WITH the Canadian hit musical The Drowsy Chaperone currently running on Broadway, the question begs to be asked, "Might Canadian musicals be the future of international musical theatre?"
Mel Atkey, a Canadian theatre and film critic, and composer and lyricist of New York shows, offers up ample evidence in his long-overdue book Broadway North that the time for Canadian musicals is now.
A resident of the U.K. since 1991, Atkey dispels the notion that musical theatre is a uniquely American form. Indeed, this thoroughly researched and well-documented history shows that German, French, English and, yes, Canadian innovations are every bit as responsible for the world's continuing love affair with musicals.
Who knew, for example, that the idea for the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes was first tried out in Toronto? Or that Canada produced the world's longest-running revue? (Spring Thaw)
Or that Anne of Green Gables has played more performances at the Charlottetown Festival than South Pacific did in its original Broadway production?
In 36 easily digestible chapters, divided into two "acts," Atkey transports the reader through four centuries (!) of musical theatre history in Canada.
From the Theatre du Neptune that entertained Champlain in 1606, through the vaudeville success of the Dumbells to the success of Anne of Green Gables (1956), Billy Bishop Goes to War (1978) and The Drowsy Chaperone, Atkey reminds Canadians that we are successfully creating musical theatre even when Americans might claim the genre as uniquely their own.
Winnipeg merits mention in two chapters. The first, a chapter on Vancouver's Theatre Under the Stars and Winnipeg's Rainbow Stage, gives scant mention to our local outdoor venue.
But an entire chapter is devoted to Winnipegger Victor Davies' 1971 epic Beowolf. (Davies, now based in Toronto, is currently composing an opera based on Winnipegger Maureen Hunter's play The Transit of Venus.) Atkey points out that with Winnipeg having established its theatre credentials by being the "first Canadian city to have a regional theatre, and a world-renowned ballet," it was, and is, a "fertile birthplace for a new musical."
Atkey's overarching theme is that Canada itself is a "fertile birthplace" for new musical theatre.
Our particular mix of ethnicities, our blend of American and British sensibilities, our unique political and geographic history, to say nothing of the success of Canadian commercial producers like Toronto's Mirvishes, are all evidence of the inevitability of the impending success of Canadian musical theatre.
Atkey's premise that "if we keep trying and experimenting, reflecting our own aspect of the world, some will succeed" is inspiring to insiders and fans alike.
Broadway North should be required reading for all Canadian students and practitioners of musical theatre.
And for members of the general public with an interest in the arts in general, Atkey will forever dispel the notion that "Canadian musical theatre" is the ultimate oxymoron.
Danny Schur is the composer, lyricist & co-writer of the Winnipeg musical Strike!