Len Cariou, Broadway's Original Sweeney Todd, Reveals His Canadian Roots

(L-R) Len Cariou, actor Tom Selleck, Leonard Goldberg and actor
Donnie Wahlberg attend the "Blue Bloods" Screening at The Paley
Center for Media on September 22, 2010 in New York City

By: Myra Chanin @ The Huffington Post
Len Cariou may well be the most persistently employed performer on the planet. Just printing his credits takes up a half ream of multipurpose paper. Len leaps fleetly from role to role, format to format and venue to venue -- theater, film, television, recordings, narration, voiceovers, documentaries and audio books. He can dance, sing, weep, laugh, direct and what-have-you. Police procedural TV fans adore him in the current CBS hit show, Blue Bloods, as Henry Regan, the always-in-the-kitchen-cooking-something-delicious retired former New York City Police Commissioner, granddad of the clan that always dines together and father of the present Blue Bloods police commissioner played by Tom Selleck. Len is actually only five years older than Tom Selleck but Tom is more devoted to Grecian formula.

Len's roles have run the gamut from cabbages to kings. The two biggest cabbages? Louis Tobin, the Bernie Madoff-ish third-season-of-Damages no-goodnick Ponzi schemer, and Iago, Shakespeare's immortal manipulative villain. As for kings, Len's portrayed Coriolanus, Darius, Oedipus, Henry V, Lear, Macbeth and Oberon -- everyone but Richard III, which gives him a gig to look forward to. Len also thinks he might be ready to take a crack at Long Day's Journey Into Night.

Len grew up near Winnipeg in modest circumstances, with music always around the house: "I was a boy soprano with a natural kind of voice. My mother made sure it was trained it after it changed." By 10th grade Len was directing/starring in school plays at Miles MacDonnell Collegiate, and made his theatrical debut there playing Ralph Rackstraw in HMS Pinafore. A few years later he turned professional in the chorus of Damn Yankees at Rainbow Stage, an outdoor venue where the weather and the audience were co-dependent. Performing in local nightclubs and theaters kept him solvent until theatrical visionary John Hirsch established the Manitoba Theater Center and supplied Len with employment during its October to January season, augmented by performing the Classics at the Stratford Ontario Shakespeare Festival between February and October until Len joined the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

Then Broadway beckoned. As Bill Sampson, Lauren Bacall/Margo Channing's director/lover in Applause, a hit musical based on All About Eve, Len received his first Tony nomination and enjoyed a yearlong run. Then it was back to Guthrie for a double feature -- playing Oedipus and also replacing Frank Langella, who'd left the company, as Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

When Hal Prince asked Len to audition for a featured role in a new Stephen Sondheim musical, A Little Night Music, Len grabbed the opportunity to sing for Sondheim, who Len considers a genius, even though Len wasn't keen about playing Count Carl-Magnus. Instead Prince offered him the leading male role -- Fredrik Egerman, a succesfull widowed middle-aged lawyer married to an 18-year-old who wanted-to-remain-a-perpetual-virgin. Len was on Cloud Nine until he realized that rehearsals for Night Music would interfere with his prior obligations to perform at Guthrie and leave the company in the lurch.

He called Prince personally to explain why he was unable to accept his offer and so impressed Prince with his integrity that Prince postponed the rehearsal start date to one that worked for Len, albeit with tricky logistics. Len flew to New York on Monday morning, rehearsed until Thursday afternoon when he flew back to Minneapolis to play Oedipus. The upside? Len received his second Tony nomination. Also, a phrase in Bring in the Clowns -- "me as King Lear" -- inspired Guthrie director Michael Langdon to star Len in King Lear. The downside? Probably because no Hollywood hunk could deliver Sondheim's clever lyrics as crisply as Len did, Len co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor Hilton Wilding Todd Fisher Burton Burton Warner Fortensky in the now-not-even-available-for-streaming-on-Netflix film version of A Little Night Music.

Best of all, Steven Sondheim wrote his next masterpiece, Sweeney Todd for Len and Len finally took home a Tony for Todd.

Len's show at 54 Below reprises his original nightclub act. Why? "It gave me a reason to get my singing voice back in shape." Also 54 Below was a perfect place to return to his roots, he adds, "because 54 below was the usual winter temperature in central Canada." Len arrives on stage to great applause, a relaxed pro, attired in elegant but casual black, and opens this show with the same upbeat opening numbers he sang 55 years ago. He talks about his life, his Broadway years, his meetings with great composers, pays homage to them by singing their songs, before he blows everyone away with spectacular renditions of Sondheim's Now, with Egerman deciding whether to (a) once again attempt to ravish/seduce his bride or (b) take a nap, and the exquisitely lyrical Pretty Women, both difficult songs which Len delivers with mind bogglingly perfect dramatic passion. Even though Glynis Johns was awarded the 11 o'clock number Len had been promised, Len takes this opportunity to sing it, Send In the Clowns at 54 Below at 11 pm.

Remember, pretty much everyone at 54 Below is a class act, including the upcoming Maurice Hines, Charles Busch, Maureen McGovern, Linda Eder, Patti LuPone and in mid-January, the incomparable Linda Lavin -- my personal favorite.
Originally Posted: 12/21/2012 @ 11:02am

Rigorous Grant Park High School training set students on route to Broadway shows

Hugh Panaro as The Phantom with
Samantha Hill as Christine Daae.

By: Kevin Prokosh @ Winnipeg Free Press
NEW YORK CITY-- In 2003, Grant Park High School presented what was then the largest student production ever produced on a Manitoba stage.

The school's cramped gym could no longer contain the mass of electronic equipment, booming talent pool and expanding audiences required of an ambitious musical, so artistic director George Budoloski relocated to the 1,600-seat Burton Cummings Theatre. The idea was to give his triple threats, teens who could sing, dance and act, an experience they would not ever forget -- the opportunity to perform one of the great theatre works on a historic stage where the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Harry Houdini, Bob Hope and Winston Churchill had stood.

Fast forward almost a decade and a couple of those student performers are sitting in a stylish meeting room in the office of Cameron Macintosh, the man behind the international stage hits Les Miserables, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon and Mary Poppins.

Samantha Hill and Josh Assor remember Grant Park's Les Miz as the starting point for careers that have landed them both on Broadway. Hill, 25, is the Christine Daaé alternate in The Phantom of the Opera, while Assor, 24, plays the featured dance role Neleus in Mary Poppins.



Josh Assor.

They are the second and third local Les Miz cast members who have debuted on Broadway this year. Jaz Sealey was a member of the Jesus Christ Superstar production that came from the Stratford Festival and closed July 1.

"We were working on the assumption that if we gave them everything we can to make them great, they will rise to that," says Budoloski in a recent interview. "We wanted them to know what it's like -- whether they went off to be lawyers -- to be in as professional a show as we could create."

After Les Miz, Hill and Assor took radically different routes to the Big White Way, never really allowing themselves to boldly dream that it was even possible. Hill, content with her thriving stage life in Canada, remembers a family trip to New York City being cancelled and her father promising her they would go when she was on Broadway.

"I got angry, saying, 'Dad, people just don't go to Broadway,' and told him I'm not going to be on Broadway," says the fresh-faced soprano from River Heights, "He said, 'Yes you will.'"

The Hill family will join her for Christmas in New York City this weekend.

Assor, who grew up in Garden City and Tuxedo, was a world champion tap dancer and was the only Canadian to win a scholarship to train in Los Angeles with top choreographers. In 2008, he left Winnipeg for Toronto and the following year scored parts in West Side Story and Cyrano de Bergerac at Stratford Festival, before returning home in 2010 to play Benjamin in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Rainbow Stage. In 2011 he won the part of Neleus in the North American tour of Mary Poppins.

"Broadway was never really part of the plan," says the diminutive, dark-haired Assor, who originally thought of a future in architecture. "It was too far-fetched."

While on the road as far south as Mexico, Assor began to contemplate the possibility, because the dancer he was replacing on tour had been promoted to Broadway. When he heard his predecessor was leaving the New York production, he knew the Mary Poppins producers might come calling. They did and six days later last February he was making his Broadway debut at the new Amsterdam Theatre.

"Opening night was a crazy blur," says Assor. "It was the most surreal moment ever, but it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Getting the big tour in the United States was where the pressure was. The transition to Broadway was easy. They hired me to do what I had been doing."

Hill made her Broadway debut Nov. 12 as the innocent chorus girl who becomes the obsession of a mysterious disfigured musical genius in The Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theatre.

"I was prepared but every time I stumbled, I was thinking, 'This is Broadway, people don't make mistakes,'" says Hill, who last season appeared in August: Osage Country (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre), Annie (Rainbow Stage) and Spring Awakening (Winnipeg Studio Theatre). "I'm told that's definitely not true. It was crazy, but the bow was one of the biggest thrills I'll ever get."

Hill regularly performs twice a week but has performed as many as five days in a row when needed. She is contracted through February in Broadway's longest-running show but her stay could be extended now that she has recently received the endorsement of Phantom's original director Harold Prince, a towering figure in American theatre and winner of 21 Tony Awards. Earlier this month he came to see Hill perform.

"Hal Prince came at intermission to tell us all we had done a great show," says Hill, a graduate of the universities of Winnipeg and Alberta. "Then he turned to me, kissed my hand and said I was marvellous and that he wanted the whole cast to hear it. I feel very relieved and honoured that the original director has given me his blessing so graciously."

Assor is on an open-ended contract that sees him performing eight shows a week as a statue that comes to life with a major dance routine. He needs 20 minutes in the makeup chair to get his body painted silver and his face painted with tiny cracks. The physical demands are a continuing challenge.

"It requires constant maintenance for your body," says Assor. "You have to be on top of it; you never can be lazy. You have to stay in shape because you never know when you will be out of a job and have to start auditions again."

The pair is ever grateful for the training they received from Budoloski, his wife Robin Dow, Kimberley Rampersad and others. They set the standards that students like Assor and Hill have built their careers upon.

"We had dance in the morning, singing after school," says Hill. "I worked harder in high school. It set me up for the hard work that's required in my career."

Assor dedicates a lot of his success to the teaching of Rampersad, a dance instructor who also often performs at Rainbow Stage and RMTC.

"That they are on Broadway at the same time is the fun thing, but I'm not surprised," says a proud Rampersad. "We are a city of 700,000 and I could name half a dozen people off the top of my head who are on Broadway."

Besides Hill and Assor, Jeremy Kushnier, one of Winnipeg's most successful Broadway stars, is back there in Jersey Boys. Another Grant Park performing arts grad, Sam Strasfeld, was in Mary Poppins before moving on to the Kathie Lee Gifford musical Scandalous, which closed abruptly Dec. 9 after running less than four weeks. Former Winnipegger Jayne Paterson was also a replacement in Mary Poppins.

What Assor and Hill have learned is that Broadway is just another stage, not all that different from the ones back home.

"I've tried to bring a Broadway performance to every show I've done," says Hill. "It's not like I've got to Broadway and now I'm going to work so much harder.

"I've worked with some amazing people in Winnipeg who have never been on Broadway."
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 20, 2012 C1

Jeremy Kushnier performs at the "Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular!" (1999)

Midsummer Forecast: Stars On The Rainbow Stage

Story By Frank Morriss

Pictures By Jack Ablett

Saturday, June 23, 1956 - Winnipeg Free Press

(Article below picture)

A: Paddy McIntyre rehearses a wild Indian dance for Annie Get Your Gun.

B: James Duncan, Peggy Green and Des McCalmont keep an interested eye on a rehearsal of Annie Get Your Gun.

C: Pat Armstrong, Vinie Lifchus and Jack Weremy are Annie’s brother and sisters in this rehearsal shot.

D: An arresting moment in Annie Get Your Gun.

E: Evelyne Anderson, who plays the title role, is obviously infatuated with Gordon Parker.

F: Joan Karasevich and Bob Jeffreys are giving out with one of the Irving Berlin hit numbers… this one being Who Do You Love, I Hope?

G: Arnold Spohr, Choreographer, puts the chorus through its paces.

H: Sid Perimutter is directing Ken Winters (Buffalo Bill), George Werier (hotel owner) and Murray Sennens (Chief Sitting Bull) in a comedy scene for Annie Get Your Gun.

Midsummer Forecast: Stars On The Rainbow Stage
If you see people gazing skyward these summer evenings they’re most likely connected in some way or another with The Rainbow Stage, which nestles in leafy Kildonan Park.

If the nights are balmy and rainless, it might well mean that Winnipeg has taken the first big step to rival Vancouver’s famed Theatre Under the Stars.

After a fitful and fateful beginning, during which an outdoor theatre was erected at the prodding of the Civic Music League, the Rainbow Stage is going into business with three elaborate musical comedies, each with a budget of $15,000 for a week’s showing, plus a play, concerts and dances.  Local singers, dancers and actors who have been waiting for a chance to show their stuff have been mustered into the production mill.

The Rainbow Stage officially opens June 27 with a concert, but the big, most-hoped for premiere is Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun, in which Ethel Merman successfully strutted her stuff on Broadway for several seasons.  It opens July 2.  Interspersed with the concerts and dance events will be The Wizard of Oz and Kiss Me Kate, both big-time musicals, and Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.

It’s a varied menu, and the Summer Theatre association, operating with the blessings of the city and under the general chairmanship of Prof. J.A. Russell, hopes that it will intrigue Winnipeggers enough to keep the 3,000 seat theatre full enough to pay the bills and put away a tidy sum for bigger and even better plans in years to come.

--------------------
The summer theatre is operating in the best-posible way by getting the best possible people.  James C. Duncan is acting as production co-ordinator and director. Musical directors are Eric Wild and Filmer Hubble, choreographers are Arnold Spohr and Nenad Lhotka, dramatic directors are Mrs. Peggy Green, Sid Perimutter and John Hirsch.  Set designers are Jack McCullagh, John Graham and Ted Korol.

The Theatre is operating under the old theory that the play (or musical comedy) is the thing and instead of importing expensive stars, the leads are going to local people who have had experience on TV, radio, the Little Theatre, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is supplying Paddy McIntyre and other dancers.

There will be, however, the return of a local girl who has made good in other spheres.  Evelyne Anderson, who has been with the Bristol Old Vic school and played the lead in the Bristol production of Oklahoma is coming here to play the Ethel Merman role in Annie Get You Gun and will also be in other productions.

--------------------
Trying to gauge public taste these days is a job that nobody can solve… least of all Hollywood, TV or the concert impresarios.  However, the summer theatre people have dug into their hats and pulled out the best that is procurable on the current entertainment market.

And, in the more flamboyant attractions of the musical comedies, don’t overlook Our Town.  For this writer’s money, the Thornton Wilder work is the loveliest and best of the modern plays.

Good luck, and good weather, for the Rainbow Stage. 

Fred Penner interview on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight

Who would have known they were watching a legend in the making when Fred Penner stepped onto our stage during the production of Fiddler on the Roof in 1977.

Fred Penner's cast bio from our 1977 Fiddler on the Roof Souvenir Program.

During the summer of 1955 Rainbow Stage played host to a number of different performances; here are just a few highlights.

A collection of newspaper advertisements that were posted in the Winnipeg Free Press.

Hammers pave the way for Hammerstein as Rainbow Stage gets a face-lifting before the opening show - Continental Cabaret - June 24 and 25.  Improvements include streetlights along the driveway from Scotia street to the stage; concession stands and ticket booths; new washrooms, and additional lighting effects on the stage.  New portals have also been erected to facilitate the raising of the front curtain.  Situated in Rainbow Dell, Kildonan Park the stage is Winnipeg's only outdoor summer theatre.  The first program will off variety fare of a light nature, including many Rodgers and Hammerstein hits.

A digital version of the article is posted below.

Rainbow Stage to Feature Ink Spots and Local Talent
An elaborate variety show headlining the internationally famous singing group, the Ink Spots and featuring some of this city's top talent will officially open the 1955 season of Winnipeg's Rainbow stage in Kildonan park June 24 and 25.
Called Continental Cabaret, the show is directed by James Duncan, and will feature contrallo Marilyn Duffus and baritone Orville Derraugh - recently starred on the CBC Anniversary television show - soprano Belva Boroditsky, a ballet group under the direction of Arnold Spohr, a full orchestra under the direction of Eric Wild, and the James Duncan chorus. Mareh Phimister and Len Andree will emcee the show as well as contribute several comedy routines.
Announcing the engagement of the Ink Spots, James Duncan commented on the strong appeal the group has for all classes and ages of listener.
"The Ink Spots will appear on both evenings," Mr. Duncan said, "and each night they will occupy a substantial portion of both acts of the Continental Cabaret revue.  This will be a wonderful opportunity for the whole city to hear them under the most favorable conditions."
Light music will make up the revue fare, featuring such numbers as a song-and-ballet medley from Finian's Rainbow and selections from The Desert Song.
Winnipeg's only outdoor theatre.  Rainbow Stage is undergoing further extension and beautification to both architecture and landscaping, and crews are already at work.
The stage was officially opened Sept. 22, 1953 when the Kiltsliano Boys' band of Vancouver presented a concert there, and the initial Winnipeg show was held July. 7, 1954 when 4,500 persons attended a variety production featuring representative city talent.

Rainbow stage in Kildonan park opened Friday night with the large crowd shown here sharing in the first program, Continental Cabaret.  This opening night stressed an atmosphere of night club intimacy and audience participation.  Program included an orchestra directed by Eric Wild, the James Duncan chorus, Royal Winnipeg ballet and the Ink Spots.

All content collected from the Winnipeg Free Press Archives.

There was quite a buzz amongst Winnipeggers around the opening of Rainbow Stage in the early 1950's, according to photos and articles from the Winnipeg Free Press archives:

Free Press archives - construction 1952: An article detailing the beginning of construction of Rainbow Stage in 1952

Giant Outdoor Theatre to Rise This Summer A Kildonan Park

Construction of a giant summer theatre for Winnipeggers, similar in many respects to Vancouver’s Theatre Under the Stars will be carried out this summer in Kildonan park.  It was announced Friday by Reg. Hugo, honorary chairman of the Rainbow Stage Campaign committee.

A stage as wide and as deep as in the civic auditorium will be large enough to accommodate performances of a full-sized symphony orchestra, or will house the full cast of a large musical comedy, Mr. Hugo said.

The theatre will get its name from the rainbow shape of the proscenium which will curve around the ceiling line of the stage.

Free Press archives - photo 1952: Model of the Rainbow Stage theatre published in the Winnipeg Free Press in 1952, two years before its opening.

Caption reads: "This model of the Winnipeg's Rainbow Stage to be built this summer in Kildonan Park will be on display at the Red River exhibition at the amphitheatre June 14 - 21.  A Free Press artist has given an idea of how he imagines the stage will look with an orchestra performing."

Free Press archives - July 7, 1954: An article published in the Winnipeg Free Press about the opening of Rainbow Stage on July 7, 1954

Rainbow Stage Opener to Star Local Talent
Local talent will be featured at the official opening of Winnipeg’s new Rainbow Stage at 8:15p.m. tonight.
Mayor Garnet Coulter will open Winnipeg’s first outdoor theatre before and expected crowd of 4,500 at Kildonan Park.
A varied program of Sunday concerts, Friday films, music and drama is being planned for other summer concerts.
Highlights of tonight’s program include a chorus by the Ukrainian Youth Association and Ukrainian national folk dances directed by Wally Uric.
Eric Wild and his presentation orchestra with Maxine Ward and the James Duncan Chorus will present a selection of popular tunes. 

Free Press archives - opening night: Photo from the opening night of Rainbow Stage in 1954, published in the Winnipeg Free Press on July 8, 1954.  The opening paragraph of the Article below (bottom right) Reads: Singing, dancing colorful costumes and fresh air proved to be an irresistible mixture at the opening program of the Rainbow Stage at Kildonan Park Wednesday."

4,500 Attend Gala Stage Opening!

Jazz for Cows!

What the Sam Hill? She's off to Broadway

By: Kevin Prokosh @ Winnipeg Free Press

Anyone who has been watching actress Samantha Hill perform on Winnipeg stages knew it was only a matter of time before she would be plucked for a much bigger stage elsewhere

That time is now, as the 25-year-old soprano leaves Monday for Broadway where she takes over in November as the alternate Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, the longest running production in the history of the Great White Way.

"Right now, it feels terrifying," Hill says during an interview. "I'm very much looking forward to this very incredible experience. It's going to open a lot of doors."

That means she goes from playing the floozy Lilly in Annie at Rainbow Stage in August to the female lead in the Tony Award-winning, Andrew Lloyd Webber musical at the 1,607 seat Majestic Theatre. Last season she impressed as smart-tongued Jean in August: Osage Countyat the RMTC Warehouse in March and as the lead Wendla in the Winnipeg Studio Theatre revival of Spring Awakening.

She had a can't-miss tag attached to her not long after graduating from the University of Winnipeg six years ago. Hill was still in school in 2008 when she auditioned for a Toronto stage production of The Sound of Music that was part of a talent search for an eight-part CBC reality television series called How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria! Toronto casting director Stephanie Gorin watched her audition and said, "To me she was special. She is one of the best that we have seen anywhere so far."

Earlier this year Hill flew to Toronto for a Les Miserables audition and was steered by musical director David Caddick to try out for Phantom in New York in June.

"It went quite well," says Hill, whose Rainbow credits include Wendy in Peter Pan, Belle in Beauty and the Beast and Rumpleteazer in Cats. "They called me right away and asked to work with me. I had a session on the actual Majestic Theatre stage.

"I thought if I don't get the part, at least I've performed once on Broadway."

Hill got the news of her casting at the end of the summer but kept it on the down low until producers settled lineup changes for Phantom. Rehearsals start Oct. 22 in New York, although she has been working on her part for weeks here. She will perform as Christine, the chorus girl who becomes the phantom's object of obsession, beginning the week of Nov. 12 and will perform at least twice a week until February when an extension will be considered. She arrives only months before the 25th anniversary of the Phantom's première next year when there is sure to be much hoopla.

At her audition Hill sang two of Christine's big numbers Think of Me and Learn to be Lonely.

"Think of Me was one of the first songs I sang," she recalls. "I remember singing it at my first recital when I was 15.

"Christine is one of the best roles for a soprano. I feel it's a great fit for my voice and what I play. It will be a great first exposure to New York playing that iconic role."

Lately, Hill, who has a BFA in acting from the University of Alberta, had been feeling it was time to take up the challenges of a bigger theatre town and now that it is happening is feeling sad about leaving the community that nurtured her.

"I love Winnipeg but I'll have to take this risk and be brave," she says. "Broadway doesn't come calling that often. I'm pumped."

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 13, 2012 G8

First-and only-couple to wed at Rainbow Stage celebrate 25th anniversary

For so many families, Rainbow Stage is home to fond memories under the big dome.

But for one local couple, the theatre was the setting for a particularly special day—their wedding.

In 1987, Kim and Kevin Funk were the first and only couple to tie the knot under the big dome. This was also the first time the theatre would produce this year’s August production, Annie.

“We wanted to get married outside and I was wondering, if it rains, what are we going to do? “So that’s why we thought of Rainbow Stage,” Kim explained.

“It was exciting.”

The ceremony was flanked with props and sets from the production of Annie. It landed the happy couple on the front page of the Winnipeg Free Press and attracted the attention of several news stations. 

25 years later, Rainbow Stage continues to be a family tradition for the Funk family.

“We still do it annually, it’s me and my mom and my kids. I’ve always been a huge fan,” she said.

A recap to a wonderful summer. Cheers!

The summer started off cold and blustery but Rainbow Stage kept you snug in your seat with our rendition of the 80's Broadway Musical FOOTLOOSE....

...then we got together again to watch some of the biggest up and coming talents in the hit 70's Broadway Musical ANNIE!

....SO NOW YOU'RE ASKING WHAT'S NEXT!?!  It's the 2012 Rainbow Stage Encore Fundraising Dinner @ the Manitoba Club!   ...so we can do it all again next summer :-)

An awakening: Ex-Winnipegger returns after three-decade absence and finds city all grown-up

Doug McKeag on the "positively alive" Portage Avenue.

By: Doug McKeag
I grew up in the Peg, trained as a performer here, and left for greener theatre pastures 30 years ago.

Now, like a salmon returning to the river of its creation, I wend my way back to a much different Winnipeg: The grotty is now green, the run-down is looking up.

When I left a quarter century ago, I had forever abandoned the Tuxedo suburbs of my youth and was renting a party house near the University of Winnipeg. My hood was the downtown core -- from the messy rail yards of The Forks to a hippy happy Osborne Village to a Portage Avenue that still included the neon glow of Clifford's.

As a young teen I explored all of downtown from my bedroom in Government House. I am so grateful for my five years there -- there were limitless seedy and sensational things within a comfortable walk: buying incense and black-light posters on Osborne Street, claiming the free birthday sundae at Dutch Maid; searching out amazing record deals at Opus 69; buying giant stereo equipment at Western Sound; trading in crap music at the Record Exchange (Hey! I just bought back a Shaun Phillips record I traded in there 30 years ago! Complete with my concert hall ticket stub!).

And look at the Forks now! And all of Waterfront Drive! Stonkin' big museum, awesome ballpark, condos, pretty landscaping and hundreds of downtown pioneers, setting up their homes near the arts, the games and the priceless splendour of all these old buildings.

Look at Portage Avenue, finally having the Renaissance it has deserved for so long! It is positively alive with the MTS Centre, new condos, hotels... And while the Village has lost most of its boho haunts, it's still where I go for groovy music and great patio action.

My incense and Buddhist chanting CDs and hemp soap now come from The Forks. I haven't skated on the river yet (nobody did that 25 years ago!), but it's delightful that the river has been claimed as a playground and not ignored as a meandering nuisance.

My Winnipeg is downtown. My wish is for all those gorgeous empty old buildings to find love -- they are so beautiful and so deserving. Anyone? Live downtown! It's what big-city folk do!

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 8, 2012 A8

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Top 20 Dorothys for CBC TV's Over the Rainbow includes one Winnipegger



Winnipeg's Colleen Furlan, 19, right, and Ottawa's Stephanie Larochelle, 17, left, wait to audition for the role of Dorothy during the CBC auditions for the new Mirvish play Over The Rainbow in Toronto on Thursday June 21, 2012. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim, The Canadian Press)

Posted by CBC Manitoba SCENE Staff - Tuesday June 26, 2012

Twenty aspiring young musical theatre actresses from across Canada will compete for the plumb role of Dorothy in CBC-TV's new series Over The Rainbow.

On June 26 producers unveiled the list of 20 names heading to the next stage and whittled down from the masses who attended auditions across Canada in recent weeks.

Of nearly 40 young women who auditioned from Manitoba, seven were chosen to go on to the next round. One Manitoban made it to this list of 20. She is Colleen Furlan of Winnipeg.

Furlan is in her first year at the University of Manitoba studying at the Faculty of Music. She is the recipient of the 2012 Rainbow Stage Trophy/Scholarship and is the 2012 Provincial Highland Adult Dance Champion. Furlan has a number of principal roles under her belt. She's performed in A Funny Thing Happened at the Office, Snapshots, Get Your Act Together and Street Scenes.

The young performers will spend the summer training at a musical theatre boot camp to hone their singing, dancing and acting skills. The goal is to be one of 10 contestants to compete live on television this fall on the Over the Rainbow broadcasts.

The winner will star in a forthcoming Mirvish-Andrew Lloyd Webber production of The Wizard of Oz, slated to open in Toronto in December.

A triumph in the TV competition can help launch the winner's career. In 2008, budding actress Elicia Mackenzie nabbed the lead role of Maria for a Toronto production of The Sound of Music by winning the CBC reality series How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? She went onto roles in We Will Rock You and Rock of Ages.

The 20 contestants vying to appear on the CBC talent series are:
Colleen Furlan, Winnipeg, MB
Malindi Ayienga, Etobicoke, ON
Michelle Bouey, Charlottetown, PEI
AJ Bridel, Kitchener, ON
Alessandra Cannito, Toronto, ON
Rebecca Codas, Toronto, ON
Sarah Forestieri, Nobleton, ON
Julia Gartha, Unionville, ON
Jennifer Gillis, Coquitlam, B.C.
Cassandra Hodgins, London, ON
Stephanie La Rochelle, Ottawa, ON
Lia Luz, Scarborough, ON
Fiona McIntyre, Port Moody, BC
Jessie Munro, Toronto, ON
Tevra Plamondon, Red Deer, AB
Emily Robertson, Milford Station, NS
Christie Stewart, Vernon, BC
Michelle Thibodeau, Moncton, NB
Kelsey Verzotti, Calgary, AB
Danielle Wade, La Salle, ON

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Young actor has big shoes to fill with Rainbow role

David Ball, centre, as Ren McCormack, the dude who gets townspeople to kick off their Sunday shoes in Footloose.

When 21-year-old actor David Ball signed a contract to play the lead role of Ren McCormack in the theatre's first summer production Footloose, he was reminded that Rainbow Stage vet Jeremy Kushnier actually originated the role of Ren when it debuted on Broadway in 1998.

"They said, 'You better not screw this up. Jeremy Kushnier is from Winnipeg and you're doing it in Winnipeg. You better do it justice.'

"They were kidding," Ball laughs. "But not really."

So... no pressure.

Actually, as this season of Canada's longest running outdoor theatre opens on Monday, one might assume the theatre is feeling a bit of stress that transcends mere opening-night jitters.

Footloose, the story of a young man who challenges a clergyman's no-dancing edict in a small town, is the first Rainbow production following the death of longtime general manager Ken Peter in December 2011. Peter not only had a hand in choosing the plays Rainbow would mount, he had become one of the pillars of the organization since he took over the job as its top administrator in 1998.

Peter was the man who announced that longtime Rainbow mainstay Carson Nattrass would be making his directing debut on Footloose. Peter was on Nattrass's mind when he was writing his director's notes for the program.

"Footloose's dual protagonists, Ren and Rev. Shaw, have both lost somebody in their life," Nattrass says. "And soon after I got this job, we lost Ken.

"I look at this play and see we have a choice to either go forward alone dealing with loss, or to reach out to your community to move forward as a team," Nattrass says.

Nattrass and company chose the latter.

"We have swooped in and been moving forward at a rapid and very positive pace," Nattrass says. "The fact things are going so well here isn't any disrespect to Ken. In fact, it's because of how much everyone loved him that it's really going so well here."

Nattrass's extensive onstage Rainbow credits include Hairspray, Good News and Miss Saigon. He was an assistant director on Grease. He says he has directed before, either solo or with his partner, actress Sharon Bajer, but never a production of this magnitude.

Apparently, it is a role for which he has been preparing in a surreptitious fashion for years.

"Sharon said to me yesterday, when she's in a play, she just does her job as an actor. The difference between her and I is when I'm in a play as an actor, I'm also obsessed with the director and what the director is doing, and the choices he's making."

When it came time to cast that all-important role of Ren, Nattrass ultimately chose the 21-year-old Ball on the strength of an audition tape he sent from Toronto's Sheridan College, where he was completing a three-year theatre program.

"He's unbelievable," Nattrass says. "I contacted our agency and asked for a Ren, a triple-threat singer-dancer-actor, and I got a lot of guys who were all in their 30s."

Nattrass ended up casting both Ball as Ren and Julia McLellan in the role of Ariel Shaw from tapes recorded the same night at Sheridan College.

"I videotaped her dance audition and she videotaped mine for me," says Ball.

The two friends likewise shared outdoor theatre experience working on the stage of Canada's Wonderland outside Toronto.

"We say that we are 'Wonderland Warriors,'" Ball says. "We survived summers at an outdoor theatre before, so we knew we'd be able to do it here."

And in fact, the experience of working under Rainbow's geodesic dome in Kildonan Park has been exhilarating, he says.

"It rained Wednesday while we were working onstage, and hearing the rain and seeing the lighting through the dome, it's the coolest thing," he says.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 16, 2012 G3

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1979 - The King and I

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Let Jay & Kerry from 102.3 Clear FM Do It: FOOTLOOSE prize pack!

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A classic ABC detergent commercial with the amazing Stan Lesk!

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE STAN!?!?

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Five Alive commercial with Rainbow Stage performer Serge Kushnier. FEEL ALIVE!

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A sneak peek at the second part of our EXTREME mural project at Rainbow Stage!

FRONT ENTRANCE

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Our 1985 performance of H.M.S. Pinafore.

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Dancer comes out of his shell in Cage

'Shy' guy learns to love heels, makeup

By, Elissa Barnard – Arts Reporter @ The ChronicleHerald

La Cage aux Folles has brought Manitoban Erik Markewich east for his first time.

The 19-year-old dancer makes his debut at Neptune Theatre in a black wig, a dress and heels and, as Hanna, he’s holding a whip.

Hanna cracks it to snap the other five Cagelle dancers into line at a Saint-Tropez nightclub in the Broadway hit. She also has a fling with the stage manager (Cliff LeJeune).

“I’m more the shy type of guy in normal life,” says Markewich, who is the “baby” in the cast.

“To put on the heels and makeup and to be a woman it’s been challenging. I feel I’m getting into Hanna’s heels.”

However, “it’s always great to be someone completely different.”

The dancing is difficult.

“The Cagelles are mostly in Act 1 and it’s very high energy, a lot of endurance. We’re out of breath every number and the flexibility, you need it, especially with the can-can, you have to kick to the gods.”

Markewich, in his third professional production, was initially worried about audience reaction to men dressed as women.

“I’ve been surprised,” he says. “The audiences absolutely love the show.

“It takes a while to warm up if you haven’t seen men in heels but, along with the other story, the audience warms up to it and they leap to their feet. It doesn’t feel as intimidating to walk out in heels and have everyone staring at you.”

Markewich saw La Cage aux Folles on Broadway with Kelsey Grammar.

“I fell in love with it and when I heard Neptune was doing it I thought, ‘I have to do this show!’

“The dancing is phenomenal and I heard many good things about choreographer Mike Jackson. I knew he’d be able to pull off something remarkable with his choreography and he has.”

Markewich grew up in Brandon, Man. He started dancing at the age of nine when a friend brought him to the bring-a-friend day at his dance studio.

“I got hooked,” he says. “I started in jazz and tap and I fell into the ballet world around 10 or 11. I trained for Grade 8 at the National Ballet School in Toronto and I came home for grades 9 to 12. I’ve been dancing for 10 years now and I’ve never stopped.”

He appeared in Cats and Hairspray at the Rainbow Stage in Winnipeg last summer. In October, he moved to Toronto.

“Auditions were kind of slow in Toronto until January when this was on. I felt everything was falling into place.

“I had heard of this theatre through word of mouth and friends. I knew it had a big name and I was excited to come. I think it’s very professional, a loving team. I don’t feel astray.”

Since this is his first time in Nova Scotia, he and his parents will do the “touristy stuff” when they come to see him on stage at the end of the month.

Markewich is happy to leave the ballet world for the world of musical theatre.

"It's not easier," he says. "It's more rewarding for me. I feel there is a lot more fun to be had in musical theatre.

“The enjoyment I have being on stage and the reaction I get, . . . in the ballet world they don’t have those reactions. I love going to the ballet but it’s not the same experience. With musical theatre I can feel the audience, I can see the audience.”

Markewich, going to Winnipeg in July to do Annie at the Rainbow Stage, has studied ballet and theatre dance for two summers on Long Island.

“I love New York. I will go very soon just to take it all in again. I miss it.”

His ideal job is to work in musical theatre in New York and he’d love to be in the musicals Chicago and Cats again.

“I’m dancing my heart out and I will do any show that comes my way,” he says. “Broadway is absolutely my end dream.”

Republished from thechronicleherald.ca on May 2, 2012

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