The month of September
ushers in live shows
Centaur Theatre and the Montreal Jazz Festival offer on-site performances
By Byron Toben
September 1, 2021
August exits with echoes of Langston Hughes‘ lyrics Ain’t It Awful, The Heat, which opened the 1938 jazz opera Street Scene (Kurt Weill music, Maxwell Anderson book). September Song brings a cooler rhythm from the 1938 Knickerbocker Holliday (also by Weill and Anderson). A video of that at the end of this article. But first, some early September (and beyond) announcements.
The Centaur Theatre has released its schedule from September through January 22.
September 2 to 11
The Centaur introduces, live, a Brave New Looks selection co-produced with Imago, called Okinum. This one-woman solo show won the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award. It features Emily Monnet.
Emily Monnet stars in Okinum at the Centaur – Image: Claudia Chan Tak
September 23 to October 2
The Centaur offers the Portico Project, a free outdoor event on the front steps of the theatre. Curated by Eo Sharp, Julie Mariko Manning and Nalo Soyin Bruce, it features 20-minute skits around the theme of “Portico Exchange.” (The Centaur building was the old Montreal Stock Exchange building from 1903 to 1965.)
Box sets of Boca del Lupo’s Plays2perform@Home, which contain new plays from B.C., the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes, will be available for sale at the Portico performances, as well as on their web site.
Visit centaurtheatre.com for further details going into November and January 2022.
New York’s Irish Repertory Theater… is up to great stuff again with Angela’s Ashes: The Musical, based on Frank McCourt’s best-selling memoir.
September 9 to 22
New York’s Irish Repertory Theater, fresh from its hit George M. Cohan Tonight (August 17 to 28) is up to great stuff again with Angela’s Ashes: The Musical, based on Frank McCourt‘s best-selling memoir.
That 1996 book won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in the biography category. It was not appreciated in Ireland at first as it depicted a lot of poverty there. Nevertheless, it became a 1999 film and a stage musical premiering in Limerick in 2017 with follow-ups in Dublin and Belfast.
The Irish Rep’s special streamed version of the play, with music and lyrics by Adam Howell and book by Paul Hurt, stars Jacinta Whyte and Eon Cannon. The on-demand streaming is $30 plus a $2.50 fee. The show runs for 2 hours with a 15-minute intermission.
September 11
This date appropriately marks the release of the film version of the musical Come From Away, celebrating the hospitality of Newfoundlanders to 6122 stranded airline passengers and 432 crew in 38 planes grounded in Gander in the wake of the attacks on that date in 2001. See my 2019 review of the stage version at the Place des Arts. The film opens on Apple TV and selected cinemas.
September 15 to 19
The 41st Montreal Jazz Festival offers, as last year, many free streamed performers and a few live acts. Initial publicity included six singers – Ranee Lee, Charlotte Day Wilson, Daniel Lanois, Beyries, Sha Lia and Basia Bulat – as well as three ensembles – Francois Bourassa Quartet, Steve Hill and the Devil Horns, and MISC (a Trio). The full program is now available on the festival site:
Ranee Lee will perform live at the Montreal Jazz Festival – Image: courtesy of the Montreal Jazz Festival
September and beyond
Continuing all through September and beyond is the 8th episode of the second season of Colleen Curran’s Kitty Calling. These free 3-minute wonders have attracted a gradually growing cult following. This latest continues the quest of generally housebound Bernice (Lorna Wilson) to publicize her book Bernice and Me (ostensibly written by her salvaged cat) while conversing with “professional do-gooder” Kitty (Debra Hale) on frequent telephone calls.
facebook.com/CCKittyCalling/videos
Oh yes, the famed September Song. (Not to be confused with a different recent song with the same title by one JP Cooper of Manchester, U.K. – Where are the copyright lawyers on this one?)
Lots of romantic crooners have covered this May to December classic – Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Mel Torme, Perry Como, Vic Damone. Here’s a rare unexpected one from comedian Jimmy “Schnozzola” Durante of Inka Dinka Doo fame.
Feature image: Angela’s Ashes: The Musical, courtesy of New York’s Irish Repertory Theater
More articles from Byron Toben
Byron Toben, a past president of The Montreal Press Club, has been WestmountMag.ca’s theatre reviewer since July 2015. Previously, he wrote for since terminated web sites Rover Arts and Charlebois Post, print weekly The Downtowner and print monthly The Senior Times. He also is an expert consultant on U.S. work permits for Canadians.
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