Kicked off Monday with an event at The St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, it was a fundraising event for the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company where various stars from Canadian theatre came out to sing songs from Jewish composers. Hosted Colin Mochrie and Deb McGrath, the evening did not disappoint. Every performance was wonderful and the event raised a lot of money for a wonderful cause. Some personal stand-outs for me included getting to see Michael Burgess (who was my very first Jean Valjean in Les Miserables) sing "Being Alive" from Company, one of my all-time favourite theatre songs. It was a beautiful and heart-wrenching performance, and quite surreal to get to see him sing again after all these years.
A special shout-out as well to Toronto's Jersey Boys, who took to the stage to perform two numbers. Only three of them were in attendance, Michael Lomenda, Jeff Madden and Quinn VanAntwerp but they were joined at the end by co-director Avery Saltzman on a very cute rendition of Bie Mir Bistu Shein. The three Four Seasons also performed It Was A Very Good Year, each taking a verse and finishing the song together. There were some young stars who got their chance to shine as well, including Gaby Epstein, whose brother Jake is currently on tour with the National Cast of Spring Awakening. The whole evening just served as a wonderful reminder of all the amazing talent Canada has to offer, and the audience really enjoyed themselves. This was especially evident when Colin and Deb got the audience engaged in a rousing rendition of the theme from Gilligan's Island, which was composed by a Jewish composer.
On Tuesday I had the opportunity to interview the lovely Brittany Gray who is currently starring in Dancap's The Toxic Avenger. The show was hilarious, and Brittany was wonderfully friendly and gave me a fantastic interview which you can read here: She also had some great advice for anyone in the business (or aspiring to get into the business) so I encourage people to have a read.
On Thursday it was back to Toronto to see the opening of Necessary Angel's Hamlet. A very interesting production, it was sliced down to only 120 minutes and was a very minimalistic approach but I thoroughly enjoyed it. A very talented cast including Gord Rand in the title role, and com Corner Gas's Eric Peterson as Polonius, it was truly a treat to be able to see this performed live. It was very different but the audience really seemed to embrace it, it was dark and edgy and something that truly sticks with you once the show is over. Great use of music and light, with a very talented cast. A full review will be up shortly, so I'm going to leave it at that for right now.
Got some great photographs as well courtesy of Eric Malette Photography. Coincidentally, he has also just started a blog, so I encourage people to check it out and follow some great photography in the making! Visit the blog: http://ericmalette.wordpress.com/
I'll share a few early photographs on here, many more to come I'm sure...but in the meantime, here is a nice little teaser!
On the horizon, I have an interview tomorrow morning with Simon Burke, currently starring in La Cage Aux Folles in the West End and coming to Toronto in December to close Mirvish's The Sound of Music. And tomorrow night, I will be attending a regional production of Sondheim's Company, so much to look forward to.
