If you'll forgive your reviewer for slipping into self-indulgent first-person, I must say I'm glad I got to see Anne of Green Gables this year. The freckled spectre of Anne Shirley seems omnipresent for those of us who grow up on Prince Edward Island, and doing theatre reviews for much of the past decade has made me a steady customer of her musical incarnation; but I'm moving away for a while this fall, so it was nice to see the old girl one more time-especially this year, when she's making a return to classic form.
This season, Artistic Director Duncan McIntosh, director/choreographer Anne Allen and their various collaborators have tried to re-create the original Alan Lund production of Anne of Green Gables-The Musical, first staged in 1965 and last staged in 1985 (the show has continued its run since then, of course, albeit with various differing post-Lund interpretations). Allen researched archival video and stage managers' records and consulted past Charlottetown Festival performers to be as faithful to the original Lund vision as possible.
Truth be told, I don't really clearly remember the Lund version of Anne (though I think I saw it once as a child in the early 1980s); but I have seen plenty of post-Lund takes on the show, and this neoclassical Lund tribute version stacks up against them nicely. The orchestra is strong as always and full of lovely little touches (such as Dave Shephard's crisp snare drum in the Lady Cordelia segment of "Facts"), there's a dreamily liquid grace to much of the choreography and the lighting, and the dancing is as lively and physically demanding as I've ever seen it. There also seems to be a greater emphasis on humour than there has been in recent years, whether it be new sprinklings of visual comedy or more comedically slanted delivery of the established material; either way, it works well for such a lighthearted show, and helps offset the more sentimental aspects of the story.
Ontario native Jennifer Toulmin plays the title role with lively grace. She's a pocket dynamo with the kind of insatiable energy the part demands, and her range allows her to navigate Anne's emotional extremes-from gleeful raptures to the depths of despair-with endearing ease. It's an appropriately larger-than-life performance.
An effervescent Heidi Ford (returning as Diana Barry) matches Toulmin's exuberance nicely, and newcomer Sean Hauk may be the strongest Gilbert I've seen to date, a solid triple threat with an appealing presence. Michael Fletcher does justice to the lovable Matthew, and Judy Marshak gives us a distinctively acerbic tongue-in-cheek take on Marilla. Even the bit parts are memorable: Mike Ross's Cecil the Farmer, for instance, boasts a charming goofiness reminiscent of Ed Rashed, and Wade Lynch is so palpably unpleasant as Mr. Phillips that you can practically hear Wicked Witch of the West woodwinds as he rides his bicycle across the stage.
Lucy Maud Montgomery's tale of the unwanted orphan who makes good, as adapted by Harron & Campbell, retains a charm all its own after all these years-and the current version of the show channels that charm most effectively. One suspects Lund and Montgomery are pleased.
Sean McQuaid is a freelance writer who frequently contributes theatre reviews to The Buzz (especially to this issue).
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