12 things to do or see before the holidays — Part 2

’Tis the season for making lists, and checking them twice. So here’s another, the second of my two-part, late-year catch-up of news, reviews and opinions. Part 1, which included items 1 through 6, is here. Continuing on...

7. See Crow’s shows that have extended their flights

In my last newsletter, I raved about Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus’s funny and moving Big Stuff, directed by Kat Sandler. It’s just been extended until December 22! Make sure you catch it during this run so you can proudly say you saw it before it became a huge international hit. Get tickets here.

And hey, while you’re at Crow’s, why not put some money down on The Bidding War (Rating: ✭✭✭), which has added a handful more performances and now closes December 19? Michael Ross Albert’s most ambitious play to date is a lively topical comedy about Toronto’s crazy real estate market.

After her father’s death, struggling artist June (Veronica Hortiguela) and her stepmother (unseen) have put his home up for sale. Because June is having second thoughts about the sale, realtor Sam (Peter Fernandes) alters the home’s listing deadline to the end of the day, upping the stakes for everyone.

This eclectic group of buyers, backed by their real estate agents, try to outwit, outplay and outlast each other to secure the reasonably priced home. Among the elements they use are: allergic reactions, disguised-voice phone calls, and insider information about the closing of a nearby low-income rental building, which will likely raise the property value of the house.

Comedy should seem effortless, and Albert and director Paolo Santaluccia show strain early on in setting up all the characters and establishing the silly premise. (June’s reappearance during the open house after being away in Berlin seems too complicated a plot point, and doesn’t really pay off, except in a couple of jokes about artists.)

But there are some riotously funny one-liners (courtesy often of Izad Etemadi and Steven Sutcliffe, who play a gay couple), a few effective physical gags and fine performances by those given interesting enough characters (Fiona Reid, Aurora Browne and Peter Fernandes benefit here, while most of the others do not).

At two hours and 15 minutes, the play feels way too long for what it offers, and it doesn’t help that there’s a scene that feels like it warrants a break midway through Act One.

Still, there’s no denying the play’s popularity with audiences. Ken Mackenzie and Sim Suzer’s handsome, nicely-laid out set is as enticing as an MLS listing. And Albert presents a broad cross section of downtown Toronto home buyers, with darkly funny lines aimed at just about everyone. Sold!

See ticket info here.

**

One of last season’s biggest hits, Michael Healey’s The Master Plan (Rating: ✭✭✭✭) returns a year after it debuted at Crow’s, in a co-production with Soulpepper at the latter’s Michael Young Theatre. That early run was extended several times; and this current one has already been extended twice until (at least) January 12. Tickets are going fast.

Besides the new space, which feels a little cramped for Chris Abraham’s fast-paced production, a couple of new actors have stepped into roles: the great Tanja Jacobs now plays Waterfront Toronto board chair Helen Burstyn, former Toronto Mayor John Tory and others; the fiery Rose Napoli is Waterfront’s Kristina Verner; and Healey himself, returning to stage acting after an absence of more than 10 years, plays the often green-track-suit-wearing Tree and a variety of other characters.

If you’ve never seen the play — inspired by Josh O’Kane’s book Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy — you really need to for its sobering, yet very funny, look at how Toronto’s cautious, checks-and-balances decisions contrast with the cocky, blustery American approach geared to maximizing profits and global reach.

I stand by most of what I wrote about the play the first time. If anything, Healey’s examples of quotes taken out of context — he cites a speech by Alphabet Inc.’s Eric Schmidt that jokingly included a line about Canada “[giving] us a city and [putting] us in charge” — and getting used, misused and recycled by other media outlets feels especially ominous with the rapid rise of AI and untrustworthy news sources.

Furthermore, the Ontario premier’s gung-ho approach to projects like the razing of Ontario Place, the building of the Therme Spa and the construction of Highway 413 feels like profit-driven, American-style steamrolling.

Because of all the history and background that must be imparted for us to understand the context of the play, it still takes some time to get one’s bearings. But if anything, the performances have deepened and taken on more complexity. I loved watching Ben Carlson play Waterfront Toronto’s uncertain, tentative CEO, Will Fleissig, then shift into Board Chair Steve Diamond, who stands his ground against Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff (Mike Shara, as slick and bombastic as ever), and then morph again into plainspoken, Toronto Fire Service Chief Matthew Pegg.

The new actors bring a lot to their roles; Jacobs is suitably inscrutable as Burstyn, especially when demanding that Fleissig tender his resignation; Napoli is foul-mouthed and passionate as Verner (and hilariously cranky as City Council Speaker Frances Nunziata); and Healey brings a dry sarcasm to his absurd character of the Tree and a mysterious sense of gravitas to a lawyer monitoring certain conversations.

As before, Christopher Allen’s Cam Malagaam, an amalgam of several well-intentioned Sidewalk Labs employees and an admirer of Jane Jacobs’s thoughts on urban planning, remains the heart of the play, especially as he collaborates with Waterfront TO’s principled and frustrated Verner and Meg Davis (Philippa Domville).

Get tickets to The Master Plan here.

8. See something funny

There’s nothing like a fun show to let you de-stress during the holidays. (After recently braving the mass of humanity at the Distillery Holiday Market/Village en route to The Master Plan, I definitely need some de-stressing.)

Titaníque (Rating: ✭✭✭), the campy musical spoof of James Cameron’s 1997 film, could do the trick. The premise is utterly bonkers. At a modern-day Titanic museum, Céline Dion (Quebecois star Véronique Claveau), who famously sang the title song from the movie, appears in a sequined gown carrying a microphone, claiming she was at the 1912 sinking of the famed ship.

And as the cast around her transforms into characters from the film, including Jack (Seth Zosky), Rose (Mariah Campos), Rose’s mom Ruth (Constant Bernard) and fiancée Cal (Michael Torontow), the unsinkable Molly Brown (Erica Peck), the ship’s architect played by actor Victor Garber (Mike Melino) and any number of seamen, Céline & Co. deliver songs from her catalogue, including “My Heart Will Go On,” to help tell the story.

I saw the show a couple of months ago off-Broadway, and felt the pacing was tighter and the jokes landed better. Many of the quips are queer-coded, or at least theatre-coded, which worked well for an audience a few blocks from the Village but might leave many Torontonians scratching their heads.

What’s more, while Claveau — who grew up francophone in Quebec — has all the Dion mannerisms down pat and can belt her way through fiendishly difficult power ballads, her performance isn’t quite as funny as that by an anglophone attempting a French accent. (I got to chat with Claveau recently for the Toronto Star, and she was delightful.)

This is a really well-sung version of the show, with Zosky’s Jack, Peck’s Molly and Christopher Ning’s Iceberg Bitch (a part that must be seen to be believed) stealing all their scenes. And there are elements of Tye Blue’s direction that are truly inspired — for instance, the recreation of the steamy sex scene between Jack and Rose in the car is achieved with delirious glee.

If you’re a fan of the movie, RuPaul’s Drag Race or Dion’s catalogue, by all means dock yourselves at the CAA Theatre, where the show has just been extended a week until Jan. 19. (It also returns to Montreal’s Segal Centre in February.) See info here

Other funny shows include:

• Beige Christmas, presented by FAOC (Roula Said and Maryem Tollar), featuring special guest Anand Rajaram and a different musical guest each night. FAOC stands for many things, including “Friggin’ Arab Orchestra Company” and the show, at the east end VideoCabaret space, is described as “Arab ladies singing Christmas carols written by Jews.” The variety show runs Dec. 19 to 29. See info here

• Holiday! An Improvised Musical, which returns after its Dora-nominated run last year to spread more joy. Created and directed by the great Jan Caruana (Because News, Second City), the show features a rotating cast of some of the country’s funniest improvisers (including Ashley Botting, Nadine Djoury, Brandon Hackett and Aurora Browne) and takes inspiration from Stephen Sondheim’s iconic show Company to tell a story, based on some audience suggestions, about the holidays. The different-at-every-performance show runs at the Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst, until Dec. 21. See info here

9. Enjoy a show for young (or young-at-heart) audiences

I’ve always enjoyed Young People’s Theatre’s annual holiday show. Whether it’s a musical or light comedy. they consistently deliver inventive, refreshing shows for the thousands who want to see family-friendly fare during this time. YPT might not have the same budget as touring productions of Broadway or West End shows, but their productions are always done with care and imagination.

Or “Pure imagination,” you might say, in the case of their new staging of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Rating: ✭✭✭✭). Setting the story in Toronto, director Thom Allison has captured the heightened, absurd feel of Roald Dahl’s tale pitting a bunch of outrageous, spoilt kids and their enabling caretakers against the more humble Charlie Bucket (Breton Lalama) and his kindly grandpa Joe (Larry Mannell), each of the children vying for a lifetime supply of chocolate.

Condensing the material into one act, Allison has tightened the show but left the plot and most of the character-revealing songs (by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman from the musical, and Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley from the film) alone.

The result is an efficient, well-oiled machine that never feels rushed or thin. Lamama’s Charlie is spontaneous, enterprising and optimistic, well-matched with Michael Therriault’s mischievous Willy Wonka. The ensemble, most playing various roles, have great fun with the material. Alison Plamondon’s clever choreography, Ming Wong’s colourful costumes and Brandon Kleiman’s sets add lots to the lively spirit.

This is a confection I’d want to see again, just to see how the parts are interconnected.

The show runs to Dec. 30. See info here.

Other family-friendly fare includes: Alligator Pie, Soulpepper’s whimsical, imaginative adaptation of Dennis Lee poems, featuring new contributions from the 2024 Soulpepper Academy (until December 29 at the Young Centre — see tickets here), and Three Tall Ships Collective’s brilliant adaptation of A Christmas Carol (Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭) performed in the one-of-a-kind Campbell House Museum (160 Queen West, through Dec. 22, see info here).

If you’ve never seen the latter, you need to go at least once — even if you’ve experienced the Dickens classic before, you’ve never seen it as up close and personal as this version. (Warning: the show is a walkabout production, and involves climbing stairs.)

Update: I just caught it again recently and was once again amazed by Justin Haigh’s script, whose additions feel as if they were penned by Dickens himself, the imaginative use of various rooms in the heritage house — don’t expect state-of-the-art lighting, for obvious reasons — and the performers who are new — to me, at any rate — in the cast. These actors include: Spencer Jones as Jacob Marley, our darkly funny narrator; Luke Marty as both Scrooge’s extroverted nephew Fred and his former employer, Mr. Fezziwig; Nicholas Eddie as a young, shy Ebenezer; and Justine Christensen as his beloved former fiancée Belle — so brilliant to double cast her Fred’s wife, Alice — and so on. This is the most memorable stage adaptation of the material I’ve ever seen, and highly recommend it.

And finally, it wouldn’t be the holiday season without the Ross Petty Panto. After the impresario/actor/producer retired in 2023, Canadian Stage decided to take it over in 2024, and their version of The Wizard of Oz (Rating: ✭✭✭✭), written by Matt Murray and directed by Coal Mine’s Ted Dykstra, just opened at the Winter Garden Theatre. I really liked it. Ticket info here.

10. Take a day trip and see some theatre

Summer isn’t the only time to see regional theatre, which is alive and well during the other seasons and is especially active around the holidays.

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to catch the brief run of Madame Minister (Rating: ✭✭✭✭), Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman’s snappy adaptation of Branislav Nusic’s play The Cabinet Minister’s Wife, produced by Talk is Free Theatre in Barrie.

After a government falls and her bureaucrat husband gets tapped to become the next minister, the ambitious, striving Zivka’s (Laura Condlln) fortunes suddenly change. Now she’s being coached on how to become a proper minister’s wife, is fielding requests from her poor relations and is determined to get her married daughter Dara (Brittany Kay) to ditch her husband (Nolan Moberly) for someone with a more fitting social standing.

It’s a timeless, classic farce about the rise and fall of a ridiculous woman, adapted with efficient glee by Corbeil-Coleman and directed by Layne Coleman with energy and precise timing.

The production’s venue is the hallway of a suitably stately home, which conveniently comes with two sliding doors for parlours on either side (where the limited audience sits). What the venue loses in sightline visibility it more than makes up for in intimacy; since we’re in a home (set and costume design are by Varvara Evchuk), and all of the play takes place in that home, there’s an urgency and appropriateness to the proceedings. Having Zivka’s maid, Anka (Mariya Khomutova, the Dora-nominated co-writer/actor of First Métis Man of Odesa), open and close the sliding doors between scenes is a nice touch.

Besides introducing us to a Serbian classic, Madame Minister also offers up a great role for a woman, and Condlln, in between Stratford seasons, devours the part both physically and emotionally. She gets terrific support from the rest of the cast, especially Cyrus Lane as a couple of contrasting characters, including a gigolo-like teacher/lover who moves from one minister’s wife to the next.

Talk is Free often brings its productions to Toronto — in fact, they’ve just announced a pair of productions coming in January — Adam Meisner’s For Both Resting and Breeding (Jan. 15-21) and Mike Bartlett’s Cock (Jan. 19-31). Let’s hope Madame Minister gets a fuller staging here, perhaps in a venue with better sightlines. See info here.

**

Other seasonal, family-appropriate out-of-town shows include:

• My Fair Lady and A Christmas Carol at the Shaw Festival. The Niagara-on-the-Lake festival has extended its hit production (directed by Tim Carroll and Kimberley Rampersad) of the Lerner and Loewe musical, with Allan Louis replacing Tom Rooney in the role of Professor Henry Higgins (Joshua Chong at The Toronto Star reviewed Louis’ very different interpretation of the part here). And Ryan G. Hinds puts his own directorial spin on the production of the Dickens classic originally adapted and directed by Carroll, featuring haunting puppetry by Alexis Milligan. Both shows run to Dec. 22 — see info here

• Rapunzel, A Merry (Hairy) Holiday Panto, by Second City’s Carly Heffernan and directed by Cherissa Richards, at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre through Dec. 22 — see info here

• Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton is staging A Christmas Story, The Musical, based on the now-classic Bob Clark movie, featuring music and lyrics by Dear Evan Hansen/La La Land’s Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, directed by Mary Francis Moore, through Dec. 22 — see info here

• Theatre Orangeville is putting on Sleeping Beauty... A Fairy’s Tale, written and directed by Debbie Collins and David Nairn, through Dec. 21 — see info here

• The Grand Theatre in London is mounting the beloved musical The Sound of Music, directed by the Grand’s artistic director, Rachel Peake, until Dec. 29 — see info here

• Torrent Productions, known for its brilliant take on traditional British panto, is putting on its first production in Odessa, Ontario: Cinderella — A Merry Magical Pantomime, written and directed by Rob Torr, through Dec. 24 — see info here

Perhaps if you’re headed home to visit family and live nearby one of these theatres, you can check out their offerings.

11. Read a good book

Even though the lead-up to the holidays is busy with events, shopping and parties, make sure you take some down time and cozy up with a book on an especially cold day.

Here are a few theatre-related offerings — for you, or for that theatre-lover on your holiday gift list. Psst... there’s a giveaway at the end of the post.

The Wall of Life: Pictures and Stories from This Marvelous Lifetime by Shirley MacLaine

Shirley MacLaine has probably written as many books as she’s had lifetimes. Now, at the age of 90, she’s published a fascinating, intimate book that features more than 150 images from her personal archive — what she calls her “wall of life” — accompanied by reminiscences.

These images range from early childhood snapshots of her childhood in Virginia and her family (including younger brother Warren Beatty) to photos of her during her brief period on Broadway then her move to films, where she would eventually win an Oscar.

MacLaine met and befriended many political figures, too, documented here with great photos with Indira Gandhi, George McGovern (whose presidential bid she campaigned for in 1972), Fidel Castro, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and her best friend of 40 years, Bella Abzug.

Never one to hold back, MacLaine is frank about some of her experiences, stating that on the set of Steel Magnolias, director Herbert Ross could be cruel to Julia Roberts and would occasionally say to Dolly Parton, “Why don’t you take an acting lesson?” Adding to her much-quoted line about her Terms of Endearment co-star, whom she thanked in her Oscar acceptance speech for her “turbulent brilliance,” she writes here simply, “I did not enjoy Debra Winger.”

It’d make a perfect coffee table book. Crown, $48 (Cdn)

An Open-Ended Run

Thanks to my colleague Lynn Slotkin for pointing out this new book by Layne Coleman, the former artistic director of Theatre Passe Muraille and the director, as it turns out, of Madame Minister (reviewed above). His memoir chronicles his life growing up on a farm and being educated in a prairie Bible school, his move to Saskatoon and then Toronto, and his life as a playwright, actor and artistic director. It also covers his life with his wife, the journalist and novelist Carole Corbeil, and how he coped with her tragic early death at 48. Sounds like a must-read for Toronto theatregoers. University of Regina Press, $22.95

Women Writing Musicals

Composers and lyricists like Jeanine Tesori, Lynn Ahrens and Canada’s own Irene Sankoff and Britta Johnson have lots of musical credits on their resumes. But the contribution of women to musical theatre has often been overlooked, and theatre historian Jennifer Ashley Tepper sets out to right that in this much-anticipated book telling the stories of women like Clara Driscoll, Micky Grant and Maria Grever. Don’t know who they are? Then read this book. Rowman & Littlefield, $51.95

Cocktails with George and Martha

The influence of Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf is huge. Rouvan Silogix and Rafeh’s play Craze, which closed on the weekend at the Tarragon, obviously drew from its set-up and themes. And next month Canadian Stage is reviving it with two real-life couples: Paul Gross and Martha Burns, and Mac Fyfe and Hailey Gillis. Directed by Brendan Healey, the show is one of the most anticipated productions of the season.

To prepare for that staging, why not pick up Philip Gefter’s book, which looks at the background of the play, the rough production process and eventual triumph on Broadway — the three-act play won the Tony for Best Play but was so divisive the Pulitzer jury didn’t award a prize that year for drama — and the influential, Oscar-winning film starring another real-life couple, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Bloomsbury USA, $42

The Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir

Yes, Kelly Bishop is famous for playing moms on TV and film — Emily Gilmore in The Gilmore Girls and Jennifer Grey’s mom in Dirty Dancing — but for me she’ll always be Sheila, the wise-talking, frank older singer/dancer from A Chorus Line, a part that won her a Tony. (The cast album, which I first discovered at my public library, was the first OBCR I ever bought and owned.)

In her new memoir, Bishop looks back at her six-decade long career and what she’s learned from it all. Gallery Books, $38.99

New Canadian scripts

Too often Canadian plays get one production and then disappear. But remember that they’re often published — for you to read, reread, study and consider for future productions! Everyone wins!

This year’s crop of published plays includes Andrea Scott’s Get That Hope and Vern Thiessen and Yvette Nolan’s adaptation of Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners, both of which premiered at Stratford this year, and Curtis Campbell and Daniel Krolik’s Gay for Pay: The Blake & Clay Plays, both of which premiered at the Toronto Fringe.

Also available are cockroach (曱甴) by Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho), which premiered a while ago at the Tarragon but is so dense and layered it would benefit from reading, and Pamela Mala Sinha’s New, which got a lovely production last year and was nominated for this year's Governor General’s Award for Drama (English).

Speaking of the GGs, this year’s winner, There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death or, The Born-Again Crow, by Caleigh Crow (who co-starred in The Diviners, by the way), was also published. A full production goes up at Buddies in Bad Times in March.

When I interviewed Buddies A.D. ted witzel earlier this year, he mentioned how excited he was to discover the script from a friend in publishing: “It’s sharp, theatrical, original. And while I think [Crow] is Gen Z, it spoke to a kind of millennial malaise that I feel.”

Find the above plays at your local indie bookstore, or try the publishers themselves: J. Gordon Shillingford and Playwrights Canada Press.

12. Take in a genre show

If, like me, you get a wee bit Grinchy at this time of year and crave some variety in your holiday entertainment, there’s a new counter-programming show debuting this season. Playwright, actor and podcaster Phil Rickaby has written and stars in the ghoulishly-sounding It Sees You When You’re Sleeping, which brings a whole new creepy meaning to the elf on the shelf doll.

Rickaby performs the show, directed by Joey O'Dael, at the Red Sandcastle Theatre, 922 Queen East, home of lots of frightfully good shows, Dec. 19 to 22. NOTE: THIS IS NOT FOR CHILDREN! See info here

**

Book giveaway!

Congratulations on making it until the end of this marathon post! As a reward, I’m giving away three copies of Shirley MacLaine’s just-published book, The Wall of Life: Pictures from This Marvelous Lifetime, courtesy of Penguin Random House Canada.

To win one, you must: have a mailing address in Canada; subscribe to this newsletter (whether free or paid); correctly enter the following question: Who was MacLaine the understudy for in Broadway’s The Pajama Game?

Deadline for entries is Wednesday, December 18, at 6 pm ET. Three winners will be randomly chosen from among the correct answers and notified the following day. Please send answers to SoSumiContact@gmail.com, with Shirley MacLaine Book Contest in the subject heading.

Coming soon: my Top 10 Toronto theatre lists! Fun!