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September 4, 2009
A showcase of young talent
This year's Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! musical delights audiences.
BASYA LAYE
Celebrating 15 years of musical theatre, Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! marked its 30th performance on Aug. 27, at the Norman Rothstein Theatre, in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.
The brainchild of lawyer by day and composer and theatre impresario by night Perry Ehrlich, Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! offers children and teens in Vancouver two summer workshop sessions of intensive musical theatre training. The program has earned a reputation for producing and nurturing young talent and several young up-and-coming Vancouver actors have participated in the program over the years.
Last week's second session performance of Wild Wild West Side Story delighted the audience with its rousing song and dance numbers and comedic plotline. The original script was written by Ehrlich and David Hudgins and the show's title song was written by Joan Beckow.
The story revolves around a greedy New York family whose dead uncle leaves a cryptic message in his will, informing his family that his entire estate will go to the "best," while the rest will inherit nothing. Thus begins an adventure to a small town in Wyoming, where the late uncle owned and operated a saloon. City-folk and country-folk come together, providing ample opportunity for suspicions, new friendships, slapstick, competition and, not incidentally, a great deal of song and dance.
Clocking in at two hours and more than 30 song and dance numbers, Wild Wild West Side Story was a high-energy showcase of talent and hard work. Costumes and sets were fantastic and the band, including Wendy Bross Stuart and Lily Ling on keyboards and Samuel Cartwright on drums, provided impeccable musical accompaniment.
Overall, the quality of the acting, singing and dancing was high – participants audition for a space in the sought-after program, but there were a few standout performances, which included a small handful of young actors who have recently found success in productions around the city. Unfortunately, several of the performers had trouble with vocal projection and the audience had to strain at times to follow the lyrics and dialogue, but, overall, the young cast members shined in this second session production.
At the end of the show the audience was treated to the entire cast of 75 coming together to sing "Somewhere" from West Side Story and "We Can Work it Out" by the Beatles, as an ode to world peace and youthful optimism. Ehrlich came on stage to publicly thank his faculty, the young performers and several supporters and alumni in the audience. The cast closed out the show with an encore performance that showed innovative choreography. The exuberance felt by the cast was evident as they performed their finale.
Ehrilch serves as the program's director and he enlists various talents from the local theatre world as faculty, including Bross Stuart and Ling (singing), Chris McGregor and Josh Epstein (acting), Isabelle Maheux, Jason Franco, Jeff Dimitriou and Valerie Easton (dancing) and Jay Havens (costumes).
Basya Laye is a freelance writer living in Vancouver.
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