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Culture Stage

Stage Scenes

Rating: NNNNN


Forum flies

It’s hard to know who’s having more fun at the Ryerson Theatre , the cast or the audience. Ryerson Theatre School’s graduating class’s production of the musical A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum is full of delightful performances. It doesn’t hurt that the book, by Burt Shevelove and M.A.S.H.’s Larry Gelbart , is expertly constructed from vaudeville-based routines with music and lyrics by the then young Stephen Sondheim . Director Ted Dykstra understands that the word silly could have been invented for the show. Philippa Domville ‘s choreography and Glenn Davidson ‘s handsome set are also production pluses.

There’s some real talent onstage, including Peter Katz as the wily slave Pseudolus – he has a wardrobe malfunction in the first minutes of the show – Daniel Jade Levia and Kathy Quayle as his henpecked master and commanding mistress, Ryan Tilley and Chantal Elie as clever-as-mud ingenues, Ryan Ward ‘s dim-witted soldier and Lenny Silvini as streetwise whoremaster Marcus Lycus, complete with nervous, sleazy giggle.

The audience loves Tim Doiron ‘s ultra-fey slave Hysterium, but we think he’s looking for laughs at the expense of the material, which never once even nods in the direction of subtlety. See Continuing, page 67, for details.

Substantial shadows

Ever wonder how a transit worker escapes from the boredom of repetitive work? A quartet of music and theatre artists give melody to one scenario. Puppeteers David Powell (Puppetmongers) and Mark Keetch (Clay & Paper Theatre) work with composers Daria D. Kwiatkowska and Scott Wilson on Shuttle Dreams , the tale of a subway driver who escapes from work’s monotony into fantasy. They use an unusual blend of components – shadow puppets, amplified kitchen gadgets, computers and a piano. See Openings, this page, for details.

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