Kevin Drew and (Leslie) Feist during the Toronto concert that is at the heart of this heart-warming film.
This Movie is Broken: Canadian Filmmaker Bruce McDonald’s Love Letter to a Canadian Band and City
Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald’s This Movie is Broken is an affectionate concert film-cum-romance – think Gimme Shelter meets Once – that somehow nestles a fictional love story into real-life concert footage of an outdoor, summer ’09 Toronto concert by that city’s Broken Social Scene. It’s a neat trick, and director Mr. McDonald (The Tracey Fragments, Pontypool) works wonders with this wholly originaly hybrid, interspersing a surprising, spontaneous-seeming love story scripted by Don McKellar into footage of a memorable concert by an internationally renowned Toronto band working at the height of its powers.
The film is essentially a tribute to their city (Mr. McDonald and Mr. McKellar both live in Toronto) – slightly ironic since this outdoor, waterfront concert took place in the midst of a messy garbage strike that plagued Toronto for some weeks last summer. Indeed, for anyone considering a visit to the city, this film will not deter them: in it “Toronto the Good” comes off as great, a vibrant, lakeside, cosmopolite urban environment that not only makes beautiful music but inspires warmth, spontaneity, and romance seemingly out of thin – if garbage-spiked – air.
This lovely, unassuming film – shot over the course of 24 hours – had its New York premiere, a one-time screening, in June, and its producers are currently seeking stateside distribution.
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He Got Life: Canadian Kyle Riabko Charms as Claude in Broadway’s Hair
As the successful Broadway revival of classic rock-musical Hair wound down its run last month, Canadian Kyle Riabko continued his own Broadway run – the Saskatchewan native was recently seen in the role of Melchior in Spring Awakening – portraying the show’s Claude Bukowski with an infectious verve, one that added weight to the character’s ultimately tragic end in Vietnam.
Sprung from Joseph Papp’s Public Theater in New York in 1967, Hair’s anti-Vietnam war message and stirring rock score (with lyrics and book by the show’s original lead actors, Jim Rado and Gerome Ragni, and music by Canadian Galt MacDermot) resonated with theatergoers and pop radio listeners around the globe. Still one of the world’s most produced musicals, Hair proved itself yet again during the recently shuttered revival winning the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and running for 18 months. (The original Broadway production ran four years, from 1968 to 1972, after its initial transfer from the Public Theater.)
Mr. Riabko got his chance at Claude after the revival’s original cast pulled up stakes for the West End in London, where the show is currently running, and he never looked back. Bringing stage smarts developed during years on the road as a major label singer-songwriter and a seemingly innate sense of Claude’s double-edged world view (at once knowing and innocent), Mr. Riabko electrified Al Hirschfeld Theatre audiences with a thrilling “I Got Life” (indeed he does), the doomed character’s Act I mission statement. And on Claude’s other big number, the melancholy “Where Do I Go,” which ends Act I and incorporates the famous full-cast nude scene, Mr. Riabko brought chilling introspection to the song, effectively foreshadowing Claude’s fate in Vietnam (“Is there an answer / In their sweet faces / That tells me why I live and die?”)
Director Diane Paulus’s production has now closed in New York, although its West End incarnation – featuring Hamilton, Ontario, native Caissie Levy in a remarkable performance as NYU student protestor Sheila – continues, and a National Tour of the US is soon to start (casting for the tour will be announced soon).
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Natalie MacMaster, Yours Truly
Yours Truly, the latest recording from Cape Breton fiddling sensation Natalie MacMaster (who surely qualifies as one of Canada’s most precious natural resources), in many ways represents the pinnacle of this superlative performer’s career to date.
Ms. MacMaster, known for her scintillating live performances and on-stage ease, consistently translates that live energy to her recordings, and Yours Truly is no exception. Seamlessly blending the traditional music of Cape Breton – where fiddling is a quasi-religion – with a range of popular styles (including rock, blues, and soulful balladry), Ms. MacMaster enhances her reputation as a purist’s non-purist.
From the album opener “Volcanic Jig,” which blissfully fulfills the promise of its title (who could resist a jig that rocks this hard?) to the stunning, hymn-like take on “Danny Boy” (with its deeply moving vocal from ex-Doobie Brother Michael McDonald), this is an album that never ceases to surprise in its variety, while somehow hanging together as a cohesive whole. Other highlights include: the take-no-prisoners rock-trad hybrid “Matt & Nat’s,” which brings to mind stomp- (not step-) dancing; “NPG,” a bagpipe-fueled reel that features piper Matt MacIsaac in glorious form; and “Farewell to Peter,” a beautiful tribute to the late Peter Jennings (a Toronto native) that features a mournful performance from Ms. MacMaster, one marked by long melodic lines and a bone-deep melody that pulls at the heart like a memory of home.
Ms. MacMaster is a masterful musician and composer whose recordings consistently explore the full spectrum of popular and traditional styles, sometimes in the space of one recorded track. Hers is not merely a “kitchen party:” in this salt-sprayed musical house, Natalie MacMaster explores every room.
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Carol Welsman’s Peggy Lee Tribute at Dizzy’s in New York
Canadian jazz singer and pianist Carol Welsman’s recent two-show evening at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s club overlooking Columbus Circle and Central Park was a sumptuous evening of Great American Songbook fare performed in tribute to great American songbird Peggy Lee.
Ms. Welsman’s 2009 recorded tribute to Ms. Lee, I Like Men, has attracted rave reviews (USA Today ranked it as the number-four album of the year) and numerous award nominations (including from the Juno Awards – Canada’s Grammy equivalent – and the American Smooth Jazz Awards). The recording is by turns playful and poignant, and its spirit was magnificently captured by Ms. Welsman at the Dizzy’s shows.
A statuesque beauty and veteran performer, Ms. Welsman has no qualms about turning up the heat, and did just that on a slinky “Fever” and her album’s title track, the swinging confessional, “I Like Men.” And her respectful take on Jerome Kern’s “The Folks Who Live on the Hill” was nuanced and touching. Throughout, Ms. Welsman tackled Peggy Lee’s recorded legacy by drawing on her own strengths – an appealingly husky voice, swinging time, and a light touch on the keyboard – wisely avoiding imitation.
This wonderful, evening-long tip of the hat was fitting tribute to Peggy Lee, and Ms. Welsman’s Lincoln Center stand will surely not be her last.
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