Silly Little Country

The Story of His Life

Saturday we watched Canadian Stage's performance of 'The Story of My Life', one of the showings this year about which I was most dubious, as it was a Canadian-originated show, and as it had gotten some dubious reviews in the local papers. This precis from The Toronto Star is dubiously positive.

This new musical by Neil Bartram and Brian Hill features some endearing songs and touching scenes, but the show as a whole is just too sticky sweet for its own good. Jeffrey Kuhn and Brent Carver are both winning as a pair of lifelong friends, but director Michael Bush has staged it all with an obvious hand and Glenn Davidson's snow-globe set is pure Hallmark Card, in the worst sense of the word (R.O.).

Silly Wife and I both really enjoyed this show, though it was a bit long. (Hmm, same divided spirit as the Star review.)
What makes it work is the two-man cast; I have often seen Brent Carver and knew to assume he would be superb. I had never seen Jeffrey Kuhn, but what a delight. There was a complex mix of the somewhat saccharine (the parts that did not move me) and the deep stuff (the parts that did).
Among the latter:
a) The 'Mrs Remington' song.
b) The '1876' song - I loved the last line about the idea that the publication of 'Tom Sawyer' in 1876 made life after 1876 much better than life before. Carver delivered it wonderfully.
c) Kuhn's character's eulogy of his father - especially the wish that he could go back to 11 years old and feel proud of his father.

There is much else - entertaining references to "It's a Wonderful Life", "Tom Sawyer".

The music is OK.

One funny thing though. We went the next day (see post below) to an opera in a much larger theatre, where no performers were wearing mikes. In this show, Carver and Kuhn were both miked; it makes them look vaguely like Star Trek aliens.

All things considered, I say go see it. The performances are superb, the story is OK, and the production is not bad. If you find the idea of making snow angels compelling, it is a must-see for you.

For us it is a show we saw only because we had a subscription ticket, and it justified that choice.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 8:36 PM