I just picked up my mail and was excited to see that the Spring edition of Theatre Alberta’s All Stages Magazine is all about musical theatre, and high time, too. (I may be a musical theatre snob, but I don’t hold a candle to the straight-play types who like to scoff at musical theatre as being too fluffy). I haven’t read it yet (I’m supposed to be dedicating this week to working on songs for No Ordinary Tulip – the musical I’m currently writing with Saskatchewan playwright David Sealy – in preparation for a workshop in Regina in a couple of weeks) but it looks great. It includes, among other articles:
- A profile of Calgary’s Allison Lynch (seen in Forte Musical Theatre’s 2011 production of Twisted and ATP’s recent production of Ash Rizin, and performing in Vertigo Mystery Theatre’s upcoming Sweeney Todd),
- Calgary-based Onalea Gilbertson’s story of her experience at the New York Musical Theatre Festival with her musical Blanche: The Bittersweet Life of a Wild Prairie Dame
- A panel discussion with four prominent Alberta Musical Theatre Composers including Forte Musical Theatre’s Joe Slabe (Austentatious! and Jeremy de Bergerac) and Calgary-based playwright and composer David Rhymer (Ilsa Queen of the Nazi Love Camp, An Eye for an Eye, Why Freud Fainted),
- A discussion with Patrick Clark about the technical design challenges of Theatre Calgary’s upcoming production of CATS (which editor David van Belle describes as having been “released by Andrew Lloyd Webber from its franchise-design gulag” (so maybe we’ll see something a little different this time?).
- An opinion piece by Calgary singer/songwriter Kris Demeanor (Twisted, Buzz Job! The True Story of Cal Cavendish) on the central role of music in innovative musical theatre creation
To get a copy, join Theatre Alberta (or pay up your delinquent membership dues like I did recently – only $15 if you’re already an Alberta Playwrights Network member) or check out the inaugural on-line edition at http://www.theatrealberta.com/all-stages/ including samples of music from the composers mentioned.
