conspicuous consumption getting conspicuous onstage

#Conspicuous consumption getting conspicuous onstage professional#

The one show that wasn’t cancelled was the world premiere of an amazing musical called Super School, written by Dan Abrahamson and Sarah Mucek.

What have you been doing to keep yourself busy during this time? But Mervon has postponed Follies one year and we will be doing it in 2021, God and the medical profession willing. The Stratford projects, I’m assuming, are gone for good. And after all that, I was going to go to Koerner Hall, thanks to Mervon Mehta, and direct a production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies In Concert, starring Eric McCormack, Chilina Kennedy, Cynthia Dale, Thom Allison, Jackie Richardson, Sheila McCarthy, Ben Heppner and many more….along with a 26 piece orchestra conducted by Paul Sportelli.ĭeep sigh as I let all of those go. I was joking early in March that I had just turned 70 and was about to embark on the best 7 months of my career! I had four amazing projects at Stratford: a Kander and Ebb cabaret called Only Love that I had created for Vanessa Sears and Gabe Antonacci, a late night revival of the iconic comedy revue, Beyond the Fringe, a staged concert of the forgotten musical, High Spirits, which had an all-star cast and - best of all – a celebratory gala to mark the opening of the new Tom Patterson Theatre which would pay tribute to the productions and artists who had graced the original venue. Were you in preparation, rehearsals, or any planning stages of productions before everything was shut down? What has become of those projects? Will they see the light of day anytime soon?

#Conspicuous consumption getting conspicuous onstage professional#

I’ve had a great 48 year career in the business, so I have nothing to complain about, but I think of the personal and professional losses of the casts of potentially thrilling shows like Soulpepper’s The Seagull, Talk Is Free Theatre’s Sweeney Todd, Stratford’s Hamlet, Shaw’s Mahabarata, the Crows/Musical Stage collaboration on Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 and so many more that my heart is well and truly broken. I’ve been the most hurt by what’s happened to my colleagues, especially the younger ones. But despite all of that we have stayed well and surprisingly happy.Īs an artist within the performing arts community, what has been the most difficult and challenging for you professionally and personally? And my daughter Kat, who worked in event planning, saw 10 months of work vanish overnight, which left her all at sea. He’s having trouble coping without those anchors. My son Michael lost his two part time jobs as well as his three-day-a-week involvement with the LINKS program at Variety Village. My wife Pamela decided finally to quit her job as Board Secretary at the National Ballet of Canada and is enjoying that freedom tremendously. Like everyone, we’ve had our ups and downs. How have you been faring? How has your immediate family been doing during these last six months? I hope it will be a better one: free from systemic racism, conspicuous consumption and a lifestyle that has come to confuse motion with movement. The world we left in March of 2020 is gone forever. Anyone who thinks we’ll all bounce back like rubber balls is crazy. But I secretly feel that our world has changed forever. I think we might be back to normal – whatever that means – in about a year from now. Initially I thought it would be over for North America in a month or two. I always knew this was going to be a long haul. How are you feeling about this? Will we ever emerge to some new way of living in your opinion? It has been an exceptionally long five months since we’ve all been in isolation, and now it appears the numbers are edging upward again. Thank you, Richard, for our email conversation: Now that I know Richard will direct an upcoming concert production of ‘Follies’ since it has been postponed, I do not want to miss that one especially when you see the cast he names in one of his answers. I also had the opportunity to see Richard’s direction of ‘Four Chords and a Gun’ (Gabba Gabba Hey) and loved it for its bleeding rawness about the Ramones. Kathy said to get in touch with Richard for an interview, and I was most thankful and pleased when he agreed to answer the questions via email. My friend, Kathy Knight, told me that Richard was out for a walk and happened upon the porch side concert in which she was performing. I had interviewed Lynn earlier this season. It was reading the many reviews of now retired Toronto Star theatre critic Richard Ouzounian and theatre critic Lynn Slotkin (of The Slotkin Letter) which led me to enter the world of professional theatre reviewing, and I am gratefully taking this opportunity to thank both of them publicly.