Hamilton Theatre Inc. is back with a musical showcase
Welcome back, indeed.
We've waited long enough to sit in our community theatres and applaud the folks who bring us entertainment for the sheer love of doing it.
Hamilton Theatre Inc.'s last performance on stage was March 2, 2020, just before theatres were shut down and performers were silenced.
Now, here we are 20 months later and the HTI is back with a large cast of 17 local performers keeping an enthusiastic audience entertained for pretty much two hours of contemporary Broadway show tunes.
There's nothing from South Pacific" or Oklahoma!" you understand. No, the songs here come from current, more contemporary, Broadway shows. Think Dear Evan Hansen" and Waitress," for starters.
How much you'll like them will depend squarely on how familiar you are with the musicals they're extracted from. Let's just say some of these songs don't stand that well on their own. And, yes they are also difficult to sing.
Part of the reason is the music itself. It's less tuneful with lyrics that are driven and aggressive, and seldom in a poetic way.
I suppose it's all about moving on but in many ways these are less celebratory songs than those from Broadway's Golden Age. They're more about expressing interior thoughts and journeys.
Cobbled together with a slight linking narrative by Tim Denis and Bree McLean-Roberts, this compilation does celebrate a return to theatre, even though it seems more obsessed with looking back and reflecting on the isolation and fear of COVID-19, rather than charging forward toward whatever hope there is ahead.
Film clips from performers spoke of the hardships they felt being sequestered and of their longing for freedom from annoying, but necessary lockdowns and exclusions.
They spoke, too, of folks lost to the theatre community directly from the pandemic itself. And they shed light on racial inequities, as well as the need to celebrate theatre contributions from Indigenous and LGBTQ people.
There's much that is moving in this HTI production, suggesting the need we have to return to whatever normalcy we can find in today's still restricted world.
Musically, things weren't always felicitous. Some songs simply didn't suit the talents of those chosen to sing them. Sometimes volume was mistaken for meaning and passion though these are certainly not the same thing.
When singers mistakenly hold notes for too long, at too high a volume, pitch problems can and did in fact occur.
Visually, this HTI show was minimalist in nature. There's little in the way of setting, or costuming, concentrating instead on the performers involved. This had both negative and positive effects.
Simplicity in staging can be admirable, but the sameness here became an issue. Most often we got stand and deliver performances with singers sometimes taking a few steps left and a few steps right. When there was movement, it was all about arms reaching upward into space. The repetition in staging made huge demands on the performers involved.
There were standouts. Shayna Magnuson managed to make everything right in her warm and soulful performance of The First Time is Forever" from Disney's Broadway hit Frozen." Richelle Tavernier found the sadness behind I'm Here" from The Colour Purple," Owen Welsh gave a brave, if vocally strained performance of Hold Me In Your Heart" from Kinky Boots" and Bethany Charters found the lightness beyond the pain in Hand in My Pocket" from Jagged Little Pill."
Leave it to Chantal Furtado and Dustin Jodway to rock the socks off Under Pressure" from the 2002 London musical We Will Rock You."
Tim Denis and Bree McLean-Roberts, deserve credit for compiling and directing this revue style entertainment. They also punched over You And Me, But Mostly Me" from the popular musical The Book of Mormon."
Other standouts were Emily Bolyea, a powerhouse of sassy movement whenever she was on stage and Victoria Kyoko who found the sad undertow in Can't Stand the Rain" from the musical Tina."
How much you'll like Welcome Back Showcase" may well depend on how savvy you are about the contemporary Broadway music scene. It might also have something to do with how particular you are about music that is right on the money when it comes to passion and pitch.
Gary Smith has written about theatre and dance for the Hamilton Spectator for 40 years.
HTI Welcome Back Showcase
Hamilton Theatre Inc.
Nov. 25-26-27 at 8 p.m.
HTI Studio, 140 MacNab St. N.
Tickets: $30 plus fees Call 905-522-3032 or go to hamiltontheatre.com
Protocols: Masks must be worn. Must be fully vaccinated