I always enjoy being asked if we close down during the summer. What people don’t realize is that it takes an awful lot of planning to come up with a season and much of this happens during the summer months: scheduling, auditions, contracting, etc., etc.
I am very pleased to announce that I have completed casting for The Fantasticks, the opening production of our 48th season, which I am directing and choreographing.
I have chosen a very talented cast; a mix of well-known names, seasoned professionals, and up and coming youths and add Bill Sample as musical director and I am working with a dream team.
One of Canada’s most versatile vocal talents, Steve Maddock, plays the narrator, El Gallo, who creates a world of moonlight and magic, convincing two youngsters that they are embroiled in a melodramatic encounter.
Colin Sheen (Matt) and Bree Grieg (Luisa) play the love-struck youngsters whose love is separated by a wall that their parents, played by Mark Burgess (Hucklebee) and Andy Toth (Bellomy), build to keep them apart, which only serves in bringing them closer together.
It’s fitting that Christopher Gaze, Artistic Director of Bard on the Beach, plays Henry, the old, down on his luck actor that comes out of a trunk along with his side-kick Mortimer, played by Simon Bradbury.
Completing the cast is Canada’s song and dance man, Jeff Hyslop, who, ironically, plays the role that neither sings nor dances. In fact, Hyslop’s character never utters a single word, he is playing The Mute.
This delightful musical is designed by David Roberts (set), Christine Reimer (costumes), Gerald King (lighting) and Lucas Cooper (sound). Caryn Fehr is Stage Manager, Peter Jotkus, Assistant Stage Manager and Silvi Wool, Apprentice Stage Manager.
The musicians are Bill Sample on piano, Laurence Mollerup on bass, and Albertina Chan playing the harp.
Since its opening in May 1960, The Fantasticks has become the longest running production of any kind in the history of American theatre. It is a simple but beautiful story of the quintessential celebration of love in all its gorgeous simplicity and heartbreaking complexity.
The Fantasticks plays from Oct. 2-23 at the Vancouver Playhouse. Tickets are $32-$59. Call our Box Office at 604 873 3311, or online at vancouverplayhouse.com.
Now I have to finish casting Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter.
Max
The Vancouver theatre summer season comes to an end with a very special show. Ryan Beil and David Bloom both won Jessie Awards in June; fittingly they are now working together on a labour of love, five years in the dreaming: David Mamet’s melancholy comedy 