Other Press

April 8, 1994
| SS

 

     

(L-R:) Nyee Marcoux-Pena,
Tom Deasey, and Moya
O'Connell in Malaspina
production of City of Angels

©

 

In all, director Tony Bancroft
eeled in quite a big catch in this
how. It could have been a disas-
er. If he didn’t get just the right
eel, just the right mood, off the top,
his show could have been as flat

, well, me singing ‘Eidel Weiss.’
The only real problem I had
ith the show was with the remote
nicrophones. With a live 15-piece
and, sound levels have to be per-
ect. Unfortunately, the band often
owned out the words of the songs.
trangely, I’ve always felt the
vords of the songs were pretty im-
ortant in a musical comedy. I
hean, it’s not like it’s an Italian
pera, right? I wanna know what
he hell they’re singin’.

Anyways, the remote mike lev-
is needed to be turned up, or the
and turned down, or a little of
oth.

This is the second show I've
pen at Malaspina. This production

outreached the level of Our
‘own, which played earlier in the
ear.

Improvement bein' a good

gn, I'm all for seein’ their next
ffering, too. Ss
. ay

David Hudgins (left) and
Dean Paul Gibson, in
Studio 58's She Loves Me

   

   

  

ME LOVES ME

   
         

 

13

 

Da GOLD!

Okee dokee, we’re on to the
middle podium, for the gold medal.
Who’s left? Surprise, surprise, it’s
Langara’s Studio 58 with She
Loves Me.

It isn’t unexpected to see Stu-
dio 58 at the top of this heap. One
of Canada’s premiere acting

schools, it has a small, high-qual-

ity enrollment. Thus, the pieces
they pick to work with need not
encompass a cast of thousands, nor
fulfill the needs of a huge number
of students.

This production was still run-
ning at press time, with its sched-
uled dates spanning March 24 to
April 10.

Also a Broadway musical, She
Loves Me is full of charming, lik-
able characters. The plot is simple,
but effective. Georg Nowack
(played by David Macniven) and
Amalia Balash (Tracey Erin Smith)
are clerks at a parfumerie in 1934
Budapest. They trade jabs at work,
but secretly carry on an intimate
correspondence via a lonely hearts
classified ad. The story is almost
sickly sweet, but the play is filled
with beautiful Broadway songs and
brilliant choreography-driven
dance numbers.

Highlights for me were
Smith’s Ms. Balash, and Marvin
Kaye’s Waiter. Smith was a delight
throughout the performance, with
an energy that she effortlessly
passed on to the audience.

Kaye’s comic turn as a waiter
addicted to the romantic atmo-
sphere in his restaurant was abso-
lutely hilarious. (Just for the record,
he is not a dead red-haired friend
of Bing Crosby, nor is he a dead
black soul singer. It says so in his
bio.)

Director Robert McQueen
has cited She Loves Me as a long-
time dream of his to bring to the
stage. His enthusiasm definitely
caught on, because everyone in-
volved displayed huge energy for
this show. All ‘round, She Loves
Me delivered.

Nit-picking (hey, I’m a
critic...), perhaps the lead charac-
ters could have been a little more...
quirky? (that’s as close to being the
right word as any...) At times, they
seemed way too normal, and nice,
to be searching the classifieds for
that perfect friend. Of course, many
of us in the real world seem that
way, but somebody’s gotta be writ-
ing them...

One of the biggest strengths of
the Studio 58 production is that it
didn’t try to be more than it could
be. Unlike the Douglas and the
Malaspina productions, She Loves
Me never, metaphorically or liter-
ally, tried to hit a note out of its’
rather impressive range.

Congratulations to Studio 58,
and to Douglas and Malaspina, on
a job well done.