Bard to Broadway is back with a roster of fun, comedic shows for its month-and-a-half of summer theatre, with tickets now on sale.
This year has the company bringing back the toe-tapping musical The Drowsy Chaperone, contemporary relationship comedy Looking, fast-paced farce Moon Over Buffalo and their teen musical theatre production, Guys and Dolls Jr.
After speaking with the directors for those first three, this season seems ready to bring on the ’20s Broadway nostalgia, show off actors falling over each other for fame, and provide a funny but heartfelt look into the search for love in middle-age.
Susan Bradshaw is making her Bard to Broadway directorial debut with The Drowsy Chaperone. Nonetheless, it’s a musical she has a long history with, she said. Having performed it in Qualicum Beach and directed it in Courtenay, Bradshaw is having her third go-around, this time as director/actor.
The musical centres around a narrator - Man in Chair - who’s “a somewhat lonely little guy in his apartment in New York, but he loves musicals,” said Bradshaw. “And so he starts to talk about his favourite musical, The Drowsy Chaperone.”
Though Bradshaw can relate to Man in Chair’s zeal, that’s not the role she’ll be undertaking. “
“I grew up on musicals,” she said. “I can pretty much list you every MGM musical that was ever made.”
The Drowsy Chaperone proved a hit when Bard to Broadway did the show several years ago, said Bradshaw, adding she’s excited for its return. She’s directed shows for Rainbow Youth Theatre, Courtenay Little Theatre and Three Legged Dog Productions.
Moon Over Buffalo takes the audience off of Broadway to show what actors will do to get into film, said director Gary Brown.
Created by American farce writer Ken Ludwig, Moon Over Buffalo follows George and Charlotte Hay - two former Broadway actors who find themselves performing in second-rate theatres with a repertory company. They nonetheless hope to gain a career in film, and everything that can possibly go wrong does when a film director comes to their show in the hopes of finding two leads for his latest movie, said Brown.
“The audience is actually going to see three plays in one” with this performance, Brown said: bits of the two plays that the Hays are performing, Cyrano to Bergerac and Private Lives, as well as Moon Over Buffalo itself.
“So you never know what’s going on,” said Brown. “Like, what show is this from? Why are they in different costumes? What’s going on here? I think it’s going to keep the audience laughing because it’s just so crazy.”
Brown has directed various shows locally as well as in Saskatchewan where he used to live, and now directs a show every couple of years for Bard to Broadway.
The third show is a contemporary piece by Canadian playwright Norm Foster and focuses on four middle-aged people, said director Eileen Butts. “They are all single and they are all looking for love,” she said with a smile.
Two of the four characters set up blind dates, but, each of them feeling a bit uncomfortable about the whole thing, they both bring along a friend.
“We have various dilemmas and complications that arise as a result of the blind dates and what happens afterwards,” said Butts. “It’s quite delightful.”
But it’s not all fluff, she cautioned.
“I think the connection that we are all seeking with others is very valid, and at given moments in the play, each of the characters sort of reveals a little bit more about their inner heart and what they are looking for, hence the title of the play,” Butts said. “So I’m looking forward to those relationships developing and seeing them blossom on stage.”
Butts has been directing since the late ’80s, she said, and has worked with ECHO Players as well as Bard to Broadway, generally sticking to comedies with a bit of heart. “I think this is about my 12th show for Bard to Broadway,” she said.
The Bard to Broadway season runs from July 3 to August 19, and takes place at the Village Theatre in Qualicum Beach.
Ticket prices range from $12 per show for children to between $12 and $25 a show for adults, and $64 for an adult season pass.
For tickets, call 250-752-4470, and for more information, go to www.b2btheatre.com .