Great Fun at
Next Wave and Ladyfest

CETM showcase and female improv comics deliver the goods

By Byron Toben

Running just a few days last week were two enjoyable festivals in two of our smaller venues.

Next Wave

Next Wave is the annual musical theatre showcase and fundraiser for CETM (Centre for Education and Theatre in Montreal). The centre was started by Stephen Pietrantoni in 2005 and specialized in musical theatre. After his demise, it was quiescent for about a year but has been revived under the direction of the dynamic Dayane Ntibarikure.

This year’s showcase featured three nights of a double bill:

Sixties Follies featured many 1960’s pop songs by such as the Beach Boys, The Supremes and Bobby Darin. The plot involves two New Jersey surfboard brothers, played by Mike Melino and Jimmy Gaudreau who romance two women, Marieve Guerin and Tina Maalaoui as they compete for prizes. The cast of ten are all competent and accomplished.

Written by Michael Garon, the plot, as can be expected, is a thin device to feature the pop songs selected. Good chords from the onstage band of five, headed by musical director Ian Baird on piano.

A Song of Fiction – Image: Miss Lady Andi

A Song of Fiction is the latest creation by Trevor Barrette who is on a roll in the short time he graduated from the theatre program at Sir John Abbot – a Hamlet takeoff at the Rialto, and two Captain Auroras at the Fringe. He writes both words and music, and directs.

In this piece, two childhood friends are writing a musical in the apartment, stage back, of one, Lee Clapp, who does the scores. The other, David Noel, develops the text. In a sort of Pirandellian twist, two other “fictional” actors, stage front, mouth the words given by David. Sort of a Two Authors in search of Two Characters result.

Both characters are gay. The older, Jonathan Patterson, (who impressed in the recent Segal Centre Yiddish language version of The Producers) adds a tap dance number to the show. The younger is played by Sean Colby.

This clever concept will undoubtedly find a fuller production later in the year, if only because it is a four hander with lower costs than most musicals. The nine songs lead to a twist ending.

A Song of Fiction – Image: Miss Lady Andi

Ladyfest

Ladyfest at the Théâtre Ste-Catherine is its second annual convocation of funny female performers, many local but a number from Toronto and New York, including recurrent Queens visitor Xandra Heller, who has developed a growing Montreal fan base. All participants were adept at improvisation, which sometimes overlaps into stand up or sketch comedy.

Local improv star Lise Vigneault held the nights together in a greyish outfit topped by a unicorn as Narvie, a talkative narwhal whale.

I was not able to attend the festival proper as I did last year, but did catch the final night where the Theatre merged its usual Sunday night improv show with the Ladyfest gals. The twelve individual performers were each pinned with a number and moderator and venue mainstay Sandi Armstrong drew random numbers out of a hat for two to four numbered ladies at a time while Amanda McQueen judged audience response to each set on a one to five rating basis. Thus each “contestant” in this survivor format had an equal opportunity to stand out.

The Ladyfest gals

This system, which the federal government would do well to consider in its search for a proportional voting formula, produced a narrow winner. It was physical comedy performer par excellence Rosaruby Kagan, who had wowed in her 2014 one-woman tribute to Gilda Radner, Bunny Bunny, at the Segal Centre. She was awarded a crown of twigs for her Ladyfest efforts.

Maite Sinave and CouCou Beliveau were also audience favourites but all twelve were top notch. Lots of audience laughs as they suggested themes. A sci fi theme for four resulted in a Star Trek-like play involving an on board tennis match against aliens to decide mastery of the galaxy.

Depflies X is the next show at the Théâtre Ste-Catherine, from Thursdays to Saturdays,  September 22 to October 8.

Feature image: from Sixties Follies – Éric Turgeon

Byron Toben is the immediate past-president of the Montreal Press Club