Events

Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical 🎄

This week I got a chance to catch the Vancouver Premiere and Opening Night show for Dr.Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical - at The Centre for Performing Arts. The traveling stage show adapts the 1957 Christmas classic about a Grinch and his dog that decide to terrorize the locals, and hopefully ruin their Christmas.

Joshua Woodie stars with his playfully menacing performance as The Grinch, Brian Cedric Jones plays the wide-eyed Young Max, W. Scott Stewart is the stories mature narrator in Old Max, and Cindy Lou-Who is played by both Adrian Deboer and Mélodie Rose Romano.

On a quiet, chilly Tuesday night the crowd wasn’t exactly where it needed to be in comparison to the palpable energy of the performers. The cast had a relentless nature about them as they were able to unwind the adults and children alike, bringing out the Christmas spirit that would have the crowd singing along (or in my case belting) favourites such as “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and “Welcome Christmas,” by nights end.

As soon as the show ended you could see the holiday spirit was in full effect, delighted by the performance the crowd was buzzing with murmurs of smiles and hums taking the heartwarming, magic of a Christmas tale all the way home.

Whether it’s the movies, the books, or a stage play - the story of The Grinch never gets old, and this musical proves it.

Enjoy the Show! 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 1.5 hours (Including Intermission)

Dates: November 14 - 18, 2023

Venue: The Centre for Performing Arts

Where to buy: www.t icketmaster.ca

#Theatre #Performance #Art #Grinch #Vancouver #YVR #Movie #MovieReview #GrinchMusicalYVR #VancouverHolidayShow #Christmas

CTORA Theatres: The Wizard of Oz 🦁

This weekend I was invited to the Opening Night show for CTORA Theatre’s The Wizard of Oz, at the Granville Island Stage in Vancouver. The classic tale of a young girl, her pet dog, and a few friends she meets along the way - is reimagined into a theatrical production, that brings the beloved 1939 film to life.

It stars Camryn MacDonald as the innocent Dorothy, Preston Wilder takes on the role of TinMan, Jonathan Gagne plays the fearful Lion, while Keith MacMillan charms viewers with his performance as the Scarecrow - but the scene stealing, crowd pleaser was definitely Toto, a real life Carin Terrier who had the audience in the palm of his paw.

As soon as the story shifted from the grey, dull, and dreary Kansas to the colourful Land of Oz, the lead cast was able to unchain the shackles placed on them by their simple minded, small town characters and showcase their versatility as stage performers by exploring the growth each character so desperately desired.

Camryn MacDonald was a perfect casting choice to play Dorothy, taking on the naive yet strong minded character with a graceful innocence, that was matched by Keith MacMillian’s scarecrow, as the two had a wonderful chemistry that helped shape the energy surrounding the leading cast.

As strong as the leads were it wasn’t enough to offset what I felt was an uninspired set design. They tried their best to make up for it with certain lighting choices, but it didn’t have the impact that was intended. The stage presence of the performers was notable but when you don’t feel lost in what’s meant to be a fantasy world, it ends up making the whole thing feel like a well acted cosplay.

It also didn’t help that during the intermission (that was extended much longer than expected) the energy in the theatre shifted when a lady was berated for using her phone during the performance. I felt it could’ve been handled better by the staff, especially with an understandably annoyed but obnoxiously over the top crowd, that seemed they were matching the dramatic theatre environment to an exhausting degree.

I’m all for theatre etiquette but to let the situation unfold as it did was a bit much, and took me out of the beginning of the second half of the show.

That being said - one man’s underwhelming play, may be another man’s treasure. This will be worth the visit for those looking for a family friend outing.

Enjoy the Show! 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 2 hours (Including Intermission)

Dates: November 3 - 12, 2023

Venue: Granville Island Stage

Where to buy: m.bpt.me/event/6053698

Note: CTORA Theatre is a not-for-profit organization providing opportunities for emerging artists to perform in professionally staged productions. This allows job opportunities for local theatre artists.

#Theatre #Performance #Art #WizardofOz #Vancouver #YVR #Movie #MovieReview

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical ⚡️

This weekend I had the opportunity to check out the opening night show for CTORA Theatre's The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, at the JCC Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre in Vancouver.

The Lightning Thief is based on the novel by Rick Riordan that follows high school-er Percy Jackson, who gets whisked a way to camp half-blood where he must learn to navigate his new found powers passed down to him by the father he never knew - who just so happens to be a Greek God.

The two-act full-stage musical with intermission features adult performers, a 5-piece live orchestra, Ancient Greek and modern-day scene changes, lightning & sound effects along with giant puppets, bringing the world of Percy Jackson to life on stage.

I’ve watched a handful of stage shows including WICKED, Phantom of the Opera, and Beauty and the Beast, so walking into a community centre I wasn’t sure what to expect - especially since everything I had seen before this was from Broadway.

Let’s just say, don’t judge a book by its cover.

From the incredible performances by the cast, to the tremendous use and subtle transformation of the set pieces, and the music adding layers of fun to a captivating coming of age story - I was blown away.

The shows ability to do so much creatively with so little, is what made it such a pleasant surprise.

For example, what they were able to accomplish by bringing the scale and intimidation of The Minotaur to life using perfect light placement and smoke could’ve come across as hokey, but through the audible gasps by the crowd - it ended up delivering one of the strongest reactions of the night.

As someone who read the Percy Jackson series I was curious how faithful the show would be to its source material, and I’m happy to note that no stone was left unturned.

The cast as a whole did a phenomenal job but the standouts for me were Teddy Ngkaion (Grover) and Boris Bilic (Mr. Brunner). They were able to masterfully perform a diverse array of characters, showcasing an amazing amount of range, that as soon as they stepped on stage - was demanding of the crowds attention.

This was my first time attending a show at the JCC Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre, and I can't wait to plan my next trip back.

If you’re a fan of the Percy Jackson series, live performance, or just want to try a new medium of storytelling - I highly recommend checking this out.

Enjoy the Show! 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 2 hours (Including Intermission)

Dates: May 18-28, 2023

Times: Nightly Thurs -Sun @ 7pm

Sat - Mon Matinees @ 2pm

Venue: JCC Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre

Where to buy: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5637145

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical Review Vancouver (2023) The Richmond Reviewer

Jurassic World: The Live Tour 🦖

Jurassic World: The Live Tour will be making its much anticipated Canadian Premiere in Vancouver this weekend, at the PNE Coliseum. I had the luxury of getting a behind the scenes look at what goes in to making a show of this scale, meeting some of the performers, and my favourite part - watching dinosaurs come to life.

First I spoke with Luke Littlefield and Steven Weimer, who perform the motorbike stunt scenes.

It was a blast talking to these two, as they were clearly amped up about the show but just as passionate about where their careers had taken them. Luke initially rode and competed in Moto Trials, and Steven did the same with Motorcycles - which led them both to this opportunity.

They have a lot of risk involved in their scenes, so I was curious how they managed navigating around the many moving pieces around them, because to me even with preparation there would be concern having to navigate the landscape at the speed that they do.
What they essentially said was that in every scene their is one focal point that every other aspect has to orbit around, so to the untrained eye it may seem chaotic but there’s actually a method to their madness.

I was then able to chat it up with Oscar (played by Antonio Valles) who provided some great insight into the show, and allowed your guy to live out a dream by getting to ride along in the iconic Jurassic World jeep. He explained that though the show may be self contained in presentation, it actually fits in canonically to the Jurassic movie franchise timeline, while also tying in the Netflix animated series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.

Last but not least I spoke with Carlos Caraballo, who is one of the puppeteers that brings the dinosaurs to life. He was able to breakdown the technical aspect of being a puppeteer and how much of a physical undertaking it actually is.

When you’re caught up in the show you can’t really grasp the amount of work that goes into BEING the dinosaur. It’s a kudos to the performers that we as the audience become so lost in the story of it all, but the combination of carrying the weight of the shell, the hand eye coordination, and having to function in a really tight space is an undertaking that takes countless hours of preparation to perfect.

Getting the chance to see some of the performance, and the amount of emotion they can convey with the flick of a switch gave me a new found respect for these puppeteers - who in my opinion are the unsung heroes of the show.

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There were two sides to my time at this early access, sneak peek.

One was enjoying getting to learn about the behind the scenes prep, the intricate details that make up the show, and the motivation for the cast & crew. Then theres the obvious part of this all where it doesn’t matter how old you get, life sized Dinosaurs on the big screen, or in person - will always be magical.

Children are going to love it, and adults are not going to be able to help but get swept away in the childlike wonder dinosaurs bring.

Enjoy!

Jurassic World: The Live Tour Vancouver (2023) The Richmond Reviewer. #JurassicWorldLive

Where: Pacific Coliseum (Vancouver) 🏟

When: May 19–21 & May 26–28, 2023 📆
Tickets: www.jurassicworldlivetour.com