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Ratings520
Muskox53's rating
Reviews21
Muskox53's rating
...or at least a strong contender for that title.
It is witty and poignant, and has a lot of intelligent things to say about theatre. It was created and written by the two actors who play the business manager of the theatre (an almost complete idiot) and his executive assistant (an extraordinarily competent woman)--Susan Coyne and Mark McKinney, working along with Bob Martin. What a coup for them!
The setting is an Ontario repertory theatre (in a town called New Burbage) that specializes in Shakespeare--based lovingly but not too closely on Stratford, of course. The premise is that the artistic director, Oliver Welles, who has sold out utterly and hates himself for it, gets drunk on an opening night and is run over by a truck full of Canadian Hams, and must be replaced at the last minute. The only available substitute is Geoffrey Tennant, a once-promising actor who had a nervous breakdown on stage many years before; he accepts the job, but then realizes that he will be haunted persistently and irritatingly by Oliver's ghost, whom only he can see. Paul Gross (who plays Jeffrey) has never been better, and he is matched at every turn by the rest of the regular cast--especially Stephen Ouimette as Oliver, and Martha Burns (Paul Gross's wife) as Ellen Fanshaw, Jeffrey's ex, an actor who thinks that being late for every rehearsal adds a certain lustre to her position in the company.
They did three 6-episode seasons, each centered around a central Shakespeare play for the season: First Hamlet, for which the management in their wisdom hires an American action film star (played by Luke Kirby), who is terrified at the idea of doing live theatre, and by Shakespeare even more so. Then Macbeth, the bad-luck play, for which they hire a big-name star (played by Geraint Wyn Davies) who knows much better than the director how things should be done and must be somehow thwarted. And finally King Lear, for which Jeffrey hires an dying theatre star who wants to do the role one last time, if he can (played by the magnificent William Hutt, an institution at Stratford for 50 years, in one of his last roles before his own death).
Many of the supporting parts are played by well-known Canadian stage and film actors. Three standouts: the poor young woman hired to be Cordelia, who must then suffer through the tirades and tantrums of the really-dying Lear, is beautifully played by Sarah Polley (daughter of Michael Polley, also in the cast). The great Colm Feore played Sanjay, a completely demented marketing consultant (or is he?), hired by theatre management in the second season--a wonderful comic performance! Finally, among many others, Don McKellar played Darren Nichols, a wild-eyed Eurotrash director who wants to stage Romeo and Juliet with the characters encased in wire hoops (as living chess pieces) and never looking at one another (because what could go wrong with that?).
I cannot recommend this show highly enough. If the rating scale went up to 11, this would be an 11!
It is witty and poignant, and has a lot of intelligent things to say about theatre. It was created and written by the two actors who play the business manager of the theatre (an almost complete idiot) and his executive assistant (an extraordinarily competent woman)--Susan Coyne and Mark McKinney, working along with Bob Martin. What a coup for them!
The setting is an Ontario repertory theatre (in a town called New Burbage) that specializes in Shakespeare--based lovingly but not too closely on Stratford, of course. The premise is that the artistic director, Oliver Welles, who has sold out utterly and hates himself for it, gets drunk on an opening night and is run over by a truck full of Canadian Hams, and must be replaced at the last minute. The only available substitute is Geoffrey Tennant, a once-promising actor who had a nervous breakdown on stage many years before; he accepts the job, but then realizes that he will be haunted persistently and irritatingly by Oliver's ghost, whom only he can see. Paul Gross (who plays Jeffrey) has never been better, and he is matched at every turn by the rest of the regular cast--especially Stephen Ouimette as Oliver, and Martha Burns (Paul Gross's wife) as Ellen Fanshaw, Jeffrey's ex, an actor who thinks that being late for every rehearsal adds a certain lustre to her position in the company.
They did three 6-episode seasons, each centered around a central Shakespeare play for the season: First Hamlet, for which the management in their wisdom hires an American action film star (played by Luke Kirby), who is terrified at the idea of doing live theatre, and by Shakespeare even more so. Then Macbeth, the bad-luck play, for which they hire a big-name star (played by Geraint Wyn Davies) who knows much better than the director how things should be done and must be somehow thwarted. And finally King Lear, for which Jeffrey hires an dying theatre star who wants to do the role one last time, if he can (played by the magnificent William Hutt, an institution at Stratford for 50 years, in one of his last roles before his own death).
Many of the supporting parts are played by well-known Canadian stage and film actors. Three standouts: the poor young woman hired to be Cordelia, who must then suffer through the tirades and tantrums of the really-dying Lear, is beautifully played by Sarah Polley (daughter of Michael Polley, also in the cast). The great Colm Feore played Sanjay, a completely demented marketing consultant (or is he?), hired by theatre management in the second season--a wonderful comic performance! Finally, among many others, Don McKellar played Darren Nichols, a wild-eyed Eurotrash director who wants to stage Romeo and Juliet with the characters encased in wire hoops (as living chess pieces) and never looking at one another (because what could go wrong with that?).
I cannot recommend this show highly enough. If the rating scale went up to 11, this would be an 11!
So bad that it takes your breath away.
Appallingly awful; it actually led me to revisit the David Suchet version made for British television, and upgrade my previously poor opinion of that strangely conceived version of Agatha Christie's best book.
Of course, neither is a match for the extraordinary 1974 Sidney Lumet film, with its extraordinary cast and transcendent Richard Rodney Bennett score--despite the eccentric (but ultimately quite serviceable) performance of Alfred Finney as Poirot. But the Suchet version is better than this monstrosity.
The less said about Branagh the actor's crazy rendition of the detective the better...other than to wonder how Branagh the director let him get away with it (or those mustaches!).
Poor KB has not been himself since the break with Emma Thompson. Almost all of his excellent films were made before that divorce. Since then he has become progressively more self-indulgent and commercialized. If not his muse (or perhaps even a co-creator), she certainly seemed to supply some kind of governor, which is now sorely missed. Her career has moved on from strength to strength; his seems to be going down the crapper.
**Added in 2022** His career is not completely gone to the dogs--see All Is True, and Belfast. I am happy to be proven wrong about that. But this sad sad film is still bloody awful!
Appallingly awful; it actually led me to revisit the David Suchet version made for British television, and upgrade my previously poor opinion of that strangely conceived version of Agatha Christie's best book.
Of course, neither is a match for the extraordinary 1974 Sidney Lumet film, with its extraordinary cast and transcendent Richard Rodney Bennett score--despite the eccentric (but ultimately quite serviceable) performance of Alfred Finney as Poirot. But the Suchet version is better than this monstrosity.
The less said about Branagh the actor's crazy rendition of the detective the better...other than to wonder how Branagh the director let him get away with it (or those mustaches!).
Poor KB has not been himself since the break with Emma Thompson. Almost all of his excellent films were made before that divorce. Since then he has become progressively more self-indulgent and commercialized. If not his muse (or perhaps even a co-creator), she certainly seemed to supply some kind of governor, which is now sorely missed. Her career has moved on from strength to strength; his seems to be going down the crapper.
**Added in 2022** His career is not completely gone to the dogs--see All Is True, and Belfast. I am happy to be proven wrong about that. But this sad sad film is still bloody awful!