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Culture Theatre

Anne of Green Gables

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by Don Harron and Norman Campbell (DanCap/Confederation Centre of the Arts). At the Elgin (189 Yonge). To May 24. $25-$85. 416-644-3665, dancaptickets.com. See ­listing. Rating: NNN


Anne Of Green Gables is surely one of the contenders for greatest Canadian musical. (What else is there? Drowsy? Billy Bishop?) This production, from the Charlottetown Festival, where it’s played for 44 consecutive years, explains why it’s endured.

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Anne-with-an-E Shirley’s (Amy Wallis) story of using smarts and imagination to win over her guardians, get the boy and secure an education has a catchy, completely Canuck feel. Look closely and you can see bits of siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert in Michael Healey’s The Drawer Boy.

Norman Campbell’s music is tuneful and genial, Don Harron’s book captures the wit and heart of the L.M. Montgomery classic, and Anne Allan’s direction is brisk and efficient. Most numbers reveal lots about character and further the action, and unlike many long-running shows, there’s no mugging for easy laughs or tears.

As a piece of theatre, however, the show has narrative problems in the second act. There’s just not as much at stake for anyone.

Still, there’s plenty of family-friendly fun and emotion onstage. Wallis makes a vocally and physically nimble Anne, her imaginative riffs believable and never cloying. Sandy Winsby and Janet MacEwen are well paired as the Cuthbert siblings. And it’s fun to see veteran musical theatre artists like Julain Molnar and Charlotte Moore (incidentally, grandchild of one Mavor Moore, who penned additional lyrics for the show) in smaller roles.

Murray Laufer’s storybook set is playful and colourful, and Allan’s choreography is energetic, although there are perhaps one too many dance sequences.

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