"Seussical: The Musical" by Lynn Ahrens (Book and Lyrics) and Stephen Flaherty
(Music) Directed by Carole Higgins; Music Director Steven Greenfield
The Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island Carousel Theatre
November 30 to January 5.
Vancouver, BC: Saturday, December 1st, was not shaping up to be one of my favorite days. Despite driving in Vancouver for many more years than I drove in Cape Town I still don�t feel comfortable taking my precious little Audi out in snow. I had a ticket to Seussical on Granville Island for the evening so my chionophobic anxiety was high. Drive and risk my car sliding all over the icy roads, or walk to the Aquabus at Hornby, and risk me slipping on icy pavements: good bye dancing!
Time for comfort food - so I thought I would heat up the contents of one of the gourmet, low fat, no-preservative, vegetable soups that I stock in my pantry, so I will have something to eat when:the big one hits. (I dutifully read the emergency preparedness articles about self-reliance in emergencies and long ago took as my own the Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared.) I set the microwave to auto reheat: pressed 2 for soup: and the phone rang. A few minutes later I returned to the kitchen to find that my pristine microwave oven was now a brightly coloured Pollock-like riot of orange (carrots) and green (herbs) and brown (spices? Who knows?).
A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O'Neill
Directed by Jack Paterson
Jericho Arts Centre
November 16 - December 9, 2007
Vancouver, BC: It is a week since I saw this play and I have had great difficulty in coalescing my reactions into a coherent form. So armed with the very real excuses of a schedule crowded with deadlines and electronic crises such as crashed computers, I did what I do best - procrastinate. Ironically, what jolted me into sitting down at my newly repaired computer to finish these thoughts was my going last night to the opening of Seussical: The Musical. Of the Seuss titles, the one I love the best is Oh, the Thinks You Can Think.� Because after all the capacity to think is what distinguishes humans from other species. So here are my "thinks" on Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten," at the JAC. <!--break-->
Let me say up front that I thought this was an interesting production with strong performances by Michael Kopsa as the rascally Phil Hogan and Corina Akeson as Josie, his daughter. Michael Wasko plays James Tyrone, an educated, alcoholic wastrel with whom Josie is in love.
O'Neill sets this play in 1923 rural Connecticut. Phil Hogan is a conniving, amoral tenant farmer, whose sons have escaped to the city, leaving the farm to be managed by Phil and Josie. The youngest son Mike (Adam Bergquist), is about to make his own escape. James Tyrone is the farm owner and their landlord. He is about to receive an inheritance from his dead mother. T. Stedman Harder (Troy Anthony Young) is a wealthy neighbor who has no experience or techniques to deal with the crude, conniving Phil Hogan.
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