This past Friday and Saturday night at the Mae Wilson Theatre, there was no doubt the entire production had lived up to that potential and then some.
Led by Keyanna Burgher and John-Mark Smith in the lead roles of Cathy Hiatt and Jamie Wellerstein and directed by Debbie Burgher, the show featured a stunning array of musical and physical performances from all involved, offering an impressive night of entertainment for the nearly 200 patrons who took in the shows over the two nights.
“I’m very proud of them, they did a fantastic job, they were absolutely great,” Debbie Burgher said shortly after the show closed out with the emotional beginning and end of Cathy and Jamie’s relationship in ‘Goodbye Until Tomorrow / I Could Never Rescue You’.
The play – written and composed by Jason Robert Brown and presented by title sponsors Prairie Bee Meadery – features a unique narrative structure where the story is told from the perspective of Cathy from the end of her marriage while also following the tale from Jamie’s perspective and when they first met. The two narratives work backward and forward, respectively, meeting in the middle at their marriage and progressing until Cathy first meets Jamie and Jamie walks out on the marriage.
Convoluted? Of course. And that’s what makes it such an interesting tale, and one of the most popular Off-Broadway performances ever created.
“This is Keyanna’s absolutely favourite musical, she’s always wanted to do this and she came home to take some classes at the University of Regina, so I said if this is something you want to do we’ll do it,” Burgher explained. “Then we had the support of the Moose Jaw Community Players and Lianne King agreed to help with the production end of it, we found some great sponsors in Moose Jaw, especially Prairie Bee Meadery as our premium sponsor.
“Then you add in the beautiful facility we’re in and the lighting Lawrence Bird created and the beautiful sound Eric La France gave us… for sure it was everything we hoped.”
Enough can’t be said about the performances of Keyanna Burgher and John-Mark Smith. The duo had an unenviable task of appearing in every scene, alternating songs throughout with the exception of ‘The Next 10 Minutes’ and ‘‘Goodbye Until Tomorrow / I Could Never Rescue You’ as the only true duets. Throw in the physical acting needed in the role, multiple rapid-fire costume changes and the quality of musical performances the duo put forth, and it’s easy to see why the show earned a standing ovation at the end of both nights.
“A lot of dominoes had to come together, you take the plunge into the deep end and you hope that it’s going to turn out, and we’re really happy that it turned out so well,” Debbie Burgher said.
Burgher also made special mention of the performance of the musicians – Joya Johnston on piano, Roman Churko on guitar, Anne Riches Williams on violin and Jim Mitchell on bass – who rolled through the heavy musical numbers without a hitch.
“They were amazing, and it’s all volunteer. Everyone spent a million hours at home practicing and making sure it’s great. It really came together,” she said.
One of the secret stars of the show was the set design, which at first glance was merely a set of pallets slammed together to create the semblance of a stage set. Nope, a lot more to it than that.
“It was designed by Lawrence and Keyanna and Joan Stumborg built it… you think it’s just pallets and it’s no biggie, but it took a lot of work to figure it out,” Burgher explained. “It’s all painted as well so it looks like it goes from nice and pristine and pretty and flowery to dilapidated at the end, so that was pretty cool… The idea of it being the five years have passed on the stage and people can follow the story that way.”
All in all, a job well done.
And they aren’t finished just yet: the play will be performed this coming Wednesday, May 1 during TheatreFest Saskatchewan at the Regina Performing Arts Centre.
“So we’re packing this all into a truck tonight, taking it there next Wednesday, rebuilding it and putting it on again,” Burgher said with laugh. “So if you missed it, here’s a chance to see it!”
Doors open at the Performing Arts Centre at 7 p.m., with showtime at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and are available at the Regina Performing Arts Centre online box office.
