

So many elements from the film version of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein peek out in the stage version that for anyone familiar enough with the source material, there is great anticipation for their own favourite movie moments.

The puns, the sight gags, the quirky cast of characters are certainly in both versions, along with iconic comedic moments from the movie version that have remained iconic decades after the hit movie appeared in theatres.  

So, why was I not taken as much with the stage version as I was with the original production?

It sure wasn’t due to a lack of talent. The cast and crew of Stage West Calgary’s The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein are often outstanding. 

It wasn’t even due to the limitations of a wide variety of settings that appear and disappear behind the longest motorized curtain I’ve ever seen - that worked fine also.

I think the Broadway musical itself just feels overall like a stretch. Which can still be funny enough, but the timing of the humour is impeded to some degree by musical numbers that showcase the talents of the actors, but really just most often come as fillers to accommodate the scene changes. 

Young Frankenstein cast - courtesy Stage West Calgary

When this play surrenders to the absurdity of the source material, and allows the actors to horse around with the great lines from the movie version, it picks up steam and gets a great reaction from the audience. The Broadway-ization (that’s a thing, I think??) of the piece itself allows for nice dance numbers and lively choruses that might have humour in them somewhere, but slow the pace of the laughs too much to allow the tongue in cheek dialogue to resonate.

Again, that could be my own failure to let the movie version go, and just follow along...

I have to leave something here for my official Calgary Herald review (link here when that goes live!), but  just a few quick notes:

-GREAT, talented cast! Kevin Dennis as Frederick Frankenstein gets to live in the character made famous by Gene Wilder, and to his credit, you don’t often think about that once you’ve met his version of the character. 

Powerhouse vocalists Adrienne Merrell (Elizabeth), Amanda Struthmann (Inga) and Jayne Lewis (Frau Blucher - NEIGH!! NEIGH!!) are flawless, some deep talent among those three…

Gregory Pember’s Igor is perhaps the closest to the film version, and that gentleman can ring a bell when he gets started on both his character and the songs in the repertoire.

-Direction and choreography (J. Sean Elliott and Phil Nero respectively) is brisk and bright - there are a whole whack of characters and numbers to work through, and that all moves along just swell under their guidance. 

-Adam Stevenson as The Monster is a visual miracle, standing atop lift shoes that are almost as tall as Tom Cruise. And he dances in those suckers! Egads!

More to follow in more detail for my Herald review, but if you love comedy, and have even a sliver of a fond memory from the movie version, you’ll definitely want to see what Brooks has done with the stage version.

Young Frankenstein cast - courtesy Stage West Calgary 

Stage West Calgary’s The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein runs to June 26

3.5 out of 5 stars.

The Early Bird (Blog) Review: Stage West Calgary's Production of "Monty Python's Spamalot"

Stage West Calgary presents:

"Monty Python's Spamalot"

The "Early Bird, Before My Official Calgary Herald Review Runs" Reflections On Stage West Calgary's "Spamalot"

(5 out of 5 stars, because it would just be over the top to give it 7...)

"Non-stop Killer Bunny"

"Such a hilarious show!"

"Laughed till I cried"

"Hilarious and great performances"

"Completely on point!"  

"When word gets out about @StageWestCgy's #Spamalot you'll need to buy your tickets from scalpers!"

Those are just a few of the Tweets after the media night showing of the latest production over at Stage West Calgary, "Monty Python's Spamalot". Having done official and unofficial reviews for this facility since about 2009, I can't ever recall a show generating so much enthusiasm after a performance. And this from primarily grizzled, jaded media people!!

Well, that last comment in quotation marks probably says it best, and not just because that was my own Tweet. This is about as perfect a performance you will see, with a cast that glimmers brighter than King Arthur's chainmail leggings. 

I understand that the director is typically tasked to cast, and in this case, J. Sean Elliott has outdone himself. This production is every bit as good (I think even better) as the version I caught in the Grail Theatre, which you can read about in the preview feature and interview that ran yesterday, with Elliott and choreographer Phil Nero. 

Nero as well has outdone himself with this effort, which speaks volumes given his past work at Stage West (Fiddler On The Roof, and the award-winning Chicago). Musical Director Konrad Pluta even gets some stage time here in this, when he isn't ensuring the exemplary sonic efforts of his house band.  

Katie Beetham, Kieran Martin Murphy
Photos courtesy Stage West Calgary, John Watson

I had better start leaving descriptions and kudos and keen reviewer-ly observations out so that I have something left for my official Calgary Herald review.

Let's just say that the cast is perhaps the best yet, which I know, I say for just about every show here, but this one really is! This time Stage West has set the bar so high that it's like Excalibur has been placed on a rooftop tower above the facility, if you can understand that what I wanted to do there was make a witty comparison between the legendary sword, and a raised bar. 

Perhaps I need to work a bit more on that for the next review...

As reluctant as I am to single out individual actors, the leads (Kieran Martin Murphy as King Arthur, and Katie Beetham as The Lady Of The Lake) are at the top of their games in this outing. But everyone else has brought their own best game as well.

I'll have a link here when the Herald review runs, but for now, it is YOU that had better run, gallop or  sprint over to Stage West Calgary, for this exceptional production of "Monty Python's Spamalot"!

Stage West Calgary Presents Monty Python's "Spamalot"

If you're in the Calgary area, you can look forward to..well, you can always look on the bright side of life, for one thing...

"Spamalot" is here until June, and I chatted with the director and choreographer ahead of Media Night.

Read the feature in my Calgary Herald space online, and there is a link therein to the YouTube channel podcast interview with those fine gentlemen... 

Phil Nero & J. Sean Elliott

Enjoy!

Later

Stage West Calgary "Unnecessary Farce"

Stage West Calgary

"Unnecessary Farce"

The "Before-Noon" Theatre Review: Stage West Calgary's presentation of 

"Unnecessary Farce".

by Paul Slade Smith

directed by J. Sean Elliott 

If the reaction of last night's audience is any indication, word of mouth for Stage West Calgary's latest comedy is going to be cause for a whole lot of sellouts there during the next couple of months...

Chock-full of talented actors embracing a script that percolates along to the full boil of a surprise ending, I can assure you that the laughter is literally relentless. 

Once again I have to hold back some of my choicest comments for the official Calgary Herald review I'll be writing as soon as this one is posted (link here when that goes live online!), but I can say that "Unnecessary Farce" stands out in my mind as the best comedy I've seen in this facility - and there have been some awfully good ones over at least the past 5 years that I've been attending.

How can you lose, when you have a fabled "Highland Hitman", that plays a song on the bagpipes before he eliminates his quarry? Or a sort-of "assistant murderer", that preps the victims, yet has some remorse and jitters that tend to complicate his part of the missions?

There's a mysterious "big wheel" orchestrating all the activity, as well as a fledgling cop that couldn't even be trusted with an official police force-issued pistol, settling for something more appropriate for a schoolyard encounter. 

Add in some irresistible attraction to percolate the love element, and you're getting close to seeing the big picture in this exceptional farce...

There's even one scene that pays homage to our very own Calgary Stampede - featuring a little bucking...

Set in a pair of adjoining motel rooms, the set design was terrific, allowing for the characters to migrate between the situations unfolding entirely erratically in each of those rooms. The plan to catch a small town mayor on videotape confessing to a corruption scandal goes off just perfectly, if the planners of that enterprise had been Laurel & Hardy...

I'm not sure how much of this production is script or director, but there's no question that the end result is a brisk, madcap adventure that had audience members exchanging glances as they howled with laughter. 

I just can't give anything away without spoiling the fun, so beat the crowds (last night appeared to be sold-out) and get right down to Stage West to take in this funny and enjoyable crime comedy!

Check back later this week for my Calgary Herald review!

Later...