Nothing beats a marching band! The Music Man continues at GREC

May 07, 2015

Hats off to the close to 60-member cast and crew of The Music Man, who remounted and brought to life one of the all-time musical favorites from the Broadway repertoire.

The play is being performed at Granite Ridge Education Centre in Sharbot Lake and Saturday night’s performance was a memorable one. The two leading players, Tim White as the lovable con man, Harold Hill, and Virginia Beckett as the prim and proper Madam Marion were stellar. Both demonstrated their triple-treat talents with White nailing the physical comedy, his countless lines and most challenging of all, the mighty mouthfuls of songs lyrics, as in “Trouble in River City”, for example.

Leading lady Beckett's experience as a singer made her mesmerizing and a delight to watch as she delivered her numerous show-stoppers including “My White Knight”, “Till There Was You” and more. Witnessing her character’s hardness soften under Harold's spell was also a delight.

On all counts this is not an easy play and instrumentally speaking it was the six-member orchestra under the direction of John McDougall that provided the glue that allowed so many vocal talents to shine. The impressive barbershop quartet with singers Ken Fisher, John Inglis, Tim Holmes and Allan Brown no doubt put in countless hours to get their challenging harmonies just right. Word play and physical comedy were a big part of this show and Paul Gosse's “phraseology” as Mayor Shinn got many big laughs, as did his wife Eulalie Shinn, played to great comic effect by Roseanna Redmond whose “fountain dance” antics as Ms. Liberty were a comedic highlight.

Janina Fisher as Marion’s sometimes meddling mom and Brian Robertson as Hill's confidant, Marcellus, both pulled off their supporting roles to great aplomb, as did Sydney Drew as Amaryllis. Everyone loves a loveable con man and while Harold sets out to swindle the folk of River City, he cannot help but simultaneously bring out the goodness in them. Hill helps turn bad boy Tommy Djilas (played by NFLT veteran Nic Alarcon) into the fine young man that Vaneeta Shinn (played by Gillian Hoffman) plainly sees. Congrats to Logan Cowdy in his first talking and singing role. He more than came out of his shell in the role thanks to Hill and nailed his solo, “Gary Indiana”, with his character’s lisp intact to boot.

The show was beautiful to look at with the quaint detailed set painted in pleasing earth tones, with neat and tidy era typography naming its prime places and topped off with an big American flag. The costumes were beyond exceptional, cotton laced long skirts, lacy aprons and gorgeous head gear for the gals; suspenders, caps and boots for the males with the youngsters looking especially cute. Charlotte Hilder, who played Gracie Shinn, informed me that she donned the same lacy blouse that Pam Giroux wore in the 1981 production.

Perhaps what was best about this production was its introduction of a plethora of newbies to the NFLT stage. These cast members of all ages formed the lively, colourful chorus of the show and included youngsters Joey Beckett, Amaya Silva, Rylee Beattie, Bobbie-Sue and Tristan Cowen, and the not as young Frank and Suzanne Gallagher, Ian Whillans and Betty-Anne Blyth, Nancy Hilder, Rudy Hollywood, Carol Raymo, and Linda Bush.

Of course a show cannot go on without the help of many unseen hands and minds behind the scenes, who no doubt had their work cut out for them in this huge production.

The show continues this weekend, on Fri. & Sat. March 8 & 9 at 7pm, finishing off with a 2pm matinee on May 10. Tickets are $14 for adults, $10 for children and are available at Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by calling Nina Jenkins at 613-279-2945. Don’t miss it!

Photos-21486 & 21489