[crashman]

from Campbell Webster - Charleottetown P.E.I. :
Campbell just sent this to me:

>>> LIGHTFOOT REVIEW
>>>
>>> You know that awful feeling where you find yourself at a movie, play,
>>> speech etc. and you can't figure out the what the fuddle-duddle is
>>> going on? Secretely you're thinking, "Am I the only stupid person in
>>> this room?" or "Should I be taking more Ginko Bilboa?"
>>>
>>> I had that feeling at the Confed Centre's production of If You Could
>>> Read my Mind, the Music of Gordon Lightfoot. The problem is my answer
>>> to the question in the title is, "No, actually, I can't read your
>>> mind." - in this case the minds of the shows co-creators, Michael
>>> Lewis MacLennan and Duncan McIntosh.
>>>
>>> The sweet wind that is blowing through the Confed Centre these days
>>> is in part powered by a willingness to take chances, and expand the
>>> Centre's artistic horizons. Such an approach necessarily means that
>>> you blow right past your audience on occassion, a challenge that the
>>> Lightfoot show, at least now, is facing.
>>>
>>> At the show's core is a beautiful concept that is not easily devined
>>> by the audience: The five performers are given the character names,
>>> The Lover, The Philosopher, The Mother, The Creator, and The
>>> Troubador. These names are so chosen to indicate distinct thematatic
>>> groupings of Lightfoot's songs - and each of the actors performs songs
>>> consistent with their character name. But you wouldn't know it, even
>>> after reading the program, unless you had it explained to you.
>>>
>>> Also hard to understand are the montages, dances, interplay etc. that
>>> the performers engage in while performing 27 of Lightfoot best
>>> material. MacLennan and MacIntosh are reaching for something here,
>>> finding stage dramas, theatrical narrative where none existed in the
>>> first place. And while much of Lightfoot's work is based on story,
>>> this particular construct does not quite take, at least overtly. At
>>> present the story suggested by the five musicians onstage
>>> relationships only works, at best, on an intuitive level.
>>>
>>> This production could get a lot more bang for its creative buck if
>>> the audience was somehow let in on the conceptual core of the show.
>>> Perhaps supplementary Director's Notes is the answer - much as the
>>> storyline of opera is either previously known or supplied to audience
>>> members in their programs.
>>>
>>> In a way, none of this really matters - if all you want is great
>>> performances of great songs. Here Lightfoot works wonderfully, with
>>> the five musicians/singers performing the Lightfoot tunes with gently
>>> offered acoustic sounds and inventive, sometimes startling
>>> arrangements. "Sundown" is a once such number, where earthy
>>> percussion, and a crackling blend of harmonies and instruments brings
>>> a communal exuberance to the house.
>>>
>>> For this reason, this show is very enjoyable; and if you are a
>>> Lightfoot fan, you will likely love this show. The directorial
>>> choices around story and character may yet add even more to this
>>> show. For now, though, you'll need to bring a crystal ball with you.
>>> Or read this review - and realize you're not as dumb as you think


"Char" <lightfootfan@rogers.com> wrote in message
news:LVHV8.1970$rdy.1781@news01.bloor.is.net.cable .rogers.com...
> from the Toronto Star - Sid Adilman
>
> Not good to be Charlottetown bound
> Festival offers weak Lightfoot tribute and Anne that needs work
> By Sid Adilman
>
>
> CHARLOTTETOWN EVERYTHING OLD is new again at this year's
Charlottetown
> Festival.
>
> Gordon Lightfoot, Anne of Green Gables and World War I entertainment
> troupe The Dumbells are on the bill - but none of them in person.
>
> If You Could Read My Mind: The Music Of Gordon Lightfoot, the
> festival's only new show of the season, is a 110-minute review of 28 of
his
> songs performed by a five-person cast who all play guitars, often at the
> same time. It runs at the festival's cabaret theatre all summer.
>
> It's very clever of Duncan McIntosh, the festival's new artistic
> director, to fashion a show from the lyrics and music of Canada's premiere
> contemporary-era songwriter.
>
> This is the first time Gordon Lightfoot's work has been put on a
> theatre stage, but if you are going to do him, you either take your cue
from
> his lyrics and present the wistful, poignant, world-weary troubadour who
> regrets lost loves and admits that he has seen better days and hopes they
> will come again.
>
> Or you could re-interpret well-travelled Lightfoot for a new
> generation and plumb new meanings.
>
> McIntosh and show's co-creator, Michael Lewis Maclennan, have
managed
> the unimaginable, considering this most gifted songwriter.
>
> They have assembled a lineup of songs (no dialogue) that are sung
> shrill and rushed, most of them without emotion and often drowned out by
the
> plunking guitars. Almost every song ("Alberta Bound" and "Sundown" to cite
> just two of them) sound the same and are performed without character. Only
a
> few numbers, such as "Early Morning Rain" and "If You Could Read My Mind,"
> work because they are done as imperfect and close imitations of
Lightfoot's
> own renditions.
>
> The cast seems not to have been chosen at all for their singing
> ability. And I always wonder, with shows like this, why the boys are cuter
> than the girls.
>
> If there is a stage show to be created from Lightfoot's songs, this
is
> not it.
>
>
>
>