TUTS is back on track

After a one-year hiatus, Theatre Under the Stars has returned to Malkin Bowl at Stanley Park for another summer of musical theatre. The long-running Vancouver theatre company was unable to mount any productions in 2006 because of a funding shortage.

In a news release issued in February of this year, TUTS president James Cronk said that the company had been "regrouped and re-energized" over the past year, with support from former cast and crew members and the community at large. "Theatre Under the Stars is a 60-year-old tradition in Vancouver, and has seen countless stars cross its stage," Cronk wrote. "As a board, we have been amazed by the outpouring of affection for TUTS, from our past cast and crew, suppliers and volunteers, to, most significantly, the audience members who have told us how much they missed sitting under the stars in 2006. This outpouring made all of the hard work we did last year to get TUTS back on its feet a bit easier. We were tireless in creating new strategies and opportunities."

Wendy Bross Stuart, who has worked with TUTS over many seasons and is, this year, music director and conductor for the musical Oklahoma!, said that, "It is very important to have a healthy Theatre Under the Stars in Vancouver. This organization gives valuable performance opportunity to up-and-coming talent – on stage, in the orchestra pit, backstage, on the technical side and in the designer realm. And it allows mentorship to happen between the professional and the almost-professional. It allows for professional networking.

"Vancouverites know this product; it has been around for 60 years. People enjoy exposing their children and grandchildren to this type of theatre, just as they were exposed to it. There is a certain 'magic' to Stanley Park as a venue – including the calls of the peacock and the peeping of the baby eagles in the nest overlooking the theatre.

"For audiences, this is the only company that offers a full orchestral accompaniment to its musicals – rather than a quartet or quintet accompaniment replacing the full orchestration. And the size of the cast can be as large as is necessary according to the script. Many professional companies cannot afford to pay the numbers required for a given show."

This year, there is a new entranceway and a variety of refreshments for sale at Malkin Bowl, including beer and wine. There are, however, only two porta-potties, so be prepared for a long line-up at intermission!

– Katharine Hamer

"Bad" kids have good show

Gangs. Theft. Alcohol. Teen pregnancy. Some catchy tunes. It's no wonder that Grease is one of the longest running musicals in Broadway history. And, while the actors in this year's Theatre Under the Stars production look a little clean cut, the show offers a fun evening for the entire family – if mom and dad don't mind explaining some mature subject matter, that is.

While leads Gaelan Beatty, as Danny, and Tracy Neff, as Sandy, do a formidable job as the young lovers separated by their differences – Danny's a greaser and Sandy's "wholesome and pure" – the standout performances come from the supporting cast. Robert Markus, who plays awkward T'Bird gang member Doody, has one of the best voices in the troupe; Louisa O'Keane is wonderful as the slutty Marty, one of the Pink Ladies; Andrew Cohen, as Teen Angel, takes the role Frankie Avalon made famous in the movie version and makes it his own, with great singing and a lot of physical humor; and Nicole Stevens, as the head Pink Lady, Rizzo, gives an emotionally honest rendering of the song "There are Worse Things I Could Do" (than get pregnant accidentally).

The physicality of the whole show is fantastic. Everyone hams it up, making it just campy enough. And the choreography by Alex Pesusich and Kevin Tookey – and its execution, in such numbers as "Born to Hand Jive" – is something to behold. Back flips, splits and other challenging moves are deftly handled by the performers.

The sets are also effective and efficient: one of the schoolyard's brick walls and chainlink fences, when turned around, becomes a bedroom, for example. The two walls and fences, with a set of bleachers in the middle, are the schoolyard. Two sets of lockers with framed pictures above them evoke the school hallways.
Unfortunately, the lighting causes some problems in a couple of scenes. In one, the stage lights reflect off the framed photos and distract from the acting. In another, the headlights of the T'Birds soon-to-be-refurbished (with stolen parts) car are turned on and then left on during "Grease Lightnin,'" with a literally blinding effect. The audience directly in front of the car, even rows back from the stage, misses seeing that whole song and dance number.

But, on the whole, Grease is "the word," to play on one of the show's song titles: it's energetic and full of strong performances. One can also coin one of the show's lines in recommending it. Frenchy consoles Rizzo, who might be pregnant: "It ain't so bad, Riz. At least you know what you'll be doing after graduation." Well, after seeing Grease, you'll know what you'll be doing: you'll be heading back to your car singing.

– Cynthia Ramsay

Spirited hoedown on stage

Oklahoma! was the first musical created by the now-legendary team of Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II, whose other celebrated works include Showboat and South Pacific. It opened on Broadway in 1943, with choreography by Agnes de Mille and a cast of virtual unknowns – and went on to become a huge hit.

The musical is set in Oklahoma in 1906, and centres around the rivalry between cowboy Curly McLain and farmhand Jud Fry for the attentions of farmgirl Laurey Williams.

Theatre Under the Stars' decision to mount Oklahoma! as one of its musical productions this year was serendipitous, given that this is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the state. Indeed, an official proclamation from Oklahoma governor Brad Henry was read aloud at opening night to a small sea of cowboy hats – including that atop the head of music director and conductor Wendy Bross Stuart.

The fading golden light among the trees of Stanley Park was a natural complement to the pale glow across the farmhouse on stage during the opening number, "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'," performed by recent musical theatre graduate Mat Baker, in the lead role of cowboy Curly.

In fact, Gerald King's lighting, Francesca Albertazzi's set design and Chris Sinosich's costumes were a real highlight of the production. Set changes were performed with the cast all still on stage. "I want all this cleaned up lickety-split," declares Kimberly Page as Aunt Eller, and hey presto, the little house disappears.

"Surrey with the Fringe on Top," another song from the opening act, had performers using yellow parasols for wheels and a carpet held aloft as the "fringe," while the opening sequence in Act II featured a red barn, yellow dresses and a turquoise "sky" in a jewel-like combination.

It seemed to take a little while for the cast to settle down, perhaps because it was opening night. Some of the script's built-in chuckling and giggling seemed a tad nervous at the beginning, and there were a few fumbled lines. Nor are southern accents that easy for Canadians to master. Some of the female cast members, too, seemed to be sporting rather too much make-up and over-bright hair.

Visually, the famous ballet dream sequence at the end of Act I is stunning, with a pink mist over the forest, strutting, black-shirted men and burlesque-clad women. Jayme Armstrong, as Laurey, came into her own here, too, expressing emotional turmoil without ever saying a word. But the dancing ... ouch! This is community theatre, and no one is expecting Evelyn Hart. If you're going to perform "ballet," however, you have to at least try to point your feet a little, not clomp leadenly around the stage.

Overall, Armstrong possessed strong acting ability, particularly in the scene in Act II where she has to toughen up and defend herself against Jud, but her voice seems very operatic, even shrill, at times. Baker, appearing at TUTS for the first time this year, held his own with a solid voice and a genuine aw-shucks presence – but the real stars of the show were secondary characters.

By far the strongest voice and characterization of the night belonged to Capilano College musical theatre instructor Kevin Michael Cripps. As downtrodden farmhand Jud, Cripps balanced a sense of menace with gruff bafflement and a tone that reflected genuine sadness – especially in "Poor Jud is Daid," where he has a strong interplay with Baker.

Studio 58 acting student Melissa Oei charmed the audience with her portrayal of ditsy farmgirl Ado Annie. Channelling her inner Paris Hilton, Oei expertly captured her character's endearingly giddy persona. She was also among the stronger dancers in the cast.

Ryan Egan had a very dodgy Middle Eastern accent but was nonetheless uproariously funny as the devious peddlar, Ali Hakim, who narrowly escapes nuptials with Ado Annie only to find himself in the clutches of an even dippier dame later in the show.

The real joy came in the finale, when the entire cast came together to perform the title song, which happens to be Oklahoma's state anthem. Its lyrics, applauded loudly by the audience, also echo our final thoughts about this show: "And when we say – Yeeow! A-yip-i-oo-ee ay! We're only sayin' you're doin' fine, Oklahoma! Oklahoma – OK."

– Katharine Hamer

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