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Posté le: 24 Mai 2003 01:30 pm Sujet du message: Nouvelles - News |
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Postez ici des nouvelles sur l'acteur Geordie Johnson.
Please post here news on the actor Geordie Johnson. |
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Posté le: 25 Mai 2003 11:24 pm Sujet du message: |
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Regretfully little recent news on Geordie, or what he is doing. With the lack of funding for Canadian TV, etc. there aren't many roles for actors these days ![icon_sad.gif](images/smiles/icon_sad.gif) _________________ http://geordiejohnson.net |
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Posté le: 29 Aoû 2003 09:55 pm Sujet du message: |
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Geordie Johnson retourne au Festival de Stratford pour jouer le rôle de Hector dans la pièce Troilus and Cressida
http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/news/pdf/NR282003.pdf
Geordie Johnson returns to Stratford Festival to play Hector in Troilus and Cressida |
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Posté le: 06 Nov 2003 02:58 pm Sujet du message: New TV appearance! |
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As I posted on the Geordie Johnson yahoogroup last night, Geordie is scheduled to appear in an episode of the syndicated Sci-Fi series called "Starhunter." In Canada, it plays on the channel SPACE. In the US (and elsewhere), it may play on some cable channels (as it is syndicated).
Here in Canada, the episode, called "The Prisoner", airs on November 15th on Space (5pm MST, check your local listings), and then (likely) re-airs on November 19th (7pm MST).
I am hoping that the online TV listings I saw were indeed accurate, because I would welcome a new Geordie appearance about now ![icon_biggrin.gif](images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif) _________________ http://geordiejohnson.net |
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Posté le: 01 Sep 2005 02:23 pm Sujet du message: |
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http://www.playbill.com/news/article/94833.html
Au Festival de Stratford (Canada), Geordie Johnson va diriger une pièce nomée The Blonde, the Brunette, and the Vengeful Redhead (La blonde, la brune et la rousse vengeresse), une comédie noire sur l'infidélité écrite par l'australien Robert Hewett.
At the Stratford Festival (Canada), Geordie Johnson will direct a play named The Blonde, the Brunette, and the Vengeful Redhead, a black comedy about infidelity by Australian Robert Hewett. |
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Posté le: 26 Jan 2006 01:27 pm Sujet du message: |
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Link posted in the Geordie Johnson's yahoogroup:
http://www.ottawasun.com/Showbiz/OtherShowbiz/2006/01/25/1410381-sun.html
GCTC poets take Democracy to task
Democracy: At the GCTC through Feb. 12
(By Denis Armstrong, OTTAWA SUN)
Actor Geordie Johnson loves the live stage but it's his work on TV that's got him the most notice.
The veteran actor, one of Canada's more recognizable faces on television and film, gets back to his theatrical roots playing the legendary American poet Walt Whitman in the Great Canadian Theatre Company's latest production Democracy, opening tomorrow night.
After 32 years in the business, nine of those as a leading man at Stratford, the Alberta native is still most recognized for a single season in 1990 as television's Dracula: The Series.
YEARN FOR THE STAGE
He also had roles in The English Patient, Showtime's Charms For the Easy Life and Liszt's Rhapsody. Add to that guest appearances on E.N.G., Street Legal, Traders, Largo Winch and Canada: A People's History and you have a face -- if not a name -- many people recognize.
"I loved doing movies and television," the 52-year-old Johnson said during a break in rehearsals. "It used to be that I'd yearn for the stage when I was doing TV and wished I was doing television when I was acting in a play.
"I've done so much television, especially in Europe, it changed my career and life. But it's true, there's nothing like a live audience. That's real nourishment for any actor."
Johnson has divided his time at Stratford equally between Shakespeare and American classics by Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, where his swarthy good looks and impeccable stage manners make him ideal leading man material.
LUSTY SENSUALIST
"I've always felt it was really important to go out into the wider world and enjoy a diverse career," he said. "Doing movies like The English Patient and TV, I've been able to tour the world and have the kind of life I never would have had had I stayed at Stratford alone.
"It's really changed my life. But acting in front of an audience opened up my life. I've learned a lot about myself by acting."
In John Murrell's political wordfest Democracy, Johnson's Whitman argues the nature of citizenship, freedom and responsibility, with famed American poet Ralph Waldo Emmerson, played by Jack Wetherall. The two are unlikely allies, Whitman is a lusty, back-to-nature sensualist while Emmerson is a cool intellectual.
"Whitman has a lust for life," said Johnson. "I can relate to a lot of what he says about death and getting on with life."
TOUGH WORK
Although the play is set during the American Civil War, Johnson said the timing of the play is perfect for today.
"It's one whole day beside a pond, the two poets making sense of democracy, what it is and how it can evolve."
The role mirrors his own upbringing. A native of Cowley, Alta., Johnson began working for the family sawmill business while a teenager.
"It didn't take me long to figure out what hard work is," he laughed. "I didn't know what I wanted to do until I found a deep connection with theatre."
Democracy runs until Feb. 12. Tickets are $12-$34 at the box-office at 236-5196. |
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Posté le: 27 Jan 2006 05:39 pm Sujet du message: |
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Thanks for the link !
I found a site on the person he is going to play, here: http://www.whitmanarchive.org/ it explains the beard. |
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Posté le: 06 Fév 2006 02:40 pm Sujet du message: |
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They took it offline. The article is the same as the one above. Here is the pic that goes with it:
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Posté le: 05 Juil 2006 12:35 pm Sujet du message: |
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The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead
Directed by Geordie Johnson
Written by Robert Hewett
Performed by Lucy Peacock
Rating: ***
'Lucy, Lucy, Lucy." That was actor and director Geordie Johnson's first reaction when he saw The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead, by Australian playwright Robert Hewett, while vacationing in Melbourne last year.
That's Lucy as in Lucy Peacock, a darling of the Stratford Festival, if not always of critics. This year she plays the title role in The Duchess of Malfi with mixed results and strikes out completely with the fiery wit of Beatrice in the DOA production of Much Ado About Nothing. So, frankly, I went into this one-woman show with trepidation: All Lucy, all the time. Just think.
I need not have worried too much. In playing all seven characters, including a chauvinist pig of a man, in this tale of a crime of passion going horribly wrong, Peacock holds court at the Studio Theatre for two hours. She delivers a technically masterful performance but, more to the point, brings honesty, vulnerability and a great deal of humanity to the show. Johnson guides her performance expertly, reining her in and allowing her to soar according to the emotional tempo of the play.
The work of actor and director is particularly impressive since the play itself is more of a well-told story -- a gripping theatrical yarn -- than one with a deep philosophical bent.
In Canada, we've been so spoiled by the structural and thematic complexities of performance pieces by Daniel MacIvor -- to whose Cul-de-sac this play bears a striking and purely (I hope) unintentional resemblance -- that we expect a bit more from those wading in the same waters. Although all Australian references have been replaced with Canadian ones, giving the play the feel of a franchise for the asking, one can sense the heat and isolation of its Australian backdrop and hear the inflections of its people. (That's in case references to barbecues and shrimps don't tip you off first.)
The story is primarily of Rhonda (the redhead) who, in a jealous rage fuelled by her meddling neighbour Lynette (the brunette), gets into a fight with a woman she mistakes for her husband's mistress (the blonde). It'll be unfair to reveal more here, but, in a series of monologues, Hewett's narrative zooms in on the people whose lives are immediately touched by the incident.
There's eeriness in the proceedings, although it's not of the supernatural kind. It's the eeriness that comes from the sheer ordinariness, banality even, of predictable lives unfolding in suburban homes and outlet shopping malls. Against this aggressively plain setting, minor coincidences and simple misunderstandings have devastating, cruel effects.
Johnson and his designer, Michael Gianfrancesco (back to form after the debacle of Much Ado About Nothing), pick up Hewett's modern-Gothic tone in a series of projected photographs of food courts, malls, traffic crossings, front porches and city skylines that, quite literally, act as signposts for the story on one level. Each photograph by itself is hardly postcard perfect, but the accumulative effect of so many still lives and places -- Craig MacNaughton is credited for projection design, a job he does chillingly well -- creates an urban poetry that's oppressive despite, and perhaps because of, its nondescript details.
There are other examples of design savvy from Gianfrancesco and directorial control from Johnson, but the show lives or dies on Peacock's ability not to turn it into a big star vehicle. She doesn't. Instead, Peacock goes to the heart(ache) of every character and creates a series of captivating portraits of ordinary lives forever changed in one extraordinary moment. Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, indeed.
The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead continues at the Studio Theatre until Sept. 24 (1-800-567-1600).
from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060704.BLONDE04/TPStory/TPEntertainment/Theatre/ |
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Posté le: 22 Sep 2006 10:50 pm Sujet du message: |
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Tristan Tzara (Gregory Wallace, left) and Henry Carr (Geordie Johnson) in Tom Stoppard's "Travesties," playing at ACT. Chronicle photo by Carlos Avila Gonzalez
Travesties: Comedy. By Tom Stoppard. Directed by Carey Perloff. (Through Oct. 14. American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. Two hours, 45 minutes. Tickets: $16-$80. Call (415) 749-2228 or go to www.act-sf.org.
by Robert Hurwitt, Chronicle Theater Critic
Friday, September 22, 2006
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James Joyce enters with an Irish jig and speaks in limericks. Dada founder Tristan Tzara debates the meaning of art amid dialogue right out of "The Importance of Being Earnest." Lenin dashes off to take charge of the Russian Revolution riding a library desk.
Only the madcap eclectic genius of the young Tom Stoppard would take the fact that these varied revolutionaries were all in Zurich during World War I and not only build a comedy around it, but write it as a lampoon of Oscar Wilde's masterpiece. Others could have the wit to pit Joyce, Tzara and Lenin's ideas about art against one another, but only Stoppard would have the skill to construct the play in the genre-collage style of "Ulysses" (which Joyce was writing at the time). Let alone grace it with Shakespearean and Gilbert-and-Sullivan pastiches and set Wilde's dialogue to a vaudeville routine.
It's no surprise that Artistic Director Carey Perloff should open the American Conservatory Theater's 40th season with Stoppard's "Travesties," as she did Wednesday. Stoppard is a longtime favorite of ACT audiences, and the 1974 comedy was a major hit for the company in '77. Fittingly, Wednesday's celebration of the Bay Area's preeminent theater's longevity was marked by the renaming its longtime home, the Geary, for the company and a message from Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaiming, "Sept. 20, 2006, American Conservatory Theater Day in San Francisco."
The production doesn't live up to either the occasion or the script's potential, however. Apparently attempting to reflect Stoppard's ingenuity in every aspect of the show, Perloff creates a riotously imaginative confection of joyfully inventive design, clever stagings and strongly stated performances. It certainly has its enjoyable aspects, but the approach competes with the script rather than supports it, proving more wearying than enlightening or entertaining in the long run.
It starts with a high-energy onslaught of action and imagery. Tzara (Gregory Wallace) cuts pieces of paper into a hat to construct and recite a nonsense poem as Cecily (Allison Jean White), the librarian, flies past atop a high library ladder. Joyce (Anthony Fusco) rolls in on a library desk, dictating a bit of "Ulysses" to a titillated Gwendolen (René Augesen). Lenin (Geoff Hoyle) and his wife, Nadya (Joan Mankin), engage in another rolling, heated discussion in Russian. A clock face with a map of central Europe passes slowly above as bits of Douglas Schmidt's Dadaist scenery fly in upside down and at odd angles.
"Travesties" is a memory play, with an unreliable memory at that. The action takes place in the memory of Henry Carr (Geordie Johnson), a clerk in the British consular office in Zurich who played the lead in a production of "Earnest" that Joyce helped put on at the time (yes, really). After the initial mayhem, the stage fills with ornate picture frames of all sizes as the elderly Carr, many years later, reflects on his brushes with great men during the war in a very long monologue filled with false starts, contradictions and memory lapses.
The play moves from there to "Earnest"-in-Zurich land, with Johnson shedding decades as Carr rises from his wheelchair to relive the past. Each historical person plays the equivalent of one of Wilde's characters, in delightfully witty, colorful, period- and "Earnest"-perfect costumes by Deborah Dryden. Wilde's Gwendolen and Cecily are added as comically apt love interests for Tzara's Jack and Carr's Algernon.
The plot -- either that of "Earnest" or of its Zurich staging and Joyce, Tzara and Lenin's activities -- is less important than the ongoing arguments about art. And those are overshadowed by Stoppard's dazzling display of Joycean virtuosity -- writing one scene entirely in limericks, another as a catechism and constructing another from Lenin's political writings; starting the same scene over and over (a technique he calls "time slips") to develop it on different tracks; setting Wilde's dialogue to a Gallagher and Shean routine; and building an aesthetic dispute as a mind-boggling name-that-source pastiche of Shakespeare quotes.
Much of the pleasure derives from the ease with which Stoppard works these wonders. Instead of allowing the audience to discover the literary high jinks for itself, though, Perloff keeps spelling them out. The boisterous showmanship of her opening proclaims the slippery memory and narrative dislocations to come. But it also obscures the scene's plot setting and backfires by making Carr's succeeding monologue seem long and static.
Johnson and Wallace's "Earnest" scenes are signaled with mannered, rhythmic deliveries that detract from the humor, despite their engaging personas. Meter and rhyme are so heavily emphasized in the limericks and Augesen and White's vaudeville exchange that sense and comic depth evaporate. Lenin's denunciations of decadent art are so vividly staged (in a vibrant red-and-black constructivist setting by Schmidt and lighting designer Robert Wierzel) that much of the second act seems a didactic warning about left-wing philistinism.
The hard-working cast turns in smart, sharply etched but often oversold performances. Somehow, it's the most restrained, bottled-up work -- Hoyle's sniffy, stiff, judgmental butler -- that injects the most life into the show. Too much of this "Travesties" seems to be telling us how much we're enjoying ourselves instead of allowing us to do so
(source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/22/DDGUAL9FH21.DTL&feed=rss.entertainment) |
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Posté le: 22 Sep 2006 10:59 pm Sujet du message: |
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OOPS! I LOVE YOU: Young Henry Carr (Geordie Johnson) -- in disguise so that he can spy on Lenin -- is mistaken by Cecily (Allison Jean White) for the artist Tzara in the ACT production of "Travesties." (KEVIN BERNE)
ACT's tricky 'Travesties' kicks off 40th season in fine form
By Chad Jones, STAFF WRITER
IF we are to believe the dictionary that a "travesty" is, among other things, a "farcical imitation in ridicule," then Tom Stoppard's "Travesties" is a travesty wrapped in travesty paper, stuffed into a travesty box and express mailed to the Land of the Travesties.
Stoppard farcically imitates the Russian Revolution, the Dadaist art movement, James Joyce's "Ulysses," World War I, limericks, Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest, British diplomacy and the faulty memories of senior citizens.
No wonder "Travesties" is nearly three hours long — it's positively over-stuffed with brilliant ridiculousness.
American Conservatory Theater opens its 40th anniversary season with Stoppard's entertaining dialectic about art, the value of art and the relative pomposity of artists.
Stoppard's dense, surprisingly funny play marks the sixth time ACT artistic director Carey Perloff has directed a Stoppard play, but "Travesties" is the first not to be performed in the Geary Theater.
Before Wednesday's opening-night performance, the Geary was officially re-christened as the American Conservatory Theater.
In some ways, "Travesties" is a rollicking comedy for people with doctorates in English literature and/or world history. Stoppard uncorks the academics, and there's no stopping the flood of references, allusions, inside jokes and bookish references.
Stoppard's brilliance — and what Perloff brings out so effectively in the production — is finding low humor in high-mindedness.
The story of Irish novelist Joyce, Russian revolutionary Lenin and Dadaist artist Tristan Tzara crossing paths in Zurich during World War I is told from the vantage point of an old man named Henry Carr, who served in the British Consulate. Trouble is that Henry (a sharp Geordie Johnson) can't remember things all that well.
His memories of what actually happened get confused with the plot and characters from Wilde's "Earnest," which means great fun for us. There's hardly a play around — "Hamlet" and "Long Day's Journey Into Night" come to mind — that wouldn't benefit from a mash-up with "Earnest."
Henry's trip down memory lane is sort of like the White Rabbit falling down a hole at Oxford. The journey is wild, wacky and, at times, in need of study guides.
Even if we don't know Tzara from the Tsar, the performances go a long way toward keeping us engaged. Anthony Fusco looks remarkably like Joyce but is probably much livelier, and if Tzara was really as feisty and funny as Gregory Wallace makes him, then Dada surrealism might need its own sitcom.
As the art-loving ladies Gwendolen and Cecily, Rene Augesen and Allison Jean White are as smart as they are silly. They get the show's best scene: a civilized cat fight in rhymed verse played out to the rhythm of a metronome.
Geoff Hoyle makes the most of dual roles of Lenin and a brainy butler, and Joan Mankin makes dowdy amusing as Lenin's wife.
ACT's "Travesties" is smart comedy, but for three hours, I need more than gray matter guffaws. Somehow, Stoppard wasn't able to find a way to ridicule the human heart and engage it at the same time.
source: http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_4379135?source=rss |
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Posté le: 14 Jan 2007 02:52 pm Sujet du message: |
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Despite the name, it's not about Mozart
Geordie Johnson
By Gary Smith
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jan 13, 2007)
"If something scares me I think it's time to do it."
Geordie Johnson is talking about his life in the theatre. More specifically perhaps, he is speaking of Amadeus, the epic Peter Shaffer play he is currently tackling for Theatre Aquarius. Like a hungry linebacker, this six-foot hunk of male is sublimating his personal strength and will to suggest the bitter spirit of an angry disappointed man who decides to tackle God.
Court composer Antonio Salieri is a role Johnson has longed to play for a great many years. The challenge of creating such a complex and troubled being has lured the Alberta-born actor from his country retreat near Blyth, Ont. Even though he is quite frankly petrified by the challenge of a short Aquarius rehearsal schedule he feels he can deliver the goods.
"Of course I'm scared," Johnson grins, stretching his lanky frame in a too-small lobby chair. "Once we're ready to go it's going to be a magnificent ride, you can count on that. But right now, I'm still feeling the pressure to make this thing work.
"Frankly, though, I've got to a stage in my life where it's all about the role I'll be playing and who else is up there on stage. I never expected to get rich in this profession and that's just as well. Theatre is about doing it for the love of the game, not making big bucks. Save that for the movies.
"Part of the wonderful thing about a life in the theatre is coming to terms with that. You face the ups and downs and you consider the journey. Even when I haven't been earning a hell of a lot of scratch I've had fun."
Johnson has no idea what made him want to act, unless it was a need to escape hard labour.
"My family had a sawmill and I worked there as a kid. It was really tough slogging. It was like being in jail."
Not in love with school either, Johnson looked for some course after high school that might offer a bit of fun.
"The drama department in Calgary was really it for me. I just seemed to understand that kind of creative communication."
Something of a loner, Johnson admits to having good friends, "but no serious domestic partner. It's just me and my dog," he shrugs, calling his black Lab, Buddy, to his side.
"Buddy's at rehearsal with me every day. He sits quietly under a chair and only looks up when we get terribly noisy on stage."
Living in the country suits Johnson's solitary life style. "I spent so much time in hotels and airports I really needed a place to put down some roots. Until recently, I also had a house in Cabbagetown in Toronto but I finally let that go.
"My land is all rolling hills. There are wonderful sunsets and at night the stars light your way. What's not to love?
"It's not really about escape," Johnson says. "It's just about finding a place where I can breathe and relax. It's about chilling out close to friends. I mean Stratford isn't that far down the road."
Johnson spent 11 seasons off and on acting for the prestigious festival company, his most recent role being Nathan Detroit in the musical Guys And Dolls a couple of seasons ago.
"I may not have been the best Nathan ever, but I had a hell of a good time playing that part. There's something special about being part of a terrific cast where everyone gets along and works hard."
Johnson likes the role of Salieri even though the composer is not necessarily a likable guy.
"He's not sympathetic," Johnson says. "He asks for our understanding and forgiveness. His fight with God is a big one. When he sees such genius and talent in the hands of Amadeus Mozart, he is driven to a kind of rage. After all, he's made a bargain with God and he feels he's been betrayed. Strange what religion can do to a man, isn't it?
"The play may be called Amadeus but it's all about Salieri. He's such a complex and disturbing character," Johnson continues.
"It all becomes so petty and that's an awful thing -- pettiness, I mean. It's not one of the best traits in a human being."
Johnson admits playwright Shaffer took great liberties with the truth of the Mozart-Salieri story.
"He certainly defines things in his own particular way to meet the requirements of his dramatic intentions. But then playwrights usually do."
Johnson finds Amadeus "a ripping yarn, a grand scale piece of theatre.
"To tackle God in this way, to make such a stand against the deity is something extraordinary.
"For me this is about playing somebody who spent his entire life trying to succeed, trying to find greatness and always coming up just a little short," Johnson contends.
Johnson gets ready to return to rehearsal, and suddenly he has a final and important thought about Shaffer's play.
"Mozart could make art out of his life and Salieri couldn't. There was no great passion in his music. It was pleasant and entertaining, but for him that wasn't really enough.
"It didn't have the sort of spirit he envisioned. Salieri couldn't stand that. He wanted to express genius. He couldn't understand there was nothing wrong with being an ordinary human being. That didn't fit his image for his own life.
"Do I ever have my own doubts? You bet. I once watched Jessica Tandy rehearsing Long Day's Journey Into Night at London, Ontario's Grand Theatre. She suddenly put her head in her hands and moaned. 'Whatever made me think I could play this role?' she whispered. 'I have no idea who this woman is.'
"Now if Jessica Tandy could think that partway through rehearsal, maybe it's not surprising I can too.
"That's the thing about theatre," Johnson says as he turns to go. "Nothing is sure. You only have your talent and your instincts."
Amadeus is at the Dofasco Centre for the Arts, 190 King William St. Jan 17 through Feb. 3. Call 905-522-7529.
from: http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1168642210530&call_pageid=1126519607402&col=1126519607416 |
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Posté le: 24 Jan 2007 02:06 pm Sujet du message: |
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Serious intent saves Amadeus
SPECIAL TO THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR
Geordie Johnson and Sara Topham as Salieri and Constanze Weber.
By Gary Smith
What: Amadeus
Where: Theatre Aquarius, Dofasco Centre for the Arts, 190 King William St.
When: Now through Feb. 3
Tickets: 905-522-7529
You've got to admire Theatre Aquarius. It couldn't have been easy mounting a creditable production of Peter Shaffer's black comedy Amadeus. After all, it's epic theatre.
An excoriating look at what Shaffer admits is a fictionalized account of the tormented relationship between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his musical adversary Antonio Salieri, it exists on the slightest shred of truth.
Though the play purports to be about these two men and illusions about their conflict, it's more concerned with Salieri's battle with God.
Although Shaffer gives us a speculative thriller that turns on a desperate conflict between mediocrity and genius, he also uses such plot contrivances to propose his own cynical, nihilistic view of the world.
As in his brilliant dramas The Royal Hunt Of The Sun, The Gift Of The Gorgon and to a greater extent even Equus, Shaffer takes us to the dark place where we must confront emptiness. Like Salieri in Amadeus, we must come to the private understanding that we live in a universe ungoverned by divine plan.
Here is the heart and soul of Shaffer's play finally laid bare. How much of it succeeds depends heavily upon how well that black notion is conveyed by its cast and director.
On that score, director Stewart Arnott's highly theatrical vision of the play works well enough.
But, any production of Amadeus also depends upon the extent to which the actor commanding its central role of Salieri finds the poetry in Shaffer's text.
On this score Arnott's production is less successful. Geordie Johnson is a fine actor with an excellent pedigree. He's starred at Stratford as Brick in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and Edmund in King Lear. He's a tall, commanding figure. He does not, however, come instantly to mind when you think of Shaffer's Salieri.
The role demands a vocal performance that's operatic in range. In a sense that performance must give Amadeus its legitimate musical score. That's something actors Ian McKellen and Paul Scofield did rather naturally in London and New York.
Johnson has to work too hard to create such resonance. He doesn't go easily from waspish rage to soaring evil.
He hasn't the incandescent energy or spirit.
Like the Aquarius production of Shaffer's play, Johnson's performance is adequate but far from great.
Benjamin Clost's Mozart is most successful adhering to the scatological aspects of a man who brays out dirty words with a whiff of childish innocence.
What he doesn't do is convince us he's a broken, pathetic spirit in the play's final heartbreaking scenes. Music still pours from his soul, even as his heart is breaking, but Clost is shallow and forgettable in these desperate, demanding moments.
The standout performance in this large cast ultimately comes from Sara Topham as Constanze Weber. She gives as fine an account of this sometimes coarse, sometimes sweet young thing as any I've seen. It is a performance of amazing colour and range hemmed in only by the constraints of the play itself.
In a large supporting company, Roy Lewis is excellent as Baron Van Swieten and Robert Dodds comic yet touching as Joseph II, Emperor of Austria.
Balanced against such finely tuned performances are misguided turns by Greg Campbell and Andrew Moodie that fail to create the black-hearted menace of the nasty Venticelli.
Sean Breaugh's costumes and Tamara Kucheran's highly imaginative sets are exemplary. So is Renee Brode's exquisite lighting.
This may not be an Amadeus that sweeps aside all former comers, but it is still a blazingly theatrical effort that thankfully elevates Theatre Aquarius' current season by sheer dint of serious intention.
from: http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1169507415009&call_pageid=1126519607402&col=1126519607416
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Posté le: 14 Juil 2007 01:39 pm Sujet du message: |
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A 'Vengeful Redhead' succeeds in Australia and Canada; next up: the United States
STRATFORD, Ontario: The title grabs you right away — "The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead."
Smacks of infidelity, doesn't it? Or at least indiscretion. But the one-person show by Australian playwright Robert Hewett has more on its mind than hanky-panky.
In a 14-play repertory season that also includes the spirited revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" and a Brian Bedford "King Lear," the Stratford Festival's hottest ticket is a small, intriguing drama with a plum, showy part for that most neglected of performers: actresses over the age of 40.
The acclaimed production, first seen here in 2006 and now back, features Lucy Peacock as seven startlingly different characters.
For Peacock, a veteran of the festival for 20 seasons, "Vengeful Redhead" offers a chance to play roles outside her usual classical repertory. For Hewett, an actor turned playwright not known outside Australia and New Zealand, it has been an impressive debut that already has attracted the attention of regional theaters in the United States.
"It's a great opportunity for a virtuoso performance, and you're always interested in that on the stage," says David Kennedy, associate director of the Dallas Theater Center, which will present the play next year (March 5-March 23) in a co-production with Cincinnati's Playhouse in the Park (Jan. 15-Feb. 15). A different, smaller studio production is planned for the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Fla. (Jan. 11-Feb. 2).
No word yet on who will get the choice role in Cincinnati and Dallas, although Mark Lamos, a veteran of the American nonprofit theater, will direct.
Unexpected is one way to describe the plot of "The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead," so it is difficult to talk about the story without giving too much away. The bare-bones plot concerns a suburban housewife (the redhead), whose husband announces he is leaving her for another woman (the blonde) and what the wife's learns from her best friend (the brunette). Complications, as they say, ensue.
"The play is about the nature of truth — how people perceive it — and obligation and blame. Those sorts of things," Hewett says. "But I don't want to make it sound too heavy."
What Kennedy likes about the play is its "Rashomon"-like quality — "in which the story you are told is revealed to you in multiple perspectives and each perspective is slightly different. ... The story keeps unfolding and revealing new facets."
Peacock adores its storytelling. "It seems to draw people in so quickly," she says. "I don't think it's like anything they expect. The audience leans forward and starts trying to put the puzzle of the story together — and as soon as they do that, we're on our way."
Plans for the play's North American premiere were sparked in January 2005 when Canadian actor Geordie Johnson, while visiting his sister in Australia, saw a production. He immediately thought of Peacock.
"She has a great chameleonlike quality and she's a dear friend of mine — and I loved working with her when we acted together," he recalls. "She's also at a beautiful age for an actress to come into her own — in terms of moving into real character work."
Peacock agreed to star, but only if Johnson directed — something he had never done before. Together with designer Michael Gianfrancesco, another Stratford veteran, they mounted a small production at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. The Festival, which was looking for a one-person show, picked it up for the 2006 season.
"This was a complete U-turn for me," explains Peacock, who, besides "Vengeful Redhead," is appearing at Stratford as Emilia in "Othello" and Gabriella Pecs in David Edgar's "Pentecost."
"And (it's) also what audiences up here are really not used to seeing me do. ... (It's) very modern," she says. "I feel like I am back in theater school doing character work. I am learning so much."
Hewett wrote "Vengeful Redhead" in 2004 for a friend who was looking for a good role. When the actress couldn't get financing together for a production, another performer, Jacki Weaver, stepped in and has toured the play all over Australia to great reviews.
The Stratford production was a close collaboration among actress, director and set designer.
"The script leaves the design quite open — which I think is great," Gianfrancesco says. "One of the most important things to us was, because Lucy plays seven different characters, each involves a full wig and costume change. They are quite specifically defined characters and quite strong transformations.
"And we wanted the audience to be part of those transformations so that Lucy wasn't just going offstage and coming back as a new person. But that you could see how she was changing and turning into the next character."
The solution? To have Peacock disrobe behind a series of screens, so the actress could be seen in silhouette, yet still maintain an air of mystery until the character came into view. That differed from the Australian production, which had Weaver changing in full view of the audience.
The Australian script was slightly tweaked for Canadian audiences, too, with minor changes made in language and cultural references. Slide projections of suburban Toronto, firmly rooted the play in Canada. The upcoming American productions will be similarly localized, according to the playwright, and so will the design.
"What I love about the piece is that like all good theater, it makes you reflect on your own life," Johnson says. "This play really spoke to me in terms of what an element in our lives luck and timing play."
And the timing seems right to continue with the play.
For Peacock and Johnson (who have only the Canadian rights), the next stop after "Vengeful Redhead" closes Aug. 26 in Stratford is British Columbia and a production at Vancouver's Playhouse Theatre (Jan. 12-Feb. 2). Then there's a possibility of a commercial production in Toronto.
For the moment, no other American productions are planned.
Hewett says he wants to establish the plays with the Cincinnati-Dallas and Sarasota productions and then allow it to evolve.
"It would be nice if the play came to New York. I would love it," the author says. "I think New York would love this play — to see some of those top-quality actresses there strut their stuff. That's what I'm wishing for."
from: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/13/america/NA-FEA-A-E-STG-Canada-Vengeful-Redhead.php |
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Posté le: 26 Oct 2007 03:09 pm Sujet du message: |
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from: http://www.contracostatimes.com/columns/ci_7276634
"THE RAINMAKER," by N. Richard Nash, currently in previews at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, opens Oct. 30.
At its heart, the play is a story of the ability of love to overcome all. But it doesn't start out that way. Bill Starbuck, a drifter and con man, charismatic as they come, finds himself on the drought-stricken farm of the Curry family, and promises to make rain for cash.
While his visit draws on, Starbuck and Lizzie Curry, the lone daughter of the family, discover they have a real chemistry, and much more than rain begins to drift across the horizon.
The play, which became a film featuring Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn, goes well beyond the romance-despite-all-odds genre. There is a real charm to the piece. The ACT production features Rene Augesen as Lizzie and Geordie Johnson as Starbuck.
"The Rainmaker" is Nash's best-known piece. The show opened on Broadway in 1954 and, in addition to being made into a film, it was also transformed into the musical "110 in the Shade," and ran on Broadway in 1963, with a revival in 2005.
Details: Tickets, at $14-$57 for previews and $17-$71 for regular performances, may be reserved at 415-749-2228 or http://www.act-sf.org.
from: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/112193.html
Nash's The Rainmaker Begins Oct. 25 in San Francisco
By Ernio Hernandez
25 Oct 2007
René Augesen is Lizzie Curry in a production of N. Richard Nash's The Rainmaker that begins performances Oct. 25 at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre.
Mark Rucker (The Beard of Avon) directs the work, which is scheduled to officially open Oct. 30 at the Geary stage. The play's run will end Nov. 25.
Billed as "a classic American romance," the 1936-set The Rainmaker centers on the "charismatic huckster Starbuck, who travels the heartland selling snake oil and other dubious miracle cures," as a release states. "At the drought-stricken Curry farm, Starbuck promises to make it rain - for a price, of course. But when he and Lizzie, the lone daughter of the family, discover a genuine chemistry, they begin to consider the possibility of a real miracle."
Augesen leads a cast that also features Geordie Johnson (Bill Starbuck), Jack Willis (H.C. Curry), Alex Morf (Jim Curry), Stephen Barker Turner (Noah Curry), Anthony Fusco (File) and Rod Gnapp (Sheriff Thomas).
The design team includes Robert Mark Morgan (scenic), Lydia Tanji (costume), Don Darnutzer (lighting) and Jeff Mockus (sound). |
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Posté le: 05 Nov 2007 04:17 pm Sujet du message: |
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go to http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/ for full article.
...Geordie Johnson (Bill Starbuck) is sizzling. He jumps around the stage with enormous energy. He shakes his rain stick, jumps up on the furniture and gets the family to join in the ritual of “Rainmaking”. Jim beats the drum; Dad paints an arrow pointing toward the farm to direct the rain to this spot. Johnson’s acting is exhilarating and magical. His performance is very moving. I might add also, that he is the only one who takes off his shirt during this heat wave. Everyone else is wearing flannel shirts (not rolled up) and one even has on wool pants. Of course, it was the 30’s – and they were more circumspect then...
go to http://www.mercurynews.com/karendsouza/ci_7337832 for full article
...Unfortunately, Mark Rucker's otherwise highly charged revival of the Americana classic lacks a thunderous Starbuck. While Geordie Johnson has a sensitivity with language that befits Nash's earthy poetry, he misses the fatal sense of charisma that the part demands. Johnson can't quite fill Starbuck's swagger, his rapacious grin. He works hard at generating chemistry, but he doesn't charge the air with enough electricity. He's a matchstick when he needs to be a lightning rod.
...Starbuck is part myth, part man, a force of nature that can't be stopped by something as mundane as the facts. He doesn't tell lies just to cheat people; he conjures up beautiful fantasies to lighten the load of reality. He's a dreamer as well as a huckster, and there should be no doubt that any woman would fall hard for him. Without that galvanic presence, the play's balance of power shifts. Few sparks fly between Starbuck and Lizzie (René Augesen), which undercuts the romance that should throb through the play but does not tarnish Augesen's glowing performance as the unlikely heroine...
go to http://www.insidebayarea.com/bayarealiving/ci_7338669 for full article
...And then there's Bill Starbuck (Geordie Johnson), the mysterious drifter who tells the Curry family he can bring rain for 100 bucks. The family is pretty sure it's a con, but they go along with the scam because Lizzie is losing hope that a fella will ever come along.
The show plays with a wonderfully stylized realism (you'd be hard-pressed to find characters this glib on a plains or prairie farm) with neatly understated dialects that are used to let you feel the dust in the characters' voices, but not enough to overwhelm the story.
There is an impressive chemistry between both Augesen and Johnson and Augesen and Willis, whose performance as the father is both heartwarming and beautifully created. Morf is extremely facile as young Jim, with a wildly funny performance that captures the cow town Romeo in his prime. |
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Posté le: 25 Jan 2008 01:47 pm Sujet du message: |
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The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead
By Kathleen Oliver
By Robert Hewett. Directed by Geordie Johnson. A Playhouse Theatre Company presentation, in association with the Blonde Project. At the Vancouver Playhouse on Thursday, January 17. Continues until February 2
Never underestimate the power of one. Veteran actor Lucy Peacock plays the blonde, the brunette, the redhead, and a handful of others in this tour de force, and her characterizations are so detailed and so thorough that you’d swear she was a whole ensemble.
Robert Hewett’s series of linked monologues explores the dark side of suburbia—kind of like Desperate Housewives, but with real heart. The play opens with Rhonda, a middle-aged housewife who’s been dumped by her husband of 17 years. She shares her perplexity at having been left so abruptly and alludes to a confrontation with the other woman.
Peacock then steps behind a scrim, and we see her in silhouette, changing costume. She emerges as Alex Doucette, a lesbian doctor with an upper-crust British accent, and at first it’s unclear what her connection to Rhonda is. Hewett’s script is as multifaceted as a prism—each character gives us information that forces us to revise both our understanding of what we already know and our expectations about what’s to come—but it’s not always as pretty. There’s genuine grief and pathos in this world of malls and monster homes, but to say any more about the plot would spoil the play’s abundant surprises.
There’s also plenty of humour here, since Hewett delights in characters whose skewed self-perception helps them avoid taking responsibility. Rhonda’s neighbour Lynette is an exquisite bundle of contradictions. “I never interfere in other people’s business,” she avows. “However, there are exceptions.” Peacock’s superb comic timing makes Lynette both horrifying and irresistible.
Peacock plays seven characters in all, and her range is truly breathtaking: from a four-year-old to an octogenarian, from nervous housewife to... Damn, I can’t tell or I’d be giving away too much.
Virtuosity on this scale is a thrill to watch. Peacock’s skill and the excellent writing that showcases it make The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead well worth checking out.
from: http://www.straight.com/article-129340/the-blonde-the-brunette-and-the-vengeful-redhead |
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Posté le: 05 Mar 2008 02:26 pm Sujet du message: |
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Yale Rep Stages 'A Woman of No Importance,' Opens March 27
Yale Repertory Theatre presents Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance. Directed by James Bundy, A Woman of No Importance begins performances on Friday, March 21 and will play through Saturday, April 12 at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street, at York Street). Opening Night is Thursday, March 27.
The cast of A Woman of No Importance includes Rene Augesen, Judith-Marie Bergan, Will Connolly, John Patrick Doherty, Kate Forbes, Geordie Johnson, Felicity Jones, Patricia Kilgarriff, John Little, Anthony Newfield, Bryce Pinkham, Terence Rigby, Michael Rudko, Erica Sullivan, and Liz Wisan.
The creative team for A Woman of No Importance includes Lauren Rockman (scenic design), Anya Klepikov (costume design), Ola Bråten (lighting design), and Jana Hoglund (sound design), Amy Boratko and Jennifer Shaw (dramaturgy), Stephen Gabis (dialect coach), and Sarah Hodges (stage management).
"Lords and ladies gather for afternoon tea and brilliant banter at an idyllic English country estate. For young Gerald Arbuthnot and his mother, the assembled not-so-polite company holds the keys to happiness in love and life. In this comedy of serial seducers, moralizing monogamists, secret pasts and simmering heartbreak, how will the Arbuthnots choose between social advancement and painful truths spoken from the heart?" describe press notes, "In 1895, the year that saw the debut of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, the playwright lost everything when he was convicted of "gross indecency" and sentenced to two years in prison. A Woman of No Importance had premiered two years earlier and anticipated the forces that would strike him down. Of British society, he said, "To be in it is merely a bore. To be out of it is simply a tragedy."
A Woman of No Importance plays March 21 through April 12 at Yale Repertory Theatre, located at 1120 Chapel Street (at York Street), New Haven, Connecticut. Opening Night is Thursday, March 27.
For a list of exact show dates and times, plus tickets for A Woman of No Importance are available online at www.yalerep.org, by phone at (203) 432-1234, and in person at the Yale Repertory Theatre Box Office (1120 Chapel Street). Tickets range from $35 to $58. Student, senior, and group discounts are also available.
Four and six ticket Flex Passes are available and may be used for the remaining plays in the season. Flex 4 is $180 and Flex 6 is $250; both let patrons select the plays and dates of their choice. Flex Passes may be redeemed on a per-show basis allowing patrons to decide how many passes to redeem for one or more productions.
from: http://broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=25690 |
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Posté le: 29 Mar 2008 01:36 pm Sujet du message: |
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Geordie Johnson
Il joue le role de Lord Illingworth dans la pièce de théâtre A Woman of No Importance.
He plays the role of Lord Illingworth in the theater play A Woman of No Importance.
Photos de presse / Press photos: http://www.yale.edu/yalerep/press/r_08/rep5/index.html
Article: ici/here
Wilde for ‘Woman’
Versatile Kate Forbes nearly steals the show in wonderful Rep piece
By E. Kyle Minor, Special to the Register
Felicity Jones as Lady Stutfield, Geordie Johnson as Lord Illingworth and Rene Augesen as Mrs. Allonby star in Yale Rep’s “A Woman of No Importance.”NEW HAVEN — One of the joys of living in a theater-flush city such as New Haven is that one has the (mostly) good fortune of watching skilled actors morph from one character to another so convincingly that the viewer must refer to one’s program for assurance that the actor in question is indeed the same person in an entirely different role only a few months earlier. Presently, Kate Forbes is just that artist, assaying the title character in Oscar Wilde’s 1993 polite social satire, “A Woman of No Importance,” running through April 12 at Yale Repertory Theatre.
Forbes, you may recall, played the self-anesthetized Kate in Long Wharf Theatre’s compelling production of Arthur Miller’s 1968 chamber drama “The Price” last fall. She has now traded in her tippling cynicism and square-cut coat for quiet desperation topped with scarlet red hair. It is a complete transformation, both inside and out.
Forbes plays Mrs. Arbuthnot, a Victorian woman respected for her self-sacrifice, virtue and bright son. She has managed for 20 years to hide her scandalous past and her son Gerald’s illegitimacy with an opaque story that people readily accept, because Mrs. Arbuthnot appears to be above reproach. When she enters the country home of Lady Jane Hunstanton (Patricia Kilgarriff) to stop her son from accepting the promising position of secretary to Lord Illingworth (Geordie Johnson), there’s not a trace of Miller’s frustrated Kate in her performance. Nor is there, more remarkably, any affectation, despite the period costume and lofty language.
Of course, by the time Mrs. Arbuthnot appears, a tight ensemble of actors has broken in the audience to Wilde’s beguiling style, which greatly upstages the play’s substance through the first half of the four-act comedy (running two-and-a-half hours with one intermission). In fact, the play’s first half, which runs almost entirely on the fuel of polished maxims and sculpted epigrams, could be subtitled “Wilde’s Greatest Hits, Volume I.”
Up to the point of Mrs. Arbuthnot’s entrance, the only source of tension is Lord Illingworth, who, embodied by Johnson and directed by James Bundy, could keep the theater toasty through a 6-hour power outage on his animal magnetism alone. This is not to say that the rest of the ensemble wants for anything — it’s just that Wilde takes his sweet time charming us with clever mockery of the idle upper class during the height of its social season — the exception being Erica Sullivan’s wonderfully earnest and plain-spoken American Puritan, Hester Worsley, who fairly levels the native’s pomposity with a welcome bit of Yankee horse sense. Otherwise, Wilde doesn’t really pick up the pace or raise the stakes until Mrs. Arbuthnot arrives.
Theatergoers exposed only to Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” may be surprised to see that the master was capable of a touch of gaslight melodrama, as he shows at the curtains of Acts II and III — most notable when Mrs. Arbuthnot tells her son that his prospective employer is his genuine father who refused to marry his mother. Still, in Johnson’s hands certainly, Lord Illingworth is more complex than your Victorian-era, mustache-twirling villain (though Johnson sports quite a rakish model worthy of a stroke or two). When he explains his side of the story, the audience is likely to at least hear him out. This may not be as certain with Shaw’s George Crofts or Ibsen’s Judge Brack.
While Wilde satisfies sentimentalists with his play’s ending, it’s by no means as pat as his symmetrically neat conclusion of “The Importance of Being Earnest.” The future of Mrs. Arbuthnot, Gerald and Hester is less certain. It is nonetheless better than their immediate past.
When: Through April 12, 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Wednesday and Saturdays
Where: Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St., New Haven
Tickets: $35-$58
(Link posted in the Geordie Johnson yahoogroup by a fan) |
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Posté le: 19 Avr 2009 03:08 pm Sujet du message: |
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from: http://www.theatrecalgary.com/plays/dirty_rotten_scoundrels/
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
BOOK BY JEFFREY LANE
MUSIC & LYRICS BY DAVID YAZBEK
DIRECTED BY
DENNIS GARNHUM
MUSICAL DIRECTION BY
STEPHEN WOODJETTS
CHOREOGRAPHY BY
LISA STEVENS
Starring
GEORDIE JOHNSON, MIKE ROSS,
TAMARA BERNIER EVANS,
NORA MCLELLAN, DOUG MCKEAG
APRIL 14 TO
MAY 10, 2009
'Scoundrels' will steal your heart
from: http://jam.canoe.ca/Theatre/Reviews/D/Dirty_Rotten_Scoundrels/2009/04/18/9153621-sun.html
By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Sun Media
CALGARY -- Theatre Calgary's production of the Broadway musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels currently running in the Max Bell Theatre is ripe with unapologetic nonsense.
Based on the 1988 film starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is the story of a pair of con artists determined to con everyone including each other and the audience.
Lawrence Jamieson (Geordie Johnson) is the debonair half of the duo who effectively passes himself off as European royalty to bilk rich American women.
Freddy Benson (Mike Ross) is the low-life grifter whose specialty is passing himself off as intellectually, physically or emotionally scarred.
When Freddy blackmails Lawrence into taking making him an apprentice the scoundrels turn the attention and dubious charms on Christine Colgate (Tamara Bernier Evans) who they believe is heir to the famous American soap company fortune.
What ensues is a series of slapstick double crosses that see Freddy posing as an American soldier suffering an emotional paralysis of his lower body and Jamieson as the Austrian psychiatrist who is meant to cure him.
When Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is working on all cylinders both as a play and a production, it's side-splittingly hilarious, filling the Max Bell Theatre with deafening laughter. The problem is there are lulls in the show's comic inspiration and those stretches can be painful as the audience waits for the opportunity to howl and gawfaw again.
Ross is a comedic tornado and he knows no shame, stooping to good old burlesque for some of the evening's best laughs. Johnson, whose Jamieson looks suspiciously like Hugh Jackman, is supremely confident with the show's low-brow humour. But the script doesn't give him nearly as much scope to be as outrageous as Ross or Nora Mclennan, who plays the willingly dupable Oklahoma millionaire, and Doug Mckeag as the French policeman who is seduced by her.
Under the direction of Dennis Garnhum, musical direction of Stephen Woodjetts and choreography of Lisa Stevens, this Dirty Rotten Scoundrels features a most impressive chorus. They sing, dance and act up a real storm.
In stealing from and parodying such Broadway giants as The Producers, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma! and Guys and Dolls just to name a scant few, it keeps reminding us that, funny as it may be, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is not in their league.
(links posted by fans in the Geordie Johnson yahoogroup) |
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Posté le: 25 Avr 2009 01:24 pm Sujet du message: |
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from: http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/arts/theatre/a-leg-humpin-musical-3647/
![](http://ffwdweekly.com/media/article_images/THEATRE-DirtyRotten.jpg)
A leg humpin’ musical
Theatre Calgary’s wild and wonderful season finale
Published April 23, 2009 by Alyssa Julie in Theatre
Con Men, copious wealth and a few dancing French maids — just part of the outlandish Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is meant, not only to cap off Theatre Calgary’s season with a bang, but also to usher in the spring with bold colours and flamboyant music, according to director Dennis Garnhum. The lighthearted musical achieves its aim easily, from the wonderful score to the play’s two mischievous main characters, Lawrence Jameson (a.k.a. “The Prince”) and Freddy Benson. Both characters are like two young boys horsing around in summer before the hard days of school begin again.
The musical starts by introducing us to “The Prince” (Geordie Johnson), a middle-aged bachelor who uses good looks and charisma to charm women, then swindle them for large sums of money. On the train, he meets Freddy Benson (Mike Ross), a small-time crook who preys on women’s compassion. Feeling threatened and not wanting another con artist in town, Jameson convinces Benson to continue on to the new hot spot, “Isla de la Muerte,” where, he says, there will be plenty of wealthy young ladies.
Still on the train, Benson meets Muriel Eubanks (Nora MClellan), a wealthy American who Jameson had seduced. Benson discovers that he has been played and shows up unannounced at Jameson’s impressive villa — blackmailing him to take him on as a pupil. After one of “the Prince’s” swindles goes awry and he winds up unwittingly betrothed to Oklahoma heiress Jolene Oaks (Jennifer Stewart), Jameson pairs with Benson to frighten Oaks and send her packing. Jameson leads Oaks into a dungeon-like basement to meet his monstrous little brother, Ruprecht. Played by an imaginative Benson, Ruprecht greets the heiress with a quick hump, a mouthful of wriggling fish and a jar stuffed with his stinkiest farts. Completely horrified, the flamboyant Oaks escapes, never to be heard from again.
That’s when the two meet the American “soap queen” Christine Colgate (Tamara Bernier Evans). The two make a bet to see who can be the first to swindle Colgate of $50,000, with the loser forced to leave town. Over time, however, the rivalry between the pair develops into a brotherly bond.
“They really are a dazzling duo,” says Garnhum of Jameson and Benson. “It’s their story — how they play off each other and inspire the other to up the con and outdo each other.”
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is based on the 1988 movie of the same name, starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine. It was later adapted into a Broadway musical and was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, including best musical and best original score.
Theatre Calgary’s version of the Broadway production is modernized, with hard-hitting, gut-busting references to George W. Bush (“The Bushes of Tex were nervous wrecks, because their son was dim”), Diddy and Donald Trump. There’s even a parody of a gangster music video, complete with scantily clad ladies in French maid outfits.
Theatre Calgary wraps up the season with a fun, endearing and sometimes outrageous musical. The characters are well developed and completely entertaining, the music is both fun and beautifully written and there’s a surprising twist at the end. Well, surprising, at least, for those who haven’t already seen the movie.
(link posted by Alyssa in the G.J. yahoogroup) |
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