Eatdrink #65 May/June 2017

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followed by an Elvis tribute musical All
Shook Up. A new comedy by Ontario
playwright Norm Foster opens on June 28
in Playhouse II. Jonas & Barry in the Home
is about two seniors looking for love in a
nursing home. As with all Foster plays there
is certain to be light-hearted relationship
and sexual humour.
Mr. New Year’s Eve; A Night with Guy Lombardo
by David Scott, directed by Gil Garratt,
Artistic Director. Garratt says they don’t have
to do something special for the 150th because
Canada has been celebrated with every show
for 43 seasons.
“With more than 130 world premieres
to date, The Blyth Festival has been the
foundation many of the country’s hottest
playwrights have built their careers on. The
Blyth Festival is the place to see the country’s
finest new works, all written by Canadians,
directed by Canadians, and performed by
Canadians, for the most adventurous audience
in the land,” says Garratt.
Huron Country Playhouse
Drayton Entertainment operates theatres
across Southern Ontario including the
Huron Country Playhouse and Playhouse
II, a few kilometers into the farmland from
the lakeside village of Grand Bend on Lake
Huron. Hugely popular with school and bus
groups, tourists and day trippers, Huron
Country Playhouses provide a lot of toetapping
entertainment for cross-generation
summertime fun. Almost 60,000 people
attended shows at Huron Country last
summer.
“There’s a lot of variety on stage this season
in Grand Bend,” says Alex Mustakas, Artistic
Director of Drayton Entertainment. “There
are grand scale musicals with familiar stories
loved by everyone,
rare gems with
incredible music
and fun characters
that make audiences
laugh and
sing, larger-than-life
comedies with outrageous
plots and even
more outrageous
characters and so much more. I know audiences
are in for a real treat this season.”
The season begins on June 3 with Joseph
and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,
Port Stanley Festival Theatre
On the shores of Lake Erie is the recently
renovated Port Stanley Festival Theatre.
PSFT opens on May
23 with the very
patriotic Oh Canada,
We Sing for Thee! starring
Leisa Way and the
Wayward Wind Band.
This production,
along with a gallery
style showcase of
Canadian musicians,
has been sponsored by Celebrate Ontario
under the Ontario 150 Community Capital
Program Grant.
Port Stanley Festival Theatre produces
a number of Norm Foster plays, and 2017
is no exception. On June 7 the PSFT presents
Foster’s production of On a First Name
Basis which will be performed by two of the
theatre’s favourite actors, Susan Johnston-
Collins and Terry Barna. This production will
run until Canada Day.
Victoria Playhouse, Petrolia
You can’t get anything much more
stereotypical Canadian than a show called
Fiddler on the Moose! This “musical ride
across Canada” runs May 2-19 at the Victoria
Playhouse in Petrolia, deep in Southwestern
Ontario. Promising cover versions of songs
from The Tragically Hip, Stompin’ Tom
Connors, The Guess Who, Bareknaked Ladies
and more, this will be a fun ride for devotees
of Canadian content.
Canadian playwright Mark Crawford’s
new comedy, The Birds and the Bees, will be
staged from May 30 to June 17. A hit at both
Blyth and Port Stanley last summer, the show
intertwines beekeeping with romance — with
plenty of hilarious twists. Oh Canada!
JANE ANTONIAK is a regular contributor to Eatdrink
magazine. She is also Manager, Communications & Media
Relations, at King’s University College in London.