Forbidden Broadway is directed by Ryan Mooney, with musical direction by Sarah Jaysmith, and starring Natalee Fera, Aaron Lau, David Nicks, Georgia Valeria Swinton and Cathy Wilmot.

Fighting Chance Productions presents Forbidden Broadway from November 30 – December 5, 2010 at the Langley Playhouse, 4307 200 St, Langley.  Ticket are available by e-mailing fightingchanceproductions@gmail.com or by calling 604-807-9268.

Alex McMorran and Cathy Wilmot in Fighting Chance's Sweeney Todd.

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (Into the Woods) and book by Hugh Wheeler (A Little Night Music). Directed by Ryan Mooney (Hair, Fighting Chance), with musical direction by Vashti Fairbairn (Hair, Fighting Chance).

Starring Alex McMorran (The Wedding Singer, Fighting Chance), Cathy Wilmot (Forbidden Broadway, Fighting Chance), Arne Larsen (Rent, Fighting Chance), Sabrina Prada, Chris Harvey (Les Misérables, Arts Club), Krista Gibbard, David Nicks, Jeremy Hanlon-Fournier, Eric Alexander Steel (Hair, Fighting Chance), Laura Luongo, Lauren Gula, (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Gateway), Kate Leinweber, Reginald Pillay, Matt Hume (A New Brain, Pipedream), Nick Fontaine (Rent, Fighting Chance), Patrick Maloughney and Danielle Lemon.

Fighting Chance Productions presents Sweeney Todd from October 13 – 30, 2010 at the Jericho Arts Centre, 1675 Discovery, Vancouver. Tickets are available online or by calling 604-224-8007 ext. 3.

Fighting Chance's production of Hair.

Book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni, music by Galt MacDermot. Directed by Ryan Mooney, musical direction by Vashti Fairbairn. Starring Michael Brock, Sean Parsons (Footloose, Exit 22), Jenny Moase, Cesar Erba (Rent, Fighting Chance), Hal Rogers (Rent, Fighting Chance), Arielle Tuliao, Amy Jean McElwain, and Ranae Miller. Also featuring Daniel Chai, Michelle Bardach, Sarah Wolfman-Robichaud, Anna Hassard,  Matt Russell, Augustine Justin Go, Eric Alexander Steel, Nyla Carpentier, Nilsen Tiefenbach, Max Friesen, Robyn Leigh Johnson, and Veronika Sztopa.

Fighting Chance Productions presents Hair from July 21 – August 1, 2010 at the Waterfront Theatre, 1412 Cartwright St, Granville Island.  Tickets are available online or by calling 604-684-2787.

Director Ryan Mooney hasn’t managed to replicate the success of some of his previous productions, but most of the blame here lies with the source material.  The songs (music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin), while not terrible, are largely forgettable and uninspired.

Fighting Chance Productions' The Wedding Singer.

The Wedding Singer book is stitched together haphazardly, and never quite comes together as a whole.   Where the movie was carried on the collective star power and charisma of Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, the stage version has chosen to rely on an endless barrage of 80s references, in the hopes that the audience won’t notice the paper-thin story.

Sandler’s trademark juvenile humour hasn’t translated well to the stage.  Many supporting characters have had their stage time expanded, but remain cringingly one-dimensional.  A grandmother who likes to talk about sex? Check. A wise-cracking gay band member? Check.  Jokes that are stretched on for far too long? Check.

Linda Noble’s portrayal of Robbie’s grandmother Rosie comes off as a badly-drawn caricature.  Noble isn’t old enough to make the naughty senior bit work for her and her delivery didn’t garner much of a reaction from the audience.

The actors made the most of what they were given to work with.  Andrew Halliwell, as wedding singer Robbie Hart, has a serviceable stage presence and rock voice which helped smooth over some of the show’s rougher edges.

On a technical note, the sound quality was spotty throughout the show and microphones cut in and out repeatedly.

Though The Wedding Singer is far from a hit, Fighting Chance deserves credit for taking chances on shows that have not yet been seen in Metro Vancouver.  Local theatre companies seem far too eager to mount the same old shows, year after year.  I’d much rather experience a flawed play, like this one, for the first time than sit through yet another showing of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, no matter how well-produced.

Fighting Chance Productions presents The Wedding Singer until May 22, 2010 at the Jericho Arts Centre, 1675 Discovery, Vancouver.  Tickets are available online or by calling 604-224-8007 ext. 3

Directed by Ryan Mooney (Rent, Fighting Chance), with music direction by Christopher King (Thoroughly Modern Millie, TUTS), and choreography by Anna Hassard. Starring Andrew Halliwell, Lexy Campbell, Cassandra Nantel, Tyson Coady (Joseph, RCMT), Alex McMorran, Sean Parsons (Footloose, Exit 22), Jessica Kelly, Sable Strub, and Linda Noble.

Fighting Chance Productions presents The Wedding Singer from April 27 – May 22, 2010 at the Jericho Arts Centre, 1675 Discovery, Vancouver.  Tickets are available online or by calling 604-224-8007 ext. 3

The Off-Broadway musical revue made its debut way back in 1982 and has been rewritten over the years to make room for the inclusion of newer shows.  Some of the parodies have held up better than others and I was eager to see which would be included in this incarnation and whether they would find a receptive audience here.

Aaron Lau, Cathy Wilmot and David Nicks in Forbidden Broadway.

Satire like this, demands some familiarity with the source material, and the more familiarity, the better. I needn’t have worried; the night I attended, the intimate PAL Theatre was heavily laden with local musical-theatre buffs in high spirits.  As a whole, they caught pretty much every musical reference thrown their way.

And there were a lot for them to catch.  Everything from Rent, to Les Misérables, to Hairspray.  The strongest audience reactions came for the send-ups of shows that have been seen locally recently.

The cast of five (plus a guest appearance, by the company’s artistic director) do a respectable job with some of the more difficult material.  Kudos to Andrea Bailey, Natalee Fera, Aaron Lau, David Nicks and Cathy Wilmot.  Serviceable impressions of Broadway icons can be a tall order, but they mostly deliver.

“Defying Subtlety” poked cleverly at both Wicked and Idina Menzel.  Cathy Wilmot’s lipstick-smeared Carol Channing was a humourous tribute to the legend’s longtime role as Dolly Levi.  Wilmot also does a larger-than-life Ethel Merman mocking the current trend of over-micing performers.

Also on the mark were good-natured jabs at Liza Minnelli, Bob Fosse and Stephen Sondheim, respectively.  “Into the Words” skillfully incorporated elements of Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods.

Considerably less-successful were parodies of Fiddler on the Roof, Cats and Barbra Streisand.  The weaker material dragged down the show’s pacing.   As well, at least one of the singers had difficulty projecting to the back of the venue.

Forbidden Broadway won’t be to everyone’s liking, but musical-theatre followers will welcome the chance to make light of some of their idols, if only for a night.

Fighting Chance Productions presents Forbidden Broadway from January 6 – 16, 2010 at the PAL Theatre, 581 Cardero St.  Tickets are available online or by calling 604-684-2787.

Forbidden Broadway is directed by Ryan Mooney, with musical direction by Sarah Jaysmith, and starring Andrea Bailey, Natalee Fera, Aaron Lau, David Nicks and Cathy Wilmot.

Fighting Chance Productions presents Forbidden Broadway from January 6 – 16, 2010 at the PAL Theatre, 581 Cardero St.  Tickets are available online or by calling 604-684-2787.

At the Arts Club, the Altar Boyz are spritzing their hair with product for the last time and at Pacific Theatre, the good folks from Not Another Musical Co-op are singing the last notes of Songs For A New World this weekend.     Across the water, at the Presentation House Theatre in North Vancouver, comes the final curtain call for the newest object of my affection, Fighting Chance’s Rent.

Fighting Chance Production's cast of Rent; Clockwise from top left, Craig Decarlo, Christine Quintana, Jacqueline Breakwell, Anton Lipovetsky, Nick Fontaine and Cesar Erba.

I have a rather shameful admission to make . . .  I’ve never been a giant Rent fan.  Nor a Rent fan of any other size, for that matter.  It stems from a certain stubbornness that I possess when it comes to being told what to do or what to like.  In fact, I have an aversion to jumping on to bandwagons of all kinds.  It’s that contrary quality that made me disregard the film version and pooh-pooh the various Rent soundtracks.

But now, I’ve drunk the Kool-aid and have been totally taken in by Rent.  I’ve seen it three times and would have seen it again, if it hadn’t kept selling out.

Which brings us back to the end of the summer season and the sudden onset of my musical-theatre withdrawal blues.  My current state of despair is somewhat tempered by the knowledge that the fall musical season will soon be upon us.  Though, truth be told, I’m not overly enthused by this.  I’ve seen all of these latest summer shows twice and sometimes more and they’ve become familiar, like friends.  And it’s so hard to say goodbye.

Some theatres seem custom-built for certain shows but many others have limitations which theatre companies must work around.  I’d heard some initial concerns about the choice of Presentation House Theatre as the venue for Rent.  And to be honest, I wasn’t sure the smallish space would be a good match for the rock opera.

The closeness of the stage did make for a fundamentally different experience, but overall it was a success.  It’s readily clear, from the earnest enthusiasm permanently etched into their faces, that most of the cast members are die-hard Rent fans.  That kind of passion translates into a high-energy and vibrant production.

Trying to pick the high point of the show is near-impossible, as there are so many from which to choose.  Jonathan Larson’s music and lyrics are just as poignant as they were when they debuted off-Broadway in 1996.  Based on the Puccini opera La Boheme, Rent is the story of a group of New York starving artists who struggle while dealing with the effects of AIDS.

Fighting Chance Production's cast of Rent; Clockwise from top left, Craig Decarlo, Christine Quintana, Jacqueline Breakwell, Anton Lipovetsky, Nick Fontaine and Cesar Erba.

Jacqueline Breakwell’s Maureen is fiery hot and oozes sex appeal. My theatre companion was completely and utterly enamoured with her.  Jenn Suratos as Maureen’s current girlfriend is a great foil to Maureen’s ex-boyfriend Mark in “Tango Maureen.”

Anton Lipovetsky is boyish and likeable as Mark and Kholby Wardell drips attitude as Mark’s yuppified ex-roommate Benny.

Craig DeCarlo as Roger has a voice made for rock and easily powers through his multiple numbers. His chemistry with Christine Quintana’s sultry Mimi is somewhat hit or miss, but ultimately pulls together in the end.

Nick Fontaine’s Tom Collins and Cesar Erba’s Angel are an adorable couple, and their voices are perfectly complementary in “I’ll Cover You.”

Rielle Braid, one of the ensemble swings on the second night I saw the show, was a standout as sleazy television producer Alexi Darling.

Most of the cast’s solo vocals are strong but the show is truly at its best in the full company numbers “La Vie Boheme” and “Seasons of Love.”

There were some issues with the sound.  Some actors’ mikes were far too loud and others not loud enough. Several bits of Erba’s dialogue were lost at key moments.

One of Rent’s stronger points is that its gay characters aren’t tokens to the centre stage heterosexual romance between Mimi and Roger.  Joanne and Maureen’s onstage pairing is every bit as volatile and crazy as Maureen’s dream-inspired performance art.  Collins and Angel’s loving relationship is also given equal billing and held up as the ideal to which the others aspire.

Rent’s positive tone, amidst darker themes of poverty and the AIDS epidemic, chooses to emphasise love and living live to the fullest. It’s that message which continues to strike such a personal chord with actors and audiences alike.

Seating is general admission, so make sure you arrive early to stake out a good seat.  Both performances I attended were sold out and by opening night Fighting Chance had already added an extra week to the tail end of their run.  It doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to say that Rent will be a smash hit here in Vancouver.

Ryan Mooney and Fighting Chance Productions are persistently making a name for themselves as real contenders in local theatre and Rent will only further that cause.

Fighting Chance Productions’ Rent plays through August 23^rd at Presentation House Theatre.  Tickets are available online.

But, the summer Vancouver musical theatre is far from over, and here are my top two picks for this weekend.

1. Rent:  The Fighting Chance production opened last night and has already announced a week long extension.  My review of the show isn’t up yet, but clearly I liked it since I’ve put it at the top of my weekend to-see list. Playing at Presentation House Theatre in North Vancouver, Rent tickets are available online.

2. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is playing on the big screen this weekend.  The 1963 classic French sung-through movie starring Catherine Deneuve is a cinematic spectacle and a must-see for musical aficionados. Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour Street Aug 7-9; 6:30 Fri; 8:30 Sat, Sun.