Fringe Fare, Festival Fever and Farmyard Fun

by Sarah B. Hood

Who would believe that The Fringe of Toronto is already 15 years old? Running  July 2 to 13, the festival still holds pretty well to the format of 100-plus short plays in a plethora of venues around the Annex neighbourhood. Since The Drowsy Chaperone, the Fringe has increasingly become a Petrie dish for the incubation of original musicals. Case in point: Top Gun! The Musical, which had to extend its June remount at the Factory Theatre.

Then there are Jerome Saibil and Eli Batalion (a.k.a. Foqu‚ Dans La Tˆte Productions), those Montreal boys who brought us last year's creative, intelligent Job, the Hip-Hop Musical. They're  back with a new Fringe show, called JOB II: The Demon of the Eternal Recurrence.

The New York rock opera Sticks and Stones: Two New One Act Plays by Terri Muuss and Athena Reich, arranged by Jonah Speidel and adapted for guitar, bass and drums by John Link, makes connections between violence within families and global conflicts. The first part, titled "Anatomy of a Doll" is about a daughter's struggle with abuse and addiction; the second, "Athena Under Attack", is a reaction to the terrorist attacks of September 11.

Cabaret Sinistre presents the three-person musical La Mort De L'Amour, a disturbing tale of tragic love and murder by "Grosik Stim" (with music and lyrics by Jordan M. Stewart). The show is performed by Stim with Cabaret Sinistre members "Kattrin Totenstill" and "Quin De Gace", whose intriguing careers are documented on the company's website, www.cabaretsinistre.com. Seems that Stim teamed up with mute vocalist Kattrin Totenstill in Berlin in 1896. They then met up with DeGace, a Paris clown, mime, magician and troubadour. (If the show's as inventive as the bios, it's worth the price of admission!)

On that topic, Fringe tickets are $10 (advance) and $8 (door); and there are discounts for five-, ten- and fourteen-show passes. For more information, call The Fringe Hotline at (416) 966-1062 or visit www.fringetoronto.com.

OUT OF TOWN
The wonderful 4th Line Theatre produces site-specific plays about its rural neighbourhood in the barnyard of a former working farm, and in its surrounding woodland and fields near Peterborough. This summer they're presenting two shows with music. The first, Jul 2 to Aug 3 is Cavan Casanova by Robert Winslow with music and lyrics by Susan Newman and Rob Fortin. It's a new show about the 1953 staging of the 1920s operetta The Belle of Barcelona by the Millbrook United Church choir. The second show is a remount of Toronto playwright Leanna Brodie's musical For Home and Country, about the vital Ontario Women's Institute, running from August 6 to 17.

The only other summer premiere seems to be Fingers and Toes, by pianist Logan Medland,  Aug 5 to 9 at the Bluewater Summer Playhouse in Kincardine. However, there are lots of other shows to choose from, like the charming 30s sendup  Dames at Sea at Brockville's St. Lawrence Stage Company July 3 to 26, and the haunting Brecht/Weill collaboration Happy End at the Shaw from Aug 5 to Oct 31.

For complete information about summer theatre festivals, contact the Association of Summer Theatres 'Round Ontario (ASTRO) at 416-408-4556, or visit  www.summertheatre.org. ASTRO members are also repeating last year's successful "Just the Ticket" promotion, which creates theatre travel packages around southern Ontario. To find out more, call 1-800-ONTARIO or visit www.justtheticket.ca.

MEGAMUSICAL UPDATE
The theatre landscape in town is still undergoing SARS-tectonic plate shifts. Disney's The Lion King at the Princess of Wales will  close Sept 28. Mamma Mia! at the Royal Alexandra takes a summer hiatus as of July 1. This means the Mirvishes will have three September openings: Mamma Mia! resumes Sept 30; Chicago is coming to the Canon Theatre Sept 23 to Oct 19, and Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt's durable Two Pianos, Four Hands - now dubbed 2P4H - takes over the Elgin Theatre from Sept 18 to Oct 5.

Meanwhile, the touring production of Grease with Frankie Avalon (not a Mirvish show) will start its Hummingbird Centre run one day earlier than originally planned. It's now slated to run from July 15 to 20.

Happy holidays to Whole Note readers until we return in the fall!

Watch for Sarah B. Hood's upcoming book Toronto: The Unknown City, co-written with Howard Akler, to be released on the weekend of Word on the Street in late September.